got me wondering. Do you have to have a certain lifestyle for certain things? Does someone with a corporate job have less of a “right” to a tattoo or a piercing than the guy trying to decide if his band name should be Frostillicus Returns or the Tequila Mockingbirds? It may make less sense for a guy in a corporate job to have a tattoo, especially if it’s in a very visible place, but do you have to earn a certain look?
I’ve encountered that attitude among people with tattoos a lot. In college I knew one girl who had f holes tattooed on her back and at least one other girl thought that was stupid because she didn’t even play a violin/viola/cello/etc. But that does seem a little weird. I mean, for other forms of dress, we don’t assume someone has to earn their street cred before they wear it. You don’t have to be a laborer/working class type to wear blue jeans, for example.
It’s a person who makes a conscious effort to appear as something they are not.
I don’t think tattoos in general make someone a “poseur” (I haven’t actually heard the term used since middle school, incidentally). But more specific looks, like you mention, give a certain impression. So if your body is wrapped in a giant Lord of the Rings mural tattoo, one would tend to expect that you were an LoTR fan. To find out you have never read the books or even seen the movies would make you seem a bit of a poseur.
I agree with Rigamarole about having not heard the term poseur since middle school. I don’t believe people have a ‘right’ to a certain style in any sense, but I have often remarked to myself how certain styles can become part of who you are. Or contrarily, other styles simply don’t fit you at all.
For instance, people have often remarked that they could never “pull off” a lot of the clothes I wear, even though they like them on me. I have a very preppy style but I dress quite a bit older than most 26 year olds. Definitely not the douchey frat boy side of preppy.
Sometimes when people say it, maybe they really mean it as a back handed remark. But mostly I think people sincerely like something I’m wearing but don`t think they’d be comfortable in it. On the other hand, when people see me in t-shirts and athletic pants and sneakers or in a sweatshirt I’m often told it just doesn’t look right on me. Or people who are a little less abrasive might say that it’s surreal to see me dressed that way. And they’re right, I never quite feel comfortable in that sort of outfit.
So I definitely don’t think people need to earn the right to wear a particular style, but there is something intractable about our personalities that is reflected in the way we dress. If you wear an outfit that really doesn’t mesh with your persona, it doesn’t make you a poseur in some moral sense, but it’s likely people will pick up on it.
A sign of poseur-dom to me is if a person dramatically changes styles. Not just wearing different “weekend” wear, but doing something like going from a natural hair color to platinum blonde. At first it might catch you unawares and you might think, “She’s trying too hard.” But then you get used to it and it no longer seems so purposeful.
I don’t see many adults doing this though. Mostly teenage and college kids, both whom are still trying to find their identity and style. I can think of one celebrity instance of unnatural identity switcheroo. Alanis Morrisette. When she first started out, she was all Paula Abdul mall girl. And then suddenly became something totally different. Was she a poseur then or a poseur now? I don’t know, but after you see her doing the running man with giant teased hair, it’s kind of hard to take her seriously.
I was a punky-ish poseur in high school for a period of time. I like the aesthetic of combat boots and chains on my paints, and poofy hair. I never had the guts to get a girlie mowhawk, but I wore the anarchy t-shirts ad chain things on my boots. However, I didn’t like punk music, or he punk scene, or the behaviour of self-professed punks or punk rockers. I like some of the more pop-friendly tunes by the Clash that were tame enough for high school dances, but nothing by the Sex Pistols. Instead I like Erasure and Alphaville. Poseur!
Isn’t being a poseur just marketing? Sometimes people feel the need to re-invent themselves. No one was born with their eyebrow pierced. At some point they had to make that decision to adopt that look.
If you drive to Daytona in your 1993 Taurus sedan, park behind Dirty Harry’s and get out, open the trunk, and put on your leather jacket, chaps, and biker attire to walk around during Bike Week…
I suppose part of it is a feeling that by taking on a clothing style associated with a particular group, there is an assumption that you are part of the group. Some social groups apparently don’t want their attire to be misappropriated unless an individual is willing to adopt the essential attitudes and behaviors of that group.
I think of the punk/ska/hardcore kids in high school–I was sort of in that group. It was all well and good if you wore a hoodie with patches and pins from concerts that you yourself had attended. They were almost seen as earned merits. Wearing Chucks went along with that. When the Abercrombie-ish kids who weren’t into punk/ska/hardcore started wearing knockoffs that were purchased at Hot Topic or other mall stores, it seemed fake. They had never crowd surfed a life size fiberglass buffalo or endured the aroma of wet hay, mud, and sweaty kids skanking in a huge circle. Once the Abercrombie crowd appropriated the wearing of Chucks, it seemed time to move on to Vans or–if you were truly going counter to all trends–shoes from the Salvation Army. Of course, part of the “punk” mentality was to avoid the mainstream entirely–once a trend became too trendy, it was time to abandon ship.
LOL, I was into punk back in the day and had my hair in 1 inch 2 colored spikes [dark red brown normal at the base, the tips were bleached out and i would change colors to fit my moods] and many piercings in my ears and I used to go see the Rochester Philharmonic perform with my Mom when my Dad was on the road and unable to go … =)