<p>^^^ Post # 38 - :D</p>
<p>My most appropriate T-shirt says “Pretending I’m a Pleasant Person All Day Long Is Exhausting.”</p>
<p>I just bought a “My Other Car is a Mercedes” bumper sticker on eBay. I feel better about myself already! (Golly gee, gotta go … I’m late for my meeting with the President.)</p>
<p>Wow, you guys are having fun with this, that’s good.</p>
<p>Or maybe I struck a few chords.</p>
<p>I don’t if you guys are naive but in this world, every move we make in public is inevitably social because we take into account the way we come across to others in one way or another (otherwise we’ll be naked or don’t shower or whatever). Choosing to put on insignia from a school is one way we communicate an identity–do we want to be affiliated with that community college down the street or Harvard (and say it’s because a third cousin’s husband went there?). While we convince ourselves our reason is because we were given that shirt, secretly it’s also because we want to IDENTIFY with the school and want others to recognize that choice. Our reasons vary for being ASSOCIATED with that school, but it doesn’t change the fact that we want people to think we ARE affiliated with it. </p>
<p>Nobody is saying wearing apparel from a school you’re not affiliated with is illegal, but it’s certainly tactless.</p>
<p>NewHope, when people buy a luxury car (even truer for a sports car), they buy it both for its features AS WELL as how good it looks in public. Just ask men going through a mid-life crisis who really needed that luxury sports car. You think they’re just doing it for themselves? No, you would be remiss to think that way. They want to attract younger women and make other guys think WOW COOL CAR.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>As it so happens, my son is wearing a Brandeis t-shirt today. My daughter is wearing a Colorado College long-sleeved tee. Those are colleges that they visited and were applying to (but withdrew when they got into their ED schools). What “messages” are they sending? Is it not legitimate for them to wear t-shirts of schools that they enjoyed visiting and would have been happy to have gone to if that’s how it worked out? Are they sending an illegitimate message and they should destroy those t-shirts, or what?</p>
<p>And what if it was Crappy Directional State U? What if their best friend went there, got them the t-shirt? Is that OK? Or is that sending a signal about themselves that shouldn’t be sent?</p>
<p>My favorite t-shirt is a crappy directional state U my mother went to tee because it’s stretched out in all the right places.</p>
<p>Hey homie, I really, really think you need to go and weigh in on the chunky peanut butter thread. :D</p>
<p>NYchomie, is your real problem with people who aren’t Princeton-affiliated wearing Princeton t-shirts? Would you buy any of your relatives Princeton gear, the way my nephew did for my kids? Why or why not?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I would let each person decide for him/herself. Now that I think about it, my issue was not generally about people wearing apparel from a school they’re not affiliated with-- they can certainly do that. Rather, their motives for wearing that shirt. If it’s simply because they like the school, fine. If it’s for bragging, then I’m not fine with that. Ultimately, it’s up to the person to decide, but if they catch themselves thinking “well I’d like to wear a Harvard shirt today so people will think I go to Harvard,” then that might not be healthy thinking. They can go ahead and do that, but I wouldn’t suggest one’s happiness (for that particular day) be based on that.</p>
<p>Well, if I see someone wearing a Harvard shirt or a State Flagship shirt or a Crappy Directional State U shirt, how can I discern whether that person is wearing the shirt because he likes the school or because he’s bragging about having attended? It seems to me, that in the absence of the shirt-wearer coming up and saying, “Well, *I attend Harvard, I am a Superior Human Being to you,” I can’t really ascribe any motive to the simple act of wearing a t-shirt.</p>
<p>You sound just like the catty housewives who are all jealous that so-and-so down the street, by the mere act of wearing a fur coat / large diamond ring / driving a luxury car, etc., must be “flaunting” it just to rub it in the face of others.</p>
<p>Maybe I am just being “naive” as you say, nyc - but honestly, I don’t expend a whole lot of time analyzing why people wear the t-shirts they do.</p>
<p>Of course, there’s no way to win here.
Try keeping it under your hat that you went to Harvard, and people will construe it as “false modesty” and an attempt to get them to ASK you where you went to school so that you can THEN “rub it in their faces.”</p>
<p>As a headhunter, I read writing samples on a regular basis from those who graduated from top undergrad/top law schools who can’t match a noun to a verb. They have no chance at writing a pithy advocacy piece. Hands down, the most brilliant person I know didn’t go to college. Seeing first hand the work product that comes out of various institutions of higher learning is the great equalizer. With that knowledge, I make no judgments at all with regard to intellect or quality of education when I see logos. Just because someone is wearing a particular tee shirt doesn’t mean they didn’t spend an hour trying to step into it.</p>
<p>This is really laughable!
Some people wear school appearel because that’s where they went to school, their spouse, or their parent. Gifts of college gear is pretty common. As others stated many kids picked up shirts on college visits. WHO cares…oh yea the OP. Well they care about the tshirt wearing persons motives. Seriously?
Our local sports store carries sweatshirts for local and well known schools. I’ve bought lots for DH over the years when they hit the 50% off rack. I have a Duke sweatshirt I love…big sale, color looks great on me, and I never thought for a minute anyone would question my motives! DH did get teased about a sweatshirt he was wearing the other day, a rival to the guy making the joke. We all laughed knowing DH grabs what’s clean and has had the shirt for 10yrs.
I wish I could say I was surprised, but people get worked up about minor stuff. </p>
<p>Sometimes a shirt is just a shirt. I’ll fess up, my motive is if I look skinny in it. That’s really the main factor. Comfort and does it look good. From there I don’t care if it’s Holy Cross, Georgetown, UVa, Duke, UNC, Stanford, USC, or Yale. Another thing you may want to remember while you have your Princeton knickers in a knot, people donate clothing that is then sold at Goodwill, etc. People that are watching their budget, find a great deal of team/school logo items for very inexpensive prices. You have no idea what their motives are, and frankly it’s none of your business.</p>
<p>Three people walk down the street. Person 1 is wearing a Harvard t-shirt. He went there. Person 2 is wearing a Harvard t-shirt. He really liked Harvard when he visited, but he didn’t get in, bummer, but he’s happy where he is and has friends at Harvard. Person 3 is wearing a Harvard t-shirt because he desperately wants everyone to believe he went to Harvard at which point they will judge him to be superior and bow down to him.</p>
<p>How do you tell the difference, nychomie?</p>
<p>
I’m sorry, but what are the ugly people of the world supposed to do? Every move we make in public, there we are, all ugly and stuff. If we try to mask our ugliness with a Princeton shirt, you call us tactless. We may be ugly, but can’t we still wear a Princeton apparel piece? I mean, are we not human? If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?</p>
<p>blankmind, the lady doth protest too much, methinks. :D</p>
<p>(Yes, I know the OP is a guy. But the quote is the quote.)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>“Tacky” is what I think the OP is implying here, not “tactless”. I’m hoping that the OP wasn’t an English major. </p>
<p>The schools don’t care, one way or another. The more people who buy their shirts and/or wear them in public, the better. It’s revenue and free advertising.</p>
<p>I have a leftover Obama tee shirt that I sometimes wear. I have not run into anyone who thought it was my name. They seem to understand that tee shirts represent things other than identity.</p>
<p>“… who graduated from top undergrad/top law schools who can’t match a noun to a verb.”</p>
<p>I is resenting the infiltration of this accusement!!!</p>
<p>Don’t worry NewHope, there are lots of them who are able to string a few words together. I like that word “accusement.”</p>
<p>" I like that word ‘accusement.’ "</p>
<p>Thanks. It was a last moment upgrade!</p>