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Path: utzoo!decvax!linus!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!tonyf
From: tonyf@mmintl.UUCP (Tony Faulise)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: Fashion and Make-up
Message-ID: <610@mmintl.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 19-Aug-85 18:56:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: mmintl.610
Posted: Mon Aug 19 18:56:54 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 21-Aug-85 23:32:30 EDT
References: <1266@eagle.UUCP>  <515@unc.UUCP>
Reply-To: tonyf@mmintl.UUCP (Tony Faulise)
Distribution: na
Organization: Multimate International, E. Hartford, CT
Lines: 67
Summary: LONG


Keywords:


i'll be a senior in college this fall, (if they take me back).  i'm
an ee, and i would say, for the most part, i do not fit the 'nerd' mold.
while i'm at school my hair is usually a very interesting color
or two.  why?

part of the reason i dye my hair orange or blond or whatever IS to
look different.  interesting-different.  if i trapsed across campus
without paying any special attention to my dress or 'make-up' no one
might ever notice i was there!  maybe its a comment on the part of our
culture i come into contact with, but there are an awful lot of students
at school who 'all look the same'.

i'm not saying that they ARE all the same, i'm quite sure that if i
met each person i saw, i would think they were all different.
but a persons appearance is usually the only way they are perceived
in public places.  if you want to be perceived as distinguished and
serious minded, you wear a pin-striped business suit.  if you want to
seem artsy, you wear something made of cellophane, if you ...
again, i realize we all don't say, "what kind of person am i?  well,
the guidebook says i must wear...."  but subconsciously, your
personality will be reflected in your dress and appearance.
it just seems unlikely that an earthy, vegetarian-type will
feel the need to buy a transparent plastic rain-coat.

my original point was that if i ignored my dress and hair-style, i
would choose the path of least resistance and blend into the scenery.
i would buy jeans from the cheapest or nearest source, i would buy
the easiest to care for, or most readily available clothes, and so
would most every one else.  inside, i know i'm different.  i know
how my views stand in contrast to other peoples', i know what might
make me special to a MOTAS, **but no one comes around to take a poll!**

if i am in the library, or sitting in class, or down at the 
student-center, i don't ask random people what makes them special.
i have never turned to the person next to me in class and asked 
them if they liked camping, or if they enjoyed carpentry.  if i
want clues as to whether this person might be interesting to me, or
if i might have some interest or taste in common with this person,
i look at them.  are they wearing seven earings?  a nose ring?
leather?  feathers?  do they carry a pencil over their ear?  are
they wearing elf-boots or soccer cleats?  jeans or paisley pants
made from a window-shade?  YSL polo shirt or tie-dye t-shirt?
do they have no makeup on?  have they not thought to wash their
makeup off this week?  do they smell like aftershave or lockeroom?

makeup and dress SAY something WORTH saying.  for some they are
a mechanism to conformity, for others they are 'windows on the soul'.
if someone is 'faking it', i can tell in five minutes of conversation,
if they are for real, i can also tell.  but i will probably not
bother approaching some stranger who looks like they just dropped
from a xerox machine.  or worse yet, i may go through the anxiety
of approaching one of the photo-copy people, and pick the wrong one.

i doubt people communicate enough, makeup and dress are
unsolicited feedback, and i think it helps. 


not-ambivalently (valently?),

tony the meek and jumbled

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