Students at Sherman Institute, 1919. Courtesy Sherman Indian High School, Riverside CA.

Friday, October 7, 2011

One form, Uniform

Who wears uniforms? Students, monks, police, doctors, army personnel, fire-fighters, mail-men, waiters, athletes, prisoners, girl/boy scouts. Everybody. Uniforms serve the purpose of constantly expressing the wearer’s role, part of his/her identity at the time, and his relation to everyone else around him/her. It is a way of communicating.

Ines Dussel holds that clothes are symbolic, indicating the wearer is part of a specific group and hierarchy therein.

“instruments through which a social law maintains its hold on bodies and its members, regulates them and exercises them.”

1 comment:

Sun said...

I like your short but strong journal! :) I think also though it will be interesting to discuss who individual behave differently when they are in uniform and when they are not.
Also, based on your journal, it seems like how uniform influences the social communication is very similar to how the title (like career) does. What can be the difference between them??