Clothing Is Communication

Sometimes when you go to the gym, you get gobsmacked by some person doing a weird, potentially very dangerous version of an exercise, by some absolute unit of a dude, or by watching a woman execute a series of pull-ups my upper body dreams of one day accomplishing. Even at 5:00am in the morning, the people watching is entertaining, inspiring, weird and sometimes, unpleasant.

Last Thursday, was one of those “unpleasant” days. Here’s what went down…

I was on an elliptical machine, working up a sweat while mindlessly stepping and swinging, when this guy walks past me and I notice what’s written on the back of his shirt. In giant text, it reads, “NO FACE, NO CASE,” with a picture of an automatic weapon separating the two phrases.

After letting that sink in for a moment, I took to be the meaning of this t-shirt to be that so long as you fire your automatic weapon into someone’s face (obviously killing them), they can’t file a complaint or testify against you. It seemed to be an homage to gun culture, white privilege, and vigilanteism.

That’s what his shirt communicated to me. Because clothing is communication. Even clothes without violent, pithy sayings on them are communication. Our clothing doesn’t need to contain words to communicate who we are. How we choose to clothe ourselves is a conversation with the world.

For example, think of uniforms. Whether baseball uniforms or police officer blues. To the viewer, we understand immediately that this person belongs to a particular group, organization or activity. Uniforms tell the world, “We are together, this is who we are.”

The clothes you choose to dress yourself in are items that you’ve theoretically chosen for comfort, style, situation, color, or any other number of reasons. Underlying all of those choices is the fact that you like it and it represents who you are.

Keeping that in mind, let’s go back to the gentleman at the gym.

After dismounting the elliptical and making my way to the weight machines, I began working on the leg press machine. During a momentary break between sets, I looked up to see t-shirt guy with two friends, both of whom are wearing the same NO FACE, NO CASE t-shirt.

Now it appears that wearing that particular t-shirt to the gym is a coordinated effort. They had to have planned it, and so, what is the point they are trying to make? What exactly are they communicating to the rest of us gym-goers? Is it that they are fearsome? That we, i.e. the rest of the world, should be afraid of these semi-pumped white men? And yes, I think it is important to note that all three were white.

When recounting this story to my husband, he said, “Imagine if it were three women wearing those shirts, or three Black men…? He’s exactly correct. The particular messaging being communicated by this crew of white men and their Kyle Rittenhouse-ian t-shirts, could only have been delivered by this group, and their expansive privilege.

Again, as always, clothing is a communication. A man wearing a tie tells the world that he’s going about serious business. A woman wearing a sports bra and leggings tells us that she is on her way to, or from, some sort of physical fitness activity. Clothing is utilitarian, yes, and within that usefulness, we’ve found millions of ways to personalize our clothes to suit our specific taste. No matter our beliefs, politics, or affiliations, the items we choose to attire ourselves with is a conversation with the world. These men, in their uniform-like t-shirts,  delivered a unified, aggressive message of violence and contempt. I and the other gym-goers received it loud and clear.

LB Adams is the CEO of Practical Dramatics, LLC. She is a communication & public speaking coach, author and keynote speaker.