Clothes and status

Yes, that suddenly popped into my mind.

We all know that clothes are handy for keeping us warm and, in several cases, protecting our bodies from dangerous things (think firemen in burning buildings, knights in suits of armour in a hail of arrows, etc.).

The fact is, that clothes also throw in a lot of social status. In fact, clothes are one of the few things I can think of, that create such a symbol of 'position'. It's the very thing that falls away when everyone's taking their clothes off, and many people seem to have a tremendous hang-up over losing their status, their feeling of 'superiority' over others. Which isn't a real thing, as far as I'm concerned.

Superiority over someone is only an artificial idea, something that society in some way or form agreed on. It's like money, which is also an agreed-upon form of applying value to something. Like this $1000 bill. It's not worth $1000, or it would be very expensive to make. Like banknotes, social status and clothes are agreements, definitions, and in some ways even rules. When folks are dressed up like this, it's easy to see what their position in life is (either king and queen, or actors, but let's keep it at the former).

As soon as the clothes fade, the status fades.

When the clothes are gone, the status is gone. Then, when everyone's naked, there is no more difference. As I once before wrote in 'Unity in diversity', naturists win in the department of being the same, regardless of their body shape, type, colour or other attributes.

In a world where 'being different' is a bad thing, while being 'socially better / having status' is a good thing (am I the only one who sees a discrepancy here?), clothes are an important tool to make the difference visible.

I'd rather see more 'unity' among people. We're all the same flesh and blood, Earth is inside us all, and with people being the same, without this silly status-idea, I'm sure that this world would be a much better place.

Paul