September 2, 2014 - 20:01
Not entirely sure if this is the correct place to post this, but let's give this a shot! I seem to have gone on a tangent, but
The avatar I've chosen to use as my online representation is a selfie I took at this most recent May Day, just before President Cassidy rolled by in a carriage with the Traditions Mistresses. This picture captures a lot of the ways I've chosen to owtwardly represent aspects of my personality, really an outward performance of more inner tendencies.
From about the time I was twelve and began wearing eyeliner (and drinking coffee), I've consciously shaped the way I dress and style myself. I use how I dress as a method to try and convey "who I am" to people with whom I interact. I see dressing and personal adornment as both a socio-culturally shaped shorthand for identities, and as a hobby-level way to express myself artistically--no great shakes, but a lot of fun to fiddle with. For instance, I've noticed people tend to have more positive reactions to me when I wear turquoise or certain shades of purple.
How we dress can be societal schemata (to pull a term from psychology) which index qualities the wearer can seek to evoke, if they're doing so consciously--many people don't give a darn, and that really shows a practicality of manner in and of itself. Dressing can be and usually is a method of performance of identities you want to index. Dressing in a particular "style", e.g. an ethnic identity like Ghanaian, or an "indie" group identity like Goth culture, can all index the groups you're a member of, and even ideologies you want to convey that you believe in, as a way of conveying a lot of information in a visual way
To cut the jabber down a bit, let's use my photo here as an example of all the theoretical babble I've previously written. With the lace dress I'm wearing, I'm indexing my hippie upbringing. With the hair streaks, I'm both wearing my class color (BLUES UNTIL WE'RE DEAD) and trying to evoke the signature look of Mako Mori of Pacific Rim fame, a character who really inspires me. The earrings are scale maille I bought from a fellow fanartist, and are faintly reminiscent of my love for fantasy, both by the fact that they're maille and that they look like leaves. I made the flower crown with my step-hellchild in a weekend of crafting and avoiding work before May Day last year.
(I try to have a story attached to significant things I wear, but sometimes I'll wear something because it's just plain pretty.)
The cat-eye eyeliner is something I've worn since I was at least 13. It seems to index many "bombshell" movie stars, and adds to my tendency to felinity. The blue marks under my eyes are also stolen from Twiggy, the model, a bit reinterpreted--a color accent instead of an eyelash accent. I was also intending to go for a "lion's mane" look with my haircut, albeit not terribly successfully--I'm always trying to bring out my catlike qualities, minus the selfish & mean streaks that cats tend to have. (The real motivation behind how I dress? Virtually all my clothes are glorified pajamas in coordinating colors, and the makeup is societally acceptable facepaint. I'm probably still a kid under all these adultlike trappings)
Stereotypes are often harmful, but they serve their societal and mnemonic purposes, if more than a bit problematically. They can serve as ways to index positive qualities too. Might as well manipulate them to your advantage. ;)