The Blue Jean as Cultural Metaophor :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

The Blue Jean as Cultural Metaophor It may seem odd to consider items of clothing hypercritical components of popular culture. Contemporary clothing is a key share in the construction of personal identity it is used to de none an man-to-man style and a personality unique to its wearer. Yet from the corset to miniskirt, such(prenominal) items serve not only as practical coverings, but to a fault as indicators for the current values and belief systems of a society. Thus I wish to examine what has become a most popular oblige of clothing the aristocratical jean1 1 - in an attempt to dig some of the socio-cultural phenomenon that is popular culture. According to Raymond Williams definition, the blue jean qualifies as an endeavor of popular culture due to its (a) wide-spread accessibility, (b) popularity, and (c) construction as an object intended to be popular.2 2 But perhaps the blue jean is not only a product, a piece of commercialism. I assert, rather, that this cultural photo has become a gauge of changing interpretations of masculinity in mainstream American culture. The blue jean, symbolically, is the white, middle-class, All-American man. I would like to examine what, specifically, makes the blue jean stereotypically masculine. Historically, fashion has upheld socially constructed notions of gender the corset, for example, helped contain a womans uncontrollable body, while the suspender maintained coverage of a mans unmentionables. Similarly, from its design as a durable exit heave for working men and laborers (farmers, railroad men, gold and coal miners, etc.), 33 the blue jean is closely associated with a muscular, super-virile He-Man.4 4 First made wildly popular by the Western films of the 1930s, jeans became identified as a bill item of apparel worn by the cowboy.5 5 Even mainstream advertizement for these durable denim pants featured manly rangers, taming their horses and lassoing the competition (image 1a). The judgment of a heroic, blue-jeaned Lone-Ranger-esque cowboy seems to have remained in popular American psyche, as it is nostalgically associated with a notion of old-fashioned, well-mannered, moral man (image 1b). real cowboys wearing Levis at this time were elevated to mythic status, and the pant was now associated more with a rugged American, symbolized by John Wayne. 66 (Wayne, for example, evermore seemed ready for action with a holster comfortably around his jeans image 1c).