…makeup? …jewelry? …hairdo?
I’m a newbie, I hope to stick around, so I hope this doesn’t ruffle too many feathers. I realize it’s a very subjective topic, and cultural bias and other factors come into play. I may use some terms that may be politically incorrect; if I do, please excuse me and understand, it comes from where I live, who reared me, and things like that, not out of a blatant disregard for others’ sensitivities.
SOooo…I come from a middle-class, white-collar, Northern European Protestant background. I grew up and live in east central Florida, which is a bit hard to describe, but definitely is not like South Florida (we don’t have the Latino/Hispanic/Caribbean influence, although it is creeping up slowly), and it’s not as “redneck” as North Florida. I live in a county that has the highest per-capita income in the country (so sources say); a lot of wealthy people, the population skews older, mostly white, there are no military bases nearby, it’s not so much a tourist area as Orlando or even Tampa but we do get some.
I work (part-time) at a business in the county seat, south of the town where I live, at a business that caters to the very wealthy. It’s in a downtown shared office building, so I see people other than my co-workers on a regular basis. Most of my co-workers and I dress somewhat similarly: business casual, not too much jewelry or makeup, neat but well-groomed hair, etc. Some of the women I see that aren’t my co-workers, on the other hand, wear what I consider “way too much” in the jewelry/hairdo/makeup department, which I was brought up to see as “tacky” and “low-class”, but it’s obvious these ostentatious women have WAY more disposable income than I do (I’ll admit it: I live in a trailer park. My neighbors drive pickups, burn their garbage outside in big metal barrels, and enjoy shooting rats. On the other hand, we have no mortgage or rent payments, and little debt. I don’t mind the trade-off; I’m not that much of a snob, at least about most things).
My internal conflict is that I LOVE to wear jewelry, but I was brought up that it’s in poor taste to wear more than one or two rings, maybe a bracelet, watch, one pair of earrings. So that’s what I stick to at work. Actually, I have double-pierced earlobes, so I do wear a small set of diamond studs in the upper set, and something fairly conservative in the lower set, to work. On my own time, out socializing or on vacation, I wear “fun” earrings (big hoops, long dangly things, etc.) in the lower set only, 2 or 3 bracelets on one arm, and 2 or 3 rings on each hand (but none of them big or gaudy - I’m too petite to carry that off). I almost always wear pieces made of gold (occasionally silver, though I don’t really like white metal on me) and precious or semi-precious gemstones, and I did get a lot of nice things as gifts from my ex-husband. I feel almost like a rebel when I wear very much of it at a time, but I know I’m still on the conservative side compared to a lot of people I see. Like my BF’s biker friends’ women – many of them wear multiple rings on every finger, lots of bracelets and pendants, huge chunky earrings, piercings up the whole ear, etc. And I don’t have any tattoos, btw. Just sayin’.
What’s your view, vis-à-vis your upbringing and “too much” female decoration? Does the amount/size/ostentatiousness alone make it “tacky”, or only the price paid or income level/social status of the wearer? Do you find that some of these issues get blurred on a strictly “fair” basis, or does everyone get judged by the same standard in your book? It’s a curiosity to me that some of the social standards seem to be hypocritical based more on money/class, since the USA “claims” (again, I think hypocritically) to be a “classless society”.