Matt Moyer Dangerous Liaisons A&E Ch.

5 questions
5. How does fashion (clothes, cosmetics, adornments, styles) participate in invocation and evocation?

Males are expected to dress in what is typically considered to by male clothes and approved by modern society. That is evocation. Since everyone else is wearing traditionally male clothes the others actions towards the self force males to wear clothing that is accepted by the majority of society. This governs identity and defines the self through the action of others. It is socially acceptable for a man to wear a suit to an interview but if he shows up to a construction job site in a suit ready to work that will be unacceptable. It is out of the ordinary and all the other construction workers will think that there is something seriously wrong with the guy in the suit based upon the evocation of fashion upon them before they even began construction work. It starts earlier than the first day on the job site. Its difficult to define an age where one becomes aware that society is defining who they are by the expected attire for their gender and occupation, but it is easy to determine when someone clearly missed the point of evocation on fashion and they show up to a job site in something totally inappropriate. Invocation is how someone presents themselves within the boundaries that evocation has left them a margin of freedom to still abide by the evoked fashion but do it with a choice of styles. For example; jeans and a t-shirt would be a commonly accepted style for construction work but the type of jeans and t-shirt a person chooses to wear is how the present themselves to the rest of the construction crew. If a person shows up to work in a Lynyrd Skynrd shirt with faded ripped up jeans and a mullet hair cut they are presenting a fashion sense that says redneck. They are displaying a self that enjoys southern rock music in addition to being a construction worker. They are a fan of southern rock and agree with the ideals of southern rock. The southern ideals of patriotism, typically Christian religious background, and a love for bbq are exemplified through their dress.

6. Can an adult be innocent of her/his societys immorality?

No, because everyone plays a role in society that is determined by social class, race, gender, religion, and social memberships. The existence of social classes, races, gender, religion, and social memberships present boundaries to what a person can become or accomplish. Being an American of Northern European descent I am already capable of accomplishing more than someone born in a third world country to an impoverished family. I didnt choose to be born an American male of Northern European ancestry, but I am not innocent of what my ancestors did

to put me in this position. The arrival of Europeans in North America denied the further existence of the native people of North America and advanced my situation centuries before I was even born. Because of this I was given chances to succeed where people who did not choose to be born in the third world receive little to no chance to achieve success by means of upgrading their social status or pursuing wealth. Basically, my existence denied someone else the possibility of existence in my status. That being said there are social classes above mine that are afforded opportunities that unobtainable for me. The social classes above me didnt ask to be born into a higher social class, but since they were it denied me the possibility of being born into a higher social class. It is a typically American ideal to strive for success and continue pursuing wealth with little regard to the classes below us. Even if I am not directly exploiting lower social classes I am not innocent of their exploitation. My desire to further my position and hunger for the consumption of low priced goods force another group of people into a lower social class where they are to remain as long as our society continues with its passion for wealth and power through the use of cheap labor to produce goods and services. The text talks about proclaiming Irish Ballads are the best. They are only the best because of the hardships the Irish people went through at the hands of the British. They were exploited for cheap labor and forced to die in the streets while England sat comfortably across the Irish Sea eating beef and lamb that grazed upon Irish soil while the Irish were forced to eat grass out of the ditch to try and survive while their potato crops failed. If an Irishman was lucky enough to reach America he often found himself doing work that was below that of the station of a slave. That was because slaves were expensive and Irishmen just kept coming over by the boat load. It didnt matter if an Irishman died draining a swamp in Louisiana, he wasnt an investment like a slave was. It also didnt matter if an Irishman got blown up while building a railroad tunnel through a mountain. They could always get more Irish at a bargain price. So although a typical train passenger in the 1850s wasnt directly responsible for Irishmen being blown up by some sort of ill placed or short fused dynamite, they were indirectly responsible for the Irishmens station in life due to their own desire for a railroad system to be built affordably. The Irish were also known to have fought on the side of the Confederacy during the Civil War. Although they had little to fight for, a poor Irish immigrant would not have the means to own slaves or land, their options were limited and the offer to fight for the Confederacy came with a gun of their own and a little pay. So although they didnt have slaves they were certainly not innocent of the immorality of the Southern society. Their existence gave the Confederacy the ability to trudge on a bit longer and continue its own exploitation of human suffering. After the kinds of hardships the Irish endured, if they cant write the best damn ballad in the world then it cant be done.