First Impressions

Before attending any interviews or new settings people are usually advised to “make a good first impression.” It takes approximately three-seconds for someone to evaluate you when you meet them for the first time. Within these three-seconds, the other person unconsciously formed an opinion about you based upon your appearance and how you are dressed. According to Alison Lurie, this process has been happening for thousands of years. People are constantly registering how others are dressed and by the time they actually meet the individual in person and converse, they have “already spoken to each other in an older and more universal language.” Dress is a constant manifestation of intimate thoughts, a language, a symbol” (Lurie 203). I have noticed that even on the Hamilton campus people are not excessively displaying their religious identities because they are more conscious of making a good first impression on their peers and teachers. 

In particular, I have a Christian friend who is part of the Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship group on campus. Even though she is Christian she does not outrightly display Christian symbols, such as wearing a cross on her neck. She does, however, dress more modestly. For instance, she will not wear clothing that emphasize her curves. We have read that some of Shabana Mir’s participants had to change how they dress so they could fit into their campus culture. I have known my friend since freshman year and there was not a day when she thought about wearing a tight skirt or shirt. Like some of the girls in Mir’s novel, my friend has been questioned on the way she does not wear certain types of clothing and sometimes “strategically plan[s her] outfits” so she would not reveal too much. For instance, combining a thin shirt with a sweater or complementing a pair of tighter jeans with a larger sweater. Her sense of fashion might not be as striking as the hijabs Muslim American women wear, but what she wears is still a “nonverbal system of communication" in the sense that silently reaffirms her Christian faith. Therefore, one could conclude that she does not want to hide who she is but at the same time she wants to be socially accepted by the Hamilton community.