Well, I didn't put this here earlier because I didn't like this. I was required to have over 1000 words and I actually didn't have any feeling or interest in this stupid topic. I just poured any ideas out that night before it was due. Well, I got an A for this essay though, while my friends got Cs.....Luck?
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Wearing Jeans
In the article “Blue Jeans” the author Fred Davis stated that the popularity of jeans indicated a strong social or cultural significance. As a college student, I wear jeans almost everyday. From my scrutiny, a jean is the most common clothing among college students. No matter what the climate is, a jean is suitable and comfortable to wear. Thus, as a contrast to the opinion of Davis, I consider that it is a very normal thing to have more people wearing jeans than before and this phenomenon can be simply explained by the compatibility and durability that jeans inherited.
According to Davis, as the society had changed so much all these years, people’s view on jeans also changed. A pair of designer jeans can worth so much nowadays that only very rich people can afford to wear the most fashionable pair of jeans while only workers would wear jeans a hundred years ago. “A critical feature of this cultural breakthrough is, of course, blue jeans’ identity change from a garment associated exclusively with work (and hard work, to that) to one invested with many of the symbolic attributes of leisure: ease, comfort, casualness, sociability, and the outdoors” (Davis 87). Davis explained how the society changed jeans from the cheapest to the most fashionable garment by bringing up the issue of jeans’ cultural significance to the society. However, I don’t agree that when I put my jeans on I am thinking about all these backgrounds. There are a great number of casual and easily affordable jeans on the market also, and I wear jeans simply because it is convenient. In my opinion, Davis only used the most extreme cases to support his judgment. He can explain the same thing by another way of understanding. Not only workers accept jeans anymore because jeans are introduced to almost everyone in the world now. If it is nice and affordable, why not choose jeans? Workers before chose jeans because they won’t be torn so easily and the crude material that jeans are make up of are cheap. So, with a pair of jeans, the workers can save money and time because they no longer have to wash their very dirty pair of trousers so often. This low cost solution to their problem made jeans so popular among workers in a very short time. The same reason works for why jeans are so popular nowadays. Jeans can be so elegant and cheap and a nice pair of jeans alone can almost follow one everywhere. I can save space and time and money by buying a pair of jeans I like rather than using the same amount of money to buy many cotton-made trousers. The difference between now and then is only that more people know about this convenience jeans bring. There is nothing much to do with the cultural authentication that Davis mentioned. Instead, this indicates that the convenience, durability and budgetary advantage a pair of jeans bring are affecting most people from both a century ago and the present.
Davis also presumed that jeans are used to distinguish the conversion between an elite and a populist status: “the twists, inversions, contradictions, and paradoxes of status symbolism to which blue jeans subsequently lent themselves underscore the subtle identity ambivalences plaguing many of their wearers” (Davis 89). He supported this conversion in tradition by demonstrating to the readers that people used to wear jeans during unofficial occasions only but now many people wear jeans to work. In my opinion, people wear jeans to work because they are comfortable and efficiency can be improved during work. I wear jeans to school because jeans are comfortable and I can jump, run and sit anywhere and whenever I want. When I am chasing the bus, I can just run as fast as I could without worrying. If I am wearing a dress, I may not be able to catch the same bus in that situation. I may need to waste another hour to wait for the next bus. More people are more concern about their productivity nowadays and they definitely don’t want to waste time just because they wear something that avoid them from moving how they want to. Who cares about what the tradition is when it comes to exigency? This is why I think Davis was just thinking too seriously about why people wear jeans to work.
Davis analyzed the modifications made to jeans by relating it to how the society’s view on wealth and gender roles changed. “Paralleling the de-democratization of the jean, by the 1970s strong currents towards its eroticization […] contravened the unisex, de-gendered associations the garment initially held for many: the relative unconcern for fit and emphasis on comfort; the fly front for both male and female; the coarse denim material, which, though it chafed some, particularly, women, was still suffered willingly” (Davis 91). It's true that the design and style of jeans can be really extravagant and radical now, but these different styles can be interpret as simply the desire to vary the form and appearance of jeans so to provide customers more choices. Somehow this is to ensure that there is a great market demand for jeans despite of the durability jeans possess. Jeans is popular not because of all those political, seriously contradictory opinions about it, but that it can be durable and fashionable at the same time. For example, Levi-Strauss & Co. is designing new styles and looks for their jeans for decades. They are selling jeans for so many years, and if they don’t modify their product a little bit, with jeans’ unique durability, who will buy another pair? By making jeans fashionable, both the consumers and suppliers benefit. Consumers have more choice in choosing how they want to dress up and suppliers can ensure a consistent market for their products. Who will ever think about poverty problems when shopping in an outlet and want to buy a pair of jeans? Without a doubt when a customer chooses a pair of jeans, the look and price are more determining than the cultural origins of that pair of jeans. It is constrained for Davis to relate all those complicated reasons such as the distinguishing of status to why we are wearing jeans.
Time is money. Both locally and internationally, jeans have acquired a tremendous popularity and everywhere you can see people wearing jeans. Since jeans are so durable and it is not expensive, people regard this as a magic piece of cloth long time ago. My friends and I am good example of jean fans. I find it very convenient because jeans are like mix and match clothing, and I look satisfactory with almost any other clothing matching with a pair of jeans. Most of all, jeans can be worn during both summer and winter, and the usage of softer and more commodious materials makes me agree that jeans are very easeful and valuable. Perhaps there may be a cultural significance to a certain extent why more people wear jeans today, but I really don’t think when I put my jeans on everyday I am thinking about that. The durability, compatibility, budgetary advantage, comfortable feeling and convenience that a jean brings is why my friends I buy it and wear it, and I am certain that that’s what most people would think too.
Work Cited
Davis, Fred. “Blue Jeans.” Signs of Life in the USA. 3rd ed. Ed. Sonia Maasik. Boston: Bedford, 2000.
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