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Comment by stronglikedan | Hacker News Reader

> Don't dress like a tourist.

One of these things is not like the others! I think better advice to the advisor would be to not judge people for how they are dressed.

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> I think better advice to the advisor would be to not judge people for how they are dressed.

This would be strange advice, because you clearly would judge someone going to a high-end restaurant in a bathing suit, to a funeral in nothing but underpants or to a wedding wearing a SS uniform. These are ridiculous examples, of course, but they appear so ridiculous because one of the fabrics of any society is that on certain occasions, you should try to tune down your individuality as best as possible and try to blend in with others. In my opinion, visiting a foreign country as a guest is one of these occasions.

IDK, I feel like it's a lack of respect for the culture you're going to to not try to respect the dress code of the place you are in. In France, Americans are usually the worst offenders, wearing sweatpants and pool shorts in public.

Reversing that argument, you'd probably feel that French tourists wearing monokinis (or kids not having a full on bathsuit) on the beach in the US don't respect your culture, even though that's perfectly acceptable back home.

> you'd probably feel

Actually, I'm purely merit based in my judgments. You can wear a leaf on a string and water wings for all I care. Then again, I also don't much care what prejudiced people think of me. I just go about my business feeling sorry for them.

I feel like one of the nice things about the US, at least the urban areas, is you can present yourself however you'd like. There is no dress code. This may be why Americans sometimes fail to present themselves properly in other countries - we can get away with virtually anything here. Though I may be biased to the West Coast.

Well, it’s sort of conservative, right? You can present any way you like so long as you’re not topless, for instance.

Usually the weird rules we have for ourselves are never visible to us so I’d be somewhat hesitant to make the claim of being open to things.

In fact, if I think about it, you’d probably be stared at and feel like a spectacle and probably unwelcome with a toga, a kilt, or a lungi (even the formal variant). I don’t even think you could wear the top end of some of those clothing varieties and go to many places in SF (generally a downmarket place for clothes).

If someone wears a kilt or a toga, people here might say to their friend "hey, that person is wearing a kilt/toga". That's about the extent of it. I see people wearing such things semi-frequently and think very little of it. Same with burkas, bathing suits, pretty much everything except "nudity", but even that is acceptable at large events in SF.

This is one of those things you've got to do to experience, mate. I don't know what to tell you. I live in SF and have lived in a few places in the world.

The other guy put it really well. It will increase the friction you experience.

The gamut might be wider but "however you'd like" is a bit of a stretch. Wearing traditional Arabian dress -- for men or women -- would almost certainly increase the amount of friction you experience in a day. Also, a frivolous example; women are pretty rarely topless on mainstream beaches even in CA.

The issue is that pickpockets and others looking to target more "naive" tourists will be less likely to target you if you're dressed less like a tourist.

Good luck convincing a town of people to not recognize a tourist by their clothing. What does that even mean anyway?

It's not about being recognized as a tourist. It's about judging people by their actions, instead of how they look. All the other things mentioned are actions that could be considered rude or abrasive. Someone should not have to dress like you for you to treat them well, for that is the fault of the prejudiced.

While ultimately true, the problem is that you can't control how other people think or judge, but you can control what you wear.

Might be more pragmatic to not dress like a tourist rather than to convert the entire population to your philosophy about not ever judging by appearance.

I'll also add that the reason that you wouldn't want to dress like a tourist is to mislead locals about what you actually are, which is a tourist. Judging you substantively would mean judging you as one of the tourists that makes them want to leave the town they grew up in.

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