This is just absolutely false.
Like, if you wanna wear something for the terminal value of “I like it”, then be my guest. If you think you look good when you wear it, and that’s all you care about, then I guess you can have your happiness.
But most people present themselves in a way designed to appeal to other people. Yes, from the subjective point of view of the individual, Lady Gaga singing Bad Romance has equal aesthetic value to autistic screeching. But we can say with a fair degree of certainty that most people will prefer one to the other - even if Lady Gaga just isn’t feeling it that night, while our autist hero is having the time of his life.
Similarly, how we dress ourselves is a form of communication and self expression - and how well we articulate ourselves in this medium can create beauty or ugliness. Again, yes, these are subjective terms - but within a given culture, we can find large agreement on what is one and what is another.
The problem with our hero’s fashion choices is that - similar to autistic screeching - they are made without consideration for the cultural context in which they are made, and are not updated based on the realities of the world around him. He isn’t trying to look like an aesthetically pleasing representation of some kind of person in his own culture - for example, a businessman, a carpenter, a skater, etc. He is trying to look like a character from Blade. Which would be a bit like walking into a job interview in France and speaking to everyone in Japanese. Except that this still isnt the full picture, because our hero doesnt even execute looking like a Blade character well. Our Japanese-speaking interviewee might still charm his interviewers with enough confidence (and hopefully a translator). But out hero doesn’t actually know Japanese. He just watched enough subbed anime to be able to vaguely emulate some sounds of Japanese, and is just talking gibberish at his interviewers. Similarly, he pairs his Blade-style trenchcoat with a dirty wrinked shirt, a pair of oversized blue jeans, a scraggly neckbeard, and a complexion that indicates more exposure to cheeto dust than sunlight.
It is quite obvious that our conceptions of beauty and ugliness exist as proxies for “good for genetic fitness” and “bad for genetic fitness”. Of course, these are filtered through the lense of culture and personal experience. But this is why we generally find spiders and poop to be ugly, while we find ripe fruit, a stream burbling in a verdant valley, and the smooth skin on a younger person’s face to be beautiful.
Our hero’s fashion sense is ugly because the message it sends is that this individual will be bad for the genetic fitness of others who may interact with them.
Someone with good fashion sense can make a neckbeard trenchcoat work, because they know how to use it to make a good-looking outfit, and then they wear that outfit at a culturally appropriate time - like at a comic con. This individual would also be able to dress appropriately for a job interview or a night out with friends, and all of these things would make them an attractive individual since they indicate that the individual will be good for others’ fitness. This would be similar to an individual who is fluent in both French and Japanese, who speaks French in his job interview in Paris and Japanese on his vacation to Tokyo.
Our hero, on the other hand, is ugly because their fashion choices indicate, at best, a general lack of awareness in what is culturally appropriate and attractive, which implies that they will demonstrate this lack of acuity in other situations. Eg, if you befriend this person, they might start talking about the hentai they like at a dinner party you invite them to; start rambling about hypergamy during a business meeting with a client; or (due to the former two) have no friends or job, and rely on you as a partner to be both their financial patron and emotional dumping ground. At worst, it indicates an active hostility towards their society and others in it (ie, school shooter vibes).
In conclusion, if wearing a neckbeard trenchcoat really truly is all you require to be happy, then sure. Go for it. But if you value other things which most people need for happiness, like the financial ability to support themselves, a feeling of warmth when introducing themselves to strangers, a feeling of general acceptance in their community, a robust social support network, and a romantic partner - then you should care about what other people generally consider attractive.
sad_detective_man@leminal.space 2 days ago
fr maybe neckbeards would have grown up to be less psycho if people just let them dress bad and be weird about sonic
Star@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 days ago
Amen!