Representing ourselves through the clothes we wear on our backs

So, lately I have spent a lot of time pondering, or maybe a better phrase would be fuming over the ways people choose to dress themselves. Frankly, I am completely for free expression and unique ways of dressing so I don’t want to allude to this being a negative thing. However, I do want to let you all in on the reason that this particular idea came to mind and the reason that I just can’t let it go.

About a week ago, I went out one night with a group of friends to a party at a frat house, like any typical college student. As we approached the neighborhood of frat houses, I became more and more flabbergasted by the swarms of scantily clothed women in dangerously high heels who for the majority, were all outrageously drunk. And for the next few days I actually felt this sort of anger mixed with embarrassment for these ladies and after spending a lot of time fuming over this all, I have finally come to a conclusion on the subject.

Self-expression is beautiful, but it is exactly that: SELF-expression. The reason that I found myself so angry and embarrassed over a bunch of half-naked girls was because they were doing the opposite of expressing themselves. They were scantily clothed to please others not themselves. That night I was almost embarrassed to share the same gender with this group of girls. I felt the disrespect that they had for themselves, it was obvious, almost hovering over their heads for everyone to see. I have realized that this is sort of an epidemic. They were dishonoring themselves as human beings, sending out the signal that they were sex symbols, not intellectual beings.

I can’t act as if I have never participated in this epidemic. I have spent the entirety of my life, until about the last year, dressing myself in order to please others, in order to fit, and in order to feel valued as a human being. I spent thousands of dollars buying garments that would show my economic status. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and wore clothes that showed too much skin in hopes of attracting attention from my male peers. I fawned over clothes that I thought would change people's perspective of me. But then in the past year I have realized that in acting this way I was truly doing myself a dishonor. What I have finally learned is that I was letting other people shape who I was and I didn't recognize that person in the least.

So all I have to say is this: we are who we are and we are all different. We should never let others define the value that we have especially not by the clothes we wear on our backs. Be proud of who you are and do things because YOU want to do them. We may not be able to change each other's views, but that isn't important. You are the change you want to see in the world. It all starts at an individual level and you need to make the choice to love and be who YOU are.