Editor’s Word: This can be a half of YourTango’s Opinion part the place particular person authors can present various views for wide-ranging political, social, and private commentary on points.
With all of the speak concerning the film Oppenheimer hitting the information, I used to be getting a few flashbacks to my previous as a excessive schooler with ties to Pupil Pugwash. This was a program that needed to cope with nuclear weapons and the Manhattan Challenge.
I miss STEM generally. I get nostalgic for the previous me some days, particularly with regards to the books I learn. The opposite day, I used to be fascinated with a e book I learn again within the day: Absolutely, You’re Joking Mr. Feynman.
Because the identify suggests, the e book was written by Oppenheimer Challenge member and Nobel laureate Richard Feynman — a serious participant within the recreation who was well-known for being a genius with a well-rounded previous.
In a while that day, I began a chat with my husband about my early faculty days and casually talked about that the one faculty the place I wasn’t bullied that badly was in personal faculty.
It was a faculty with uniforms, and I’m a fan of uniforms for that motive. I liked how straightforward it was to attach with individuals after we all seemed the identical and didn’t fear about vogue or who may afford costly garments.
That’s once I began to comprehend one thing that was amiss. For all of the individualism we tout, I’m beginning to see it as a type of looksism. Let me clarify what I seen in a collection of pictures and movies.
This can be a {photograph} of Dr. Feynman, one of many best minds of the twentieth century.
Richard Feynman seems like…properly, he seems like nearly everybody from the Nineteen Forties, doesn’t he? He has woolen socks, a white button-down shirt, sneakers made from leather-based, and uh, pants, I assume.
Feynman, whereas a exceptional man, seemed completely unremarkable — albeit, a a bit good-looking. If I requested you to choose him out from a crowd, I don’t suppose you’d have the ability to. In a Nineteen Forties picture, he’d be one other face in a sea of people that seemed identical to him.
And but, Feynman was well-known for making a nuclear bomb, enjoying the bongos, lockpicking, browsing, and hanging out with frat boys. Feynman was extremely well-rounded and was a Renaissance man to the core.
Now let’s have a look at Pablo Picasso.
Proper now, you’re watching Pablo Picasso portray one thing. When he wasn’t shirtless, he was sporting button-down shirts and sweater vests. He seemed like everybody’s grandpa. And but, this was Pablo Picasso.
That is uncommon as a result of he was one of the vital inventive minds of the twentieth century, particularly previous to 1950. If you weren’t an artwork scholar, you in all probability couldn’t choose him out from a crowd.
Nonetheless, should you discovered he was Picasso, I’m prepared to wager that you’d be prepared to take a seat down and take heed to him converse no matter what he wore. I do know I’d be.
That is the place I began to note a conformity paradox affecting our society.
Previous to 1960, society was much more conformist than it was as we speak.
When most individuals take into consideration geniuses, they give thought to individuals who appear like Salvador Dali, have loopy hair like Einstein, or have that spark of insanity like Jodorowski. Nonetheless, previous to 1950, these individuals have been the exception — not the rule.
A lot of the best minds of that point have been pretty plain-looking individuals. You wouldn’t have the ability to choose them out from a crowd until you knew them properly. All of them nonetheless wore the identical issues and had the identical accent.
The idea of subcultures and counterculture actions was fringe at greatest previous to 1950. Even after they existed, individuals usually dressed the identical as their neighbors. You possibly can not inform the distinction between a scientist and a shoe salesman again within the day.
Again then, individuals dressed the identical, talked the identical, went to the identical colleges, and even ate the identical meals. Everybody had the identical “look” to them. In case your clothes was a bit too bizarre, you might simply find yourself attacked on the street. It was a corporate-mandated type of looksism.
This can be a {photograph} collection of 90s membership youngsters.
#Mypeople, proper? Effectively, sure, however there’s one thing to be seen right here. Each single membership child on this picture was doing their very own designs and make-up; it was a insurrection about partying and being your self.
Have you learnt what’s attention-grabbing about this, although? The general public of the 90s membership child scene ended up getting cash writing about their experiences or by being media personalities primarily based on the outfits they wore again then.
Talking as a raver and a membership child myself, the motion was outlined by the pursuit of an aesthetic — and medicines, however largely the aesthetic. All the pieces else sort of went into the backseat the extra that appears and outfits mattered.
As somebody within the NY underground rave scene, I can’t assist however discover how typically I’m in a room with everybody who speaks the identical, thinks the identical issues, has the identical habits, and eats the identical meals. All of them have the identical hobbies, too.
The underground rave scene is so uniform that it’s truly uncommon to see individuals develop romantic relationships with outsiders. Each married couple I do know who lasted both turns into certainly one of us or they break up earlier than they stroll down the aisle.
My Conformity Paradox means that extra conformist societies encourage uniqueness by character.
Give it some thought this manner: our present society tends to divide individuals into identities which are pretty prefabricated. You possibly can determine by your race or sexuality by your aesthetics or by the subculture you joined.
In a high-conformity society, everybody seems the identical and behaves the identical. Whereas you could have an emphasis in your race, gender, or nationality, the reality is that most individuals will nonetheless all slot in the identical field — kind of.
So, how do you determine what makes you completely different in a high-conformity society? It’s easy: it’s a must to develop your character. You set your self aside by your character, your hobbies, and what .
In a low-conformity, high-aesthetic/subculture society, you possibly can inform which “clique” an individual is in by the garments they put on and the place they hang around. Your clothes can typically turn into a alternative on your character. At occasions, it could even predict your job.
Take a look at this {photograph} of a man. He’s your on a regular basis regular dude. Is he an artist or a tech man? Lots of us would guess tech due to the glasses and button-down shirt. However, didn’t we simply scale back him to a label primarily based on his seems?
What if he’s the subsequent Alec Monopoly?
We wouldn’t know. We put that a lot inventory in how individuals look and the subcultures and identities we affiliate with individuals.
In chasing an aesthetic, we might conform greater than we’d if everybody dressed the identical.
Photograph: Courtesy of writer.
Our society has turn into so obsessive about choosing the right garments and picture to suit the mildew, we have actively began to trim away the curiosity and enrichment that when outlined us. Looksism is successful and never in a great way.
I don’t learn about you, however I do know means too many individuals who gained’t do one thing if it’s not for Instagram or cash. Being completely different in a means that doesn’t price cash is lots more durable today, just because it appears to be a dying artwork.
Don’t get me mistaken. I’m a deeply aesthetic one that expresses my feelings by way of garments very often — however I’m not only a subculture. I can’t identify how many individuals I do know, although, who’re totally wrapped up in a subculture and restrict their development by doing so.
I don’t know what to say right here, as a result of each main subculture and identification on the market was made on account of a necessity for differentiation or statement-making. And but, right here we’re, muzzling our potential for a similar pursuit of identification that when freed us.
Having realized this, I’ve made a notice to myself to keep away from judging individuals proper off the bat by the garments they put on. You by no means know whether or not the raver you are speaking to is a author…or if that previous grandpa you simply met was a buddy of Dali’s.
Ossiana Tepfenhart is a author whose work has been featured in Yahoo, BRIDES, Your Each day Dish, Newtheory Journal, and others.
This text was initially revealed at Medium. Reprinted with permission from the writer.
