The BBC asks Are the hoodies the goodies?
I think I'm going to keep returning to this theme...!
I was out on Oxford Street last night. For some crazy reason, I love Oxford Street. Thursday evening, just full of people, a steel band playing outside the brand new four-storey Boots the Chemist (in between opposite-Debenhams and opposite-HMV - my god, a proper size Boots in Central London...!), a blues saxophonist outside Selfridges, an Andean band between John Lewis and House of Fraser.
I would hesitate to call any pantheon to consumerist capitalism organic or natural, but if any could be, it's Oxford Street. You don't get piped music carefully selected to psychologically encourage you to buy more, you don't get the claustrophobic mood-altering fluorescent lights. And most of all, you don't get gangs, of any age, hanging out, mooching, bored. Plenty of groups of teenagers, purposeful, relaxed. No feeling of intimidation.
The thrust of the linked article is don't judge people by appearances; the sub-text is that there are teenagers who have a purpose and a meaningful contribution to make.
And I say - "Duh!"
It really isn't helpful, in general, to categorise people by age. A desire to achieve, to make a difference, to earn respect, is irrespective of age. I know lazy, aggressive, self-centred people of all ages.
More intriguingly is the concept of judging by appearances. I have been on a course called "Your Image as a Professional Woman" and Diversity Courses. I think we all judge by appearances. And we know that everyone else does. That's why, when we're young, we feel a need, a desperation to be fashionable. As we get older, the need is less. I don't want to be at the cutting edge of fashion, on the other hand, I don't want to be frumpy. I consciously cultivate a way of dressing that I believe to be a reasonable, if wholly superficial, summary of who I am, objectively, and try to dress appropriately for the occasion.
I also understand the importance of not being a cliché - as a student, the Chair of the Conservative Association commented that I didn't look like a Lefty, I commented that he did. We both understood that we were actually going to be taken more seriously by confronting a prejudice of how we ought to look (and I enjoyed wearing mini-skirts, woolly tights and DMs, which happened to be fashionable then, and into my mid-thirties - why have I abandoned that mode - in woolly tights I can still get away with mini-skirts?)
I can see the practical benefits of hoodies, indeed, a hooded fleece would be very useful on countless occasions. I can see the reason why a young black man, in particular, might rationally take the view that he will dress in a certain way, despite, or because, of societal reaction to them. Not as an act of aggression or 'fuck off' but as an explicit request not to be categorised. Yet I observe on my journey to work, and round the building, that youngish black men tend, on the whole, to be more conservatively, conventionally dressed than their white peers, which is also a statement to confront societal prejudices.
I suppose there comes a time with every intelligent person when they realise that being a slave to fashion is not a statement of being unique, but actually one of being a sheep. I suppose all (most) of us went through it.
