Nine

This is by far my favorite unit. Not only did I really identify with it, but I think that it is a great unit for any class grade. The Wings video is a perfect representation of extreme consumerism and brand power. There is no doubt that this is still a problem. I waited outside in the freezing winter for 6 hours in the middle of the night to get new Jordan's... and didn't end up getting them. What is interesting about my story though is that I truly believe that racism and stereotyping is rampant among some store employees. On that day, the Nordstrom employees acted unsympathetic, unfair, rude, and unprofessional. Nordstrom is famous for it's customer service, yet when about 50 black, Asian, pacific islander, Hispanic (and a few white) teenagers lined up for a new pair of shoes, the saleswomen acted uncharacteristically. This is something that probes the question of consumerism deeper: is consumerism affected by status? I think that my personal story exemplifies the truth in that hypothesis, but more than that, I think that race and it's links to poverty reaches further--as is shown in "The Jacket" scan--into how our image/coolness/looks are linked to SES and color. The character in that short story was bullied as a result of his having the jacket, which was directly related to his socioeconomic status. Likewise, clothing and branding is directly class structured. The Abercrombie and Fitch text reinforces this idea, and reveals that even the company owners are not culturally competent or interested in diversification of their brand. The A&F owners advertise that they only want certain people to buy their clothes and the exclusion of larger sizes adds in another layer to the social injustices of fashion. Not only are race and class, factors but weight. Merchants of Cool reasserts this by explaining that they search for cool kids and that marketers use them to develop their products. However, the un-cool are not able to get themselves out of the perpetuating cycle of bullying and racism because they are unable to afford the clothes to get them into the "cool" groups. We see that even the grades of the boy in the Jacket story were affected by his status being uncool. Merchants of cool didn't mention anything about race or class, but I posit that those factors are institutionally ingrained into their training. Most likely, the students they investigate are from areas where they can afford to buy newer clothing--even to care about fashion! However, this notion gets complicated when you think about the fact that Jordan's are predominantly purchased by lower class minorities. I think that here, the power of consumerism and advertising explains this anomaly. The extreme branding efforts of Nike and other companies like them explain that advertising is strong enough to overcome these SES and racial barriers. By changing culture, Nike successfully tapped into a new market of previously unreachable consumers: the poor, in addition to their usual middle/upper class buyers. This perpetuates market monopolies as well. The style quiz is interesting because it showed that I was casual, which is pretty accurate. What struck me though was how the characterize someone based on these random questions. This reminds me of the tactics of Merchants of Cool, who understand what questions to ask to reveal what trends are cool. My style quiz answers about what I would wear and what food I would serve at a party or what dinner is ideal for me is directly class related. I can't afford to go get champagne for a party! Neither can I afford to be wearing heels on the daily! My answers were very class influenced.