If someone says you look the part, do you feel the part actually fits you?

Oh no, some of the best parts I play don’t speak to who I am inside at all. I sometimes call myself ‘my own life size Barbie doll’.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir “My own life size Barbie doll.” I love it!!!

I’m quiet in class, so everyone automatically assumes that makes me smart. When I first got my glasses, everyone said they made me ‘look even smarter’. I’m not all that smart; I’m average. I realise that while glasses might make me look the part as a geek, I know that inside, this isn’t actually the case, and I’m just the same, if slightly less intelligent, as everybody else in the class.

Nah. I know I don’t “look the part” of some of the things I consider to be, so I’d imagine that it would work both ways.

I don’t really look the part of a 30-year-old punk rock kid, but I don’t really look the part of an academic, either.

I think that part of what may make people assess you as wise, a professor, etc. is your self-confidence. @wundayatta, if people think you seem like a professor, regardless of your lack of degree, it may be because you have a lot of knowledge in your subject matter. Degrees are required to be a professor, but lack of one does not mean you do not have the required knowledge base. You may also be an exceptional teacher, thus further giving people the impression that you are a professor.

I think when people label someone as wise, etc., it can further boost that person’s confidence in that area. You may never have thought of yourself as wise, but perhaps you have given very sound advice to others, and are thus thought of as wise…

Everytime someone has called me something, it has been a compliment, although I don’t consider myself “very classy”, many people say I’m a pretty smart or intelligent guy, so I’d like to think I am too. It’s strange how when you aren’t really sure about yourself until others help confirm how you feel about yourself sometimes .

I’m not a librarian or a killer.

It depends.
If the person actually knows something about me, then yes maybe.
If it is a stranger or someone I have just met, then not necessarily.

Oh yeah, I do remember when two people said I looked like a psycho/murderer once, and that really bothered me because that made me wonder what other people thought of me when I was in public lol. Of course I don’t feel like a muderer or psycopath, though.

What would make you think someone looked like a killer?

@Blackberry the Charles Manson look.

I’m a librarian and a killer. Do I look the part?

Here’s another example…I used to work in a grocery store, and people would always ask me to help them find things. Even now, years later, when I’m shopping in a store, other customers will come up and ask me for help in finding something. Is it an “aura” of knowledge about the store, a helpful demeanor, or something else?

“You should model. Why don’t you model? Do you model? You look like a model.”

No. I don’t feel the part. I think those are some of the most absurd statements ever made in my direction.

I believe that my presence (physical, intellectual, emotional, aural) tends to be a very accruate projection/portrayal of what I am. Any compliments (or negative criticisms) I receive, tend to be spot on. I’m generally confident in my abilities, aware of my limitations, inviting when I want to be open, “cold” when I want to be alone and all points in between. Bottom line, I choose the part and play it with accuracy.

The only oddness I’ve experienced around this is that I’m very frequently targeted by border agents as someone who needs extra scrutiny. We’ve joked for decades that I must look like a known drug runner (or other felon), as this happens with such regularity.

@ANef_is_Enuf Now that you mentioned it, you really look like a model!

I’m still trying to find a ‘part’ to look like… but I have had that said to me when I was a singer and used to glam up… I wasn’t entirely comfortable with that…

At my last job people use to come and ask me things only my boss could approve or they would ask her to ask me. They would often say I looked like the boss. I took it to mean I simply looked more professional compared to her.
You shouldn’t be offended about the professor comment. My son use to get it all the time growing up and still does from family members because he always seemed to know the answers to so many random questions. Also didn’t help he had these large glasses when younger, giving him a Point dexter look. They probably just mean you sound smart and look very well educated.

A few years back while working for an Alzheimers charity, we organised a fancy dress fund raising night out. I went dressed as Dick Turpin (highwayman, for those bewildered folks.) I was told I looked quite dashing & certainly “looked the part.” While I took this in the spirit it was intended & yes, I did look remarkably like a dick, I felt no pressing need to pillage the locals of their possessions.

People ask me (sigh, much less often that they used to) “Are you an actor?”, my appearance reminds them of some TV actor, some regular player not a heartthrob. To which I reply “No, I just act like one.” Really, folks will vouch for that happening.
In grade school they called me the computer who wore tennis shoes after the kid in the movie, I deserved it. I was so odd.

The odd ones are the interesting ones, @dabbler.

Thanks @yankeetooter ! At least now as a grownup, if you can pay your bills you can get away with eccentric.

It’s a good thing, or I’d be in trouble, @dabbler)...:

I think the majority of people have fixed images or patterns of others in their heads and if for whatever reason you fit into their image, they assume you are this or that. In my early twenties, I did a couple of TV commercials and photo shoots for magazines. Whenever I went to a casting, I always wondered what I was doing there with all those pretty girls. When I looked at myself in the mirror I couldn’t see what they saw. I never felt I was ugly or anything like that; but, I certainly never felt like a model or whatever, and never really liked being the center of attention for my looks. So, I looked the part, but didn’t feel the part. Eventually, I stopped it altogether and concentrated on my education and my teaching career. However, in that too, I find people want to typecast you. In the school I work at, most of the other female professors do not wear makeup or dressy shoes or bags, and I am quite the contrary. I don’t want to be looked at someone who is superficial and only cares about my appearance, but I don’t want to look like someone whose only interest is in books either. I want to be in the middle, but I find that some people find it hard to understand that you can love fashion and be an academic at the same time.