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

The Blue Jean as heathen Metaophor It may seem odd to consider particulars of garments critical components of favorite culture. Contemporary clothing is a key element in the construction of personal identity it is used to denote an individual flair and a personality unique to its wearer. Yet from the corset to miniskirt, such items act not unaccompanied as practical coverings, but also as indicators for the current values and belief systems of a society. Thus I tender to examine what has gravel a most frequent article of clothing the relentless blue jean1 1 - in an attempt to unearth close to of the socio-cultural phenomenon that is popular culture. According to Raymond Williams definition, the blue jean qualifies as an fair game of popular culture due to its (a) wide-spread accessibility, (b) popularity, and (c) construction as an object think to be popular.2 2 But perhaps the blue jean is not only a product, a piece of commercialism. I assert, rather, t hat this cultural icon has become a gauge of changing interpretations of masculinity in mainstream American culture. The blue jean, symbolically, is the white, middle-class, All-American worldly concern. I would like to examine what, specifically, makes the blue jean stereotypically manly. 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 work warp 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 standard item of apparel worn by the cowboy.5 5 Even mainstream advertising for these durable denim pants featured manly rangers, taming their horses and lassoing the competition (image 1a). The concept 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). Authentic cowboys wearying Levis at this time were elevated to mythic status, and the pant was at once associated more with a rugged American, symbolized by John Wayne. 66 (Wayne, for example, always seemed educate for action with a holster comfortably around his jeans image 1c).