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Why do geeks look like geeks?
Posts
so... who gets the bathtub?
[cleans my own phone]
Say what? I'm not strawmanning nothing. I'm just expressing how I see it. People who judge me based on my shoes are cocks, even if they are fucking awesome shoes.
No, if they dress "like shit" it means they don't care what you think of their appearance. That could be for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that it may not have occurred to them that you make judgements based on such a criteria. It's taken me, for instance, until my mid-20s to figure that out.
In certain environments (like academia, or among some social groups, or where people are usually in a uniform of some kind) you don't see as many people making judgements based on appearance.
This is especially relevant since the rules governing what constitutes "dressing well" are extremely arbitrary, so you need a fair amount of exposure to them before you even know what half of them are.
Someone mentioned earlier that you shouldn't wear black shoes with a brown belt. I have no idea why that should be the case. Similarly, what constitutes a "good" hairstyle seems to change every six months. I'm of the opinion that figuring all this stuff out is too much effort too be worthwhile. I have enough hobbies already.
Though that says more about his inability to phrase things how he wants then perhaps who he is as a person.
For Ege this is a moot point. But it's hard to convince my girlfriend that;
a: she only noticed me because I intently lost 10 kgs, started dressing smarter and worked on the 'do.
b: this makes her no more or less shallow than 90% of the population, but it's still shallow.
c: I can see all her other good qualities despite knowing she's shallow.
The solution is to avoid the topic altogether
:^:
I don't follow. What attitude, and how does it relate to clothing?
Attitude towards life and other people in general, really. A person wearing dirty, worn clothes is more likely to live in a hovel, not pay as much attention to details at work, and generally be less considerate of others.
As a person who is not very much into fashion and who enjoys a fair few geeky pursuits, I'd rather spend money on computer equipment and DVDs than clothes, so I buy fairly basic and inoffensive t-shirts and jeans to wear. As much as I sometimes look in a shop window and crave an item of clothing, if it's not going to match the rest of my wardrobe it's not going to be a cost-effective purchase for me.
I really admire some women's fashion - I know several ladies who throw together really unusual items of clothing, all feminine skirts and velvets and ruffled lace, and they look fantastic, but although I wish I could emulate their style it would be quite expensive to do so and wouldn't be very practical for the type of lifestyle I lead.
I think personal hygiene is seperate issue, really. Clothes can be stained, old or worn, but still clean. I only really brought it up because that could have been me in ripped jeans and ancient t-shirt until relatively recently, and it wouldn't have occurred to me that people would draw conclusions based on it.
It's why I now seek out clothes that don't communicate anything in particular, because not only do I not understand how to go about crafting some kind of social message with clothing, it annoys me to think that people are interpreting the way I dress as such.
What are you talking about, ripped jeans and ancient t-shirts are the height of fashion!
Seriously though, I spend lots of money on funky clothes and I appreciate looking good because I know first-hand the impression you can make on people by doing so. You don't have to do that. But I reserve the right to think you're slightly less than the person you could be if you don't put a bit of effort into your dress sense.
I reserve the right to think you're slightly less than the person you coould be for allowing appearance to influence you to such a degree.
Part of it, I think, is that I have very strong tendencies towards Asperger's syndrome. I'm very, very bad at non-verbal communication, which is probably why I'm so dismissive of the influence of dress. In turn, that means I tend to regard time or money spent on my appearance (or, by extension, other people's time time and money spent on their's) as wasted. Given the anecdotal link between "geeks" and autistic-spectrum disorders I suspect that my experiences are far from unique.
I mean, sure, I'm a bit of a fatty. But i'm rather matronly. You'd expect me to have a few toddlers weaving through my skirts...
...When I'm not in black velvet and go-go boots.
...or when I'm not in a band-shirt and steel toed boots for work or greased up to the elbows under the hood of my car.
...or wearing a clean white scrubs shirt, a mask and latex gloves while I stitch up a cut on my neighbor's dog.
...or squinting at a canvas with a smear of paint on my cheek as I alternate between chewing on the end of a paintbrush and sipping foofy coffee.
It's all realative. It depends entirely on the situation at hand.
You're not L33T enough for IDI/RN FTP!
Drunks Against Mad Mothers
A discerning eye* can tell the difference between deliberately ripped jeans and worn ripped jeans, a vintage-T and an old, shabby t.
*actually most of the public - more than you'd think.
THAT is your answer.
Same as why so many gay people seem to affect the same "gay" mannerisms.
Or why so many so many white collar males play golf.
Or why so many members of any given group seem to share traits.
It's a semi-conscious reacting whereby a new member to any given group alters their behavior, not neccesarily knowingly, both to fit in with their new group, as well as to be identifiable as being a part of that group to the outside world.
The Gay example is one of the best, in our modern times. Many of us have known some one who, as soon as they came out, radically changed their behavior. This isn;t because homosexuality inherently causes people to behavethis way, nor are they being a "poser". It is simply that they percieve, on some level, that homosexuals should act that way, and affect their behavior accordingly, often without even realizing.
And then get paid for it.
What matters with jeans is quality of construction, and fit.
Drunks Against Mad Mothers
I always found the actual ripped and worn jeans to be less retarded. That I can almost understand. Like, jeans are almost like leather, they mold to you after a while. They are really comfortable.
But paying money to look like that, but not really being more comfortable. Just dumb. Like, saying the fake effect looks better than the actual thing. Silly to me.
I'm not really much in favor of either, but I certainly don't think that cause some milasian kid tore them to look remotely like what some desginer in new your tore something to look like what someone in france tore something to look like what they saw on a homeless person in new york, it should be respected more.
Click here for a horrible H/A thread with details.
Drunks Against Mad Mothers
Do you have cancer or something?
Click here for a horrible H/A thread with details.
Drunks Against Mad Mothers
the beard.
it isn't very well maintained.
Click here for a horrible H/A thread with details.
Drunks Against Mad Mothers
You're not helping the amish thing.
All rebelling against your Amish elders by using the internets.
Edit: As if any of you guys had the nuts to flip the entire thread the bird before I did it.
Drunks Against Mad Mothers
I don't actually have much of a camara at this point. And it is not a nuts thing.
Seriously man, it looks freaking awful. Might be the angle or something, but it is way to huge and bushy for your face, and it goes back too far down your neck.
Click here for a horrible H/A thread with details.
Edit: Fine then, you fools asked for it. It'll grow back, so give me a bit here and you'll have to see face instead of hair. That'll teach you.
Drunks Against Mad Mothers
If faith is just a silent tribute, mine is just a desperate act.
Drunks Against Mad Mothers
though, i've bought some severely weakened jeans in the past that developed some holes in like, a month. i generally try to avoid jeans that look too crisp.
What do you mean "people are managing to derive?" If you mean, "people in this thread are interpreting more than a couple other people's comments that way," I agree. If you mean, "more than a couple people in this thread are actually saying anything that strong," I don't.
That would be more valid if several people in this thread hadn't already delineated why they incorporate how people dress in their initial perception of people and act based on those perceptions. By choosing to ignore what we've already covered, you're wasting everyone's time. The only appropriate response to what you've said has already been said.
The way someone dresses in public is an indication of the way they want to present themselves to society. If you see someone walking around in sweatpants and a t-shirt, it gives you the initial impression that they just don't give a shit and aren't willing to put forth the slightest amount of effort to make themselves presentable. Whether or not that's a bad thing is entirely in the eye of the beholder, but it's a valid judgement nonetheless. Why do you think it's important to wear nice clothes to a job interview? It's not because the interviewer is shallow, it's because your choice of clothes is an immediate indication to them of how seriously you're taking the job offer. It's the same, to a lesser extent, in everyday life. Like it or not, people will judge you based on your appearances. Honestly, when someone dresses like a bum just to spite that, I find that the judgements people make about them are often more accurate than they like to admit.
Also, don't flick off the camera in a self-photo. Man, that's obnoxious.
WHERE are they doing this? At the supermarket? Near a beach? Is it morning? Are they in a bar? Where? What is the context. People keep making points like this and it annoys the hell out of me because it's like we've suddenly removed the context of clothing. Every occasion has become a formal one.
This is hardly the case. The reality of the situation is more that you're trying to create certain emotional reactions in the interviewer. The clothes don't say how seriously you take the job offer, they make you look trustworthy, perhaps pragmatic and thorough. The reaction is much more subtle then "well he didn't wear a tie so clearly he doesn't take this seriously".
Well who? And what does dressing like a bum entail? This is particularly relevant in this thread because the question is why do geeks look like geeks and the answer is usually, they didn't always but have been socially ostracized and abused to the point where they're now dressing defensively because everytime they tried to be like other people they were called out and ridiculed on the fact.
If we want to define dressing like a bum as wearing unwashed clothes and smelling bad, while the reaction unlike ege's statement is hardly about respect and much more about "oh god I might catch a disease from this person".
That said, I think you're right that clothes aren't incredibly important, but I do think they matter.