[lbo-talk] RE: uniforms

[Kelley]

does the popular fetishization of japanese school girls in uniform have 
anything to do with the wearing of uniforms? that'd be my guess. they 
may be appropriating something once forced on them, embracing it 
because they actually have the _choice_ now. (we see a similar phenom 
among third wave feminists, no?)

another thought: hip hop clothing styles emerged from the clothes worn 
in prison. turning them into fashion statements was not only about 
wearing those clothes as badges of honor, but they were also initially 
worn as a big fat fuck you. it was about taking the symbols of 
hegemonic whiteness and making it their own: scratching, sampling, 
graffiti, hip hop clothes. take what whites give us and refuse to wear 
it the way whites tells us to wear it in their fashion magazines. 
Tricia Rose does a nice job of exploring the political economy of hip 
hop style in _Black Noise_.

Kelley