Editor in chief: Laura Cadiz
Editorial Editors: Bret Jacobson, Laura Lucas
Newsroom: (541)346-5511
Room 300, Erb Memorial Union
P.O. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
Tuesday
May 30,2000
Volume 101, Issue 162
Eriierald
Fashionable
The way people
look can be
deceptive; judging
them by their
appearance doesn’t
often
get you anywhere
66
Are you all right?”
“No ... I’m not all right. I’m hurt. I’m
pissed. Gotta find a new job.”
In my favorite movie, “Grosse Pointe Blank,” a John
Doe convenience store employee is upset when assassins
blow up his place of employment.
This spring, I got rejected from medical school, which
is the pre-med equivalent of detonating a bomb in a 7-11
! microwave. Not as dangerous, but nearly as devastating.
t Man, now I have to find a job. That means resumes, thank
you notes and interviews. I think I can expect to wear a tie
more often this summer than in the rest of my life com
bined.
Which is actually OK. I like dress
ing “nice.” What does it mean,
though, that people are judged by
their appearance so strongly? Living
in Eugene, as college students, it is
easy to think that most people are
more accepting of all kinds of dress.
But few of us have escaped dress
stereotyping entirely.
For example, I got lucky at the
senior send-off last week. They erro
neously sent me an invitation last
year; I never got one for this year.
But I talked my way in, basically no
problem. That was really surprising,
thifugh, because my old neighbor
from the residence halls had just told me that without an
invitation, they would not let him in.
I’m sure that image was not the ofily determinant in the
way we were treated differently. But the fact remains that
I was dressed in my nice uniform for my hospital volun
teer shift, and as I recall he was dressed pretty average for
a college student — “ventilated” jeans, T-shirt, a few old
stains here and there.
In some situations, people who are dressed nice (or in
other ways portray wealth, power or “respectability”) do
get special treatment. But when people dress “down”
from the societal average, I do worry that we (myself in
cluded) are too apt to form negative opinions about peo
ple who don’t meet an artificial expectation.
The lab I work in is basically isolated from the outside
world. There’s no reason for strangers to pass through the
fourth floor of Onyx Bridge, believe me, and at least once
before, a major theft occurred because we didn’t take
enough notice when a stranger walked around up there.
I Jonathan
Gruber
In other
words, if we
don’t know
you, you are
automatical
ly “suspi
cious.”
So when
someone
was poking
around
Thursday,
my co-work
ers were wor
ried. By their
accounts (I
didn’t arrive
until he was al
ready in hand
cullsJ, his actions ^
were suspicious and
downright illegal, and I think it
was the right thing to do to call the Office
I <2Sfer
\SP
Bryan Dixon Emerald
oi Public Safety. Imagine, though, it he had been exact
ly the same person with the same intent to do whatever it
was he intended to do, but he had dressed in shirt and tie.
It would have been a lot easier to not question this person
if he looked like a lost professor or guest.
Is this a problem? Sure it is. As far as I know, the crimes
committed in this society are largely unrelated to the act
of dressing and grooming. Even if everybody gets over the
barriers of sexual orientation, race, accent and age, we’ll
still have these appearance perceptions to deal with.
The root of the problem, and one possible solution, is to
modify the training of our children. Because kids are inex
perienced in judging character, we tell them that in an
emergency, someone in uniform is the best place to turn.
The unfortunate flip-side to this is that people in uniform
can get away with things that anyone else can’t. You
would never see a herd of kids pointing and yelling
“stranger” to anyone in a police costume, regardless of the
person’s authenticity.
Children also grow up with the deep-rooted inclination
to view certain personas as trustworthy and others as sus
picious. Unfortunately, once we grow up, this becomes an
unnecessary process that simply perpetuates the divi
sions between people.
As many of us make the transition into the “real world,”
we are faced with a particular challenge. Even if we have
lessened our tendencies to judge appearances in college,
many of us will be entering a world in which such criteria
are
the norm. It will be very difficult to simultaneously honor
our college ideals and avoid ruffling the feathers of people
who can influence our futures.
Where’s the balance? It will vary from person to person,
but perhaps the common theme should be one of reflec- ,
tion. Every time you make a judgment of someone, step
back and ask yourself what you got out of it. As long as
you maintain some self-surveillance, you’ll never wake
up one day and wonder what happened to the young ide
alist who graduated way back in 2000.
Jonathan Gruber is a columnist for the Oregon Daily Emerald. His
views do not necessarily represent those of the Emerald. He can be
reached via e-mail at jgruber@gladstone.uoregon.edu.
CORRECTION
The story “Political wrangling heats up in City Council” (ODE
May 26) reported that Bonnie Bettman beat Mike Sherlock in
the Ward 2 race during the May 16 primary election. In fact,
Bettman beat Tracy Olsen in Ward 3 and Betty Taylor beat Sher
lock in Ward 2.
In the same story, an incorrect photograph ran to identify City
Councilor Taylor.
The Emerald regrets these errors.