Have you looked at a person’s clothing? I don’t mean look them up and down when you pass them in the hall and say you like their shoes. I’m talking about actually picking apart their clothing, colors, print, cut, even if they just added a piece of jewelry. I noticed that also people of the same cliques tend to have the same sense of style as well as a particular way of acting. I also did notice the cliques that don’t dress the same tend to act a particular way as well. So I did some investigating.

            I started to observe how certain people dress. I found a lot of boys that play the same sports tend to group together and dress the same. I found most wear Underarmor and discuss their overpriced basketball sneakers that are ridiculous colors and prints. When I looked a bit closer I realized these boys also had the same sense of humor and air of confidence surrounding them. This made me wonder…are they so confident because they are all the same? I decided to see if this was the same with the girls of this type. When I saw the Hollister skirts, and Aeropostale tee-shirts as well as the same air of confidence I started to wonder, what about the cliques that don’t dress the same?

            I took a closer look into the cliques that dressed differently. I noticed that they also had an air of confidence surrounding them, but it was different then what I saw before. This was a kind of confidence that came from being comfortable and secure. Whereas I saw in the other groups a sense of security obtained from eliminating the diversity in the group. I’m not saying that they are not individuals or aren’t unique. They just have a different kind of relationship with life.

            I guess in the end it all depends on how a person wants to feel when they are with their friends. I’m not even sure if people realize how much the way they dress affects their impressions on people. I mean it’s pretty terrible that we judge someone just because they wear a shirt that you don’t personally like, but I guess it’s just human nature. I asked someone I know who supports this idea of dressing the same to fit in about why exactly she felt this way. She told me something that made a scary amount of sense. She told me to look into the future and think about a job interview, she said “Pretend two people are applying for a job, they both have the same grades and fill the qualifications. Now one of them is covered in tattoos and piercings, whereas the other applicant is the opposite. Who do you think will be chosen?” This frightened me, a lot. Why? Why do we think like this? Why does it matter what we look like, or how we dress?

                                                The answer is….

Stereotyping. We look people up and down once or twice and if they fit a bad stereotype then we immediately assume they have all the traits of that stereotype. Now the question is what is a stereotype and how do they effect society?