Camo and Yoga Pants

My very beautiful daughter recently got into a very interesting discussion on Facebook that involved the way people dress. Now us normal people, normal being a realitive term, would think that there are normal and acceptable ways to dress. Camo jacket with tight yoga pants and combat boots might not be acceptable in most area of society but is very popular in such places as....well West Virginia. Now I have nothing against West Virginia. This state is beautiful and has some of the most wonderful people. But you have to admit that you have been at the grocery and seen someone come in wearing something that you wouldnt be caught dead in. Well this would be one of those days for my daughter.
Now we all have to admit we have all gone into Walmart and seen pictures like this:

 We all have had the urge to say..."lady! What the he**. I have children in this store." But we just turn and go down a different row and tell our children not to stare. You might even have the sense to use this as a teachable moment for your children. They don't have enough money to buy clothes that fit or this is not a good place to wear your bathing suit. But either way you yourself go feeling scared and maybe even violated.
We all have our stories or even the event when we ourselves have passed a mirror and thought; "oh my gosh! Who dressed me this morning?" But what makes us as a human race say..."no, stop the freak show!" Whose reality are we suppose to be living in? Who tells us that two inches of make-up is wrong or that hats are no long "in style". Why is that person in that picture so wrong? 
Now the reason my daughter got into the heated discussion was just for that same question.  Why is Camo, yoga pants and combat boots so bad?  Obviously it wasn't wrong for them to wear it, why is it so bad for us to see it? One persons vogue is someone elses nonsense. Some persons reality is another person's fantasy.
This reverts back to the parent that screams: YOU are not going out in that!

But what if your parents looked like this:



And you wanted to look like this?

Takes on a whole new meaning when all you want to be is what the world thinks is normal and your parents idea of normal.
We as a people look at the world through what we see as normal or what we think of as reality.
My reality is jeans and a t-shirt. My neighbor's reality is a jean skirt and t-shirt. The lady at the grocery store thinks that putting a cap on her head (called a headcovering) is her reality but other woman in the same town consider that oppressive. Women that cover themselves from head to foot are wrong because we don't understand their religion, but a woman that roller skates in a bikini is considered offensive. Each woman listed above has their own reality. Each person looking at them only see's a fantasy because they can't see past their own reality. Who calls out reality and who calls out fantasy. That couple in the goth picture see their daughter conforming to someone elses reality when they themselves have conformed to someone else's reality. In the end we are all conforming to someone else's reality.
So you ask...what if I just want to be normal....blend in...not be seen. Well I say to that...impossible.
We are never invisible. We will always stick out somewhere. The country girl doesn't do well in a night-club, but you couldn't put the city girl in a barn and expect her to know how to clean out the horses stall. One girls "comfortable" is another girls "I don't think so!"
So what do you do? Well I say... Just be you! If you want to wear Camo jackets and yoga pants with combat boots, don't let anyone stop you. If you want to go to Walmart in short shorts with your cheekies hanging out....well I won't be stopping you...but don't be surprised if you don't see a picture of yourself on the internet. Where your ten-gallon hat with pride. Put that eyeliner on as heavy as you can and step into your reality.  Its all in how you see it.