Denim Haters

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Is me or is George Will getting senile? His latest column in the Washington Post is on…denim! Reading it will make you shake your head in disbelief that such a column managed to get past idle conversation at the country club into the op-ed pages of one of the nation’s top newspapers. This one part got my goat – This is not complicated. For men, sartorial good taste can be reduced to one rule: If Fred Astaire would not have worn it, don’t wear it. For women, substitute Grace Kelly – I can imagine most teenagers going who? Well, they would have a similar thought about George Will as well. But really? Fred Astaire and Grace Kelly? Does Will know we live in 2009 and last-generation fashion is definitely not in. Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly is equally flummoxed and gets it right when he imagines Will asking us to get off his lawn unless we’re wearing slacks.

Mind you, Georgie hates all denim; low-rise or otherwise. The dude should stick to stating misguided opinions on climate change or making political predictions that never come true. Or perhaps his next column now will be on the usage of the word dude and how if Shakespeare would not use, we shouldn’t either.

“Denim Haters” [Short URL: http://www.ipatrix.com/?p=2937] was published Thursday, April 16th, 2009 at 9:58 am by Patrix, filed under 9rules, Media, and tagged as clothing, denim, fashion, George Will, Media, WTF. Both comments and linkbacks are closed.

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http://intensedebate.com/people/Niket Niket
Its interesting that some of these folks were really the wise men and women a couple of decades back. I think there comes a time when the country is trudging along in the wrong direction, a few people stick by their core principles and make a change happen. That was twenty years back. Their "success" makes them wedded to their "ideologies", even when the other external conditions have changed; they don't let things like facts come in their way.
I think the same trait that made them successful "change merchants" are what make them increasingly "unhinged"… an almost unhuman loyalty to their principles or ideologies. I can't think of any other explanation for what we are witnessing now.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Patrix Patrix
True. But at their personal level, sticking to those outdated beliefs has served them well so far and they have become too entrenched in the establishment to be held accountable or corrected. It is the nature of the beast and has always persisted but at least thankfully they can be called out on their BS in the age of the Internet. As Kuhn pointed out, they are not likely to change their ideologies or opinions and change will come only when they die out.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Niket Niket
Well, I was assuming that some of these folks would at least try to be intellectually honest… and in a misguided way, loyalty to the dogma is inappropriately considered intellectual honesty. What you say is that they know the are BS-ing but do so anyway because it has served them well so far. Reading what folks like Will and Noonan wrote a few years back, I feel its more of the former (they are unhinged) than the latter (playing to their audience)… the former is perhaps more scary than "mere dishonesty."
http://intensedebate.com/people/Patrix Patrix
I did consider Will and Noonan to be one of those sensible conservative writers in recent times but this blatant disregard to facts does not gel with their intellect. Or perhaps I\\'m wrong and they always were a little unhinged and only now the times have revealed their true selves.
John
I share your dislike for Will’s article, but I don’t think your objection is very convincing.
The purpose of the article is to discourage full-grown, middle-class men from wearing jeans. He explicitly wants such men to dress differently from men of younger age, or lower class. Your objection that teenagers don’t want to dress like Fred Astaire is therefore irrelevant. The relevant objection to the article is: Full-grown businessmen don’t want to dress that way either. Fashion has moved on for grown-ups, just as it has for kids.
You don’t need to mischaracterize his opinion to make it sound sillier than it is. It is plenty silly already.

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Denim Haters

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