On Sat, 23 Aug 2003, Brian Siano wrote:
> > This just reinforces my point: where do the criteria for "cool"
> > come from? 13-year old kids don't come up with this stuff
> > themselves!
>
> You have a pretty low opinion of thirteen-year-olds.
>
> There aren't many _forty-year-olds_ who come up with "this stuff"
> themselves, either.
You're missing my point: NOBODY comes up with the idea of fashion alone. It's a product of a complex array of social, economic, and political forces. I'm not dissing 13-year olds at all for participating in the fashion game, I'm just saying they don't even the criteria by themselves.
The fact that you assume I'm making fun of/ridiculing teens is interesting, though. Again, the individualist ideology: if you think for yourself, you're good/superior; if you're influenced by social forces, you're weak/inferior. The paradox I love about the individualist assumption is this: Why do people in our society value independence, autonomy, individualism? They didn't each come up with the individualist values on their own; they have in fact internalized dominant cultural values. Thus even people who claim "I think for myself" are reflecting the impact of social forces on their thought and behavior, no matter how much they protest that they think for themselves.
And again, this does not mean I have a "low opinion" of people who value individuality. I just want to emphasize the point that individualism--as expressed through fashion, car purchases, music preferences, whatever--is a crucial precipitate of socioeconomic relations. It is not (as common sense suggests) the invisible, psychological force that precedes these relations.
Miles