Ah once again we have reached the point of where it is time to blog and well this week not much can be said. Except for of course that in our discussion last Tuesday, subcontractors have totally gotten away with exploitation. A total victory for my party that is, hehe however to be truthful educating a usually ignorant and uncaring society is a difficult task. While I may not know where everything thing I own comes from or who makes it, I try to look towards the positive end of the spectrum so I do not live in such a depressing mood, or go off and live like a bunch of hippies with homemade hemp pants.
Well to get to the connection to our readings and our daily lives. Politics exist in every fabric of our society, since there is always a need for someone to represent, fight for and defend against some idea or another. In the New York Times, there was an article about a clothing advertisement that represented the politics of our current situation dealing with immigration and the work immigrants do in our garment industry. Now sweat shop labor is a bad consequence of our capitalistic lifestyle, it is still used as a political statement to which some may make a stand while others can just make deals instead. The Political machine is a cutthroat and icy cold business where morals take the backseat to convenience and opportunity.
Politics have been associated with fashion even before these advertisements; in Ancient China what you wore determined your class, and your position, even in the supposed meritocracy of the Confucian Academy and Imperial Bureaucracy. Blue meant minister/scholar and Yellow usually meant the Emperor these colorings determined your position in the hierarchy much easier than an ID card, or a seal.
Women especially have been associated with this kind of thought. Take example women in the Philippines. The way people dressed always determined their class standing, and in the case of women, their gender role. A prostitute does no dress like a female entrepreneur, even though in a certain point of view both have similar jobs; they both look for opportunities to make money. In the context of the article there have always been growing political agendas in the Philippines, due to the intervention of American influences and well the Imperialistic tendencies of the post-colonialism world
The distance themselves from the traditional past of the Philippines the adoption of Western dress creates a perception of modernity, through imitation have people say they have reached the same level. The idea of competitive imitation has returned, only this time it is the Colonized proving to the colonizers that they do not need their help any more, or that women are equal to men as it is suggested in the article.
My first late blog post - I think - damn pictures, stupid internet being out for almost an entire day, o'well nothing left but to post it.
Compact Challenge Update
Well Today I have a conundrum. Does it count if someone else buys me something? Kind of like a gift but I prefer to see it as more of a barter. Today I got an iPod Touch from my dad, and in exchange for that I am going to do yard work whenever I have some free time and get home. Does that count as failing the compact challenge or is it something else?
Eric Keng
Entry #6
Works Cited
Mina Roces. “Women, Citizenship and the Politics of Dress in Twentieth-Century Philippines.” Class Reader.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/18/business/media/18adco.html
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