Marked

Being marked or unmarked is essentially just a big stereotype, which forms in any sort of environment where patterns arise. For example, if a girl consistently wears formal/spiffy clothing, such as dresses and high heels, she is marked as a girl who wears formal clothes, but is also unmarked in the sense that she never changes her style - being unmarked is to be the "norm". If she were to suddenly change her style to a very casual one, such as jeans and a T-shirt, she becomes more marked than she was before, all because she broke her traditional style. To anyone who is observant of everyone else's style, everyone is marked in some way - "he always wears sweatpants," "she stopped wearing makeup all of a sudden," "he never has a clean shirt." But to others who are not as observant of other styles or simply just doesn't care, everyone is unmarked. Tannen states "[men's] shoes are dark, closed, comfortable, and flat. In short, unmarked." This is true to a certain extent, but what if a guy wore sandals all the time and then switched to these said shoes? He would become more marked, considering that he is already marked as "that guy who wears sandals all the time."