【１】ファッションと性意識の関係について考えるときにいつも思いだすのですが、大和和紀さんの『あい色神話』というコミックのなかに、若い女性のこんなつぶやきが出てくるシーンがあります。
　　【２】家まで歩いて十五分……走って十分……
　　なんだかてれてれ歩くのかったるい……
　　子どものころはよく走ってたっけ
　　おつかいいくのや学校への道……
　　いつからだろう
　　【３】あまり走ることをしなくなったのは……
　　女の子特有の小走りしかしなくなったのは……
　　……走って……みようか……
　　あのころのように軽く足はあがるだろうか
　　耳のそばで鳴る風の音をきけるだろうか
　　身体を空気のように感じることができるだろうか
　【４】スカートは女性の「性の制服」だということ、そしてそれが身ごなしやふるまいの一つ一つをかたどり、やがて身体そのものにもなじんでしまって、だれが見てもじぶんが「女らしく」なってしまっているということ、そして逆にそのことによって失ってしまったものへの静かな悲しみやはげしい疼き……。それらがたいへんにうまく表現されていると思います。
　【５】こうした「性の制服」と女性のセクシュアリティの意識のずれはだんだん無視できないほど大きくなってきたようで、とくに友人の結婚披露宴などでいわゆる「令嬢」のような服装をしかたなくするときには、多くの女性たちがまるでじぶんが「女装」しているような気分になっているのではないでしょうか。【６】その意味で、衣服の構造にはその時代、その社会の男性的／女性的なものについての観念が強くはたらいていると言えます。
　【７】同じことは、性以外の場面でも言えます。子どもらしさだとか高校生らしさ、母親らしさとか教師らしさといった「らしさ」が話題にされるところではいつも、衣服やメイクやしぐさが、そういうイメージとの深い共犯関係のなかで強力にはたらいています。【８】ある種の社会的な強制力をもって、です。このように身体の表面で、ある性的ならびに社会的な属性を目に見えるかたちで演出することで、服装は個人の人格を具体的にかたちづくっていくわけです。【９】イメージの服を着込みながら、着換（が）えながら、です。こうしたことから、西洋には「Ｃｌｏｔｈｅｓ　ｍａｋｅ　ｐｅｏｐｌｅ」（衣が人を作る）という諺もあるくらいです。
　∵【０】ひとの成長とは、このように、身ごなし（話し方、食べ方、歩き方、座り方、挨拶の仕方など）と身づくろいの共通のスタイルのなかにじぶんを挿入していくことを意味します。そうしてひとは社会の一住民となっていくわけです。職業上の制服や伝統的な民族衣装などは、そういう衣服の社会的意味がとくにはっきり出ているものです。現代社会では、皇族も議員も会社員も芸術家も宗教家も教師も、ほとんどの男性は公的な場面では、背広にネクタイというのがまるで制服のようになっています。逆の私的なシーン、あるいは社会秩序への抵抗のシーンにもやはり制服は歴然とあって、茶髪、細眉、ミニスカート、ルーズソックスという出で立ちが、家と学校のあいだでの女子高生の「超」画一的な制服になっていて、そこからはみ出ることがとても勇気のいることになっているのは、ご存じのとおりです。このように見てくると、制服でない衣服を探すほうがむずかしくなります。

「ひとはなぜ服を着るのか」（鷲田清一）より

A few years ago, I was asked to answer this question on a radio program: "What is the biggest lesson you have ever learned?"
That was easy: the biggest thing I have ever learned is the importance of what we think. Tell me what you think, and I will know what you are. Our thoughts make us what we are. How can we be anything else?
I am sure that the biggest lesson you and I have to learn - in fact, almost the only lesson we have to learn - is choosing the right thoughts. If we can do that, we will be on the highway to solving a11 our worries. One of the greatest thinkers, Marcus Aurelius, said it in eight words - eight words that can decide your life: "Our life is what we think of it."
Yes, if we think happy thoughts, we will be happy. If we think sad thoughts, we will be sad. If we think right thoughts, we will not be wrong. If we think unhealthy thoughts, we will be ill.
As I grow older, I know well how great the power of thought is. As a result of thirty-five years spent in teaching, I know men and women can send away worry, fear, and various kinds of illnesses, and change their lives by changing thoughts.
For example, one of these unbelievable changes which showed the power of thought happened to one of my students. He had a heavy illness. This student told me, "I worried about everything: I worried because I was too short; because I thought I was losing my hair; because I feared I was losing the gir1 I wanted to marry; because I felt I was not living a good life. I could no longer work; I gave up my job. The pressure got so strong that something had to happen - and it did.
"My illness was so bad that I couldn't talk even to my own family. I had no control over my thoughts. I was filled with emptiness. Every day was one of sadness. I wanted to jump into the river and end it all.
"But I decided to take a trip to Florida. I hoped that a change of air would help me. When I got on the train, my father handed me a letter and told me not to open it until I reached Florida. I arrived in Florida during the summer season. Because I couldn't get in a hotel, I rented a sleeping room in a garage. I tried to get a job, but couldn't. I spent my time near the sea. I was more unhappy in Florida than at home; so I opened the letter from Dad. His note said, 'Son, you are 1,500 miles from home, and you don't feel any different, do you? I knew you wouldn't, because you took with you the one thing that makes you unhappy; that is, yourself. There is nothing wrong with either your body or your mind. It is not the things that you have met but what you think of these things. "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he." When you understand that, son, come home. Then you will be fine.'
"Dad's letter made me angry. I was looking for some kind words, not teaching. I was very angry, so I thought then and there that I would never go home. That night when I was walking down one of the side streets of Miami, I came to a church in which services were going on. As I had no place to go, I went in and listened to a sermon on the text:‘He who controls his mind is stronger than he who takes a city.' I sat in the house of God and heard the same thoughts from Dad's 1etter - and then all my worries left me. I was able to think clearly for the first time in my life. I said to myself,‘What a fool I have been!' I was surprised to see myself in my true light: here I wanted to change the whole world and everyone in it - what the only thing that needed changing was the direction of the lens of the camera which was my mind."