"Fake It 'Til You Make It" Review: Why Clothes Don't Make A Pony And How They Can Destroy Your Personality

So, this episode has a message I did not expect to see in the show! Granted, a lot of messages in MLP: FiM have surprised me, but this is one I genuinely expected to never see in it, as it is such a fixated thing in human society that I simply did not think anyone would criticize it:

The old belief that clothes make a person.

Or, at least not anyone other than me. Clothes are often worn to give a certain impression of oneself. They are associated with integrity, competence, honesty and many other traits, depending on which clothes we're talking about.
If you are customer at a bank, you know what I mean. Talk to a male bank employee and they will wear a whole suit. This is a tradition for banks and male employers are expected to wear a suit for work to leave a desired impression on customers. In this case, integrity and trustworthiness, as these traits are commonly associated with suits.
Of course, this begs the question what came first..... Were certain clothes always associated with certain traits? Or did this originate after some time, as people with such traits were wearing those clothes, until others began to connect these traits with their clothes?
This is a question that is hard to answer, but either way, it is a fact that certain clothes are commonly associated with certain traits. This is why you don't see a bank employee with a casual skater outfit while working or a DJ putting on music in a suit.
This is a very common part of culture, but it comes with one problem, among others: Specific kind of clothes can evoke certain impressions, but they can also create wrong impressions if what you're wearing does not reflect who you are. And in reverse, they can also make you fake a certain personality when you try to live up to the impressions the clothes you're wearing create.
This is something that I always criticized for the longest time now; that people believe they can be someone else by wearing certain clothes.
And this episode delved headfirst into this subject!
Rarity, as a mare who is all about outer appearances due to her profession, suggested Fluttershy to wear a certain costume and slip into a role to be able to run her boutique in Manehattan and to serve customers in the right way. And Fluttershy, after soon realizing that she isn't cut out for this, followed this suggestion.
The costume she was wearing suddenly gave her confidence. She knew it would make her look like a mare who is a fashion expert, and by trying to live up to the impressions her costume created, she did manage to appear just like the ponies she was serving.
But, of course Fluttershy wasn't really herself there and soon, she began trying too hard to fulfill the role she has slipped into and became arrogant and unfriendly as a result. And this was her showing the problems I mentioned above: She gave a wrong impression of herself and she faked her personality.
And while wearing the first costume gave her the confidence to pull it off, this didn't suffice to give her enough confidence to try it without one when she had to face a different kind of customer; a young teenage mare. Instead, she slipped into another costume and role and created a different character for herself to manage this too. And then did it again when she met a costumer who is a goth (who is amazing, by the way).
Instead of getting more confidence through the costumes, Fluttershy was getting dependent on them and started thinking that she couldn't do it without the costumes. She completely started to ignore her inner strength and the fact that she could have done it on her own if she would have focused on that inner strength of hers. Which eventually escalated and Fluttershy became entirely different ponies.
And this showed off the final and biggest problem of using clothes to become someone else: Not only does this alter your personality, it also does so permanently if you don't stop and you forget who you really are over time.
The strongest point of the episode are the customer's reactions. At first, one could think they judged Fluttershy because she wasn't wearing the clothes they expected her to wear as a pony who works in a fashion store. But if you look at it more closely, you can see that the opposite was the case.
The business stallion who asked how many threads are in the suit he looked at was still displeased with Fluttershy over not having managed to answer his question and running away because of that as she came back with Rarity's costume. Only as she started to speak like Rarity and act like her, he was impressed. The costume alone did not do anything to convince him of Fluttershy's abilities.
The young teenage mare had an issue with Fluttershy, but not because of what she was wearing, instead, because of the way she talked and expressed herself.
None of them had a problem with Fluttershy because she talked to them with the wrong costume (or with no costume), but with the way how Fluttershy talked and acted before slipping into another role to appear like them.
When Rarity was still there and served a customer, it was even better: Rarity wasn't wearing anything, but the mare did not judge her because of that and it was Rarity's demonstration of her expertise that convinced the mare, even enough to call her a "fashion psychic". And neither did this mare judge Fluttershy for wearing nothing a moment earlier, she only got angry when Fluttershy started to ask how what she said is supposed to make sense, when it became clear to her that Fluttershy doesn't know what she's doing and that she can't help her find what she is looking for.
Everything seen in this episode carries the message that clothes don't make who you are, but that your inner strength and values do. And beyond that, it even does something more:

That none of the customers cared about Fluttershy's costumes demonstrates that Equestria's society, overall, understands that these inner values are far more important than what is on the outside and that no one should be judged by the clothes they're wearing.

And it does show us that a society like this can work. A society that, unlike humanity, does not judge based on what is on the outside. Here on Earth, in human society, it would be unimaginable to work in a fashion store without clothes that give the impression you have a lot of knowledge about fashion and fashion trends. Or working in a bank without a suit that makes you look all sincere and honest and trustworthy.
If you would show up at one of those jobs in casual clothing, instead of what you are expected to wear, no costumer would take you serious. Most likely, they would not even approach you with a question and in many cases, would not even think you are an employee. "Clothes make people" is too imprinted on human society for this to work.
In Equestria, however, society is developed enough to not make assumptions based on what one is wearing. This is one of these things where humanity can learn a lot from Equestria and its, comparatively, much more progressive society.

Comments

[Bronycommander]

A good message indeed-