Perspective

We had a huge debate in class on Friday where the class was split between boys and girls on whether men can choose to be unmarked or not.  Generally, the guys leaned more toward not being able to choose, will the girls argues that men's looks are much more flexible.  This made me think.  Is it all just perspective?  Is it just that women care more and notice these small details more?

I think that women just care about this topic more then men do.  I for one, don't really care about my looks, as long as I look how I usually do.  I don't care what others look either. In fact, I probably couldn't even tell if someone wore the same piece of clothing twice in a row.  I don't look for that kind of stuff.  

Also, Stephen the hipster brought up a good point. Class isn't mentioned in the essay.  Tannen thinks that "the men's styles [are] unmarked' (Tannen 553), but what if they are?  Like Stephen said, one may be wearing an Armani suit, while another may be wearing a Kohl's suit.  What if the person wearing the Kohl's suit cannot afford an expensive suit like his coworker? Does that make him marked?  

Another interesting question was brought up at our table.  We were wondering how someone becomes "unmarked".  What are the standards?  How do you judge someone who is thought to be marked when you don't even know the criterion for being unmarked? When so many people wear different styles of clothing it's hard to tell who is unique and who isn't.  The problem with labeling people marked or unmarked is that there is nothing to base them upon.