Packaging

Marketing and packaging go hand in hand. We are conditioned to think pink for girls and blue for boys, bright colors for kids, eye-catching pop cans, soft tones for cosmetics, etc.  We are the ones who get branded by brands. We locate them easily and know just what we’re getting.

We see this particularly with dress. We have expectations about what a celebrity should wear on stage, and we get what we expect. Uniforms do the same thing. When we see a young, black man in a hoodie, what is our first thought? Or when we see a woman dressed in tight, revealing clothing, what is our first thought?

Cultural stereotypes, ignorance and fear reinforce our beliefs that what people wear “packages” them so we can tell just who they are. But people, no matter the way they appear to “package” themselves, are not products and not predictable and easy to pin down.  Even when they themselves think they are living a stereotype, they are denying their own humanness. Human packages always hold surprises inside.