AKA, I’m just going to ramble a bit to get a post up.
Because the kids are big into personal branding right now. Personally, I loathe the idea of sublimating a person’s net worth down into a marketing message (in case you’re wondering about my verb choice there, it’s there to indicate how personal branding manages to make ephemera state-change to drivel without bothering to stop even momentarily at substance; I may have an English degree, but I didn’t always sleep through science, people), but I can’t deny that everybody has their own personal iconographies that get associated with them.
With me, I think that’s got to be hats and ties. Hats, I have no defense for; I just like hats. I blame my Twitter picture for this – an avatar that was, for the longest time, me wearing an ivy cap. Now, guys with beards wear caps like that all the time; I don’t think I’m special in that regard (or really, any regard), but somehow, the hat became My Thing, to the point where there are acquaintances of mine whose first thought when seeing me is to comment on whether or not I have a hat on.
My thing with ties, on the other hand? Well, there are a few reasons. I’m thinking about this now, incidentally, because I’m wearing my second consecutive pink tie of the week (and will pull a third out of the tie drawer tomorrow). The prime reason? As I’m sure I’ve stated before somewhere, the price I charge myself for being unattractive and out of shape is that I have to try harder to look good. I could probably get away with wearing sweatpants to work some days, but I would honestly rather be hit by a bus than go any further into public than my yard in sweatpants. On top of that, I spent a year working in a hospital environment where I had to wear a tie every day as part of the dress code. To maintain a professional workplace environment, which was also being maintained by, for instance, the doctor I was working with wearing ripped jeans, an Allman Brothers t-shirt and a lab coat (true story). It became a powerful habit and I, if nothing else, am a habitual creature. Third is just plain superstition. I always wear a tie when I have to give a talk, a presentation or present on a panel. If I don’t have one, I panic. With work, the tradition has become specific, down to the color. I started wearing pink ties to work functions as a bit of a joke. The first time I did, I got a lot of compliments for it and nearly arm wrestled a drunk girl who tried to steal my tie; I consider that a bit of a success. It’s become a good luck charm for some of my co-workers. When preparing for the panel I’m sitting on this afternoon, I was told that I “had to” wear a pink tie to assuage my co-presenters (today, it’s the unicorn tie, which has pink ink on it; it still counts). The one time that I did not wear a pink tie to a work-related event (it was a purple tie that I wore to tape a webinar with my boss), there was a power outage. I consider that proof.
I guess maybe my beard counts, too? I don’t know; the only reason I don’t shave it is because I look horrible without it.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I think you should wear more sombreros.
Or perhaps the same sombrero, but more often.
You know. Either way.