“Hey. Does this look okay?”
“Does this makeup make me look slutty?”
“Do I look nerdy in these glasses?”
“Is there anything on my face?”
You’ve said these phrases, and many more like them, all throughout your life.Every day you’re concerned with how you look, even if you might not think so.You try to match your clothes, and avoid going out if you don’t feel “presentable.”
In the morning, you look in the mirror.You “fix” what you can.
You wipe the sleep from your eyes.Try to wake up your features, either by stretching, makeup, or both.
Heaven forbid someone get the idea you’ve been sleeping.
No one can know you get tired.
You make sure that your clothes match.
No one can think you don’t have the accepted taste.
Or that you got dressed in the dark because you didn’t want to wake someone up.
Or that you don’t have matching clean laundry because you’ve had a stressful week.
You might put on makeup. You might just like practicing the art of makeup.You might be concerned about what others think you look like without it.
You don’t put on too much,
Lest a passer-by associate you with someone who needs to make money, and resorts to the streets, or someone who seeks self-worth in others’ romantic interest in them.
You choose contacts over glasses, or glasses over contacts.
You might look too much like a “nerd” in glasses, or too “simple” without them.
At meals, you choose foods according to appearances and impressions.
You choose the food that doesn’t smell (if you don’t have time to brush your teeth.)
You choose the food that isn’t messy, and won’t get in your teeth or all over your face.
No one can know that you ate. There must be no sign that you are human and have an appetite.
When you’re not feeling well, you likely don’t take these steps.When company comes over, you sometimes feel ashamed.You make sure to give the disclaimer that you don’t feel well, as if you’ve offended them.If you need to go out, you keep your head down and go about it hoping no one sees you.
Why do we take these steps?Yes, appearance is an art form.
Culturally, it is an art form that is expected to be performed.
Is it to enforce the idea that our first impressions should be made by appearance?
In interviews, the point is to get to know the applicant and to find out whether or not their character and work ethic is appropriate for the job.
What does this have to do with our appearance?
Unfortunately, appearance is something that our culture values more than anything else in first impressions.This is something that we try to fight, and that’s good. But we need to remember that while we’re trying not to place judgment on others based on appearance, we also should not judge ourselves based on our own.
