h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Fashion Victims - A2974052
Author: Bluebottle - Currently considering organising an Isle of Wight Festival meet-up... - U43530

A controversial little article on the victims of fashion. I am hoping to perhaps include some more solid facts about modern fashions if anyone knows any..?

<BB<

I've only read this briefly, but there is the link between wearing bras and breast cancer (due to restriction of the lymphatic ducts). There is quite a lot of info on this on 'the net'.One might argue that the breasts require this form of support to prevent 'sag' and some women say that it is painful to go without. However, research shows that the wearing of a bra does nothing to prevent 'sag'. Also, Charlie Dimmock (British TV gardener) is famous for going 'brafree' because she says it is more comfortable to go without when doing manual work. Hence bras are a fashion item rather than a necessity.

Also, regarding ties, there is also the fact that they are often worn to show affiliation to clubs, societies, military regiments, old schools etc etc. i.e. there is more to ties than just fashion - many people like wearing them and the wearing of them is little to do with fashion. Hence the wearers of ties are not fashion victims.

Spooted a typo on the penultimate line "fight tooh and nail" > fight tooth and nail".

I had a brief look for linmks on hootoo for 'lead' and 'mercury' and found 'Dental Fillings' (A596478). This made me recall that some dental treatments (gold fillings, white fillings, Sporty Spice's diamond) are as much to do with fashion as necessity.

p.s. I just realised as possible understandable ambiguity in my Post 2 . 'TV' means television!

the section about Europeans wanting tans made me smile. . In Asian countries, many Chinese are obsessed with getting fairer and there is a huge market for whitening lotions and creams.

In Japan and Hong Kong, I think there is a tendency for many guys and girls to die their hair blonde. In a way they are aping the Western culture.

This is good.
Are you aware of A2973855, over there in AWW?
Collaborative possibilities, I'd have thought.

Personally I'd love to see this getting into the EG - it might be written with a point in mind, but its full of great factual information. I loved it!

Just one small comment - the Terry Gilliam quote - I doesn't really seem all that humourous or witty to me. Maybe its just me.

Should you not mention body-piercing?

Other than that it's great!

Woodpigeon

Another wrong word I detected:, "Venetian Ceruse had an affect of making women's skin". Change 'affect' to 'effect'.

Under 'Modern Fashions, I am not sure whether the elongated necks and wooden plates in ear lobes of African tribeswomen count as 'fashion'. To me, 'fashion' implies something that is ephemeral (albeit cyclic). Tribal identity features are longstanding cultural things, and perhaps these people do subtle things within the neck rings/ear decoration that would be more to do with fashion - similar to schoolchildren wearing their tie back to front (i.e. narrow end at the front) or extremely short. In this way they are still obeying the school rule to wear a tie (i.e 'necessity') but are able to make a fashion statement whilst doing so.
If European and Americans started doing this then, presumably it would be a short-term thing and therefore to do with fashion.(I sometimes wickedly suggest to my pupils that if they are so keen on tattoos, piercings and other tribal markings then maybe they should consider elongating their necks or stretching their ear lobes).

In the same vein, I feel reluctant to suggest that the Chinese footbinding is cultural and is not to do with fashion.

Don't forget Mercury soap! This poisonous cosmetic is popular in the third world among black people trying to turn into white people.

Hi BB,

Just a few notes I have noted!

The women who wore the make-up were, like those who wore corsets in the 19th Century, were not ignorant of the danger their make-up posed.
Two consequetive (if you take out the bit between commas)'were's

And the list continues, the things women have done over time is too long to ever know.
Not sure what to do with this one, but doesn't read easily to me.

For those who cannot or unwilling to pay the extortionate rates charged for the ridiculous idea of having your stomach sliced in half >>>
For those who cannot or are unwilling to pay the extortionate rates charged for the ridiculous idea of having your stomach sliced in half
An 'are' left out.

My two have indulged in the odd tattoo and have kept their body piercing to a moderate multipul earfuls and belly-buttons!

Watermusic

I think tattooing, piercing, and scarification should be included. Just because something is cultural doesn't make it less a matter of fashion, cultures can and do change. Circumcision and FGM could also be included here.

There seems to be an underlying assumption in the article that no benefit is gained by fashion. If this were so, there'd've been no need for sumptuary laws. Courtesans in Venice wore red shoes, and prostitutes in ancient Rome were required to dye their hair blond. Muslim women dress in various versions of modesty as an expression of faith. Fashion serves an important social function because human beings are by nature gregarious and tribal, and sometimes it takes 'looking goofy' to get something or to get something done.

I agree that cultures can and do change. But I still think that fashion, almost by definition, is 'here today, gone tomorrow'. Perhaps notable exceptions to this (which proves the rule!) are 'little black dresses' and the mini skirt.

Tribal dress, in my view, is a cultural necessity (and therefore not fashion) in the tribes that use them, but would be 'fashion' if Westerners were to adopt them.

I have nothing to add to the entry itself, so I will just say that I think it is very good. As for a few of the previous comments...

A Chinese friend of mine said that in Asia, women have operations to make their eyes look more Western. Similarly, while tanned skin is popular in Europ and North Aerica where most people are pale, pale skin is popular in Arab countries, where most people are sallow.

African women actually wear those neck rings to protect themselves form jaguars, which tend to go for the neck. Therefore, it is for protection and not fashion.

Also, circumcision is required for Jews, they have no choice, therefore it is not fashion. For most non-Jewish men, it is done for health reasons.

Those neck rings are obviously very effective, since no African woman has ever been attacked by a Jaguar.

The fact that there are no jaguars in Africa is probably nothing to do with this.

Oh, right...Well wherever jaguars are, women wear neck rings to protect themselves.

There's a very good Edited Entry on Chinese foot-binding at
A1155872.

Azara

I have a few comments about this paragraph:

"The Renaissance was a time of enlightenment, art, science, discovery and deadly make-up. Venice became the centre of a new industry; make-up. The make-up industry was embraced by the fashionable elite, a society was formed for testing the make-up which included Queen Catherine De Medici of France. Queen Elizabeth I also regularly used White Lead. There they specialised in the selling of Venetian ceruse, from the 16th to 19th Centuries. Venetian Ceruse was made of white lead, which was poisonous when absorbed through the skin's pores."

The reference to a society for testing make-up which included Catherine de Medici sounds really odd: I can imagine her ordering her ladies to try out various things, but not her joining a society to do this. Have you got a reference to where I could find out more about this?

I assume the sentence "There they specialised.." refers to Venice, but this isn't very clear when reading, since the previous sentence is about Queen Elizabeth.

I wonder a little bit about referring to ceruse as Venetian ceruse all the time--I notice that Google only turns up 5 pages referring to Venetian ceruse, while there are lots for ceruse in general, (which was just another name for white lead).

I think it might be worth mentioning that the ceruse type of paste make-up, and also the patches fashionable in the 18th century, were worn by men as well as by women, and were often popular because they hid the scars of smallpox and other diseases which we no longer need to worry about.

Azara

Chinese footbinding was *not* 'here today gone tomorrow'. It was around for centuries, and was every bit as cuturally required if a girl wanted to be married at all, and so fails at least two possible definitions of 'fashion' given above.

I know for a fact from my mom and sister that I, my brothers, and my nephew were circumcised not for health reasons, but so we would look like everone else in our birthday suits. I.e. in our own culture and country circumcision is currently the fashion. I find the arguments for doing it for health reasons that I have read to be marginal.

Re the Chinese footbinding, that's exactly what I meant in my post 8. Although ethically undesirable in our culture, it is a cultural requirement in China and therefore, in my view, does not count as 'fashion'.

Wearing suits without ties, and even without top buttons done up, seems to be becoming alarmingly acceptable.

'every silly self-inflicted stupid masochist attack on themselves'

Apart from my worries about something of a polemic tone through much of the Entry, I'd like to query the use of the word 'masochist'. Surely the pain is tolerated for the sake of fashion, rather than the aim.