You could also dress a particular way ONE day and ask them to analyze you for THAT DAY… I find that the all black really elicits some interesting ideas: I am in mourning, I am color-blind, one person said it was because I was “clearly from the city” (I teach at what I consider to be a rather rural campus), one student was clever enough to suggest that I am a ninja. One time, a student said it was because I was possibly a lesbian. We had a REALLY interesting conversation about that response: why do we read sexual-preference onto outward appearances? how is clothing and sexuality tied together and why? It was pretty heated. THat is what I mean, though, by saying you’ve got to pretty cool in front of a class. I wanted to say “WHAT??!!!” but you have to sort of just use it as a teaching moment to investigate their thought-processes.

Btw, I never reveal to them the answer (I like to keep them guessing). However, it’s obvious that I am, in fact, a ninja.

:)

A.

@ A: Actually those professor are my colleagues and we all integrate “self-fashioning” into our pedagogy. I have used fashion to talk about sexual-selection in classes on Darwin’s “Origin of the Species” (showing the opening scene from the film “Dangerous Liaisons” and images from GQ and Vogue). But I have also used myself! It’s a dangerous move, so you have to feel pretty confident about yourself. But in a college composition class where we were just starting to discuss the process of description–> analysis —> interpretation –> evaluation, I use myself. I explain to students that we perform this process all the time, automatically, inside of our heads. I turn my back to the class and I tell them just describe how I dress and what I look like. This is about three weeks into the class, so they have a good idea about my style. I tell them that I will not judge what they say… but they should be appropriate. Then, I turn around and ask them interpret these details… Why do I dress this way? What’s my story? Because I often dress in all black, they have some pretty far out ideas. I demonstrate to them that we instinctually analyze, which leads us to interpretation. Retracing their comments, I show them where the analysis lies (the color black represents what to us as a society?, etc.). This is also a good exercise because it allows me to discuss with students how choices (in this case, clothing) reveal persona/agenda. Later, this comes in handy when we analyze political speeches, advertising, etc.

I have another colleague who teaches an upper-level course on “Divas”– both in African American writing and popular culture. And self-fashioning is a HUGE element of his course.

So, there are a few examples of how you can incorporate self-fashioning into your classroom. Not sure if it’s applicable to what you teach (not really sure what your field is. Art?). But maybe you can modify!

:)

I really appreciate the mention of “well-roundedness.” I am an ABD grad student, and also a performing artist. I have an active creative/artistic/performing life in a very different world from academia. This in itself is sometimes met with suspicion. Add in to that the fact that my personal style is very informed by the creative world I perform in, and it also throws a monkey wrench in the whole “looking nice” argument.

It’s not only about “looking good” vs. “looking sloppy,” or caring vs. not caring. My natural style is kind of urban/street/flashy, very informed by the musical scenes that matter to me.

So I can take a lot of care with my appearance but still be considered inappropriate in certain contexts. Or not inappropriate exactly, but not right, anyhow. I have a really hard time with business casual, for example: when I was a legal secretary it was a complete mystery to me because I didn’t have those kinds of supposed “basics.”

In academia I have definitely been judged as less serious because I enjoy rocking a playful/tough style of presentation. I also have felt like I should tone it down when teaching undergrads (I definitely have been mistaken for one!), but funnily enough the more confident I got in teaching the less I felt that mattered.

Part of my mission has been to integrate my academic and artistic self, which is easier because my research is about the branch of the arts I am involved in, but it’s still not in a humanities/cultural studies department which might be more relaxed in some ways. Anyway I appreciate the discussion here.

Also, it’s only frivolous if there is nothing at stake –and, clearly, the ability to be taken seriously or not is something pretty big at stake!