Читать книгу The Nature of College - James J. Farrell - Страница 38

In middle school and high school, clothes are a kind of put-on. We put them on to try out different personas. We try on different clothes to see what they do: how they attract attention, how they affect other people’s interactions with us, and how we feel when we play this part in costume. Growing up, we’ve learned about clothes in many different ways: from parents and relatives, neighbors and peers, and the advertisers and marketers who flak us with fashion from the day we’re born. In this sartorial socialization, we learn about dress codes, formal and informal, material and mental. We learn to follow the fashion scene, whether or not we actually buy into it, and we learn to express ourselves with this second skin we wear every day. We know what’s in and what’s out, and we can all tell the dorks from the preppies, the geeks from the goths, and the fashionistas from the rest of the crowd.

By the time students get to college, therefore, they have a kind of clothing repertoire for the dramas of their daily lives. On campus, first-year students play again with dress and the presentation of self, each adjusting to the expectations of a new college culture and trying to craft a suitable persona. Though most colleges provide students with food and shelter, they don’t supply clothes, and there’s usually not an institutional dress code either. Professors are mostly clueless about fashion, so students need to learn primarily from their peers. Learning the common sense of clothes, they settle into a style of dress that’s comfortable and acceptable to the people they hang out with.