When Dandyism Becomes WTFery

[the_gneech]

I aim to dress up rather than dress down; this is old news. However, there comes a point at which sartorial agony crosses into ranting insanity, and George Will has just crossed it.

Long ago, when James Dean and Marlon Brando wore it, denim was, Akst says, “a symbol of youthful defiance.” Today, Silicon Valley billionaires are rebels without causes beyond poses, wearing jeans when introducing new products. Akst’s summa contra denim is grand as far as it goes, but it only scratches the surface of this blight on Americans’ surfaces. Denim is the infantile uniform of a nation in which entertainment frequently features childlike adults (Seinfeld, Two and a Half Men) and cartoons for adults (King of the Hill). Seventy-five percent of American “gamers” — people who play video games — are older than 18 and nevertheless are allowed to vote. In their undifferentiated dress, children and their childish parents become undifferentiated audiences for juvenilized movies (the six — so far — Batman adventures and Indiana Jones and the Credit-Default Swaps, coming soon to a cineplex near you). Denim is the clerical vestment for the priesthood of all believers in democracy’s catechism of leveling — thou shalt not dress better than society’s most slovenly. To do so would be to commit the sin of lookism — of believing that appearance matters. That heresy leads to denying the universal appropriateness of everything, and then to the elitist assertion that there is good and bad taste. Denim is the carefully calculated costume of people eager to communicate indifference to appearances. But the appearances that people choose to present in public are cues from which we make inferences about their maturity and respect for those to whom they are presenting themselves.

Er ... what? 0.o This isn't commentary on style, this is more like the paranoid ramblings of a schizophrenic.

The only reason I happened upon this is because kinkyturtle posted a link to it, commenting that it reminded him on one of my own posts on the subject of dress (I'm guessing it was this one). I am gratified that he was quick to point out the distinction between my wistful desire that people would dress better generally compared to this column's scattershot condemnation of anyone who doesn't Act Like a Grownup for Chrissake — but at the same time to be mentioned in the same context of such raving lunacy has given me pause.

So for the record: if you like denim, please, by all means wear it. I have no idea what George Will is smoking.

-The Gneech

Comments

[scixual.livejournal.com]

In my experience, gangbangers do not wear worn, holy or dirty jeans. At all. If they wear jeans, they wear it as part of a uniform. It is often even pressed.

May still be oversized and low-riding, mind you, but if so, it's uniformly so, and not done in a way that trips or requires frequent adjusting.

[ladyfox7oaks.livejournal.com]

hee! You must have a better class of gang? The ones around here have taken to walking around with one hand hanging onto their pants. And the cops catch them, more often than not- because they tried to run and went face first into the sidewalk, with pants around their knees.

[scixual.livejournal.com]

Hm. Well, these were San Diego 'bangers I used to see around, might be more regional than I had thought.