Alternative dress, and open mindedness of others

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They aren't Taco Bell employee t-shirts, they are just advertisement type t-shirts. And I've never worked at a Taco Bell, can't stand the place.



I'm from Florida, don't live there anymore though, but how could you walk around barefoot all the time? Fire ants are everywhere. And even if you managed to avoid those you are just asking to get hook worm or athletes foot doing that.

Also, dressing funny is a little different than not wearing shoes. Most places of business have a "no shirt, no shoes, no service," policy.

I'll be the first one to say it, I would feel awkard next to a friend who was wearing an outfit like that. There I said it, no hard feelings or anything, this is coming from a person who's quite openminded himself (and has to be). I'm sure I have my own quirks, but dressing appropriately is important to me, so I can see where your friend is going with this.

I'm thinking, some people who don't know you might be uncomfortable with how you dress because they think it means you are crazy. Other people who know better might be uncomfortable because they think other people who see you will think you're crazy.

Not saying it's fair that it's that way. Just wondering if that's part of the issue.

A couple of people have said to me that they dont like being looked at, and if they are with me whilst I dress in my costume, that people will think badly of THEM for being next to me...

Again.. this makes absolutley no sense to me, as i am not embarrassed to be next to anybody else - no matter what they wear or look like or how they act
To me it is just shallow minded of people to think like that, and I am very sure that it s wrong to be shallow minded and that I am right to stand up for myself and what I beleive in, and not give in to the never ending force of society trying to turn me into one of them.

Saying yes to the dress topic

Why are you obsessed about this? In Canada you can even go topless and it is not a criminal charge.

Whoever compared you to a Nazi in a Jewish temple is damn ridiculous! If someone feels that your style of dress is inappropriate there are certainly better, less nonsensical and offensive ways of expressing such feelings.

To answer the original question, while I think that girl you were talking to had every right to wonder about your style of dress,
she must have been kidding herself thinking an IM chat when you've only met her once before was the appropriate time to say such things. She could have also told you in a was that was more honest and up front- "Why do you dress like that? Don't you think it's weird?" instead of the childish and demanding "I've heard that you dress like the Statue Of Liberty, next time I see you I want you to wear the clothes you wore that time you dressed normal!"

You may dress strangely but that doesn't give someone the right to be so condescending. She probably thought she was being 'good' and 'helpful' rather than rude and annoying. Now, I can't speak for the rest of the world because rude people are everywhere, but if I saw you walking down the street I might think of you as odd, but I wouldn't treat you with any less dignity or respect as any other person.

Thinking someone is strange or odd is one thing, being a disrespectful ass about it is another.

And that's also true! In some countries and parts of the united states, people may think of you as counter-cultural, or trying to
make a political statement, or they would just assume the obvious: that you really like the Statue Of Liberty. Don't give in to such Statue-Of-Liberty snobbery, I think attitudes would be different depending on where you go dressed like that.

I am a bit of a nudist and totally hate wearing anything at all. If the world worked the way Flaggy wants it to, I should be able to go to the store with nothing at all on - let alone shoes and a shirt. But it doesn't. Some people don't object to seeing me naked, but others are deeply offended by it. Society says I need to be dressed appropriately for the location/occupation that I am in and so I do. It would be very 'narrow minded' for me to assume that my dress code is more important than the rest of the world.

Regarding your TB shirts, I think a lot of aspies are like you and me with that. I tend to to be more concerned with comfort and not fashion. I am willing to bet that when your TB shirts start getting holes in them and threads pulling out that you will eventually stop wearing them and move on to something else. Still, wearing TB shirts all the time might not get you on the cover of a fashion magazine, but I wouldn't call it weird or unacceptable. You are simply wearing them because they are comfortable and familiar to you.

As far as fire ants, I hate them and keep a good stock of Amdro to keep after them. The same is true of stickers in the grass. No problems with any kind of foot diseases. That is something only people who wear shoes get. I have a shoe bound friend who is always getting hideous nail infections and other foot diseases, while I go barefoot in the henhouse (full of manure) to collect eggs and never have a problem. I walk barefoot through the remains of a broken beer bottle on the sidewalk with no problem, my friend start bleeding just looking at it. Go figure.

Um, that was me, and taken out of context like that, it does sound ridiculous. Flaggy is saying she should be allowed to dress however she wants without regard to the feelings of other people. My point was that no she shouldn't and gave the extreme example of someone dressing as a nazi in a jewish temple without regards to the feelings of the other people there. If Flaggy had things her way, then the other people in the temple should just sit there and take it.

There is a MAJOR difference between walking around in a costume, and walking around naked though

Whilst it would not offend me to see somebody naked walking about, its inappropriate for children especially to see that.. and most people would probably find it offensive- and its illegal to do such a thing here in the UK

I remember the Naked Rambler who set about walking from one end of the country to the other, butt naked, - he was arrested multiple times along the way

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... rison.html

I can see his point about individual freedom, and I also agree with that, and that is why him doing that doesnt bother, or offend me in the slightest, - but there is a limit with other people- BECAUSE being NAKED in PUBLIC OFFENDS people, and it is NOT APPROPRIATE for children in particular to see a strange adult human in a state of undress in that way.

What I am doing- wearing a costume is not OFFENSIVE and it is not INAPPROPRIATE- it jujst makes people think i am ODD... which is right! I am! It doesnt bother me for people to think I am odd. I am glad I am the way I am, and I am happy


As for going barefoot, I can see why people wouldn't want barefoot inside their offices and indoor buildings considering what you have just said that you walk through!

If I am doing some dirty work, I dont wear my costumes, I put something old on, or overalls that I have.. If I was to walk through manure I would have wellies on, or walking boots

It might be the politics of your choice that is making people uncomfortable. While you may just like the Statue of Liberty for aesthetic reasons (or for symbolic ones), she is a symbol of immigration to the United Sates. I see you are in England. Maybe wearing this while going around England is taken as being anti-English and wishing you could immigrate to the US. If you were already in the US, it would be taken as making a political statement about legal and illegal immigrants wgich is currently a very controversial topic here.

You are perhaps perceived as wearing your politics on your sleeve, so to speak.

Where in the United States is there anyone who is as offended by the Statue of liberty as the Jews might be offended by a Neo-Nazi? A Neo-Nazi walking into a Jewish temple would be a very deliberate act of disrespect, don't even try to compare Flaggy and her love of the Statue of Liberty to that. While her style of dress may be inappropriate in some cases, it doesn't even begin to touch the same level of indecency as that. She's just dressing like the the Statue Of Liberty, she isn't committing a horrible act of ignorance and hate.
You could have used a different example that would have been just as effective. While I highly doubt that this was your intention, you've put someone simply ignoring the social rules of dress into the same category a person purposely trying to promote hate.
The argument isn't what's wrong, but the example sure is. And I thought you didn't care anymore.

Whatshername - excellenty put - I couldent have put that better myself..

I dont do this to offend, or for a political statement.. People around here dont link it with polotics either - not the opinions that ive got anyway.. Lady Liberty is a symbol of freedom
and she is also very beautiful- infact, the most beautiful Lady in the world to me.

She is a huge statue stood at the gateway to the USA, yet she does not symbolize power,or wealth, but freedom and peace, and hope for all mankind - wherever you were born.

She wasnt initially linked with immigration - it was only in 1903 when Emma Lazarus's poem, that she had written some 20 years before, was engraved on a plaque and put inside Lady Liberty, that she became a symbol for immigration.. Couple that with the opening of Ellis island immigration center opening on the island next door to year a few years earlier, and there you have it.. immigrants seeing Lady Liberty, "lifting her lamp beside the golden door" - which people interpreted to being Ellis island.

The thing is, though, to some people, wearing a costume is inappropriate, just as much as going naked. Both offensive and inappropriate are subjective -- in the eye of the beholder. There's surely a difference between them in how many people find them inappropriate, and to what degree, still, it's not really true to say wearing a costume is not inappropriate. To some people it is, to some it isn't. To you, it isn't. But the naked guy, to him, being naked wasn't inappropriate.

Either that or they'd think she works for Liberty Tax Service.

Heheh - yep Ive been asked if I work for Liberty Tax Service a few times. when I was in NYC - I got 2 of my costumes from them, and im friends with a few people who do work for them, and who supply the costumes

Interesting questions. I'm currently wearing the skirt to a wench outfit I got for the Renaissance Faire and a button up shirt that reminds me of the African flags I've seen.

Fortunately, nobody has ever tried to tell me to dress differently when I wear stuff like this. However, I am more often than not in men's clothes. I've often had people tell me "You would be so pretty if you would wear something more feminine!"

Um... so? I don't care to be pretty or to fit into the socially accepted gender roles. I am transgender, after all.