[jjjjjosh]

Jesse Thorn on why how you dress matters:

When you dress, you are making a statement; not a fashion statement, but a statement of identity. If you put on a jacket and tie, for example, you are signifying to others that you take the occasion seriously, whatever that occasion may be. If someone looks at you and interprets how you dress, they are not being superficial. They are reading the message that you wrote. [...] Can one earn respect in other ways? Certainly, and one should. But that’s no reason to open a conversation with someone by saying, without words, “this is not important to me.”

http://putthison.com/post/665640307/why-this-matters

[danenania]

Why can't the 'message' be: "I respect your intelligence enough that I won't assume you'll judge me based on what I wear, so I'll just wear what's comfortable for me."

[jjjjjosh]

I think there's a subtle but important difference between "what you wear sends a message" and "you'll judge me based on what I wear."

You're shifting the agency away from yourself - to make a choice about what message you're going to send (by how you're dressed) - to others, making them out to be shallow for receiving the message you send and processing it accordingly, no?