The Ironic Phase
I was chatting with a friend about the murals in Denver yesterday, apparently the street art in Denver is refreshingly positive – instead of “Fuck Society” and “Tear down the Power”, it's more like “Stay Kind” and “Love this City”.
This reminds me a lot a phase that people go through.
A decent amount of people I know went through an ironic phase of fashion, where they tend to dress dark, edgy, and loud. After that phase, the sense of fashion tones down a bit but you can sometimes tell that it's still present. Out of the people I know who went through that phase and came out the other end, it seems that they tend to be a bit kinder and more thoughtful than usual (though usually also less idealistic about the way that society works).
Thinking and talking to people about this, the common thread about that ironic phase was a sort of discontent with the world, a desire to distance from that world (blended sometimes with a desire to be unique), and an expression of both. This naturally make them feel a bit harder to approach while in that phase, but what does that say about people who went through that phase and dialed it down?
Thinking about it, I can come up with the following possibilities:
- Workplace dress code
- No longer discontent
- Better to be integrated with society to change it
- No longer feeling the desire to stand out
- Feeling that the fashion choice doesn't express their personality
- Not wanting the attention anymore
I think that outside of the first one and last one, the reasons are all indirectly connected with why someone who went through the ironic phase might appear kinder and more thoughtful compared against the average population. Of course, there are tons of kind and thoughtful people who bypassed the phase altogether, but I do think that someone who has gone through the phase is on average more able to discuss some important topics, albeit the ones that are darker and more personal in nature.
— Categorized under: #fashion, #psychology, #sociology