Sending the Wrong Message,

Sending the Wrong Message

Luis Serota

    

     Alison Lurie makes a powerful statement at the end of the first chapter of The Language of Clothes, "By the time we meet and converse we have already spoken to each other in an older and more universal language." Here, Lurie is claiming that our dress immediately imparts an in-depth narrative of ourselves and our core identities unto anyone that happens to look our way for even an instant; whether it be our socio-economic status, religious beliefs and commitment level to those beliefs, or any other passion that might define us.

     While Lurie is predominantly correct in her claim that our clothes are unspoken, but rather comprehensive identifiers of who we are to those around us, she fails to point out a fundamental flaw in this form of non-verbal communication that Shabana Mir highlights in her talk and book. Specifically in the case of Muslim Women on modern American college campuses, Mir calls attention to the fact that other individuals, when "conversing" with" these Muslim Women in the language of their clothes, totally overlook the rest of these womens' personal identities due to being clouded by the traditional Hijabis that they don, and instead solely associate them with Islam. These miscommunications lead to unfortunate misnomers; the rest of these women's diverse, unique, and compelling identities are sacrificed in the eyes of the "normal" American college students around them at the cost of wearing Hijabis.

     How can we combat these unfortunate miscommunications in Lurie's innate language of clothing elicited by Mir? These unmerited social judgements are likely caused by the innate human response to react uncomfortably, or cautiously, to what we don't see as "normal" by our standards, acting as a defense mechanism to create social-separation from these things. How can we eliminate these barriers, and perceive everything as "normal?"
   Recently, an old friend of mine published a mini-documentary on the power of engaging in "Big-Talk" with strangers as opposed to the purposeless small talk we would normally engage in with people we are uncomfortable with. In the context of the Hamilton College Campus, or really in any community large or small, I believe engaging in more meaningful conversations with strangers has the ability to overlook the normal judgements we would normally pass them solely based on the language of their clothes. In the video, Kalina asks strangers deep and personal questions like, "what do you want to do before you die?" The response she gets from these people are far more telling of their identities than any religious ornaments, designer clothing, or lack thereof might impart.