Women always pay attention to their appearance, looks, clothes, make-up, and language, verbal and non-verbal. In their everyday life, they face decisions of what to wear in order to look fantastic; and this choice is very important for them. The self-presentation of every woman includes her clothes and manner of speaking and behavior. Women typically want to impress, intrigue, uncharm, attract, astonish, and surprise, that is, they always try to hide their defects and show their strong sides. Every decision of women about clothes and make-up remains a mystery for men. For women, clothes are not simply things to wear but their mood, lifestyle, and their way to express themselves.
First of all, looking at the styles of clothes for women, it is possible to reveal their social status, moral values, and their life priorities. Nobody denies the fact that fashion for women is much more than haute couture and exclusive and expensive clothes. Fashion is the ability to pick the right style and to put on the clothes that bring pleasure to the woman and people around. Although fashion creates similar images and styles, women always remain different as their physical appearance adds diversity to any clothes.
Women’s behavior can be explained with the help of three concepts such as self-presentation, impression management, and self-monitoring. Women are like the actresses that have well-prepared performances for all situations. Self-presentation is the creation of the first impression; self-management is the ability to use the advantages of physical appearance; and self-monitoring is the results received after impression.
Clothes do not always show everything about women, as sometimes clothes are the way for women to escape, to hide, to defend, etc. Every piece of clothes represents some event in woman’s life. For example, for a conference or an official meeting, the woman wears official, strict suits; for a ball, she wears a luxurious long gown; for a walk, she wears sporty suits; for disco, she may put on casual style of clothes, etc. The choice of clothes depends on the mood, weather, occasion, and on how formal the event is.
Even in 1980s, choices of clothes and fashion were very important for women. They were aware of fashion and the importance of being beautiful and unusual. Louisa Alcott was the first who presented fashion as the way of changing vision of any woman. This is the example of self-presentation by women. Indeed, women want to be noticed by many people, that is why they try to be bright and fashionable. To my mind, for them, it is like the physical and psychological need like food and water.
Not without reason, Goffman names people actors and their life as performance. It is exactly about women as they always prepare to any situation, think over it thoroughly, and of course imagine it. They want to impress the people that surround them. Women are role-playing individuals and their interaction is focused on presenting oneself and establishing relationships with other people. They always plan their image and then put it in practice, leaving unforgettable memories and impressions.
Impression management is the process of controlling of impressions that other form about an individual. This process is typical for women as they always remember everything positive and negative about themselves. Self-presentation and impression management are two interrelated and interdependent processes.
The first impression is formed within five minutes of interaction, verbal or non-verbal. The person creates a rapid and informative picture of another person. It was proved that 85 percent of impressions are created with the help of clothes, hairstyle, and body type. Clothing is the most important factor for impression formation.
Make-Up and Hair
The image of woman is not only her successfully picked dress; it is also her style of hair. Brown, blonde, black, red colors and their shades of hair add additional information about a woman. For example, a woman with dark brown hair in a classical style reminds Cleopatra because of a very mysterious look. Straight hair can be the feature of severity. The woman with her hair cut short looks fashionable and playful. The woman with wild, frosted blond hair attracts attention, intrigues, and provokes desire to speak with her.
Make-up also helps reveal something new about the woman. For example, the woman with smooth and pale facial make-up looks cold and haughty. The woman with a black line under each eye looks mysterious. In everyday life, some women try not to put on too bright make-up. Their make-up is made brighter and more colorful only for special occasions and parties.
Body Language
Body language is also one of the factors that can tell us about women. Woman’s speech is often very vivid and expressive. She tends to use many hand gestures that clarify her verbal message. Her face expression and voice inflections show her attitude and her emotions to the information which she tells. Woman is normally more emotional and expressive than man is. She changes her intonation and makes it louder or lower according to the theme of conversation. She also uses body movement and eye contact in order to support her speech and strengthen the audience’s attention and understanding of speech.
Women are more responsible than men, so if they know that they will communicate with the unknown people, they will always prepare; but during the conversation, they will sound natural and spontaneous. They make emphatic gestures and smile even when they do not like their communicators. They can move also their body in a controlled and purposeful manner to support and reinforce what they say and to relieve physical tension that may appear between the unknown people.
Without doubt, women are emotional and that is why they are not afraid to show their emotions and let their feelings come through. The body language of women can tell many things about them. For, example women pretend to look busy when they lie. Women’s gestures are light and flexible and they smile frequently but not very long. Women always bend towards the speaker when the atmosphere is positive and friendly. If the atmosphere is negative, they escape eye contact. Women look directly when the speaker is interesting for them, but they can show their shyness by bending their head.
During conversation, women can touch the arms or shoulders of the communicator softly only if they like the person or feel physical closeness to him/her. Women make compliments very rarely and do not joke. Women are sensitive, that is why they feel hurt because of rudeness and impoliteness. Rude and impolite words change their facial and body expressions immediately.
Without doubt, the body is a fundamental part of human communication. It was proved that even non-emotional hand gestures are automatically linked with what is being spoken. Emotional information is conveyed through body (facial expressions, hand gestures, body movements, etc.). Body language is a powerful force that shows how people automatically perceive each other and their emotional, social, and cognitive signals.
As we have already understood, successfully picked clothes, hairstyle, and language create the first impression about anybody, man or woman. Women always have to make a decision about their appearance and, very often, if they pick something that is unsuitable for them, they can be misunderstood and create the wrong impression.
One can distinguish the different points of view about women. According to Deborah Tannen, women are marked and men are unmarked. Why are women marked? They are marked because they differ from men. Women always make decisions about clothing, make-up, hair, and accessories and these decisions are meaningful. As to men, they do not pay so much attention to their appearance as women do – that is why men are considered unmarked.
Apparently, Deborah Tannen supports the thought that women cannot be unmarked. Tannen explored that women can change anything in their case and they will always be marked. They cannot be unmarked like men. The first impression that people get when they meet a woman is usually based on their appearance, behavior, and body language.
Men do not have the options of using make-up, fixing hair in different styles, or dressing in a traditional or provocative way – that is why they are unmarked. At present time, there is the tendency among men to dress brightly and fix hair extraordinarily, but these changes simply differ them from others and do not make them marked.
Self-presentation of a woman includes her features of character, the way she conveys certain characteristics about their personality. Women have always been treated differently because of how they appear in the general public and their looks. Personal attractiveness is defined by the way women dress, the way they act, the way they carry themselves, and even the things that are impossible to change (e.g., body size and shape, social status, wealth, race, etc.).
What is the detector of human beauty? The brain is a beauty detector that can judge someone’s appeal. Indeed, at present time, the society judges people by their physical appearance, that is why we face the phenomenon of discrimination. In most cases, women suffer from discrimination, that is why, in my opinion, clothes and make-up are the ways to avoid mocking at physical defects and discrimination.
In conclusion, it is necessary to mention that appearance plays an important role in the life of woman, as it is a significant aspect of communication. There are several factors in the appearance of a woman that define her attractiveness: longer hair, make-up, larger and rounder eyes, overall grooming, shapely figure, flat stomach, straight posture, fitted clothes, friendly, happy, babyish face, etc.
The first impression is formed within the five minutes of interaction, verbal or non-verbal one. The first impression depends on the clothes, haircut, and body language.
Women often want to impress, intrigue, charm, attract, astonish, and surprise. Therefore, they may try to hide their defects and show their strong sides. Every decision of women about clothes and make-up remains a mystery for men. For women, clothes are not simply things to wear but their mood, lifestyle, and their way to express themselves.
Women’s behavior can be explained with the help of three concepts: self-presentation, impression management, and self-monitoring. Self-presentation is the creation of the first impression. Self-management is the ability to use advantages of physical appearance. Self-monitoring is the results received after impression. Women are like the actresses that have well-prepared performances for all situations.