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Confidence - Popular Beliefs

mensimageconsultant

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Originally Posted by maleofglory
I also disagree. Being well dressed is not going to bring about success in your job (or even land a job) as much as being a confident individual willing to take risks and make decisions. Assuming such individual is 'normally' dressed to some moderate standard, they will have MUCH more success over their life then a well dressed insecure individual.

How many people would agree?

"Much more" is a stretch, and it's USA-centric, but it is true to an extent. Yet the "brashness quotient" won't do much good in, for example, a low-level research job, while the beauty premium is believed to significantly sway in such a setting.

Also, with some women, brashness won't be a plus.

There doesn't appear to be any hard evidence linking it to lower fear of public speaking, the biggest fear according to many surveys and something which being dressed well does help.

As for the many men who are insecure... Telling them to be "confident" or accept a lower quality of life doesn't help.
 

mensimageconsultant

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As a follow-up to the claim that most men think they dress well, here is some old information about how high school boys rate themselves. It's safe to assume that not much has changed over the years and not much changes in becoming an adult.

Extremely well dressed 5.5%
Better than average 9.0%
About as well as average 84.6%
Poorer than average 1.0%
Very poorly dressed 0.0%
 

GQgeek

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Originally Posted by Fritz
That is not at all a safe assumption.

The numbers might not exactly match but I'd tend to agree that it probably is a fairly safe assumption. Men compare themselves to the average, not to the pick of the litter. Think about the underlying psychology.

I can't count the number of times i've seen men in their 20s complementing each other for a very average level of dress. Then they put on a suit (usually poorly fitting, cheaply made and/or black) or a stripey shirt and all of a sudden they think they're the best-dressed in town.

Part of me wants to recommend them to this site out of pity and remembering what it was like to think that Kenneth Coles were great shoes, but then I remember that by leaving the average to their ignorance, my skinny ass can be above average and more easily compete for the pick of the litter females :p

Believe me, the clothes help, but so does the confidence that goes along with knowing you look good.

I propose a new slogan for the forum:
StyleForum: helping men get better ***** since 2002!
 

j

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A little crude, but maybe we can use it for our Hustler feature.
 

Fritz

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The numbers might not exactly match but I'd tend to agree that it probably is a fairly safe assumption. Men compare themselves to the average, not to the pick of the litter. Think about the underlying psychology.

My objection was more to the method rather than the numbers: I wouldn't want to base my decisions on a poll among HSers from way back. I agree that I find the numbers plausible for contemporary adult males, but that's just guesswork. People should be more careful when statistics are used to "prove" some argument, that's a bit of a pet peeve of mine.

I propose a new slogan for the forum:
StyleForum: helping men get better ***** since 2002!

Can we get the free Appreciation back then? I mean, just for, like, umh, motivation?
 

mensimageconsultant

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The original objection wasn't stated well, but it is valid.

Digging further, here is better data, from Sears.

No Extreme Makeovers Necessary
The resounding majority of men polled (87 percent) say they are just fine, thank you, with their sense of style and don't think they need a style
makeover. However, some of their significant others don't necessarily agree
-- with nearly one out of four women (24 percent) wishing their man would get a visit from the fashion police.

Not Too Shabby
More than half of all men polled (55 percent) think that they dress fashionably, with 62 percent of women stating that their significant others have style, according to the survey conducted for the new Structure collection at Sears. However, 42 percent of male respondents felt they were lacking in the dapper department and nearly a third of all women (31 percent) felt their men weren't style savvy.


If you read between the lines (for example, the discrepency between "fashionable" men and men rated by partnered women as "having style), you'll see it suggests that dressing well helps a guy enter a relationship. (Anecdotally, that's true, most here believe.) If this company gains access to the raw data, you will hear more about the subject.
 

GQgeek

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Originally Posted by mensimageconsultant.com
More than half of all men polled (55 percent) think that they dress fashionably, with 62 percent of women stating that their significant others have style, according to the survey conducted for the new Structure collection at Sears.

Doesn't that make you cringe? J, we need a vomit emoticon.
 

mensimageconsultant

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It sounds like the poll questions weren't specific enough. Looking at the average man on the street, you see many slobs, but men at classier bars, for example, usually dress okay. (With fit and quality not good, but most observers don't notice that.) A sizable percentage of men is, by that definition, fashionable, but not on a regular basis.

Some of them do sabotage their confidence or self-regard by ordinarily looking bad and getting subpar treatment. But why they won't bother to present themselves effectively is a subject for later.
 

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