Casual, Cousin, and Categorization

Academia: Nothing academic happened today, because I'm at the beach! We had quite a lightning storm last night, which knocked out power for about four hours, and today is still overcast and stormy. But the beach is the beach, and I'm happy to be here.

Sartorial: I'm pretty low-key at the beach fashion-wise, so you're seeing my first makeup-free (and shoe-free) blog entry today. Now you can see my TOMS tan on my feet too. We all walked down to the beach this morning, where my dad snapped these pictures. I also want to take a minute to introduce you to a special guest on Academia Sartorial, my cousin Wil:

Wil is going into ninth grade, and is representing an entirely new fashion dynamic on Academia Sartorial: teenage boy athletic style. I don't know many teenage boys, so this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Wil has informed me that his necklace is actually called a phiten and is supposed to enhance athletic performance through magic titanium molecules or something. I don't know. I duck whenever sports equipment of any kind comes my way.

Finally, some Friend Friday questions! This week's questions are about labeling, something I hadn't given much thought to until now.

1. As someone who writes/blogs about fashion, have you placed yourself into some sort of blogging category? I would call myself a personal style blogger generally, and an academic style blogger in particular.

2. What keeps you from or encourages you to label yourself as a certain kind of blogger? I always enjoy blogs that have a specific focus the most, so I try to maintain that in my own blog. For me, giving myself the label of "academic style blogger" helps me focus my writing, which I think makes it better. I have a clearer idea of what parts of my life to include in what I write, as well as what outfits to post. Blogging about my style and my job allows me to take the weekends off from blogging pretty easily as well, since I don't do academic work on Saturday or Sunday generally.

3. When picking blogs to read or follow are you drawn to ones that indicate a certain group or way of thinking/being? Not always. I like reading other academic style blogs, because I'm interested in how other women in academia navigate what can be a very anti-fashion field, but I don't read those blogs exclusively. I tend to like personal style blogs the best, because I find personal style choices much more fascinating that what the fashion industry puts out. But other than that, I'm drawn to clever writing, good pictures, and an attractive layout.

4. Do you think there are benefits in labeling yourself or others? Yes. Like I said earlier, labeling myself helps me as a writer. And it certainly helps me in getting a quick and general idea of what other bloggers are about. I've found that good blogging transcends labels, so I'm not likely to bypass reading a well-written blog just because their self-label isn't something I normally read.

5. Agree or disagree - we're all just people; we don't need all the labels. I agree, especially when it comes to life in general, not just fashion blogs. Like I said, good writing and photography will shine through no matter the label. Labels are useful to me in my own blogging, but when it comes to others, I like what I like, labels or not.