Joan Rivers ft. Michel Foucault
Hello welcome back to Splash of Fashion, this week we will take a look at fashion through "Foucaudian lenses." Don't worry if you have no idea what those crazy lenses are! Just take a few minutes to watch this clip from fashion police and then I'll explain! :D
If you are confused at of what Foucaudian lenses are, well that tern came from Michel Foucault. Michel Foucault was a French postmodernist who ideas revolved around the idea of power and how people are surrounded by social policing, binary branding, and disciplinary mechanisms. Like the Panopticon building, which was built many centuries ago to watch people in such way that the people in the Panoptic structure couldn't tell when they were being watched, therefore creating self discipline and for most part obeying rules rather than suffering consequences.
Michel Foucault wrote, "Panopticism: Discipline and Punish," he came to the conclusion that ever since the Panoptic structure was build, the entire world became about being watched. Everywhere we are or go, we are ruled, not necessarily ruled by a king or police, but by the way hospitals, prisons, schools, and workplaces are set up. For example, in a classroom, you can easily see the panopticism because of the fact that teachers are always in the center front of the classroom. it always them to watch every student at the same time.
vs.
Now you're probably asking what Michel Foucault's ideas have to do with fashion and fashion police so I will hopefully make you realize that social policing and classifications are used everywhere we go.
In the beginning of this Fashion Police clip, Joan Rivers talks about the things people would usually think about when they think of Venice. She mentioned the amazing food, romance, and of course beautiful women with heavy mustaches. Wait a minute, heavy mustaches… why does Joan say that on national television?
I don't understand why she is being so stereo typical, Im not sure where Joan's idea of women in Venice having heavy mustaches, but that is an example of how society values looks and nothing more. Looks are what should least matter about a person, but society naturally classifies people as prejudicially as can be. If women did have mustaches, which many women do, it natural just more subtle than it would be on a man. So its nothing out of this world for a women to have a bit darker facial hair, but society makes it seem as if you do have darker upper lip hair, you are manly or ugly. But was there ever a rule that said that if women showed facial hair they were less worthy than a women without facial hair?
Beyonce is a great example, she is beyond beautiful and she has a natural mustache. Of course the
people that take care of her beauty make sure to keep it off, so that she can stay classified as a beautiful
women.
___________________________________
Then they criticize what Jessica Alba wore in Venice, this Valentino dress that is shown in the picture.
They said a few things about the style of the dress and how she wore it but Joan Rivers says that she looked like a "Atlantic city hooker" and they also called it a "mullet dress." Joan and the rest of the judges on Fashion Police act like the syndics that are in charge of everything going on. They are acting as a surveillance camera that decides whats good and bad. Within these four judges on the show, they all can't agree that she looks good or bad. This is where the binary comes in, does she look good in the Valentino dress, or is it really that bad looking.
Yes everyone has a right to their own opinion but this national television series allows for a few syndics to be in charge of deciding what others should wear, they are acting as the center of the panopticon and watching everyone in their wardrobe. No matter how many miles, cities, states, and even countries away, the fashion police is watching the celebs in hopes of judging them.
____________________
Lastly, this clip of Fashion Police talks about Naomi Campbell's Dolce and Gabbana dress.
I don't find anything wrong with her dress, so usually our little fashion police would do the job of judging the wardrobe.
Well, surprisingly, Joan Rivers and the rest of the group hold themselves back from judging her. The silly thing is, they don't hold back from saying anything because they absolutely think she wore it wonderfully, but because their sarcasm says that they are afraid of saying anything bad about her.
This could be a possible of action of a racial binary, they judged the other two ladies with no hesitance but they hold themselves back with Naomi and she is the only one of the three that is of color. Society has this idea that they decided to believe that colored people can fight or are more aggressive than non colored people.
They all laughed and said she looked great in a very obvious, sarcastic way. They didn't actually mean that she looked good, it was another way of making fun of her.
_______________________
These are only a few examples of where my Foucaudian Lenses came on while watching this short clip of the national television hit, "Fashion Police."
Foucaults ideas had a huge impact of how I view things now, I now see little things that are so obvious yet can be so subtle to others that would have never read Foucault's ideas on discipline and punishment.
Fashion is only one aspect that clearly shows panopticism in full action, but we are honestly surrounded by those ideas all around the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment