Deborah Tannen begins "There Is No Unmarked Woman" with a short anecdote of when she was observing the physical appearances of some men and women at a conference. She focuses on three aspects of their appearance: hair, makeup, and clothing. While these qualities do contribute towards whether or not a person is "marked" or "unmarked", they are not the only ways to mark a person.
Many years ago, I had lived in India for a few years, and the school that I went to required all students to wear a uniform. They also required students to cut their nails and keep a certain hair length. And no makeup was allowed. I used to think these rules were ridiculous when I first heard of them, but slowly I began to realize their purpose. By enforcing a strict uniform policy, the school was eliminating all methods of marking a person by their appearance. People were, of course, still marked by other ways. One girl used to raise her hand for every single question, and she constantly talked with the people next to her. Despite the uniform that made her look like her peers, her outgoing personality marked her as an easy-going and conversational person (although incessantly annoying at times). The uniform policy, unfortunately, wasn't perfect at keeping people unmarked: there was one boy who used to get bullied constantly for being plump.
Of course, being marked is not necessarily negative. Tannen says it best: "I [Tannen] felt sad to think that we women didn't have the freedom to be unmarked that the men sitting next to us had" (556). People are always going to be marked by some way or another, but we must move towards a society where an individual can choose whether or not to be marked.
What are your thoughts about uniform policies? Do you think they're effective in unmarking people?
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I love the personal anecdote that connects to the subject of the text. It really makes your voice more powerful
ReplyDeleteI find it very interesting how you ask if it is effective in unmarking people, because to me, that seems like it would be a bad thing. This is something I was thinking of when talking about the unmarked woman piece was that, to me, it doesn't seem inherently bad to be marked. Just being marked does not mean that it is a bad marking. That is why I am entirely against uniforms since when putting on your clothes in the morning, you yourself are choosing how you want to present yourself, and if you should know that people are going to make assumptions about you, and try to make it a good thing with the clothes you wear.
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