Well, I'm inclined to agree with that old adage of "don't judge a book by it's cover," but on the other hand, books have no control over their covers. In order to avoid looking like most everybody else, often times you have to invest in it, since the clothing industry makes clothes that appeal to the widest market (I know, I dress like most everyone else because that's the cheapest way to do it). If you go out of your way to look a certain way, that says something about who you are. I can't be sure of what it is, of course, but my first guess is insecurity and/or an identity crisis (for when you dress to conform to a certain clique, like wearing polo's and khaki shorts to fit in with the preps/jocks or wearing all black spikes and leather to look goth, or whatever). There's nothing wrong with dressing a certain way (within reasonable confines of society's expectations, of course) but if you choose to do so you don't really have a right to complain about how people judge you based on it.
On a related note, there's one guy who lives around here who really stands out in a crowd. He wears like, skirts or something. I don't know what else he wears, because I'm usually too distracted by all his piercings, his huge ear gages, and his mohawk where the bald parts of his head have leopard skin tatooed on them. I've seen him around a couple of times. I don't know what to think of him, because all I know is that he used to work at the Joe Muggs coffee place and he has Tourette's Syndrome (he came into the bank where my mom works, once, and he told her not to mind the noises he made).
In conclusion, you ought not to judge people by the way they dress, and people ought to dress appropriately for the situation they're in. After all, I think that if you looked at the causes of school shootings, a big factor is the shooter having a history of being picked on.
