Mark Lane

AAD 250

Personal Adornment Reflection

            There is nothing particularly interesting about the way I dress. I do not have any tattoos, no prince Albert, nipple rings, earings, nose rings, or anything of that nature. I wear t-shirts and jeans almost every day of the year. During the summer time, I wear sandals pretty much every day. I usually keep a short hair cut, but for a few years let my hair grow long during high school. The way I dress is a symbol of my personal beliefs, which are just as biased as anyone else’s. I am typically put off by people that appear to be trying extremely hard to look cool, or look rich, etc. At the same time, I am also somewhat perplexed by people that wear ratty looking clothes or clothes that are either extremely tight to the point where the person must struggle to put them on, or clothes that are absurdly oversized and baggy for the person. It is because of these beliefs and personal preferences that I dress moderately, and would probably appear to be somewhat average looking. There are exceptions of course; I do collect Vans tennis shoes, my jeans are always Levi slim straights because I do like jeans that are a little bit slimmer, and I prefer LeBron James’ basketball shoes because his brand of shoes are built wider and they fit better than any other I’ve ever played in. The family I was raised had a lot to do with the moderate style of adornment. My father wore a suit every day to work, yet I can only remember a handful of times I’ve ever seen him wearing any formal wear outside of work. Growing up in Southern California with temperate 70 degree weather pretty much year round, he always wore shorts sandals and a t-shirt whenever he was off-work, and you’d be hard pressed to guess his occupation if you saw him on the weekend. I am very much like my father in that sense. I also believe that my parents allowed my siblings and I to experiment in our youth with hair dying, long hair, unusual clothing, and other unconventional adornment without putting up any kind of fuss, and this allowed me to pass through my phases of adornment experimentation without getting caught up in trying to piss off my parents like some of the folks we read about in the presentation.

            In terms of body modification, I do lift weights and exercise quite often. I am by no means a true “body builder”, meaning I don’t take steroids and have 30 inch biceps, but I do like to be fit and have a body that I’m comfortable with. It’s interesting to note that during times when I have not been able to exercise due to the various sports related injuries I’ve accumulated over the years, I begin to feel uncomfortable with myself when I lose muscle definition and start packing on body fat. I believe this has something to do with the whole “gladiator” male body image that became so popular in Hollywood and pop-culture during the 80’s and 90’s.