A Matter of Perception

I found this to be a particularly interesting image. On the left there is a picture of this man wearing his work clothes, very clean cut and professional. On the right is the same man in his casual clothes with two sleeves of tattoos up his arms. Just by changing what he is wearing he can fit into two classifications on different ends of the spectrum. People would look at him on the left and see a respectable, trustworthy man who they entrust with their health and possibly even their lives. But on the right people see a "thug" or "criminal" who is threatening or intimidating. Those opinions are formed by the classifications that society has constructed. For most people who would view these two images the ideologies about social class shape the way that person will view them.

It also brings to question why are these classifications in place. For one they are there because they bring about stability in society. It allows for a simple analysis. But how are they influenced? With the image shown above I believe it is heavily influenced by politics. It has been a long effort of the United States to decrease crime. With this long battle there has been an image formed of what a "criminal" should look like. On the other end of the spectrum there, even recently, has been a lot of attention around healthcare. Like Obama introducing universal healthcare. Thus it shapes that healthcare is important and being that doctors are the force behind healthcare they will be seen as important.

When I view this image I also fall into the trap of classifying each of the bodies that I see in those images. What I inherently did was essentialized his body down to a simple explanation of what he stands for. By doing this I stopped all my analysis of what he could be about or stand for and this is a problem.