| By Nazik - Feb 14th, 2008 at 5:22 pm EST |
| Also listed in: Campus Progress Blog |
If you've been to almost any major metropolitan area recently, you've undoubtedly noticed trendy young hippies sporting rockin' checkered scarves around their necks and thought, "I wish I were that cool!" Well now you CAN be--for the low, low price of trivializing and commercializing a vibrant cultural (and national) tradition. These scarves, which are sold at, among other places, Urban Outfitters, are reproductions of the traditional Palestinian male headdress (kaffiyeh) that became symbols of the Palestinian nationalist struggle. But recently, this emblem of a distant culture has transformed into a chic badge of upper-middle-class fashion-forwardness. It's one thing to sport a gimicky trend to seemlessly blend in with the cool kids in midtown Manhattan; it's entirely different to cheapen the meaning and value of a cultural and political legacy that will, rest assured, outlive any cover of Vogue.
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Plus, if someone is just wearing one to be fashionable that opens up the opportunity to inform them of the real reason they should be wearing one! It's all good!
And trying to inform usually does nothing. I've tried it on the 2 train a couple of times--I'm met with blank stares. Sigh.
you can spend your whole life combatting capitalism and still have your face printed on a shirt at the gap
I had to throw that out there in defense of the real hippies of the world.
Great, valid post Nazik.