【1010G精英组】ISSUE208 F组回收站

lynnuanaUID: 2772328

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208"The way people look, dress, and act reveals their attitudes and interests. You can tell much about a society's ideas and values by observing the appearance and behavior of its people."

lxin333UID: 2650844

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Can people judge people's attitudes and interests by the way they look, dress, and act? Can we also tell much about a society's ideas and values through observing the appearance and behavior of its people? Both of the speaker's answer are "yes". However, after a scrutinization, I partly agree with the author both of the viewpoints. I concede these two correlations can be true in some perspectives. Yet it remains inaccurate in some respects.

I concede that the way people look, dress and act is, more or less, a reflection from inner of human being. "Eye is the window of soul" ---such as the romance showed through French's eyes, --- usually, the way people look reveals people's inside world. We also dress decently to please, attract, impress others. Such behaviors can be explained as the result of people's positive attitudes. The kinds of dressing, hip-hop style, punk style, traditional style for instance, reflect people's various of interests. Besides, the way people act, to some degree, reflect their attitude as well --- Japanese live in a fast-tempo society for the reason that they think highly of making good use of time, American have a precise mind because of their scrupulous attitude.

Yet hardly can we identify an individual accurately and objectively only by this way. People of different kinds of jobs have to dress in a particular way. For instance, a professor or a manager often dresses with formal suits, a singer may dress nonmainstream clothes. Besides, as we know, there exist an effect of celebrity all over the world, which is one of the causes of the so called fashion. Similarly, more and more people in the society which is gradually globalized recently, prefer to KFC, dress Jeans, see the "Avatar", listen to lady gaga. Thereby, for the reason that our society is replete with a deluge of same products, from what can we tell much about society's ideas and values? The appearance of people? Of course no. We would commit a hasty generalization if we judge by these superficial behavior. As a result, there comes up a crucial question: what kind of things reflect our ideas and values or what aspect of our life stand out on behalf of our innate mental spirit?

However, there is no definite and precise answer for this question and seldom of us has ever thought about it. In my viewpoint, things happen to us represent our society's ideas and values, like the 5.12 Wenchuan Earthquake in China, troops are sent to save refugees, funds are collected to help rebuild the country, social volunteers devote themselves into the rescue work. Obviously, the national unity and cohesion are embodied in this event.

In sum, in today's world, a society's ideas and values are too complicated to be seen from the people's appearance for the reason that the understanding by this way is very limited. To better access the pith of a society's ideas and values, it is more efficient for one to turn to the society's literature, history, art, science and other forms of expression of social ideas and values.

悦微微志燮UID: 2759026

How people look, dress, do and so forth belong to the external side, which can exhibit people’s taste, interest, attitude and values of their internal space. The latter, pooled together, contribute to the interest and values of a society in which these people are. Thus in a macroscopic terms, a society is composed of the appearance and behavior of its people, which can also reflect ideas and values of its own.

In a chronically observed angle, the appearance of people has changed a lot, which can not be separated with social development. When clothes were more than something covering human body, they have been deliberately designed and displayed by people over centuries. Take Chinese clothes for example, women wore long, sleeveless and tight dress a century ago to embody their figure and beauty while men wore long robes, which were a distinctive mainstream. At that time, both women and men had long hair but different hair style. With revolution, liberation and openness to the world, the outlook of Chinese has changed dramatically. They look more “western” with suits, ties, T-shirts, jeans, commuter dresses, high-heel shoes and so forth. This evolution of outlook is the embodiment of changes from tradition to modern, from locality to globalization.


Similarly, the behavior of people can not be still and fixed but developing in the same pace of society. With invention of television sets and manmade satellites, people are able to watch everything around the world, which has expanded their horizon. With popularization of computer and Internet, people can talk with whoever they want, revolutionizing their way of communication. Correspondingly, people are more curious about the nature, people and life abroad and willing to learn foreign languages, in order to travel, study and live abroad. With increasing travelers and immigrants, people around the world gradually get adjusted to meeting foreigners. Their traditional codes or habits have been instilled with something new and exotic. This irresistible trend represents the general value of the society from closeness and isolation, like an island, to openness and interaction as a part of a continent.

In turn, the ideas and values of a society can be observed from the appearance and behavior of its people. Both the “western” clothes and proficient foreign languages prove the inevitable trend of globalization, while traditional essence and native language or even dialect integrate and localize this wave with diverse features. It can be found that some Frenchmen are obsessed with Kongfu; local people like to eat dumplings in a brand chain of Chinese store open in Sydney; Chinese people dine in KFC which has added Chinese cuisine to their original hamburgers; Sushi is a popular food around the world. All of these are evidences of a society’s openness and willingness to accept something foreign and new.

In a conclusion, people’s inner world can be expressed by the outer means of wearing and doing, and their beliefs and values are interwoven with the society which they belong to. Therefore, it is natural to tell much about a society’s beliefs and values by observing the appearance and behavior of its people.

lynnuanaUID: 2772328

The study of any ideas and values of a society must certainly include analyzing the appearance and behaviors of its people as a whole---because the way people look, dress and act may reflect their attitudes and interests, as the speaker mentioned, and even influence their society, to some extent--- but, this kind of study is merely a part of the overall structure. Therefore, these statements need more scrutiny.

Undoubtedly, the individual character would always be identified, more or less, by his/her appearance and behavior. For example, according to psychology, apparel color would unwittingly expose one’s personality: reserved people often choose attire in sober shade which would not flash their personality; on the contrary, bold men can be seen, most of the time, wearing bright colors which highlight their presence in the crowd. Similarly, besides the appearance, behavior is also regarded as the representative of human’s inner world. Some companies would design certain plots to test the interviewees; for example, a ball of paper would be thrown on the floor beforehand and the people who could pick up the paper ball on the ground are thought as owning a better quality---such as carefulness, accountability and so forth---than others who ignore the rubbish. Therefore, how the people look or behave would definitely reveal their potential attitude, value or belief inside. However, it is not a fixed law to judge a person through their looks and acts; some special situations would need to be considered. Some professionals like doctors, police, stewards or soldiers, must wear their uniform at their post and be trained to use “professional smile” on the face. In this case we could hardly tell what they truly felt inside. Therefore, personalities could be estimated by the dresses and actions of a person which, however, is not absolute.

Based on the above statement, generally speaking, sociologists or historians can study the ideas and values of a society through analyzing its people; however, they also need to notice that this reflection is not enough. A striking example is China, a country with a long history of ancient civilization. In ancient times, the authority had made series of strict rules of dress code for people in different classes. For example, in certain dynasties, the color of bright yellow was only be used by royalty while common people could not dress in this color; or they would get severe punishment. Therefore, contemporary scholars could find some traces to study the ancient social culture, attitude and value system through the analysis on individual various dress codes. Moreover, it is possible to identify social ideology from the apparel trend of certain times as well. Also in China, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, previous revolutions and reforms have destroyed the traditional rules root and branch. Green army uniform became a fashion so that nearly every youth would wear this kind of cloth every day, which would reveal the ideas and values of that time. Yet, things have changed when the world enter modern times. With the development of society, the relationship between nations and countries has become much more tightening and the interactions are unprecedented deeper. Sometimes, it is hard to distinguish the nationality—and even the gender-- of a person if only judging by his/her cloth. For instance, a person with a southern accent would be a northerner, while another person wearing a mini-skirt could probably be a man. From this point, I would say, only analyzing the appearance and behavior of people could be insufficient to study a society's ideas and values.

In summary, “don't judge a book by its cover” is a word of wisdom that has endured through the ages; likewise, researchers could not judge or evaluate a society only by “observing the appearance and behavior of its people” which is merely microcosm of the whole structure.