Image and Everything

Although it seems that taking special care of one’s appearance is similar to showiness, it is nothing akin to elegance. Even if you are aware that you may be struck down today and are firmly resolved to an inevitable death, if you are slain with an unseemly appearance, you will show your lack of previous resolve, will be despised by your enemy, and will appear unclean. For this reason it is said that both old and young should take care of their appearance.

Hagakure

If at the top of Urban Samurai was a picture of my face, would it change the way you view this site and read this content? If you knew I was black, white, Asian, Native American, or a Martian…would it matter? Would you still be able to relate to me?

What if I was 95 years old? What if I was 14? What if I was 40. What if I was 26? Does that change your opinion of who I am?

What if I was 3 feet tall? Or 7 feet tall? Or way overweight? Or very muscular? Or as frail and physically weak as you can get?

What if I wore glasses taped in the middle? A pocket protector? And clipped my phone to my hip?

What if I had a prison tattoo on my neck?

What would your opinion of me be? Would that change the way you read this content?

I want to be the guy that tells you that my picture doesn’t have anything to do with who I am. That it’s what is on the inside that counts. That the wrapper doesn’t make the candy bar. But that is wrong. The wrapper helps sell the candy bar. And if it’s the right wrapper, tells you everything that’s inside of it.

Your picture and mine say a lot about who we are. Our appearance represents us. A really good amount. And look, there are people who surprise us. And their appearance is nothing like what they are as people. But to be honest with you, not that often. You won’t know everything about someone from appearance obviously. But there is some weight to it.

This pains me to say, but your appearance matters.  Take some pride in how you look and people will understand you have pride in yourself.

Stereotypes are out there. And when people see you, they assume things. And they act accordingly.

And of course, not every stereotype is true, and they are certainly not true for every person in a race, religion, age, etc. But some are definitely true. And even more importantly, they are ‘true’ to a lot of people’s perception. That’s why stereotypes exist in the first place.

There are some things about our appearance that we can’t change. And that’s OK. As long as we understand this in the way you pre-judge others. Understand this with respect to the way people pre-judge you. Understand where you want to be in this life, and how you want to be treated, and dress the part.