Editor, the Gauntlet,
Re: "Cult of the anti-chic," Feb. 28, 2002,
Kyle Young clearly needs to give his head a shake. To equate non-conformist, anti-establishment, activists with those who are hardcore Gap consumers is a travesty. More often than Young realizes, people who hold these beliefs hold them for good reasons, not just because the clothing style is so "cool".
There are good reasons not to wear brand names on your chest. One good reason is the Gap makes you pay to advertise for them. People who sport the anarchy symbol are not trying to tell you they are bad and dangerous, they are trying to tell you that they prefer all that anarchy entails to our current status quo.
One statement in particular deserves a merciless attack, consider "being an anarchist, or nonconformist… because you want to be like your favorite band… is just as bad as shopping at Gap and buying Nikes."
Kyle! What do you think anarchists and nonconformists are listening to? Plenty of bands that fall into the category of music listened to by anarchists and nonconformists have very positive messages not found in the music the average Gap consumer listens to. The rejection of patriarchy, concern for all life, the evocation of action rather than apathy, sticking to your values rather than buying them, the list is very long.
There are certainly plenty of people who dress as nonconformists and end up in a psychologists chair. The difference is the Gap consumer who finds themselves in the psychologists chair hears something like "you have no sense of self because you insist on purchasing it in the form of clothes, cars, and your home. These things do not make a person."
The bottom line is that nonconformists, even if they are fashion twinks, will be exposed to ideas which reflect reality more accurately than Gap consumers will ever know. Unless, of course, they sign up for a plethora of university classes and sensitize them to the various issues that their non-Gap-frequenting counterparts devote themselves to.
Michael McWilliams