| | | I would not call it a situation that warrants a deduction, but since you ask .....
here are some simple-minded thoughts in a nutshell. They are not comprehensive.
1. As a nation we have been conditioned to look outside ourselves and find fault. In academia and the competitive business world it shows up as "is he any good? I doubt it. What has he done? Show me his accomplishments!". With the exception of DJT and a few cousins, most people would find it difficult to say "look at me! look at me! I am great!" ....... and as a result, they use the "look at him --- he's no good!" approach to making themselves look better or feel good. It really does not work, but people seem to collectively feel better when they do it. A perverse entertainment. Maybe this is a virtuous Victorian value. I truly do not know it's origin.
2. Some people/many people attempt to make themselves look good and/or attract attention in various ways in this increasingly narcissistic society. Our parents did not have to deal with this problem as much as we have to. Think of Facebook, Twitter and smartphones. Dressing to attract attention, wearing a mohawk or tattoos, shameless advertising, looking cool .... etc .... are all examples of individual needs to varying degrees. Good? Bad? Who is to say? There is always a residual effect on the individual, and it is *never* positive in the long run.
All I can say is that I would have worn much simpler clothes, were I in her place, because this is how I dress. But then, she and I have had different upbringings and different pressures in life. It is likely that if I have had to have every thought and every experience she has been fortunate or unfortunate enough to have had in life I would have dressed exactly like her. Such thinking takes the bite out of easy criticism.
Once, when I was young, the Provost of a Big Ten University beamed when I said something nice about his beautiful, white starched and pressed shirt and tie as we were leaving gym. He told me that he had a couple dozen such shirts. Because my mind is always mischievous I marvelled aloud at how much wearing a tie must have helped him in his career ........ because of how a smart, tight collar cuts off the blood supply to the brain, and then your eyes bulge and you start to look really sharp and alert wherever you go, and thus get promoted rapidly. I was teasing but have no idea how he interpreted it ..... because people at these levels sometimes firmly believe in their own BS.
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