An article in the Wall Street Journal this week proudly announced, "Designers Mine Heritage for Rags and Riches - Why Old-Timey fashions - Even Torn Overalls Offer Reassurance in These Times."  And here we have it, literary connections to curdle the blood: The Grapes of Wrath is the new inspiration for fashion houses like Ralph Lauren. http://www.momgenerations.com/blogs/audrey/index.php/2009/10/01/ralph-la...

As if it were not bad enough that symbolic gestures outweigh actual life and limb (a point I found driven home by Obama's recent Noble Peace Prize) now, in addition, the Great Depression is the new exploitable fashion statement. History has been mined for it's good looks and the battle has been won: Image supersedes all meaning. What is next? "Victims of genocide show us how to..." I can't even find the sarcasm.

Necrophilia is the word that comes to mind. In a chapter in "Doing Educational Research" Leila Villaverde, Joe Kincheloe and Frances Heylar urge us toward a view of history that "gives up necrophilic concern" and instead focuses on looking at the way reality has been constructed and at the forces that have shaped consciousness (2006, p. 319). To reduce one of the most brutal moments of suffering in U.S. history to trendiness, is to refuse anything but the most opportunistic consciousness. Using Leila, Frances and Joe's idea, it is to take necrophilia to a whole next level.

According to the fashion site (linked) Ralph Lauren wrote about his new collection, "There's a quest to reassure the customer that this is safe, this is good, you're putting your money in the right place..." Really?! For more insights on putting your money in the right place see Tricia Kress here: http://www.freireproject.org/node/add/blog For more on Ralph Lauren's goodness see this http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=465 and this http://www.greenamericatoday.org/programs/responsibleshopper/company.cfm...