Institutional dress codes and strategic camouflage both distort appearance as identity evidence

Evidence

Dress regulations could be and were enforced in both school and work settings (although they were constantly being challenged in the courts), such that many persons who might wish to express a more “hip” identity were prevented from doing so-at least for part of the day. In addition, many of the politically-oriented young-radical, liberal, and moderate-knowing that their usual appearance was offensive to the people they wished to influence, adopted what were thought to be more uncommittal styles. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 456

Categorization

• XREF: Strategic self-presentation by activists mirrors Goffman’s front-stage/back-stage dramaturgy and deepens the unreliability of the observer’s read on strangers. — connects to: Research gives conflicting results on whether appearance predicts Mixed individuals’ racial identification — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or…, 39