Becoming Someone Else

Luckily for me, I live in a sorority house with 40+ people in it, so it was easy for me to make a change and then interact with the world. When thinking about what kind of change I can make (that will get some sort of reaction), a change in my physical appearance seemed like it would be the most realistic (and easiest) way to complete the challenge.

Normally, I lounge around and complete all my zoom classes and homework in sweatshirts, leggings, or sweatpants. Since I’m not leaving to go anywhere, I never feel a need to get dressed up just to sit around and study. However, when I decided to change my physical appearance and wear jeans and a sweater, I knew that I would get some reaction. After putting on my “fancy” outfit, I walked down the stairs, and instantly people were noticing the difference. While I do not feel as though I was treated differently in any major way, people’s inflections of their voice were much higher, and seemingly more positive as they asked me “Oh! You’re dressed up!”, “Wow, jeans today?”, “You look so nice! Where are you going today?’. Overall, everyone was just very complimentary of my choice to “dress up” for the day. Even when I shared with them that I was not going anywhere, just wanted to wear jeans, I received even more positive affirmations! Now of course the people speaking to me are no strangers, they know me well enough to be aware of my typical styles of dress and notice when it is different. To me, this means that I got much more verbal confirmation that people were noticing a change than if I really went out into the public.

After the first hour or so of people reacting to my new outfit, even though I was all dressed up with (literally) nowhere to go, I found myself being in a very good mood and being very productive and focused. Even though it is not something I crave, or even want, most days, getting complimented and flattered really did have a positive impact on my day and the way I felt towards myself throughout it.

However, reflecting back on this experience through the lens of Bucholtz, I can see multiple identity theories in this experience alone, and in myself. For instance, indexicality; since I was aware that I was doing an assignment in which I needed people to notice me, I took on a much more receptive role, and left myself open for people to comment on. This makes me wonder if I am as dependent on others, or if it was just for this moment of identity that influenced how I felt. Furthermore, Bucholtz specifies that the emergence principle should include one to express themselves through writing. However, they also stress the importance of your identity being created through discourse with others; which essentially was the entire premise of this assignment. Instead of language to reflect my inner thoughts/identity, I used external appearance through clothing to show the world how I wanted to be perceived. I feel as though this principle perfectly connects with another Bucholtz principle; partialness. By temporarily changing my physical appearance through clothing, I am changing my identity and the way people see me (like the emergence principle alludes to), however, this is not my only identity. Being clean, put-together, and productive (how I was when I was wearing jeans), is not who I am all the time. When I knowingly changed my physical appearance expecting this result, that was who people began to perceive my identity as, even though there is far more to it.

As I mentioned previously, while thinking back on what I learned about myself through this experience, I learned how susceptible I am to other people’s opinions. I always thought of myself as very self-assured, but I can see now that my mood could heavily depend on how others treat me. This time around it was positive, but I feel as though the same concept would apply with negative comments as well. Although, it is difficult to know if this susceptible feeling is due to my indexicality or if it is who I genuinely am.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by how much genuine reflection I was able to have during this assignment. Something seemingly so simple as getting dressed in the morning really made me analyze just how important presentation can be. I would have never thought that wearing jeans for the day would change (or even influence) my identity, but it certainly did!