DISSENTION: SO HOT RIGHT NOW

I would like to address a comment somebody 'anonymously' decided to leave on my blog today.

At first I deleted it, and didn't think it should even be dignified with a response. However, on further consideration, I thought - out of objective fairness, of course - I should share it with the readers (or 'observers' as I would like to call you) of this blog.

Seems they are missing the point on oh so many fronts. Sad, really. But dissention is certainly oh-so-very-hot right now and hey, we can take it.

Thanks to good old Statcounter I can see that this person has visited my blog at least 17 times and has been visiting it since I started it up again this March. Either they seem to enjoy it, or they have just been sitting around on their computer (manufactured, no doubt, in a factory somewhere in the world besides Canada) contemplating the 'perfect' comment to leave:

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "TUESDAY SHOESDAY - Fave of the Week":

"I believe people today are to [sic] blinded by our society that they come up with a blog for fashion. Instead why not blog and post about the important shit that is going on in our world that most medias [sic] will filter. Get the real truth out there, and help our world not this fashion bull shit. Ever think about those poor kids that make your shoes for 6 cents an hour or even less, they must be very proud that "your [sic] so hot right now."

Dear Anonymous,

If you had even read my blog, those 17+ times you had visited it, you would have noticed at the top of the page the words, "This is not a fashion blog . . . This is a style blog".

So Hot Right Now is a play on words. This blog happens to think that what the 'fashion world' deems as 'hot right now' is often stupid and grotesque. Ever see Zoolander by any chance?

What this blog is interested in, rather simply, is how people today are adorning and dressing themselves. Nothing more, nothing less.

I suppose I could sit around and lament the current state of world affairs and blog about 'the important shit' but this is what I choose to blog about. To me, this is 'important shit'.

Instead of complaining about the world, I choose to find the beauty in the people who are living in it.

To me, style is 'important shit'. I have a lot of interests outside of style, including very many social justice issues and have campaigned and done activism for those causes. Having an interest in what people are wearing right now certainly does not negate, diminish or rule out those interests or activism.

Anonymous, perhaps you may find this passage of interest:

"We read off the many signals that our companions' clothes transmit to us in every social encounter. In this way, clothing is as much a part of human body language as gestures, facial expressions and postures.

Even those people who insist that they despise attention to clothing, and dress as casually as possible, are making quite specific comments on their social roles and their attitudes toward the culture in which they live."

-- Desmond Morris, Manwatching

How am I blinded by ‘society’? What does that even mean?

Clothing, dear Anonymous, is art. How people choose to dress themselves, is art. People wear art. We are art.

It is not my job to educate people about the sad state of world affairs. It is not my job to, as you say, “Get the real truth out there, and help our world”. In fact, many disenfranchised or marginalized people have found great empowerment in educating themselves, of discovering reality for themselves. Besides, I could not even pretend to take on such an enormous feat.This does not mean, however, that I do not speak out against social injustice or care deeply about the people of this world.

Where is your blog, Anonymous? Please send me on the address because I would love to read it. In fact, if it's any good, I will follow it.

And yes, I have thought about the children who make shoes and where my clothes come from. Please tell me, anonymous, where are the clothes you wear from? Do you make a lot of money? Do you have the privilege of buying your clothes 100% locally? Do you wear shoes? Are you a nudist? Do you wear visor caps and orange sweatpants?

Not all sweatshops/factories worldwide are 'bad' and not all shoes are made for '6 cents or less an hour' as you put it.

Posting photographs of what people are wearing on Vancouver Island does not mean that I don't give an eff about poor or unfair working conditions. I do.

What is sad is that I even need to defend this blog, myself, or my creative intentions to you. But I figured you are not understanding what this blog's intentions are and could use a good dose of clarity. Further that that, I am always up for a good debate.

If you feel so strongly and are so adamant that the way you view things is the 'correct' way, why hide behind the anonymous profile comment? I put my name right with this blog. And with these comments.

Let this be a lesson to you, dear anonymous. You need not speak of things of which you do not understand. Do not preach to people about what they 'should' be doing. DO IT YOURSELF.

Perhaps instead of worrying about "getting the real truth out there" to people, you should focus on getting some truth to yourself.

PEACE & MUCH LOVE

Deirdre A. Kennedy

PS – Your ≠ you are