During March break I decided I would do a little experiment, I wanted to understand how the media influences people’s thoughts. The first thing I thought of was that from Monday the 15th to Friday the 19th I would wear clothes that would fit a different stereotypical persona, and see what people would say or how they would react. Usually I don’t dress in any real catergory of style, it’s usually just a pair or jeans and t-shirt.
Monday
On Monday I wore ripped acid washed jeans, leather jacket and a lot of black eye shadow. When I first stepped out of my room, my mom almost spilt orange juice all over my sister while pouring it in her glass, while my dad proceeded to ask me if I’m having “one of those mid-teen crises” I asked them what was wrong with what I was wearing and my mother told me I looked like her boyfriend from when she first came to Canada in the 80’s. My six year old sister refused to talk to me because I “looked scary”. I told my friend I would meet him at the mall at two, so at quarter to I went to the bus stop, it wasn’t too eventful, until I got on the bus and sat near a woman and her daughter who was probably four or five. After I sat down the woman put her arm around her child and brought her closer to her, and further from me. When I met my friend at the mall he was really confused and asked me what was going on, when I told him I had no idea what he was talking about he started acting really awkward and kept asking me if everything was okay. While we were at the mall people were looking at me differently than usually.
Tuesday
On Tuesday I wore a big band t-shirt, sweat pants and wore my hair in a pony tail, no make-up and wore sneakers. My parents saw me and assumed I wasn’t leaving the house, so they left to work without asking me if I had plans or if I was staying home and was able to watch my sister. A friend of mine wanted to go out, but I told her to come over instead. When she came over she had a surprised look on her face and asked me if everything was okay. We hung out for a while but then she wanted to go out for food, so I called the sushi restaurant nearby and told them I would be there in fifteen minutes to pick up the order. On my walk over with my little sister and friend, I got very little attention from the people in my neighbourhood, but once I walked into the restaurant, again people were looking at me differently. I asked my friend what she thought the strangers thought about me when the saw me, she said that I looked like a teenage mother that has let herself go and decided to take her pretty friend and daughter for sushi. When I got home my mom asked me if I had been crying and had boy trouble, how is this associated with sweatpants?
Wednesday
Wednesday was really nice out, so I wore a nice pair of jeans and a tanktop, I curled my hair and put on some high heels, and went out to meet my friend from Monday for ice cream. When I was leaving my mother asked me if everything was better with my boy troubles now, and at the bus stop I received several honks from the truckers passing by. One older man on a bicycle (who was missing a tooth) rode up to me, stopped and said “hello gorgeous” he proceeded to attempt conversation and when I ignored him he repeatedly said wow, he eventually and thankfully left me alone. When I got on the bus the driver smiled, as did most of the people on the bus. When I arrived at the ice cream store my friend gave me a big tight hug and asked me if I changed my hair and he payed for my ice cream. When I ordered my ice cream, the boy working there asked me if I wanted sprinkles on my ice cream he said “they’re on the house”. When I got home that night, my sister told me I looked pretty like a girl on TV and my father told me to never dress like that again.
Thursday
On Thursday I wore a blouse my grandmother sent me a few years ago and tucked it into my jeans, I also didn’t bother to put in my contacts and put a braid in my hair. My dad was very pleased with this look, he told me that I looked very intelligent with my glasses and that my shirt was lovely. My mother realized that something was up, she asked me why I’ve been changing my style every day, I simply ignored her, when my sister saw me she laughed and told me that I wasn’t pretty today, but I was yesterday. I went to go see a movie with my cousin, at the movies people were not nearly as kind as they were the previous day, they simply saw straight past me. My cousin thought it was hilarious and asked me if I would tutor him in math.
Friday
On Friday I returned to my simple jeans and t-shirt. My mother said she was glad to have me back, while my father and sister were completely oblivious and confused. When I met up with friends that day they weren’t asking if I was alright, if they could buy me ice cream, if I could tutor them or if I was having boy troubles. Everything was back to normal.
But why did everybody’s behaviour change around me because of how I dressed? I didn’t change my personality or habits in any way, but the people around me did. Clearly the media has influenced humans and their way of thinking because they associated certain traits to personality types. The media defined the curls and heels sexy, the sweats to “letting go”, the glasses as a nerd, and the leather jacket as a rebel. People judge based on the first impressions of what they see.
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