Columnist George Will is mad. Hopping mad about denim and how America's fashion sense is going to hell in a hand basket.
He and Wall Street Journal writer Daniel Akst have joined forces in declaring jeans (and American obsession with blue pants) as "destructive" in an entertaininglylyrical prose that I imagine was quite popular when Will was a young man, i.e. back in the days of President Taft:
Long ago, when James Dean and Marlon Brando wore it, denim was, Akst says, "a symbol of youthful defiance." Today, Silicon Valley billionaires are rebels without causes beyond poses, wearing jeans when introducing new products. Akst's summa contra denim is grand as far as it goes, but it only scratches the surface of this blight on Americans' surfaces. Denim is the infantile uniform of a nation in which entertainment frequently features childlike adults ("Seinfeld," "Two and a Half Men") and cartoons for adults ("King of the Hill"). Seventy-five percent of American "gamers" -- people who play video games -- are older than 18 and nevertheless are allowed to vote. In their undifferentiated dress, children and their childish parents become undifferentiated audiences for juvenilized movies (the six -- so far -- "Batman" adventures and "Indiana Jones and the Credit-Default Swaps," coming soon to a cineplex near you). Denim is the clerical vestment for the priesthood of all believers in democracy's catechism of leveling -- thou shalt not dress better than society's most slovenly. To do so would be to commit the sin of lookism -- of believing that appearance matters. That heresy leads to denying the universal appropriateness of everything, and then to the elitist assertion that there is good and bad taste.
Link - via The Zeray Gazette
Thing is, I've never been much of a jeans wearer. Even back when jeans fit at the natural waist (what's called "mom jeans" now), I had a hard time finding jeans that didn't look stupid on me, in my opinion. So one day I wore regular office clothes, and all day had people telling me, "You know, you can wear jeans." *shrug*