Appearance-based identity signaling only stabilizes social order when backed by coercion
Evidence
The congruence between appearance and identity required more than mere voluntaristic “self-expression”; it required enforcement. Thus, the contemporary blossoming of such appearential identity indicators as bumper stickers, lapel buttons, and expressive dress styles does not herald the reemergence of the appearential order. A situation where I have only to change my dress style and paste an American flag on my car window in order to pass as a member of the “silent majority” does not guarantee a very stable order, especially when three days later I may switch again by replacing the flag with a peace sign. I repeat: the appearential order was possible only because the linkage of identity to appearance was not a matter of individualistic whim but a matter of coercive and traditional power. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 1033
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
- XREF: Relates to the ADDENDUM on ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’ — sumptuary laws linked dress to class via enforcement; Lofland generalizes the mechanism.
Related
- Identity-signaling dress is unstable without coercive enforcement of appearance (similarity 0.94)
- Institutional dress codes forced hip identities underground, widening the gap between appearance and belief (similarity 0.82)
- Modern dress no longer reliably signals a stranger’s social identity (similarity 0.81)
- Visual identity badges lose meaning when their wearers cannot control who adopts them (similarity 0.81)
- Dress reliably signals identity only in socially rigid locales (similarity 0.80)
- Institutional dress codes and strategic camouflage both distort appearance as identity evidence (similarity 0.79)