Fashionably Fascist

My mom got me a subscription to Vanity Fair and I just read a very interesting article in the January edition.  To summarize, Kurt Andersen writes that in the last 20 years we have changed dramatically technologically, but not stylistically.  He calls it the First Great Paradox of Contemporary Cultural History.  The article says that cars, architecture, and clothing, have all been visibly different throughout the decades, until now.  If you look at 1992, things have not changed much.  Andersen says that the first reason is the economy. Redecorating and renovating isn’t necessary in an economy like this, therefore things stay the same.  The second reason is that technologically and scientifically things are changing rapidly, therefore we are clinging to what is familiar.  I agree with this.  Change is good, but too much at one time is jolting.  It’s understandable that we wouldn’t want to change everything about our environment at once. Basically, he says that we are not moving forward, but laterally. I think he’s right because I have tried many times to figure out what the 90’s “looked” like and other than huge cell phones, higher pants and the disgusting Seattle grunge look, there haven’t many changes.  And when I was little I thought that 2012 would bring flying cars!

Andersen mentions our fascination with throwback shows, like Mad Men, which I found particularly interesting because I am watching the show on Netflix right now with my friend, Brea.  Brea and I have talked about how we feel like we were born in the wrong era, style-wise.  We’re both girly girls, so I suppose that’s why fashion from the 40’s through the 60’s appeals to us.  However, as much as we love Mad Men, we realize that we are definitely from the 80’s because we get angry every time one of those pompous, stupid, arrogant male characters treats a woman like a piece of dumb sex-on-a-stick.  We are definitely post-bra-burning babies…..luckily.  I had a professor at Georgia State that reminded us that although the music and clothes and cars were awesome in the 60’s, it’s important to remember that it was an extremely violent and unfair time.  I guess that is why the show has had so much success—it’s a perfect mix of what we wish existed and the reality of what was bubbling up from underneath the perfect surface.  Mad Men is so beautifully spun; taking place within the lives of the people inventing the images that we still think of today.  The people who invent the image are the most messed up, and yet I find it fascinating that I still watch it wishing that the lie was real.  I wish that it was easy to raise children, take care of a home and yourself while wearing a dress and looking perfect…..but it isn’t.  My image of June Cleaver nowadays exists with a vacuum cleaner in one hand and a Xanax in the other.  If you’re that perfect, then you are high as a kite…..or you’re like the rest of us and admit that it’s hard.  So knowing all of this, why are we nostalgic?  Are we bored in the present, because things haven't changed much?  The arts, architecture, clothing, cars....they give us our identity.  Are we struggling and without identity today?

Mad Men raises questions for me.  I wonder if the very fact that women worked during WW2 scared people so much that they did a 180 and pumped the “traditional” images out even more than before.  It is possible since we know that men were the ones working in the ad agencies.  Then I wonder if the images that we see from the 50’s and 60’s were intentionally created to “keep the social peace and balance of things”, or is it that in hindsight, it’s easy for us to believe that they were?  In other words, if people really were suppressed, scared of themselves and their feelings, persecuted for having opinions outside the status quo, how do we know that anyone intentionally created a false reality?  It’s easy to write Mad Men in hindsight, so beautifully messed up, but did people realize that they were painting this picture for the future generations, or did they really believe that life was perfect, filled with family values?  It makes me wonder, what will the future think of us?  Is there a time in history where we can’t look back and feel sorry for those who lived in such ignorance?  Probably not, because if it isn’t one thing we’re doing wrong as a society, it’s another.  We’re human.

We know that mental health was very misunderstood in the 60’s.  Treatment was a joke, even the standards for being diagnosed as crazy were ridiculous—just read “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest” (I am reading it right now) or “Girl, Interrupted”.  People who didn’t conform to society were “crazy”.  Eccentric, somewhat sinful or egotistical people were considered Looney.  Maybe lack of understanding the human psyche contributed to suppression of emotions, which in turn made people even crazier.  We now know that suppressing feelings is one of the worst things that you can do to yourself.  

On the other hand, I ask myself, with the freedom to be “crazy”, have we actually gotten crazier?  Or were we always this crazy, just private about it?  90% of the population would probably be in a mental ward today based on the old standards; the other 10% would control the crazies.   People in Hollywood would be the first to go.  Lady Gaga is weird.  I am sorry, but she is just not right.  She is way weirder than some housewife shaking from nerves and fantasizing about the air-condition salesman (Mad Men) and yet she is a millionaire.  Have we gone to another extreme, where crazy is “quirky” and disorders are humorous?  Look at one of my favorite movies, “As Good As it Gets”.  He’s crazy, and hilarious.  And if you look at anyone in the world, you can find something wrong with them and write about it.  Trust me, I am always looking at people, finding some kind of ailment and thinking of a plot; even looking at myself.  If you aren’t “crazy” or suffering in some way, are you considered boring nowadays? 

I wonder what kind of person I would have been if I had been born back then—better dressed, certainly, but would I have been the type to suppress my quirks?  Or would I have been a girl in the village, writing about how much things sucked for us girls?  I’ll never know.  The truth is, the time in which you were born says a lot about who you are.  Our story is being written, possibly without our knowing what it will say.  Future generations will say something about our society.  What will it be?  One of the reasons that I love reading the classics and not what’s being published now is that I am fascinated with history, and literature is the best indicator of a time period’s social climate.  You get a story that was not written in a history book.  I love it.  

If you are older than me and lived during the time in which I wrote about today, I am always interested in other opinions. Please, comment. There may have been a lot of fascists back then, but they sure were fashionable. Right?

I revamped my blog’s appearance, if you hadn't noticed.  Before I started thinking about this entry, I had already decided to do a 40’s theme.  About a year ago, I had my pictures taken with Julia Greer (she’s great, if you need a photographer) and I used those pictures as inspiration.  The pictures were a birthday present for Don.  They are tasteful pin-up pics, I swear.  Anyway, I have blogged for a year now—January 18^th will be a year.  I deserved to take some time to make my site look something like me and not just use a template offered by Google. 

This is one of my vintage pictures.  I love the romper, but DAMN I am white. 
Did you know that Coco Chanel was the one who made the tan fashionable?  She came back from the south of France with a tan and BOOM....enter Jersey Shore.  Thanks, Coco.  Thanks for that. I could have been cool.  Now I have to look like Snooki to fit in and that'll never happen.

By the way, did you know that the cuckoo bird is considered the tyrant of the bird species because they lay their eggs in other types of birds’ nests? I learned that while reading my book. I will write more about the book, I am sure. 

Have a great day!

-Brit