To be or Not to be Marked?

If someone is labeled as 'marked', the term does not automatically strike them with a pleasant and positive connotation. However it makes you think, why is this so? What does that truly mean?

In Deborah Tannen's There is no Unmarked Woman, she dives deeper into an idea of women being marked vs. unmarked, and how women are not given the choice and simply have to accept the idea that they will always be judged for their appearance. Though Tannen wrote this piece in 1993, this idea is perhaps even more relevant today. Especially in schools, the stereotypes placed on students simply based on their appearance and how they present themselves have gotten much more judgmental and harmful.

A discussion we had in class was based around what unmarked vs. marked looks like at Troy High. Girls, as Tannen wrote about, are going to be marked no matter what they're wearing and they will be judged. We in class discussed how brand names, for example, can mark a person, and how people who care about labels or wear more expensive brands are marked as caring too much, while those who aren't are marked as not caring enough and judged for that. This idea puts extra stress on students worrying about how they are going to get 'marked' everyday, knowing they don't have a choice, like being stressed about school work isn't enough.

While being marked is something almost everybody will be at some point, it isn't something to stress over. We should present ourselves how we want and not in response to others.