Breaking a social norm? Definitely something easier said than actually done. Riding the elevator up and down while pretending to meditate, kissing everyone you come in to contact with or even just dressing like a boy for a day. Brainstorming ideas is easy, and even pretty amusing to try and think of all the ridiculous things you can do and actually have a reason to do it. The hard part is building up the courage to do it. To know when you leave your house for the day that you are going to be stared at and talked about. Knowing all this and still being able to follow through with it was probably the biggest challenge of mine.
After a lot of thought, I decided to wear my Dalmatian onzie for the day. Its nothing super extreme and its nothing that caused a huge up roar. It was just enough to show what its like to dress just a little different, to be just out of the 'normal' circle. On campus, I didn't feel too much of a spot light on me. I know a good bit of people and felt like I was joking about it more than I was feeling judged. The real judgment came when I was at places like Walmart. When I was at places that were more open to the common public, thats where I felt the spot light.
Going through this assignment has somewhat opened my eyes to a couple things. First off, the way society, especially young women, judge people. We look at people a certain way based on what they're wearing, how they're talking, what they're listening to and even the people they surround themselves with. We never look at someone with bright pink hair or a crazy fashion style and think 'wow that person has a lot of confidence for wanting and striving to stand out and be unique' we instead think 'look at how weird her outfit is' or 'she's not going to get very far with that color hair'. Why is it that a lot of our population is brought up to look at someone who may dress differently than them and judge them immediately? Although there is still is discrimination and racism in schools, I think it is time we start not only teaching love of other ethnicities and races but also love of all people no matter skin color, nationality, outfit choice or preferred pastimes.
