It started out as people wearing yoga pants, which cost money. I don't think it was clear at least not to me anyways, that you were talking about sports themselves but rather it seemed as though you were talking about what people typically wear when doing yoga. and [MENTION=4]cafe[/MENTION]'s argument was that people where she lived were too poor to worry about owning yoga pants. not about doing yoga it's self
[MENTION=4]cafe[/MENTION] is this true? correct me if I'm wrong.
I don't know much about yoga so I don't know if the clothing matters for the yoga as a sport. This one was specifically about biking where it does matter.
Where I am, middle class people and up wear specialized clothes for sports. Riding a bicycle can be cheap, but the specialized clothes often are not: more than that they aren't necessary. Unnecessary expenses are for people with extra money. In the summer, you can wear a pair of shorts and a tee shirt you spent less than a dollar on from a thrift shop and be fine riding a bike. Cold weather sporting gear can be even more expensive.
Try riding for long hours in those clothes. You will then see the difference between specialized sporting gear and between a pair of jeans. It matters
(Though maybe you can make a new sport out of not caring if shit hurts... sure, why not)
(...)
But anyway, my point is that most people do make judgements about us based on how we look and to some degree, those judgements are accurate. I'm sure there are some people who do not make those judgements, but I suspect that even when we think we don't we just aren't doing it consciously. I'm fairly conscious of it because I've been followed around stores like a thief based on how I looked, even though the last time I shop-lifted I was four years old. I've been told by a dentist that he didn't give a shit about me and that I was nothing when I complained about how he was treating my daughter because we were on Medicaid (obviously poor).
Learning that people are like that was not a pleasant revelation to me, but it was pretty undeniable. I've done what I could to mitigate the negative effects of that kind of thing since I figured it out. Being aware of it gives you a little control over it but no one can completely overcome it. If Oprah can't buy a pricey bag without being talked down to, I hardly think the rest of us are exempt.
If you feel the bad effects of superficial judgment then why were we even arguing here???
All I'm talking about is exactly that, that it's ridiculous to make certain kinds of further assumptions about people based on appearance. The examples you give about shoplifting and that dentist, are really terrible.
...Btw you mentioned I could guess a lot about you based on your appearance, well I'm not so sure, because I personally don't go beyond very basic stuff. I have my reasons for not doing so. One of them is this principle of not doing so. It would often turn out wrong, the assumption. And I just in general hate the idea. I'm going to bring personality theory into it, maybe it's me being Soc-last instinct
But really, it just strikes me in this way, it's all meaningless to me and even worse than that. As I said above.
But I am not going to argue it further. Life is too damn short and there are much funner things to do. And virtually anything else I chose to do with my time would be more useful.
It's not about arguing, it's about understanding the viewpoint of the other party. But sure, if you don't care to try and see what I meant, then don't.
No, I understood perfectly. You were talking about fashion, because wearing spandex to ride a bike IS fashion. It's not about sports, because plenty of people can and do ride a bike without wearing spandex. That's what makes it fashion, and that's what makes it a luxury that some people can have and some cannot.
Now I'm going to take a cue from Cafe and bow out rather than continue what's become a fruitless exchange.
No I was not talking about fashion. Sports clothes are not simply fashion, they make doing the sport easier/more comfortable/more doable if you are into the sport to do it more than on a casual level e.g. if you're going by bike to the shop that's half a mile away, that's a casual use of a bike. In some cases, it's just more comfortable to wear the right clothing for the right sport, and in some cases it actually has more practical consequences if you don't wear the right clothing. E.g. if you go out to do a 1-hour run in cold weather and you only wear a random cotton T-shirt and on top of that some random pullover, you might catch a really nice (read nasty) cold. It's certainly more likely because of how the sweat doesn't get through the cotton T-shirt. A running specific T-shirt will solve that issue.
My specific point here (not the main point, just leads up to it); Do please understand that if you don't know why people wear something e.g. for sports then don't try to make assumptions without first learning about the specific cause. Because you will go really wrong, like with this fashion example.
OK well, if that still didn't make my position clear enough then sure, it's fruitless to try and get my viewpoint across.
