In a Psychodynamic Fashion

Introduction

Something that is very apparent to me is that fashion is a direct reflection of the psychodynamics of orality and written tradition of a particular time period.  The ideal of psychodynamics connotes the idea that there are both a conscious and unconscious impacts, within a certain mentality, that language choices contain. Noam Chomsky believes that coercion has a major impact on these oral and written traditions which he addresses in his, “Manufacturing Consent.” Chomsky claims in his interesting documentary that, “any form of coercion requires justification and any kind is nearly always unjustifiable” (Achbar, 2002). Truly, coercion may perhaps be the love child behind the psychodynamics of oral and written tradition directly shaping the fashion industry.

Written and Oral Traditions 

It is important to first discuss what oral and written traditions are that have such an impact on the way fashion functions in the world. Oral traditions are those which focus on spoken language. Famous examples of oral traditions can be found in the time when, The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer as well as certain books of the Bible, were written. A comparison can be made between these works because they were written to be told from generation to generation. The narratives are poetic and use repetitive words to help people remember the stories during a time where all history and stories were only recorded through the spoken word or possibly some type of script form.
Written traditions are obviously focused on the written word and these stories were written down because of this tradition. Within the written tradition, it is important to note the difference between the alphabet in the written tradition and script. An alphabet is based on phonics while scripts are based on pictures that represent certain words. Thus, in a way, the written tradition and the rise of the alphabet was a tremendous technological advancement. Fashion was greatly influenced by this switch.
With the rise of the written tradition, cultures were going through the process of globalization for the first time. Fashion has gone through the process of being culturally determined, to globally determined. Looks on the runways of Milan and Paris, while they still have a distinguishable look, clearly portray the westernization of cultures. They must, or the looks would not be seen as relevant and no one would purchase them. Let’s face it people, designers have to pay the bills too.

The Media is Influenced

The movie “Outfoxed” addresses an interesting new shift taking place from the written tradition to the oral tradition because of the impact that “the electronic hearth” has had on the populous as a whole. This documentary claims that the Fox news station does not exactly provide a “fair and balanced” viewpoint on the news. However, the topic of the documentary is not necessarily what struck a chord with me as much as the underlining meaning of the documentary itself. As I said, when the oral tradition was prevalent, people used figures and repetition to help people remember important stories. The news media has begun to do this and people have been indirectly coerced to become fearful. Chomsky may have had a point when he discussed the coercion that all people are subjected to because of the news media. I’m not sure if you have noticed, but fashion has gone through many different cycles. Styles have been leaving and returning with a relatively quick turnaround rate (I.e. platforms, stilettos, platform-stilettos and so on). My argument is that with the switch of an increasingly oral tradition to more of a completely written tradition, this will not be the case for long.
With the rise of the internet, I predict a return once again to the written tradition for a little while. I work in the publishing world, so there is no doubt that I have a deep appreciation for the written tradition; however, computer mediated communication has been on the rise. People are using social networking sites more than ever. At the click of a button, people have all the information they could want and there has been a need for literacy more than ever. To me, this means greater creativity in the realm of fashion. People will feel more free to step outside of the box because there is a larger audience that these people may appeal to than ever. Fashion will get out of this box that it has been in for the last 20 years and do some amazingly creative things, if coercion does not get in the way.

Coercive Couture

Chomsky makes a good argument that wherever the media is involved, so are corporations. These corporations want to make money. In fashion, this can be the case to. Corporations often use indirect or direct pressure to keep sales up. Often leading to poor decisions to sell clothes like this one: MOM JEANS. Notice the recognition by the lead singer of the only stores that will sell these type of clothes which are corporate owned. The people who invented these pants must have never stepped foot in an anatomy class. This type of look greatly stifles creativity, but was popular, so the corporations continue to sell this look.
Truly, coercion touches many parts of our everyday lives. The media has been impacted by coercion and so has fashion. Fashion has been subject to coercion that stifles creativity, but it has often used coercion as well. Fashion is a business and one of the biggest ones in the world. If people all decided to stop purchasing clothes, entire economies would collapse. Many people in the fashion world have used coercion to create what the perfect woman would look like. This can be seen dating back to the 17th century, when plump, white women were seen as the model women of the day. Now, abnormally skinny women have been viewed as the perfect model woman which has had a negative impact on the self-esteem of women.

Conclusion

Truly, fashion reflects the psychodynamics of the culture of the day. Often corporate coercion has limited the creativity of the fashion designers, but the hope is that this will change with the rise of the internet age. Our hope is similar to that of Chomsky’s, which is that the common people will be able to have a say in their own lives. That designers and commoners alike will be able to creatively express themselves each day without coercion from another.

References:
Achbar, M. (Director). (2002). Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky and the Media [Documentary]. USA: Zeitgeist Films.

Greenwald, R. (Director). (2004). Outfoxed - Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism [Documentary]. United States: The Disinformation Company.