The Meaning of Sunglasses [antikvár]

Introductionn one characteristically if particularly prescient episode of the TV show South Park, originally aired back in 2004, Paris Hilton arrives at the animated eponymous town in Colorado to open a store, marketing her distinctive look to the mountain-bound eight-year-old girls. Now, leaving aside the aesthetic merits or otherwise of this concept, this raises some interesting questions: is it, as one character claimed, 'empowering' to encourage girls and women to dress in a particular style or does it, as another stoutly put it, turn you into a 'stupid, spoiled '? And there, for decency's sake, we must abruptly stop quoting from South Park, but you probably get the idea.Of course, this question is fairly easy to resolve about dressing specifically like Hilton, but in regards to fashion as a whole it is, judging by the arguments exercised by some with the kind of tirelessness that would impress a Russian Olympic athlete, more complicated. Is fashion one big nasty anachronistic and misogynis-tic conspiracy to make women feel inadequate, or is it a means of self-expression that brings a lot of pleasing gratification?If one were to go by the way fashion tends to be covered in the media, well, it's not looking so good. One popular approach in upmarket publications is to make commendably po-faced announcements that a certain L1,300 handbag is a 'must have' and