The Judger(S)

The Judger(s)

Isn’t it puzzling why people tend to judge people they don’t know more than people they do know?

Years back, my friends and I were hanging around in SM and we saw a girl, who looked like a teenager, walk past us in heels. Instantly, one of my friends stated “This isn’t a fashion show, girl.” Another added “And what are you going to get from wearing those heels?” I admit that I, too, have judged her for the critic and judger that I am. First, I judged her because of her wearing of the heels. I judged her for wearing heels on a normal occasion. For teenagers, to wear heels on a casual basis meant to put yourself out there and show everyone that you are, for lack of a better term, a stagy bitch. For me, it wasn’t just the thought of her wearing heels. Second, I judged her by her outfit. She was wearing a lousy combination of shirt and jeans. I wanted to say “You don’t just pair shirt and jeans with heels, at least not with that pattern of shirt and jeans. Don’t you have a sense of fashion at all?” And it wasn’t just that. She was like a mannequin from a thrift store. Her shirt and jeans were like hand-me-downs. Her heels weren’t even pretty.

Instantly, my friends and I judged her based on what she wore – her heels in particular. However maybe there was a reason to why she was wearing those clothes and those heels. Disregarding the assumption that it is what she usually wears, maybe she was just forced to dress like that. Maybe she didn’t plan on going to the mall and just got dragged there because her family had to stop by. Maybe she wore heels because her shoes were broken and, for some reason, there were heels in their car. Maybe she was on a dare, or something. We don’t really know. Nevertheless, we judged her.

Moving on to the present, I had to wear a certain kind of attire, including heels, for bonus points in my English class. As I dressed up for school that morning, I didn’t know what to feel – whether to be proud that I could carry that...