{"id":12405,"date":"2012-02-29T03:02:30","date_gmt":"2012-02-29T03:02:30","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-10-15T00:19:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T00:19:22","slug":"fashion-foolishness-and-feminine-attractiveness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=12405","title":{"rendered":"Fashion, Foolishness and Feminine Attractiveness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cClothes make the man\u201d<\/strong> wrote American author, humorist, and practical philosopher \u201cMark Twain,\u201d the pen name of Samuel L. Clemens. He recognized, as we all do, that first appearances are important and that a man\u2019s clothing influences our initial assessment of him. Twain added that naked people had little impact on the world, but he wrote before Playboy<\/em> arose.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A short piece in Psychology Today<\/em> magazine [cited below] discussed the results of a study<\/strong> involving several different sets of clothing for men on women\u2019s evaluation of the men and, similarly, on men\u2019s evaluation of women in different garbs. Higher status clothes made the women more interested. Prettier clothes made the men more interested.<\/strong> Interested in what? The usual – relationships for women, sex for men.<\/p>\n

The women readers of asiancemagazine.com<\/em><\/strong> could have guessed these results correctly. How to respond? For work situations, \u201cdress like the boss,\u201d if your boss is a woman, that is.<\/strong> Otherwise, look at high-ranking women in your organization and take a cue from them. Use make-up, but in moderation. \u201cModeration in all things\u201d is a good category_ide here. <\/strong>Concerning fashion, follow the advice of English Renaissance poet Alexander Pope, \u201cBe not the first by whom the new are tried \/ Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.\u201d Pope\u2019s centuries-old advice will keep you from buying too early items that quickly go out of style, yet not wearing clothes that remind you of your grandmother.<\/p>\n

Your private life, rather than your professional life, is another matter entirely, if you can keep the two separate. <\/strong>Here, dress as you please, but recognize that your choices will influence the kind of friends, men and women, you attract.<\/strong> When my wife, Tina Su Cooper, was in college, which is somewhere between work and play, she was noted for dressing conservatively in well-made clothes, without a lot of different outfits. She was appropriate, attractive, but not a \u201cclothes horse,<\/strong>\u201d not someone obsessed with fashion, not someone who seemed shallow in that way. When you put your photo on Facebook, should you do such a wild and crazy thing, pay attention to the message your choice of clothing sends. You will attract what you set your bait for.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, perhaps, looks matter.<\/strong> We all wish we were better looking, except those of us getting too much attention for being handsome or beautiful, not a problem I have had personally. [I have a much younger brother who literally turns women\u2019s heads as he walks by.] A smart woman recently told me that while her beautiful daughters were young, she downplayed their looks when they were complimented about them, and she emphasized their talents. When they reached a marriageable age, those same compliments about their good looks were welcomed and accepted. There\u2019s a time for everything, it is said.<\/p>\n

Greek philosopher Socrates advised, \u201cknow thyself.\u201d This should be one of our highest goals.<\/strong> If we can play the world\u2019s games without fooling ourselves, understanding what we are doing, we can achieve worldly goals without sacrificing what is most important about ourselves. <\/p>\n

Shakespeare\u2019s character Polonius advised his son, \u201cTo thine own self be true \/ And thus it must follow as night the day \/ Thou canst not be false to any man.\u201d One must balance playing the world\u2019s game with being true to oneself. Good luck with that.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Douglas Winslow Cooper, Ph.D., is a freelance writer, writing coach, and retired physicist, author of Ting and I: A Memoir of Love, Courage, and Devotion,<\/em><\/strong> available from Outskirts Press, amazon.com, bn.com, or from the web site, tingandi.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cClothes make the man\u201d wrote American author, humorist, and practical philosopher \u201cMark Twain,\u201d the pen name of Samuel L. Clemens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2663,"featured_media":72448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[1004,1],"tags":[2109],"class_list":["post-12405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fashion","category-news","tag-fashion"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg","medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-highlighted-post":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-featured-post-medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-featured-post-small":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x90.jpg","colormag-featured-image":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-default-news":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg","colormag-featured-image-large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-block-extra-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-small-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-medium-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"michaelly","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/957a72dc0c08f14979f0d258f5a5d70644519bea0e589bfbc83999b24053b763?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"6","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"\u201cClothes make the man\u201d wrote American author, humorist, and practical philosopher \u201cMark Twain,\u201d the pen name of Samuel L. Clemens.","magazineBlocksPostCategories":["Fashion","News"],"magazineBlocksPostViewCount":241,"magazineBlocksPostReadTime":4,"magazine_blocks_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg",113,170,false],"medium":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg",113,170,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg",113,150,true]},"magazine_blocks_author":{"display_name":"michaelly","author_link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?author=2663"},"magazine_blocks_comment":6,"magazine_blocks_author_image":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/957a72dc0c08f14979f0d258f5a5d70644519bea0e589bfbc83999b24053b763?s=96&d=mm&r=g","magazine_blocks_category":"Fashion<\/a> News<\/a>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2663"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}