By Michelle Berger
Has anyone ever been to www.peopleofwalmart.com?
For those who haven”t, it”s a joke Web site featuring photos from security cameras and cell phones of Walmart shoppers across the United States and Canada, specifically, pictures of extremely eccentric and deviant customers.
Now, I am not a person who judges others based upon their physical appearance, it”s very juvenile to make an assumption about someone before meeting them, but I have to admit, some of the things I have seen on this Web site have completely stepped away from, free to express themselves, to just plain vulgarity.
A woman walking around in fish-net tank top without a bra, a man with dreadlocks so long they dragged across the floor and had gum, wrappers, bits of tissue and leaves clinging to it, a teenage girl wearing a skirt so short it was practically a belt and had absolutely no underwear on and a young woman walking down the aisles wearing nothing but a very tiny G-string bikini and according to the date and place on the security camera, in Oregon in December.
This is just to list a few archival photos presented on this Web site.
The truth remains that how we dress, stand, walk and groom ourselves does reveal quite a lot and is the basis for how people will interact with us; would you show up for a job interview wearing a pair of dirty, ripped jeans with mud-caked shoes and a sweat stained T-shirt?
How about with uncombed hair, no deodorant and unbrushed teeth?
I hope you all answered no, and why not? Because it is inappropriate and would make a bad impression.
Would you also go on a date without showering or putting on clean clothes?
What about wearing clothes that could fit a third grader to a family event? No and no, it”s far too indecent.
Now, I hear you all arguing “but running to the store to buy stuff isn”t a special event. Who cares how you look?”
Well, when you look like you just rolled out of bed with matted hair, wrinkled stained clothes and people can smell you from two aisles down, you know there”s a problem.
I got stuck standing behind a woman at check-out who was garbed in a sports-bra, a pair of sweatpants and smelled like she hadn”t bathed for a week. She proceeded to reach down her pants and give her backside a good scratching in front of everyone before releasing a hacking cough and handing the cashier her money with the same hand that had conquered the itch.
Is it really so hard to be decent when in public? The Victorian poet and playwright Oscar Wilde once said, “If you cannot create art, then try to be art.” When he said this, he wasn”t making an arrogant statement about the richness of clothing or physical beauty, he was referring to the way in which we carry and conduct ourselves; walking with dignity and confidence, having shame and modesty in our countenance, being intelligent in our speech and putting effort into our daily lives.
A person who has obviously fallen on hard times and does not have the access to clean, well-maintained garments or proper hygiene effects is one thing, but when it is obvious that a person has money in the bank and is simple strutting around like a red-hot mess for the sake of doing it is something totally different.
Personally, my biggest peeve are the teenagers I run into constantly in stores, diners, or simply walking down the street.
I once saw a girl who must have been no older than 12 wearing a pair of daisy dukes that gave her a very obscene wedgie and a tube top she had to continuously keep pulling up, I could not believe someone so young was dressing like a stripper and thinking she looked good.
The only thing she was attracting was disgust from all of us and maybe too much attention from sexual predators.
Also, why do people find it acceptable and fashionable to wear pajamas all day long in public places? Honestly, it gives the impression of laziness and complacency and I do not see why people find it so hard to take 30 seconds to throw on a pair of pants before running out the door.
Ladies and gentleman, I am not venting a general disgust for the human race. The point in all of this is to remind us all that we need to take care in our daily lives; in the words of Gene Kelly: “Dignity, always dignity.”
When Michelle Berger is not writing, she”s usually re-enacting famous fight scenes from Kung-Fu flicks. Reach her at mberger_om@yahoo.com.
