Marked Locations

As we dove into the topic of what makes people "marked" and "unmarked", I began to think about how places, just like people, are marked. When you think about women's clothing, most of it is marked, such as sweatpants being "lazy". But after consideration, I think the mark of the location changes the mark of the clothes. If I am going to a school dance, wearing jeans would be marked as informal, and wearing a fancy dress would be subsequently unmarked, as that's what the majority are wearing. And as I marked sweatpants as lazy before, if one were to wear them around the house, they would be unmarked or seen as cozy. The choice we make every day in the everlasting struggle of "what to wear" is unconsciously influenced by where we are going. The impact an event has on an outfit has an even bigger impact on both men and women. Seeing a man in jeans on Friday at work is normal, but a man in jeans at his wedding on a Friday is completely outrageous. A woman in a tight dress at work is "seeking attention" but at a party is attracting the attention of other party goers. With the increased labeling of our clothing day to day can also normalize them, in a sense. Leggings and a sweatshirt are staples for a typical outfit for most girls, and as it can be marked as "basic", it is so basic in the sense that its normal. With our daily to-do's and whereabouts, our outfit can be marked as incorrect, so we are just hoping we chose the right one.