Happiness is not only in clothes

During the recent natural disasters, when people were busy collecting clothes and necessities to send to people in flood-affected areas, a small story made many people laugh but then ponder for a long time: the items sent for men were too little, while the items for women were... too much.

Appearance - the "distorted mirror" of self-esteem

The story of men's and women's clothing is an eternal story. Many women have a few wardrobes but still feel "nothing to wear", while men sometimes only need a few shirts, a few pairs of trousers, and a few T-shirts to last for four seasons. Women are called "the fair sex", and the gentle reminder "eat for yourself, dress for others" has long made women's fashion always in a state of... overload. There are women who are annoyed by even a small wrinkle on their shirt, because in their heads there is always the prejudice that they have to "dress well for their husband", or at least to make the man beside them "proud".

A group of young volunteers in Ho Chi Minh City participated in sorting goods to support people in flood-affected areas. Photo: HONG AN

However, the story of clothing today has gone beyond those old prejudices. In the world of social networks, where everything is highlighted by sparkling camera angles, the pressure to dress up is no longer the "privilege" of women.

Taking a look around social networks, one can easily come across personal pages filled with branded goods, supercars, and luxurious vacations, where each photo is “cared for” like an advertisement. Gen Z calls it “luxury”, a luxurious lifestyle that covers everything in the golden color of prosperity. However, how luxurious it is is unclear, because behind that layer of glitz, many “exposure” stories appear: borrowed branded goods, fake goods shown off as real goods, clothes and accessories worth… a year’s salary but only used to take a photo and then put in the closet.

A photo with many likes may bring happiness for a moment. But a designer bag worth a month’s salary can make people “tighten their belts” for months later. The question is: where does true happiness lie? In the moment of admiration on social media, or in real life - where you have to weigh every penny spent?

The explosion of social media has unintentionally created a race without a finish line. Because people only see the best version of each other, the feeling of “losing to them” is always present. No one posts about their tired days, their unpaid salaries, or the times they bought fake goods… but they focus on showing off their best outfits, their most polished faces, and their most brightly lit trips.

Young people have since grown up with the feeling of having to constantly renew themselves. Not only renewing the inside - knowledge, skills, but also changing the outside: hairstyle, shoes, accessories, style, wardrobe... continuously. A day without "taking care of your image" is a day feeling like you're... falling behind. Sayings like "If you don't dress nicely, who will notice?", "Going to an event and wearing the same clothes is... embarrassing" or "Posting a picture of a shirt you've worn once is so bad"... sound like a joke but are painfully true.

And young people also bring that mentality to family life, an outfit just for taking pictures, worn only once and then hung up in the closet. A pair of shoes bought because it’s trendy but after a few days of wearing them your feet hurt. A bag bought on installments just to check in. When the cycle of buy - wear - get bored - throw away becomes so short as just a few weeks, the consequences are not just on the wallet.

Contentment

In Vietnam, hundreds of thousands of tons of fashion waste are recorded each year, mostly from cheap, low-quality clothes or items that are “no longer fashionable”. The pressure to dress up, therefore, not only strangles young people’s finances but also silently damages the environment.

When we put the two stories side by side, one side is about young people struggling with the pressure to dress up, the other side is about flood victims receiving relief clothes in the paradox of too much women's clothing, we can see: perhaps fashion is becoming a vortex bigger than itself.

Happiness does not come from how many items you have in your closet, nor from the designer bag that makes your hand shake when paying. Happiness lies in the fit, between yourself and life, between real needs and economic ability, between respecting yourself and not chasing after the eyes of others. A suitable outfit can make you confident. But, sustainable confidence only comes when you know who you are, what you need, and where the boundaries are so as not to turn beauty into a burden.

Dressing up is not bad, and beautifying is not wrong. But when beautifying becomes a pressure, when a picture is more beautiful than real life, when a fashion item becomes a measure of human value, that is when we need to stop and look deeper into what is called happiness.

True happiness is when you don’t have to worry about monthly installment payments, don’t have to worry about being “judged” because of the same outfit, don’t have to be embarrassed because you’re wearing the same shirt for 3 years but it still suits you. Happiness is when you know enough, are simple enough to be comfortable, understand yourself enough to not follow the crowd, and mature enough to realize that what makes a person truly valuable is not expensive clothes, fancy branded bags, but lies in a self-controlled attitude and a peaceful life.

Many times and on many forums, psychological experts have pointed out that young people can absolutely live beautifully in their own way: wear clothes that are appropriate for the situation, prioritize quality over quantity, choose a sustainable lifestyle, respect themselves, and not let their wallets and the earth "suffer" from invisible races... However, the percentage of young people who reach this is still too small compared to the majority, the difference is like the issue of men's and women's clothing sent for relief.

HONG DUONG

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/hanh-phuc-khong-chi-o-tam-ao-post826207.html