Concering Clothes
Here at Exeter, we pride ourselves on our hard work habits and rigorous academic environment. Accompanying this atmosphere is a general attitude that the respectability of a person correlates with his or her dress. We require that boys and men wear collared shirts with ties to all academic appointments, and that students wear clothes that reflect the discipline and seriousness of purpose we associate with academic pursuits. I find it hard to label this idea that clothing should correlate to a persons identity as more than absurd, yet the entire campus seems to live fanatically based on how people dress.At Exeter, a person’s clothes can define the relationships and interactions he or she has around campus. Three popular aspects of culture at Exeter exist specifically to point out clothes that fit with the cultural norm of “good looking”: Trendwatch, Street-Side Editorial and The Exeter Dress Code. These three sources serve only to promote a specific sense of style that has been defined by our society by pushing people who fit with this particular style upwards on the social ladder, giving them more opportunity to improve socially simply because they wore a nice shirt to history class.And yet, we have organizations on campus springing movements such as the recently popular PEA Needs Feminism and Why So Gendered movements that fight against the gendering and normativity of clothing. Discussions have been going on lately about the dress code and whether it should be different for boys and girls. But does it not seem hypocritical to complain about being judged as a gender by the clothes one wears, but ignore the fact that peoples’ social lives are dictated heavily by those same clothes?You may have seen me around campus wearing a blue sweatshirt with the word "Kabeyun" written on it. The following are a few choice comments and descriptions I have heard concerning the sweatshirt: “dirty,” “ripped,” “he wears it every day.” I consistently hear comments from the people in this community, including my close friends, about the atrocity that is my sweatshirt. What people don't know (and don't bother to ask) is that my sweatshirt represents five summers spent at a camp that changed me and helped to define who I am today. It represents an important part of my past, but people cannot see beyond the hole in the right pocket and the specks of dirt. If someone were to judge who I am based solely on my clothes, they wouldn't get to spend enough time around me to understand my strengths and weaknesses, or what kind of a person I am. A person’s clothes do not come close to giving an idea of who they are, so why are people judged so heavily because of them?In the real world, businessmen and intellectuals are expected to dress nicely, while common laborers are not. There is a clear classism in the societal norms of how to dress, but a person’s class doesn't define who they are either. Andrew Carnegie’s first job paid $1.20 a month, easily considered poor. Yet he was bright enough to become one of the biggest businessmen of the late 1800s - early 1900s. At Exeter, we come from all different kinds of social classes, not just the elite. My prep year, roughly 50 percent of the students here at Exeter were receiving some sort of financial aid. Is it right to put someone down socially because they can't afford a $1000 suit?The definition of good clothing should not be defined by the culture; it should be defined by the individual. In order for a piece of clothing to be good, it only needs to fit two criteria: It should be comfortable, and it should look good to you. You are the only person whose opinion on your clothing should matter. This means if I want to wear my bright orange polo shirt with a tie to school, then I sure as heck will.