Ideas sans Words

This week's topic has me shaking hands with the stereotypical caricature feminist, for taking on a subject that is rarely understood as masculine (no idea why), while also apparently spitting on her face, since next to beauty pageants and millennial patriarchy, she's not really a fan of fashion.


I've been living in Japan for almost three months now, and one of the things that has been catching my eye since day one is how much the Japanese -both men and women mind you- pay attention to their outward appearance. I keep having to force myself to not awkwardly stare as yet another girl walks by me and catches my attention, not with any physical attribute, but simply with the way she is dressed.

This is not to say that the Japanese are all shallow or fashion slaves if you throw that term around (quite the contrary actually, most people are very low key, Japanese shyness if you will), but rather that they are actually mindful of their outward appearance.

Notice the variety. Also, SHOES!

But, you might be thinking to yourself, isn't that true of people all over the world? You're probably wondering if I'm simply biased towards the modern Japanese fashion sense; if I'm just completely disregarding that different people have different ways of presenting themselves.

My point is that after spending the better half of two years in a country were clothing is merely a concept of social functionality, it's refreshing to find people who are more concerned with how they convey themselves to the rest of the world than with exercising their imbued right to wear whatever they want whenever they want.

Funny how pictures of U.S. Americans in the street all seem to involve rioting.
Does nobody take pictures of people just walking?

At its very essence, fashion is about conveying an identity, a set of particular ideas, a philosophy, a sense of self-respect and countenance to the rest of the world. Yes, it's true that clothing must be first and foremost functional, but the same can be said of writing, filming and composing. The great thing about humanity is that we're able to go beyond the functionality of objects and imbue them with meaning, not only on a personal scale but a massive one as well.

There's a lot of talk recently about the secret of success being in how interesting one is able to be to others, both in terms of quantity and quality. You can be comfortable in your clothes, and that's great for you, but what reason are you giving me or anyone to care about who you are or what you have to say? What reason are you giving me to venture out and get to know you and your ideas? Someone might tell me that not everyone wants to share ideas, but I'd venture a guess that even the shyest of people in the world like having attention from someone.