One Last Lustful Sigh...

Check these beauties out: like the love-child of a spiny lobster and a medieval mace--Lady Gaga-esque fabulousness.

http://www.endless.com/Sam-Edelman-Womens-Lorissa-Pump/dp/B0035JK5OY/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&cAsin=B0048BHX70&fromPage=search&sr=1-4&qid=1303708810664&asins=B0048BFVO2%2CB0035JK58U%2CB0048BN9AU%2CB0048BHX70%2CB0048BJQIY%2CB0048BHWYO&asinTitle=Sam%20Edelman%20Lorissa%20Pump&contextTitle=search%20results&clientPageSize=100&node=241745011&sort=relevance-fs-rank&keywords=lorissa

As a side-note, and in a combustion of consumption and body control, I've been honing a shopping practice that I term "consumer bulimia." It's basically the shopping equivalent of indulging in a decadent, calorie rich meal, enjoying the flavor, and then purging to avoid the long-term consequences.

This method has been made possible and encouraged by the super-lenient 365-day free-return shipping policy on websites like zappos.com and endless.com. The policy allows me to have a little taste of something luxe and out of my budget, knowing I can easily return it--I get that thrill of receiving and opening a new package, I get to see and hold the item I'd been lusting after in pixelated form, and happily, that taste is often pretty satisfying. In fact, without the benefit of professional lighting, staging, and the "zoom in" function, some items simply aren't as magnificent, and I get over my crush...ofcourse if they are amazing (and the lorissa pumps above are amaaaaazing) and you lack self-control, this tactic has its flaws.

Big, feminized, essentialist, pouty-lipped, high-heeled kisses to you all!

Marika

52 Plastic Surgeries and Counting

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Watch Cindy Jackson on the Today show, with Kathy Lee Gifford, our favorite, justifying her 52 plastic surgery procedures. Apparently she was an art student too fascinated by aesthetics to not change her every facial "flaw." She also says human proportions were invented long ago by Da Vinci and Michelangelo?

Interesting points include Jackson saying she didn't want to look like a man, "what woman does?", followed by Gifford's "Let's not go there, Cindy!", and in the end, when Jackson says she only needs a man for one thing -- to be her surgeon. Gifford, considering the ideologies undergirding a show like this, "takes her to task" here again asking if she's never had a female surgeon.

UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin’s message on academic freedom and open records

from: http://www.news.wisc.edu/19190

Members of the campus community,

Two weeks ago UW-Madison received an open records request from Stephan Thompson, deputy executive director of the state's Republican Party, for email records of Professor Bill Cronon.
Professor Cronon is the Frederick Jackson Turner and Vilas Research Professor of History, Geography and Environmental Studies at UW-Madison. He is one of the university's most celebrated and respected scholars, teachers, mentors and citizens. I am proud to call him a colleague.

The implications of this case go beyond Bill Cronon. When Mr. Thompson made his request, he was exercising his right under Wisconsin's public records law both to make such a request and to make it without stating his motive. Neither the request nor the absence of a stated motive seemed particularly unusual. We frequently receive public records requests with apparently political motives, from both the left and the right, and every position in between. I announced that the university would comply with the law and, as we do in all cases, apply the kind of balancing test that the law allows, taking such things as the rights to privacy and free expression into account. We have done that analysis and will release the records later today that we believe are in compliance with state law.

We are excluding records involving students because they are protected under FERPA. We are excluding exchanges that fall outside the realm of the faculty member's job responsibilities and that could be considered personal pursuant to Wisconsin Supreme Court case law. We are also excluding what we consider to be the private email exchanges among scholars that fall within the orbit of academic freedom and all that is entailed by it. Academic freedom is the freedom to pursue knowledge and develop lines of argument without fear of reprisal for controversial findings and without the premature disclosure of those ideas.

Scholars and scientists pursue knowledge by way of open intellectual exchange. Without a zone of privacy within which to conduct and protect their work, scholars would not be able to produce new knowledge or make life-enhancing discoveries. Lively, even heated and acrimonious debates over policy, campus and otherwise, as well as more narrowly defined disciplinary matters are essential elements of an intellectual environment and such debates are the very definition of the Wisconsin Idea.

When faculty members use email or any other medium to develop and share their thoughts with one another, they must be able to assume a right to the privacy of those exchanges, barring violations of state law or university policy. Having every exchange of ideas subject to public exposure puts academic freedom in peril and threatens the processes by which knowledge is created. The consequence for our state will be the loss of the most talented and creative faculty who will choose to leave for universities where collegial exchange and the development of ideas can be undertaken without fear of premature exposure or reprisal for unpopular positions.

This does not mean that scholars can be irresponsible in the use of state and university resources or the exercise of academic freedom. We have dutifully reviewed Professor Cronon's records for any legal or policy violations, such as improper uses of state or university resources for partisan political activity. There are none.

To our faculty, I say: Continue to ask difficult questions, explore unpopular lines of thought and exercise your academic freedom, regardless of your point of view. As always, we will take our cue from the bronze plaque on the walls of Bascom Hall. It calls for the "continual and fearless sifting and winnowing" of ideas. It is our tradition, our defining value, and the way to a better society.

Chancellor Biddy Martin

Tailor Tales

Angela McRobbie’s article got me thinking about an ancient form of production in India’s vast clothing industry that has somehow survived through modernization and even retooled itself to cater to contemporary desires -the neighborhood tailor who, during my grandmother’s times, was the sole spinner of sartorial tales. This ubiquitous fellow, often a wizened old man in command of a solitary sewing machine and a shop that was little more than an alcove at the street corner, was the person who tailored clothes for the entire family. Indeed, so significant was the relationship with their tailor, that families would rely on him for advice on what would look best (read: modestly appropriate) on the teenage daughter who would be attending a family wedding for the first time. I remember many sunny afternoons spent with my grandmother, devouring oranges lightly dipped in a mixture of salt and black pepper, where she would recount, misty-eyed, the glorious days of her teenage years enriched by the sheer beauty of the clothes her mother got tailored for her. So steadfast was her belief in the ‘nobility’ of getting clothes tailored versus buying unimaginative and overpriced versions from stores that even in her old age, she refused to ever wear anything that did not come from a trusted local tailor.

Things were not vastly different for my mother; she too had numerous tales of the man who tailored elaborate dresses for her –a product of the flower power generation and a Mumbai native, my mother delighted in remembrances of polka dotted tunics, bell bottomed trousers, a much beloved lilac mini and the dearest red colored A line maxi skirt embellished with gorgeous cutouts of black suede flowers (which I proudly inherited and donned, many times over, as a teenager!) all created from the magic fingers of her Master-ji (tailors in India are still called Masters, the word ‘ji’ is a suffix intended to demonstrate respect). There was nothing the man could not create from scratch and perhaps the strongest evidence of his talent lay in his ability to create ‘western’ clothes, which were not very accessible to the average middle class Indian in those times.

Today, perhaps even more than before the tailor stands as an indispensable figure, despite India’s foray into the global fashion scene documented by the mushrooming of indigenous design houses and the entry of prominent foreign labels. Indian fashion designers rely, for production purposes, on a team of tailors led by the traditional figure –the Masterji. Most of these tailors hail from villages and small cities and are skilled craftsmen in their own right. However, unable to afford setting up shop on their own or, even more, lacking the enterprise and initiative to do so, they function as the backbone of a fashion house, creating pret collections and couture creations which make their way to the most exclusive of boutique stores both in India and worldwide, earning a miserable fraction of what the outfit is likely to sell for. Others continue to work out of dilapidated storefronts and decrepit street corners, specializing in Indian wear (in opposition to my mother’s times, today western wear in India is almost universally purchased in stores), contemporarizing his trade by offering to stitch, for a fraction of the cost, the exact replica of a designer outfit –all you need is a photo and a few hundred rupees. Yet others barely eke out a living by surviving on money earned through alterations of various garments –a priceless service rendered for an abysmally low price.

American Apparel in Peril and the Luxury of Guilt

Nadine's excellent post brought up some really provocative issues in terms of our daily, experiential relationship to fashion and consumption. Our desire and our right to know the provenance of what we buy (from comestibles to neon leggings) seems to inform some of the largest current cultural debates, but in my personal life, these arguments sadly tend to disintegrate under mundane if inescapable pragmatics and economic limitations.

When it comes to ethical consumption, it is now a truism that such selective and conscientious practices come at a cost, and often create a marked class distinction, furnishing all the (sometimes true) cliches about affluent and guilt-ridden (usually white) shoppers buying organic, hand-picked arugula and feeling self-congratulatory. I personally can't afford to buy organic or "go green," in the branded sense, so if I wanted to positively contribute, I would have to access an alternative mode of resistance, which ties into Nadine's suggestion that we have yet to establish and implement a truly effective and progressive method to counteract exploitation in production.

Sooo, much like watching the doc Food Inc., reading No Sweat filled me with a temporary sense of indignation and injustice, but left me ultimately with an inchoate sense of frustration and futility, knowing that I'm probably not going to change much.

In an example of cost-prohibitive conscience: I love American Apparel's T-shirts. Their tri-blend v-necks make my heart beat faster and the tops have gained a cultish following, lauded for their perfect light-weight gauge and vintage feel. However, I'll be damned (damned I say) if I'm going to pay $24 for a cotton T-shirt. I'm a student on a budget, and even though I'm fully aware that the elevated unit cost is directly related to renowned Made-in-LA production mode (paying workers in its downtown factory $12/hr), I still don't want to overpay for cotton for the sake of knowing I can purchase with a clear conscience.

Up until very recently, I simply got my AA tri-blends on ebay, where I could buy in bulk (usually 3 shirts for the price of one retail top) from random wholesalers. It was my negotiated approach to anti-sweatshop consumption: the shirts were already fabricated in LA, the workers were paid equitably, but Marika could pay less than in the store. So you can imagine my horror when AA cracked down this past year and have forbidden ebay sellers from offering their products under the guise of being officially licensed: now the ebay shirts must be branded with some kind of insignia to alert shoppers that this is not "authentic" American Apparel. Check it out.

Handmaidens of the Glamour Culture

Elizabeth Nielsen's essay fits nicely within a body of historical work that has set the course straight in accordance to today's prescriptive feminism. Indeed, "Handmaidens of the Glamour Culture: Costumers in the Hollywood Studio System" depicts yet another profession where women are/were given little agency in determining their own careers and the organization of the profession at large.

Even now, in this supposed age of post-feminism, female costumers are still underpaid and overworked. And while women have always held a majority, men are still appointed union leaders as they continue to be seen as more effective in business arrangements with male studio heads. Further, the women in the industry today "must not only be knowledgeable but she must be young and attractive" (174). There definitely exists, then, a double standard in which physical beauty assumes a greater role in determining women's success in the field than men's.

Nielsen doesn't consider in her research the participation of gay men in the trade, a project that if undertaken would better paint a picture of the typical male Hollywood costumer in relation to the female costumer she describes. If the costuming world is anything like the fashion world, a venerable assumption, then gay men play a giant role in the field and deserve recognition.

Neilsen talks about how "'creativity' is synonymous with rescoursefulness" (170). Clearly, the amount of acumen needed to confront production issues is crucial. It must've been disconcerting for women with such creativity, both now and then, to see their abilities not put to use simply due to discriminatory practices. This point is particularly sobering for me because not only do women suffer - women's suffrage being a cornerstone in the feminist argument - but film quality suffers also.

Now, to end on a more personal note:

There are only four girls in my production class this semester, and none of them seem heavily invested in the class. They offer few critiques, will show up late, and turn in unfinished projects. I think they would benefit enormously from a critical studies course where she would be exposed to feminist thought as I have. Women in critical studies, I feel, not only well represented but empowered. But this sense of empowerment needs to trickle into other SCA departments also. My second film actually offers a curious critique of feminism, one I hoped would force some response from the women in the class, but I had to prompt them to respond. Why am I having to do this? Nielsen would probably want to know too.

Inside the Sweat Shops of Los Angeles

A very interesting, and very sad article on the garment industry in downtown Los Angeles and East L.A.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0803-02.htm

Reporter Andrew Gumbel accompanies California's Labour Standards Enforcement Bureau into one of the non-descript garment factories in downtown L.A., and describes what he observes.

L.A. is a choice location for the manufacturing of garments because of its proximity to design and retail quarters which ensures a faster response time to orders. This responsiveness eliminates costly backlogs and markdowns when slow responses mean an over-saturation of the market, and allows retailers to capitalise on popular products. In addition, it thrives off illegal labour, getting away with paying workers dismal wages. No Sweat has an enlightening, if somewhat distasteful interview with the owner of Nicole Miller, who despite not using sweat-shop labour, argues for the profit-driven benefits of keeping garment factories in his New York back yard.

This is a poster from the Emmy award winning documentary film, Made in L.A. which follows the story of three immigrants working in Los Angeles garment sweatshops as they embark on a three-year odyssey to win basic labor protections from a trendy clothing retailer. More information can be accessed here: http://www.madeinla.com/