This line from the movie Fight Club really strikes home for me around Christmas time. Not that I'm ungrateful for what I have received. I know that I'm extremely privileged to be in one of the wealthiest nations in the world, in one of their wealthier demographics. I own lots of things. If I look to the value they have individually added to my life, they offer no significant improvement to how I live. Though, a wardrobe as a whole makes a difference versus a single pair of pants, nevertheless, whatever I own seems to be very deflating to me. And it's not because I have to move it all when I go to school.
But in all seriousness, I feel a strong affinity with the message of Fight Club. And please don't write off this article because I'm referencing that movie. While I don't prescribe an anarchist's viewpoint to dealing with the commercialisms of our society, I would agree that our societal priorities need some re-orientation.
Thoughts while moving out...
Because I'm moving out of my place in Ottawa, I decided to take a new approach when sorting through my things for packing. Ruthlessness was my motto. And I did accomplish some progress by ridding myself of a full bag of clothes and throwing out a bunch of useless papers. The sheer amount of clothes I owned really astounded me when I had assembled them in packing. I have never considered myself an incredibly fashion-conscious guy or anything but my massive wardrobe definitely told a different tale.
As I was doing this, I pondered the reason for having "fashion" in the first place. Does it serve a purpose? I suppose it differentiates us. Or perhaps it give an impression of someone. Does it serve a practical purpose? Not really. Apart from wardrobes for specific seasons or professions, Its use extends to allow us to identify the fashionable from the unfashionable, but not much else.
Fashion as Communication
For whatever reason, fashion itself has become a method of passive communication. Like it or not, what we wear is a statement about ourselves. No matter how qualified I am for the job, I would never get hired for a bank if I wore Crocs and an "I'm with stupid" t-shirt to the interview. Nor would that veritable suburban girl next door look at you if you were wearing decked out in Goth attire. My attractiveness in attire is directly linked to my value to the other party. In these articles of clothing are imprinted the very fabrics of our outer selves, but not of our inner beings. A similar parallel could be found in judging people by our skin colours, yet we do not openly condemn judgment of people's clothing ("fashionism").
Just like how my possessions deliver greater value to me as a whole rather than aggregated, so do these individual judgments of our appearance equate to the larger impression of ourselves. Unfortunately, these stereotypes that arise from fashion are taken for granted in life. Martin Luther King Jr. never said, "I dream of a day when we judge a man not by the colour of his skin, but by the cut of his slacks," but I could see me being turned down by a girl for that. Wearing slacks I mean.
Mmm pleasure...
When you think about our basest motivations to do things, evidently we seek out pleasure for ourselves. As cynical as it sounds, dressing ourselves up has no other reason than to impress other people. People enjoy dressing up because they know they can either dazzle someone with their fashion sense or at least be confident that they won't be judged negatively by someone else. Even the blind man dresses up and he doesn't even know what he looks like! If nobody cared what each other looked like, would there be impractical fashions anymore? Most certainly not. And you could bet that prices for clothes would fall in the interim. Everyone would dress like I would when I was hungover on a Sunday afternoon watching Simpsons. We are social animals who enjoy the gratification of other people's approval, to put it simply.
Lube Yourself Up
So self-improvement is masturbation, at least fashion-wise. We seek out other people's approval, because everybody enjoys a good rub or tug now and then. But at what point do you become that guy staying in on a Friday night to watch anime porn? Don't get me wrong, I'm as bad-ass a hypocrite you've ever met. I'd say my self-masturbation/fashion-consciousness level is somewhere at a "13-year-old who just discovered his dad's porn stash". I know it's dirty but it feels so good. But somehow, I know I have to change.
Re-orientation
If I could control all the cable TV programming, I would take those Free the Children commercials off the air. They make me feel so damn guilty. "For just 10 cents a month, you can provide running water to a village in rural Sudan". Damn, I say to myself. "This young girl could receive an education if you sponsor her for 20 cents a month" Crap, just spent it on a nice shirt. I could have fed a family for 3 months. Instead I bought a shirt to wear to my job interview. But I am no better for it. If I had helped the starving children I would be.
I rue the day I decided to pay attention to what I was wearing. But it's the uneasy reality we live in. We think we can make more of a difference if we buy the shirt to make the impression to get the job and get the girl to remain happy and make more money to give more away and make a larger contribution down the road. And I understand that sentiment because I feel it myself. I want to make a big difference not a little incremental impact when I give money to charities and such. Just imagine though if the money we spent on fashion was redirected to poverty-reduction measures.
Let's attach value in life to the merits and utility that people and possessions bring. Down with fashion, and down with the latest and greatest toys! Sure, it feels good to whack off like that, but it adds nothing to your life. The sad reality is that this masturbation of ours/fashion handicaps our ability to not only improve the lives of others but our own as well.
1 comment:
Hello Garrulous Godrey!
(eh guy what's with all the name alliteration?)
You should have been in my anthro class! You woulda loved it. I don't know how I'd gotten this far in life not having known what I learnt in that class. To tell you the truth the bushman life, not to make them out as 'noble savages, is probably the closest we could come to equality in a society. Unfortunately I don't believe that most communities can remain static forever; but wouldn't life be simpler if we could all wear the same loincloth?
It all started with greed/jealousy. The europeans wanted to be better than the 'highly advanced' asians way back when; and so conquest began, and things have been iffy ever since. You know what we learned in class? Conspicuous consumption, well i'm sure you know all this already but in case you don't.
During the industrial revolution, because of the general increase in capital/goods, many more people had access to items that were previously only available to the rich. So all these comapnies started making knock off 'summer dresses' so that even the plebs could afford to 'look wealthy'. The elite classes absolutely detested this of course, because this brought about an unprecedented level of equality; no-one could tell who was the madam and who was the maid. So how did they fix this problemo? This is when we first see the appearance of the maid's uniform.
(now used mainly in porn/fantasies (both real and imaginary)...)
OK so back to conspicuous consumption: because the men were always working they too had to find some way to show their welath and status. So they did it through their women. Their wives would dress extravagantly everyday, ride in carriages all over town 'conspicuously' so that everyone could see how wealthy their husbands were. The women would pay little 'visits' to their 'friends' never exceeding more than 15 mins, because 1 min was really all you needed to make your impression by what you were wearing.
So no wonder we are the way we are today. Fashion is something I've battled with within myself and with others. I'm reading Eckhart Tolle's book, yes I jumped on the Oprah bandwagon but it's well worth it!(READ IT!!! seriously it's good stuff and echoes alot of your sentiments and makes alot of sense out of behaviour!!! READ IT)
Clothes completely represent our identity as you mentioned, you don't even need to speak to anyone anymore to figure out their job, status and personality.
You see my present lover doesn't really give a f*** about how he dresses.(well he does care, but we'd go to a 'formal-ish' event where everyone's 'dressed up' and he'd be wearing jeans and spiderman shirt!) Much to my discontent it began to affect me. Improper appearance sends for too many signals than we are able to handle. I began to realize more than caring about what he wore, I would think to myself, well what on earth do people think of me being with someone who dresses like that?
I would see other couples the perfect reflection of one another poised, and perfectly manicured and began to reason that 'I deserved better'. Of course I knew that these thoughts were proposterous. What is clothing but material? But what you put on has one thousand connotations. Torn ripped jeans, dirty shirt...'oh he must not take care of himself'; 'he must have low self-esteem'.
As much as I am aware of the preconceived notions we have about all this stuff. I'm sage enough to know that fashion doesn't necessarily matter too much to me, well; i guess I try to dress for myself first but still realize that my audience plays a large role. The system is what it is for now, it probably won't be changing anytime soon; so we just have to roll with the punches. What matters most to me I guess in others/significant others is neatness and cleanliness, that's all I ask. I know I'm still a victim of that school of thought, but as long as you smell good and don't look to shabby, I'm good.
I hate those save a child commercials too! It is important to give though. You don't necessarily have to do it there, but everyday we can share a little more, restrict ourselves and our behaviour and try to make the best choices. The onus falls on us to save the world but we can only take it one day at a time I supppose.
Ahh...there's so much more I want to say but the title read 'Leave your comment' not your essay.
Ciao Godfrey
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