i hate pants.

Part 1
Subject: Likely college student, attending class
Sex: Female
Age: Late teens, early 20s
Race: South Asian
Religion: No visible markers, but because of South Asian ancestry likely Hindu or Muslim, possibly Christian

Clothes: Subject wore a brown mini dress over black leggings and black flip-flop shoes. Had no jacket or other outer garment. Both dress and leggings seem to be made of cotton or some kind of blend. She wore no patterns, but all clothing was solid colored with the exception of her tote back containing textbooks, this had a slight floral pattern and appears to be made of a natural fiber, such as linen or hemp. Overall dress is extremely feminine and fits very close to the body. Cut of the dress shows ample cleavage, but is contrasted with the leggings which actually provide a lot of coverage of the legs. Is this because she is lazy? Didn’t feel like shaving? Is she modest? Stuck in the 80s? or really into this new trend that seems to have popped up over the last few seasons? Yet what’s with the cleavage then if the issue is modesty? Confusing. The day is nice for the spring, so lack of jacket/sweater makes sense. Clothing was clean, and relatively well kept except for the tote bag which had signs of wear and an incredibly large orange stain on one side. From what? On the feet are black flip flops. It’s Seattle, does she know where she is? It rains here. But realistically this is pretty common college student garb in Seattle.

Hair: Subject had very long black hair. Looks untreated by color, yet is curled indicating that a relatively high level of maintenance is required to keep it. There are no other hair accessories however, and hair is simply worn down slightly parted to one side.

Accessories: Include a silver right on ring finger of right hand, a silver watch with bright blue face on left hand, a simple silver ball as the nose screw sitting on her left nostril, and when hair is pushed back behind ear extremely small diamond studs are visible in ear lobes, if one looks very closely two more lobe piercings become visible yet have no jewelry in them, and there appear the scar tissue remains of some cartilage ear piercings gone wrong, both in the helix and tragus areas of the ear. Seems to show an interest in body adornment, but all jewelry is very simple and silver.

The overall look is very feminine, wearing a dress, no less a mini dress, with long hair worn down. Is she very conscious of the feminine norm?

Part 2
Let’s see. Realistically I am a pretty generic femi fem type of girl. Just did all my laundry this weekend (woah three loads) so I had pretty much the choice of everything in my entire wardrobe as to what I was going to wear that day. Pretty indicative then of what I like to wear the most. As I was recently explaining to Mark, I really hate pants (jeans, khakis, etc…anything with a zip up fly basically) they are all uncomfortable. Especially those society decided would be great for females to wear. What a bitch, wearing tight pants. Although I wouldn’t consider myself a slave to fashion, I am definitely into following trends. Exactly why I’m not sure. Perhaps a left over from having friends that were also interested when I was in junior high and high school, or the fact that there was nothing to do in the Eastern Washington town I grew up in except go to the mall and eat at Taco Bell. But in any case I like to keep up with trends. So I own many a pair of expensive designer jeans that I hate to wear because pants suck.

I must have very strong opinions about strange things about clothing. Such as with the flip flop thing, doesn’t seem that unusual because everyone in college wears those. They’re easy, you don’t have to tie anything…etc. I wear them because I think ‘real’ shoes are constricting. I must really hate being constricted, the jeans, now the shoes. Strange. I wonder what this says about my personality?

Now for the cleavage yet legging thing. I love leggings. This trend is great. I wore leggings back in the 80s and early 90s when I was five years old, and they are awesome. Comfortable, trendy (I suppose?) and slip them under a previously slutty mini dress and you’re no longer a slut. Perfect! The cleavage thing…likely because my boyfriend or I guess exboyfriend just broke up that Sunday (day right before class) and hey now I can go around attracting other men all the time, might as well start now by showing off the boobs, they are pretty good boobs. All in all this outfit is one I believe as one that physically shows off what I consider to be my best features while hiding the ones I think to be my worst and still being relatively fashion forward, comfortable, and simple. Don’t like showing off the legs…either because I actually hate my legs or as some kind of effect of growing up in a conservative Indian family where my mom said showing off legs was well…for sluts. But then why am I ok with showing off boobs? Going off with the Buruma reading…being the child of immigrants must have confused me….

This post is getting long…so I should probably stop now…I bet no one even read this far. I love potatoes. Jewelry. I don’t like to wear a lot, simply because I think a lot is physically unattractive/tacky. So I keep it simple, but interesting. Seems pretty plain from far away but if you look close the ring has a nice pattern. And I had a period in my life where I was really into piercings…cause it’s sort of deviant behavior. But not really? Like I like to push the envelope as long as it doesn’t hurt my social status? But then some infection set in a few times and I decided ‘eff piercings, infection is annoying.’ I hate constriction. So that’s that. Overall interesting assignment, insightful.