Elise Haynes chronicles family life in her blog Haynes Family Yard Sale. The opinions stated in this article are solely her own and not those of St. George News.

HUMOR – If you haven’t heard yet, Ill. Rep. Bobby Rush caused quite a kerfuffle yesterday by wearing a hoodie and sunglasses during a speech on Capitol Hill. He wore the getup as a tribute to Trayvon Martin, the boy who was shot and killed over a month ago in Sanford, Fla. Martin wore a hooded sweatshirt and sunglasses and was armed with nothing but a bag of Skittles when he was killed.

Rush was escorted from the chamber and then it was business as usual on the Hill – voting themselves pay raises and filibustering and whatever else it is that we pay these people to do. The lesson that the representative has taught us is that, in addition to making you a profiling target in Florida, wearing a hoodie will also get you booted out of Congress. Insofar as fashion choices go, I’d say hooded sweatshirts are out.

Do the clothes we wear really say anything about who we are, though? For example, I bought a really ugly pair of shoes from the wonderful St. George Running Center today. They are Vibram Fivefingers shoes. They are basically incredibly unattractive gloves for my feet. I bought them because I’ve been dabbling with the idea of barefoot running, but I don’t like the idea of having cactus needles and glass shards embedded into the soles of my feet. I’m picky that way. These seemed like a nice compromise. I ran home and pulled on my new “shoes” to take them for a spin. That’s when the reality of what I had just purchased struck me.

“I look like a dork,” I said to myself as I strutted around my living room. “A naïve dork,” I clarified, but I continued to strut because the shoes were amazingly comfortable and I’m a world-class strutter.

Everyone has been a victim of fashion profiling at some point in their life. You have all heard the saying, “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.” I have to wonder if Buzz Aldrin showed up to his first interview at NASA wearing the bubble helmet and oxygen tank. If so, I’d say excellent career move, Buzz.

Like it or not, people are going to judge you based on your appearance. They shouldn’t, but they will. If you saw someone wearing a long black cloak and wielding a scythe you would make assumptions about that person. If you saw a person sporting an incorrectly sized Hooters tank top and hot pants you might surmise that this person has low self-esteem, especially if that person is male. Wear sweatpants and people will assume that you are either lazy or are trying to sneak candy into the movie theater. They never assume that your goal is comfort – I know this from sad personal experience.

Of course, no one wants people to make assumptions about them based on their attire, but it is human nature. I, for one, am tired of living with humans. You can tell by my shoes.

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