Dress regulations and political strategy made even ‘straight’ appearance misleading

Evidence

Inasmuch as we are dealing here not with the importance of a single fact or a single satisfaction, but rather with the play between two contents and their mutual distinction, it becomes evident that the same combination which extreme obedience to fashion acquires can be won also by opposition to it. Whoever consciously avoids following the fashion does not attain the consequent sensation of individualization through any real individual qualification, but rather through mere negation of the social example. If obedience to fashion consists in imitation of such an example, conscious neglect of fashion represents similar imitation, but under an inverse sign. The latter, however, furnishes just as fair testimony of the power of the social tendency, which demands our dependence in some positive or negative manner. The man who consciously pays no heed to fashion accepts its forms just as much as the dude does, only he embodies it in another category, the former in that of exaggeration, the latter in that of negation. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 728 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Opposing fashion is itself a form of conforming — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 728

Related

• Opposing fashion is itself a form of conforming (similarity 0.89)
• Conformity to fashion can shield and protect an individual’s inner difference. (similarity 0.81)
• Fashion dictates styles with no objective, aesthetic, or practical justification. (similarity 0.80)
• Fashion requires both the impulse to union and to isolation (similarity 0.80)
• Emancipated women signal status through indifference to fashion. (similarity 0.79)
• Fashion is abandoned by a class once it diffuses to other classes (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Opposing fashion is itself a form of conforming #expands (0.60) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 728