Trying on a New Identity

Alexis Daniels

May 5, 2015

Personal incongruity

For the new identity project I chose to the personality dress incongruity. I dressed

in a way that was a little extreme for my tastes and did not match my self-identity. I wore

a black and goldish blonde wig that was very long and had bangs cut in my face. I also

wore a shirt/tank top with the sides cut out which showed by bra and a good amount of

skin on the side as well. Written on the shirt was “BOSS” in big gold letters. I also wore

big gold hoop earring that said “QUEEN” on it and black leggings with black combat

boots. For my makeup, I had blue eyeshadow with gold on the bottom eyelid, fake

eyelash extensions, and shimmery gold lipstick.

Recording of Experience

Before putting on this ensemble I felt very nervous for other people to seem with

it on. I thought that it would look bad on me and that I would get a lot more negative

responses than I actually did. While wearing this look I went out to eat at a restaurant

called Pappadeaux’s, to an office/studio with my cousin for a meeting she had, I went to

Target, and the gas station. While at the restaurant is where I noticed the most

responses to my look probably because I was sitting down for a significant amount of

time and had the chance to look around a lot. We had a male waiter who gave a lot of

nonverbal responses, the main one being he looked at everyone else at the table a lot

longer when taking their order than when he took mine and also asked me less when it

came to drink refills. He refilled my cup almost the whole time without ever really asking

me did I want a refill. At target I got a lot stares from everyone including the cashier. My

family when they first saw me was very shocked. My own cousin didn’t even notice who

I was when she first saw me. My aunts and mom were really amazed at how I looked

but knew I would not keep it on for long. They also asked a lot of questions about how I

liked the look I was going for and if I would dress like this as a part of my normal style.

Everyone liked the makeup but agreed it was not the right look for me. I paid a lot more

attention to what everybody else had on, I don’t think I necessarily compared what I had

on with other people I didn’t know but I did compare myself with other family members

dress. The day I chose to do this experiment was May 2 from 8am until about 4pm but I

took the wig off by 1pm. The weather was really nice and warm in Dallas that weekend.

Questions to Ponder

The reviews I received were consistent with my program of dress. The reviews

were also consistent with my expectations, I wasn’t surprised with a lot of the raised

eyebrows I received from family member and friends. I felt very challenged during the

experiment to explain why I had on what I was wearing. Many of the responses I got

from people that knew me were as if they were looking for an answer of some sort. The

responses I got from people I didn’t know were like they were a lot of stares, some

people were surprised by my makeup, and others looked they just wanted to know

where I was going. During the day I felt the need to change clothes or put on a jacket,

while out to eat. At the restaurant I felt particularly awkward having my bra showing on

the sides it think because everyone else was well covered up and out to eat with their

families as well. However, the longer we stayed there the less uncomfortable I became

but I was still happy to be leaving. My thoughts about other people that may dress the

way I did on a regular basis remained the same, I think it takes a person with a big and

confident personality to wear that on a daily basis. I also think they may like attention. I

am still not sure how they do it, but I figure it must be a personality thing as well. My

feelings about myself changed slightly, at times I felt as if it was kind of cool to be the

center of attention and other times, well majority of the time, I felt very self-conscious to

cover up my sides of my body that were showing. By me wearing sunglasses could

have affected my accuracy in interpreting others reactions because I think it allowed me

to see their face before they realized I was looking at them. Also, the fact that I have

given much similar responses while in their place at one point or another I felt that I

easily recognized what they meant. I also asked family members to analyze people as

they saw me and that gave a good chance to interpret people that may have continued

to look at me as I walked away. I learned that people’s first response is on the basis of

appearance and that if they feel uncomfortable with the appearance they try to avoid too

much eye contact or simply over compensate with smiling or somewhat sympathetic

gestures. I didn’t feel like anyone talked to me any differently but I did notice a change

in how much they said. I felt like a lot less was said to me by people I didn’t know than

when people talk to me and I’m wearing what I normally wear. The different meanings

people seemed to assign to my dress was over the top hip-hop girl, they also seemed to

think I was older than I was. People also probably associated me with some sort of

video girl or an aspiring female rapper. It was hard to tell what people thought of what I

had on as far as meanings go without putting my own thoughts in too. I felt like my

assumptions about people probably affected what I thought they were thinking. As for

myself, I learned that I can essentially wear anything I want, whereas before I was

probably more hesitant and worried about if I could “pull it off” or not. Even though I

probably wouldn’t wear anything like this again as a part of my daily wardrobe I now

know that it is not too tragic to switch it up a little from time to time. I also learned that I

don’t like to be judged by what I have on and often felt the need to show people the real

me and that I don’t usually wear stuff like this but I also realized that other people made

me feel no different at the end of the day by their negative or positive responses. I do

think I rely on dress more than I realized I do to project a preferred identity. I do not

think I will ever dress this way again for no particular reason. I probably would for an

event or holiday that required this sort of look or parts of the look.