Thursday 10th March
Today I help a fellow student gain primary research for her project. She is looking at racism and how this is a problem that strives from the clothing particular cultures wear. From personal experience of being targeted by a middle aged white man on the way home from college is what encourages her to make a statement about it.
Therefore, in order to help her gain knowledge from other perspectives, she ask myself as well as a number of to her students to wear the hijaab around the college grounds for a short amount of time and document how it headdress made us feel.
Personally it had no impact on my safety, by either making me feel safer or in danger, but it made me feel distant form the surrounding, like almost a blanket covering me. It was warm and comforting to wear. Seeing myself wearing it in reflections didn’t make me feel any different in myself- less or more attractive. However, I felt that people tend to watch you, especially groups of people- predominantly the Asian culture. Being a white British female this could be something that would potentially make me feel weary about my surroundings.
From doing this I feel that all cultures need to understand why different garments are worn. Social media and news casts from around the world have driven a development in stereotypical judgement, which needs to be dealt with fast and this is causing segregation within our proud multicultural country.
As a result of doing this, I would like to collaborate with my fellow students in the same way that Zen has to gain primary research. I will do this by asking about the opinion of dairy farms, what do they instantly think about when that picture the farming industry. This will enable me to gain the views of others and work in a variety of ways. This will improve my development as it may generate new ideas for the direction of my work.
Olivia Kay Rigby 