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| Sex Pistols |
It is quite comical to hear how some ladies insist that absolutely no one can tell them how to dress. I chuckle a little (to myself) when they say that nobody can restrict them from wearing a headscarf. At the same time, they cannot be pressured to don one.
To wear or not to wear is not the question but the logic behind it is.
What we wear and how we wear denotes a specific identity. We identify and feel bonded to one having the same fashion sense like us. Anthropologically we must have wanted to stay together as numbers mean strength and protection from the evil elements of Nature.
The story of the genesis of the greatest punk rock band ‘The Sex Pistols’ is one that began with a group of downtrodden rebellious teenagers who identified them with black leather jackets and outrageous fashion sense.
It began when Vivienne Westwood started sewing her brand of garments in a small lifestyle shop in King’s Road in London. Strikingly named SEX, it drew droves of young crowd who wanted to stand out amongst the rest. As the shop’s popularity grew, so did Westwood’s partner’s, Malcolm McLaren’s ambition to manage a punk band. With Westwood’s shock-value garments and McLaren’s group, ‘The Sex Pistols’ with their provocative lyrics, soon the Pistols became a household name.
Fans identified each other with the same kind of outfit. Gangs of one group would frequent one drink outlet whilst another gang, maybe the skinheads, or the romantics, all differentiated by the dressing or hairdo, would haunt other joints.
It is all about being part of a pack for identification and maybe protection.
In the same manner, organisations that insist their down liners dress in a particular way has no noble intentions or divine decree to suggest so. It is all about controlling the head, to build camaraderie, exert power over and possibly make them pawns to do their dirty work.
All the explanations to act, speak, dress, eat, live and pray in a certain ritualistic way is just a smokescreen for more sinister intentions.
