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June 01, 2004
will it stop raining...PLEASE
ok so it's really wet outside, hence, i can't rollerblade. sad! but that's ok. soon the monsoons will stop.
ok so now let me talk about Abercrombie and Fitch. now, they are not evil like the mcdonalds corporation is, because mcdonalds will actually kill you. however, they are not exactly the greatest company in the world. their style is soooo, faux exclusive. and it's not even original. these styles are just adapted and brought to the midwest, but they originated from designers such as Dolce & Gabbanna, Armani, Gucci, etc. however whereas they abandoned the vintage homeless look a long time ago, A&F found a market for it out in the good ol' midwest.
A&F emergence and popularity goes hand and hand with the emergence of homosexual visibility in the late 1990s. men have traditionally not been the objects desire ever since...ever since. and now things are changing, and A&F was able to capitalize on a whole new market: the suppressed homosexuality of young boys.
you can't deny that in some light, the pictures on the walls in abercrombie are like gay porn. scantily clad men, doing sports, and even the real models the come during the holidays. gay porn? i think so. if you just remove a little bit of clothes you basically have A&F video productions. however, the marketing executives have disguised this in a very clever way: by ignoring any aspect of same sex desire at all. they refuse to advertise in gay magazines. (this reason of course, being as homosexuality has been stigmatized.)
people always joke about the GAP being "gay and proud" -- but it seems A&F is much more homoerotic. they just refuse to acknowledge publicly any aspect of this same sex desire i am going on about. in fact, i feel i should bring this up: one time when i was talking to nick he was publicly told "not to make eye contact with me" because i would try to hit on him or something. i don't know, perhaps that makes me a little upset. but in the end, it doesn't matter. i still wear abercrombie because i know it's what these other mindless drones find attractive.
so i conform to this anti-homosexual agenda, and this whole essay has been in vain. well, no, not really. at least i see it happening, isn't that good enough? refusing the wear the clothes, i would be like Ike McCaslin giving up the land in "go down moses" (william faulkner). i mean, sure i know it's wrong, but do i have to alienate myself -- wouldn't it be better to protect other people by working with the current web of discourse. (not like they really need protecting, i was just out of words to use, perhpas "enlightening them" is better.)
and to anyone who disagrees that Ike McCaslin should have kept that land -- we need to have a talk.
Posted by piep0058 at June 1, 2004 01:27 PM | Homosexuality
Comments
While I could go on about the inherent hypocrisy and the troubling paradox about you wearing A&F clothes while acknowledging you're feeding into an anti-homsexual agenda (by anti I mean contributing to the suppression of homoeroticism through flagrant advertising--a kind of doublespeak if you will, a la _1984_) I'll simply say that if you're not fighting a cause then you're contributing to it. Apathy is change's biggest enemy.
Posted by: J at June 2, 2004 06:30 PM
point taken, but if i want to enlighten other people i don't want to seem so extravagant with my boycotts. those tend to freak people out.
Posted by: loverboy at June 2, 2004 11:39 PM
lol fair enough. you can still oppose without being huge and obnoxious about it. ;)
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