ABSTRACT
People can engage in "conforming individuality." In some contexts, expressing individuality through clothing is expected and thus, part of the rules and part of fitting in. In Why Women Wear What They Wear, Sophie Woodward wrote, "People both conform to what others are wearing and the expectations of an event, and even when they are striving to look 'unique', this is still an act of conforming to the discourse of individuality". Studies of how people dress at Burning Man, the annual alternative gathering in the desert in Nevada, illustrate the lack of individuality in alternative dressing. At Burning Man, people challenge the dominant rules for dress in mainstream society. There are clothing styles tied with almost any music culture, including hip-hop and grunge, as well as punk rock, reggae, heavy metal, goth, emo, and Deadheads. The emphasis on individuality in explaining behaviors becomes particularly strong when individuality is part of a group's values, identity, and expectations of themselves.
