The Influence of Clothing

Today’s fashion and being in the correct attire for modern apparel appears to be one of the most important factors when judging a person for the first time.  When going to job interviews, one should dress up, otherwise he/she may be demeaned by the interviewer and loose a chance at that occupation.  When in a public area, it is a social normality that you wear appropriate clothing. Yet, “appropriate” is an opinion based term and therefore the idea of normal varies between people. In the novel The Scarlett Letter a young women is forced to wear a “scarlet A” on her clothing at all times to represent the adultery she had committed.  Her A has a underlying meaning that condemns her by the fellow Puritans. However, in modern society people are condemned for no reason, an example being wearing sweatpants or very vibrant mismatching outfits.  People do not have the right to judge another human off of something they wear with no intended disadvantage.   As described by the article entitled Dressing and Identity or: How Clothes Define You, by Aimee Boyle, people put a “label” on themselves when they compare clothing.  Therefore, people should not be judged by what they decide to wear, how they choose to wear it, or at what time they do.

What is the Line Between Stereotypes and Facts??

Stereotypes are obviously a way of grouping people into one category. Yet, stereotypes must be formed from something. Observations.  If a human brain notices that a group of people display certain characteristics that apply to all of them, it naturally ties those characteristics into them.  Stereotypes “satisf(y) the need to understand and predict the social world” (MSU.net), it is our brain trying to grasp the world by making it simpler.  That is solely how human brains work- if we tried to learn everything in school in separate sections without tying concepts together, we would never be able to remember everything. Take fish for example, not everyone knows individual fish names; however, if they saw a fish their brain would tie it to the category they know as “fish”.  Yes, it is possible for stereotypes to go too far.  When this happens it’s because the stereotype no longer becomes a general observation, it comes from one or a few individuals from the category who do something- and the idea get transferred to the rest.  People need to understand that stereotypes are a part of daily living and that without them life would be much more complicated.

Verisimilitude: Good or Bad?

What is verisimilitude? It can be defined by a dictionary as "the appearance of being true or real"(Online Dictionary Reference).  However, I feel that verisimilitude is just an excuse to compose a really good lie.  For example, in the book The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien creates a captivating war story that appears to be true until the book is labeled as fiction.  What a fib! Should a lie like that be accepted by the reading community? Some might say that verisimilitude is needed in order to evoke emotion from the reader; yet, I believe that emotion can also be obtained by a fictional story as well.  This is trickery! Imagine a setting in which you are fishing, you get an enormous tug on the line, your reel begins to make a ZI'ING sound, your hands are trembling, your arms are hesitating, your legs are shaking, and your teeth are chattering.  Finally, as you bring the beast closer to the dock you realize that it was only a stick. That is what verisimilitude is, an amazing journey ending in a disappointing reality. So, why is lying considered wrong while verisimilitude is considered an art? The world may never know.