Friday, May 22, 2020

Cultural Identities or Lack Thereof in High-end Fashion Print and Digital Campaigns - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1409 Downloads: 9 Date added: 2019/04/10 Category Culture Essay Level High school Tags: Cultural Identity Essay Did you like this example? While There is no patent of symbols and styles from foreign culture., embracing symbols of another culture outside owns should not be frowned upon, however those cultural inspirations need to be clearly recognized for its original origin. American fashion designer, Marc Jacobs featured many non-white models wearing dreadlocks in his Spring Summer 2017 fashion show and digital campaign. Many times, dreadlocks and other natural hair styles are seen as unprofessional but when designers do it, particularly white designers, the look is normalized and trendy. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Cultural Identities or Lack Thereof in High-end Fashion Print and Digital Campaigns" essay for you Create order Jacobs did not credit whom this hairstyle is historically seen on or the cultural identity that it belongs to, yet he uses the style for commercial gain. The luxury fashion industry is known for exclusivity and awe of setting the best trends and prints season after season. With that comes inspiration of colors, patterns and cultures from all over the world. But for whom? Since fashions start in the 19th century by Charles Worth (both from modern fashion class) to Yves Saint Laurent using the first black model on the runway it has been catered to an of upper class white audience. In recent years many luxury fashion designer have been in heavy spotlight for cultural appropriation and lack of representation in digital and print campaigns not just in the US market, but in Europe as well. Cultural identities are governed by media. Identities classify peoples ethnicity, social class, gender, etc with the same themes of some identities being more aceptanted that some, grating unearned privileges, or even some identities that saturate the media and are thus over-represented in the media. Identities can also refer (use another word) to ones sense of belonging or based on specific characteristics. In Kellners Culture: Cultural Studies, Identity and Politics between the Modern and the Post-Modern, looks at identity through a postmodern lens. Identity was a function of the group as a whole, but in modernity, identity was a function of creating a particularized individuality. Kellner argues that television integrates individuals into social order, dominant values and behaviors, just as I argue that luxury fashion does. Designers introduces hundreds of styles and trends season after season, heavily circulated through digital and print campaigns. Luxury fashion integrates its a udiences into the dominant looks of white women or cultural appropriation and essentially Eurocentric ideals of beauty and style forced on people of color. Cultural appropriation is using cultural artifacts, symbols, clothing and other indicators, outside of ones own identity or culture for their own benefit or gain. It is usually when the dominant group adopts cultural signs and symbols of a minority group and gets used outside of its original context, like a halloween costume. In the context of luxury fashion, contemporary uses a specific hairstyles, patterns and prints. Designers present these styles as though they are new and unseen. While they make be new to those designers, it certainly are not to those identities that they belong to. When one brand of significance does this, then other brands then go to do it. Marc Jacobs an American fashion designer, well known for being the creative director at Louis Vuitton (1997 2013) and his own label Marc Jacobs. In September 2016, during New York Fashion Week, Marc Jacobs premiered his Spring-Summer 2017 collection. This collections was inspired by streetwear, rave culture, Boy George, Harajuku 80s grunge. After the collection was debuted, it took the internet by storm because the show was mostly white models wearing dreadlocks. Jacobs claims he was inspired by his hair muse Lana Wachowski, a transgender woman film director who wears hot pink dreadlocks. Jacobs and team used artist, Jena Counts who sells wool-dyed dreadlocks on Etsy. Jacobs fell under heavy criticism for not paying clear homage to his inspirations for using dreadlocks as a hairstyle choice. He did not mention any context of dreadlocks other than thinking they were fun and fit his theme of the season. Historically, dreadlocks have been attached to a Rastafarian identity, more broadly people of African ancestry expressing their connection with their ancestors and a statement to defy the Eurocentric standards of beauty that have been forced on people of color. The Rastafarian movement native to Jamaica, is not only a social movement, it is also a lifestyle and religious movement. Born in 1930s Jamaica, from Black political leader, Marcus Garvey, Rastafarianism emphasized the unifying of Black people to with the motherland in resistance to oppression and being robbed of African heritage. One way Rasta express their identity, is through their hair, dreadlocks. This hairstyle has been adopted by not only African Americans, but also people with African ancestry from the Caribbean and Great Britain. Dreads was a hairstyle famously embraced by Rastafarians in the 1950s and 60s who wanted to give a symbolic homage to ancestors and anti-colonial efforts. This brought a collective efforts of reclamation of African prinde and a confronting of social culture in America and post colonialism from Europe in the Caribbean. Dreads have seem multiple political phases (reference cult resistance book): earliests Rastafarian phase (1950s-70s), African nationals (1970s 80s), counter hegemonic phases (1980s 1990s and a transitional phase (1990s present) that has since separate the statement of wearing dreads as strictly as political statement. Cultural expression is also means equality. If white dominance was being forced on people of color, then wearing natural hair styles needed to be at the forefront to progress for racial inequality. Dreadlocks are also a protective style for hair and a fashion trend that people foreign to its original cultural identity have since adopted since the mid 1990s when dreads transitioned to be more a style fashionable style rather than a political statement. A main issue of Jacobs use of dreads is not that he put mostly non-black models in the hairstyle its his response of the accusations of cultural appropriation. In his response to an overwhelming backlash online about whether or not Jacobs had any faults, he ultimately resorted to pointing back a women of color and resorting to love is the answer. And all who cry cultural appropriation or whatever nonsense about any race of skin color wearing their hair in a particular style or manner funny how you dont criticize women of color for straightening their hair. I respect and am inspired by people and how they look. I dont see color or race- I see people (Marc Jacobs). He turned the tables on women of color and yet still has not mentioned his inspiration of dreadlocks. Even though his hair muse, Lana Wachowski wears dreads as a everyday look known to her aesthetic, Jacobs in an internationally recognized designer who should have known enough context as to whom dreads are culturally identi fied with outside of Wachowski. Although this incident was highly criticized, it was also heavily debated as many people went back and forth online the majority of those speaking out about this, being overly sensitive and there is not much of an issue here, eluding to a larger issue of cultural appropriation in society as people making jokes about not being able to wear certain Halloween costumes or festival wear. White people do not need to wear things in order to normalize things. In the past years, luxury fashion has had a consistent demographic based for white middle aged clients, however trends show that those demographics are rapidly shifting to millenials and consumers heavily based in the Asian, Latin American and Middle Eastern markets (mckinsey.com). Works Cited The Business of Fashion, and McKinsey Company. The State of Fashion 2018. 2017. www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/industries/retail/our%20insights/renewed%20optimism%20for%20the%20fashion%20industry/the-state-of-fashion-2018-final.ashx. Accessed 30 Oct. 2018. Garrin, Ashley R., and Sara B. Marcketti. The Impact of Hair on African American Womens Collective Identity Formation. Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, vol. 36, no. 2, 2017, pp. 104-118. Hunt, Kenya. New York Fashion Week SS17: Trippy Raver-Inspired Fashion And Dreadlock-gate at Marc Jacobs. ELLE, 16 Sept. 2016, www.elle.com/uk/fashion/news/a31903/marc-jacobs-ss17-show-new-york-fashion-week/. Kellner, Douglas. Media Culture: Cultural Studies, Identity and Politics between the Modern and the Post-Modern. 2003. Kuumba, M., and Femi Ajanaku. Dreadlocks: The Hair Aesthetics of Cultural Resistance and Collective Identity Formation. Mobilization Journal, 1998, Accessed 30 Oct. 2018. Lee, Helene, and Stephen Davis. First Rasta, the: Leonard Howell and the Rise of Rastafarianism. Chicago Review P, 2003. Mendes, Valerie, and Amy. Haye. Fashion Since 1900. Thames Hudson, 2010. Wagner, Lindsay P. What Its Really Like to Be Black and Work in Fashion. The Cut, 23 Aug. 2018, www.thecut.com/2018/08/what-its-really-like-to-be-black-and-work-in-fashion.html.

Friday, May 8, 2020

A Literature Review Of Complimentary Therapies With Arthritis

A Literature Review of Complimentary Therapies with Arthritis Elizabeth Kyle, David Lee, Jethro De Vera Loma Linda University School of Nursing NRSG 429 Nursing Reseasrch Eileen Fry-Bowers June 8, 2015 Introduction Arthritis is a disease process that many people are affected by today. It is defined as, â€Å"painful inflammation and stiffness of the joints†. Within arthritis, there are two different types of this inflammatory disease; osteoarthritis, which is the result of, bones rubbing together due to loss of synovial fluid and rheumatoid arthritis which is caused by an autoimmune disease process. There are many different treatment options available from over the counter medication to powerful prescription medication.†¦show more content†¦Over all , the trend that we noticed was that most patients preferred cold therapy over heat therapy, but in most cases, when both aspects were utilized, they yielded a better result. Research Because pain is the main issue that we are looking at absolving, we wanted to look at how patients reacted to pain. Yvonne C. Lee et al. looked at pain sensitivity and pain reactivity in osteoarthritis. The purpose of the study was to assess the experimental pain sensitivity and compare the inflammatory response to pain in 26 OA patients and 33 age-and sex-matched controls from the general population. The methods consisted of participants undergoing psychophysical pain testing to assess pain sensitivity in response to heat, cold and mechanical stimuli. â€Å"Blood samples were taken at baseline and four time points after testing to determine the effect of acute pain on C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin 6, interleukin-1beta and tumor necrosis factor-alpha.† (Lee et al., 2011) They found that patients with osteoarthritis had lower pressure pain thresholds (P ≠¤ 0.003) and higher heat pain ratings (P ≠¤ 0.04) than controls across multiple body sites. Patients had higher CRP levels than the controls (P = 0.007). â€Å"CRP levels did not change in response to pain testing. Although not statistically significant, patients tended to have higher interleukin

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ Chapter 6 Free Essays

string(68) " and reported them faithfully to Christ, who wrote everything down\." Feeding the Crowd Knowing how highly Jesus had regarded John, some of those followers of the Baptist came to Galilee and told him what had happened; and Jesus, wanting to be alone, went out in a boat by himself. No one knew where he had gone, but Christ let one or two people know, and soon the word got around. When Jesus came ashore in what he thought would be a lonely place, he found a great crowd waiting for him. We will write a custom essay sample on The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ Chapter 6 or any similar topic only for you Order Now He felt sorry for them, and began to speak, and some people who were sick felt themselves uplifted by his presence, and declared themselves cured. It was nearly evening, and Jesus’s disciples said to him, ‘This is the middle of nowhere, and all these people need to eat. Tell them to go away now, and find a village where they can buy food. They can’t stay here all night.’ Jesus said, ‘They don’t need to go away. As for food, what have you got between you?’ ‘Five loaves and two fishes, master; nothing else.’ ‘Give them to me,’ said Jesus. He took the loaves and the fishes, and blessed them, and then said to the crowd, ‘See how I share this food out? You do the same. There’ll be enough for everyone.’ And sure enough, it turned out that one man had brought some barley cakes, and another had a couple of apples, and a third had some dried fish, and a fourth had a pocketful of raisins, and so on; and between them all, there was plenty to go round. No one was left hungry. And Christ, watching it all and taking notes, recorded this as another miracle. The Informant, and the Canaanite Woman But Christ couldn’t follow Jesus everywhere. It would have attracted notice, and by this time he was sure he should remain very much in the background. Accordingly, he asked one of the disciples to tell him what happened when he wasn’t there keeping it quiet, of course. ‘There’s no need to tell Jesus about it,’ Christ told him. ‘But I’m keeping a record of his wise words and his marvellous deeds, and it would be a great help if I could rely on an accurate report.’ ‘Who is this for?’ said the disciple. ‘It’s not for the Romans, is it? Or the Pharisees or the Sadducees?’ ‘No, no. It’s for the sake of the Kingdom of God. Every kingdom has its historian, or how would we know of the great deeds of David and Solomon? That’s my role: just a simple historian. Will you help me?’ The disciple agreed, and soon he had something to tell. It happened when Jesus was away from Galilee, travelling in the coastal region between Tyre and Sidon. Evidently his fame had already reached those parts, because a woman from that district, a Canaanite, heard he was passing by and came running to cry out: ‘Have mercy on me, son of David!’ She addressed him like that despite the fact that she was a Gentile. However, it made little impression on Jesus, who took no notice of her, though the woman’s cries began to annoy the disciples who were with him. ‘Send her away, master!’ they said. Finally he turned to her and said, ‘I haven’t come to speak to the Gentiles. I’m here for the house of Israel, not for you.’ ‘But please, master!’ she said. ‘My daughter is tormented by a demon, and I’ve got no one else to ask!’ And she threw herself to her knees in front of him and said, ‘Lord, help me!’ ‘Should I take food meant for the children, and throw it to the dogs?’ Jesus said. But this woman was clever enough to find an answer, and she said, ‘Even the dogs can eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table.’ That answer pleased him, and he said, ‘Woman, your faith has saved your daughter. Go home and find her well.’ The disciple reported this, and Christ wrote it down. The Woman with the Ointment Shortly afterwards Jesus had another encounter with a woman, and the disciple reported this as well. It happened in Magdala at a private dinner in the house of a Pharisee called Simon. A woman of the city heard he was there, and came bringing Jesus a gift of ointment in an alabaster jar. The host let her in and she knelt before Jesus and wept, bathing his feet with her tears, drying them with her hair, and anointing them with the precious unguent. The host said quietly to the disciple who was Christ’s informant, ‘If this master of yours were really a prophet, he’d know what kind of woman this is ?C she’s a notorious sinner.’ But Jesus overheard, and said, ‘Simon, come here. I want to ask you a question.’ ‘Certainly,’ said the Pharisee. ‘Suppose there’s a man who’s owed money by two others. One owes him five hundred denarii, and the other owes him fifty. Now, suppose they can’t pay, and he forgives them and wipes off their debts. Which of them will be more grateful?’ ‘I suppose the one who owed five hundred,’ said Simon. ‘Exactly,’ said Jesus. ‘Now, you see this woman? You see what she’s doing? When I came into your house you offered me no water to wash my feet, but here she is bathing them with her tears. You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but from the moment she’s come in she hasn’t stopped kissing my feet. You gave me no oil, but she’s lavished this precious ointment on me. There’s a reason for that: she has committed great sins, but they’ve been forgiven, and that’s why she loves so deeply. You haven’t committed many sins, so it means little to you to know that they’ve been forgiven. And you love me so much the less as a result.’ The others at the dinner were astonished at his words, but the disciple took care to remember them, and reported them faithfully to Christ, who wrote everything down. You read "The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ Chapter 6" in category "Essay examples" As for the woman, she became a follower of Jesus, and one of the most faithful. The Stranger Talks of Truth and History Christ never knew when the stranger would come to him. The next time he appeared it was late at night, and the stranger’s voice spoke quietly through his window: ‘Christ, come and tell me what has been happening.’ Christ gathered his scrolls together and left the house on tiptoe. The stranger beckoned him away from the town and up on to the dark hillside where they could talk without being overheard. The stranger listened without interrupting while Christ told him everything Jesus had done since the sermon on the mountain. ‘Well done,’ said the stranger. ‘This is excellent work. How did you hear about the events in Tyre and Sidon? You did not go there, I think.’ ‘I asked one of his disciples to keep me informed,’ said Christ. ‘Without letting Jesus know, of course. I hope that was permitted?’ ‘You have a real talent for this task.’ ‘Thank you, sir. There is one thing that would help me do it better, though. If I knew the reason for your enquiries I could look more purposefully. Are you from the Sanhedrin?’ ‘Is that what you think? And what do you understand of the function of the Sanhedrin?’ ‘Why, it’s the body that determines great matters of law and doctrine. And of course it deals with taxes and administrative business, and ?C and so on. Naturally I don’t mean to imply that it’s a mere bureaucracy, although such things are, of course, necessary in human affairs†¦ ‘ ‘What did you tell the disciple who is your informant?’ ‘I told him that I was writing the history of the Kingdom of God, and that he would be helping in that great task.’ ‘A very good answer. You could do worse than apply it to your own question. In helping me, you are helping to write that history. But there is more, and this is not for everyone to know: in writing about what has gone past, we help to shape what will come. There are dark days approaching, turbulent times; if the way to the Kingdom of God is to be opened, we who know must be prepared to make history the handmaid of posterity and not its governor. What should have been is a better servant of the Kingdom than what was. I am sure you understand me.’ ‘I do,’ said Christ. ‘And, sir, if you read my scrolls-‘ ‘I shall read them with close attention, and with gratitude for your unselfish and courageous work.’ The stranger took the bundle of scrolls under his cloak, and stood up to leave. ‘Remember what I told you when we first met,’ he said. ‘There is time, and there is what is beyond time. History belongs to time, but truth belongs to what is beyond time. In writing of things as they should have been, you are letting truth into history. You are the word of God.’ ‘When will you come again?’ said Christ. ‘I shall come when I am needed. And when I come again, we shall talk about your brother.’ A moment later, the stranger had disappeared in the darkness of the hillside. Christ sat for a long time in the cold wind, pondering on what the stranger had said. The words ‘we who know’ were some of the most thrilling he had ever heard. And he began to wonder if he had been right to think that the stranger came from the Sanhedrin; the man hadn’t exactly denied it, but he seemed to have a range of knowledge and a point of view that was quite unlike those of any lawyer or rabbi Christ had ever heard. In fact, now that he thought about it, Christ realised that the stranger was unlike anyone he had ever come across. What he said was so strikingly different from anything Christ had read in the Torah, or heard in the synagogue, that he began to wonder whether the stranger was a Jew at all. He spoke Aramaic perfectly, but it was much more likely, given all the circumstances, that he was a Gentile, perhaps a Greek philosopher from Athens or Alexandria. And Christ went home to his bed, full of humble joy at his own prescience; for hadn’t he spoken to Jesus in the wilderness about the need to include the Gentiles in the great organisation that would embody the Kingdom of God? ‘Who Do You Say I Am?’ Around that time, King Herod began to hear rumours of this man who was going about the country healing the sick and speaking words of prophecy. He was alarmed, because some people were saying that John the Baptist had been raised from the dead. Herod knew full well that John was dead, for hadn’t he himself ordered the man’s execution, and offered his head on a platter to Salome? But then other rumours began to circulate: this new preacher was Elijah himself, returned to Israel after hundreds of years; or he was this prophet or that one, come back to chastise the Jews and foretell catastrophe. Naturally, all this concerned Herod deeply, and he sent out word that he would be glad to see the preacher in person. He was unsuccessful in this attempt to meet Jesus, but Christ noted it down as evidence of how well known his brother was becoming. To go by what his informant told him, though, it was clear to Christ that Jesus was not happy about this increasing fame. On one occasion, in the region of the Decapolis, he cured a deaf man who had a speech impediment, and ordered the man’s friends to say nothing about it, but they went and told everyone they knew. Another time, in Bethsaida, he restored the sight of a blind man, and when the man could see again Jesus told him to go straight home and not even go into the village; but word got out about that too. Then there was an occasion in Caesarea Philippi when Jesus was walking along with his disciples, and they were talking about the public following he was gathering. ‘Who do people say I am?’ Jesus asked. ‘Some say Elijah,’ said one disciple. Another said, ‘They think you’re John the Baptist, come back to life.’ ‘They say all kinds of names ?C prophets, mainly,’ said a third. ‘Like Jeremiah, for instance.’ ‘But who do you say I am?’ said Jesus. And Peter said, ‘You’re the Messiah.’ ‘Is that what you think?’ said Jesus. ‘Well, you’d better hold your tongue about it. I don’t want to hear that sort of talk, you understand?’ When Christ heard about this he hardly knew how to record it for the Greek stranger. He was confused, and wrote it down in the disciple’s words, and then erased them and tried to formulate the expression to be more in keeping with what the stranger had said about truth and history; but that confused him further, so that all his wits seemed to lie scattered about him instead of working firmly at his command. Finally he gathered himself and wrote down what the disciple had told him, up to the point where Peter spoke. Then a thought came to him, and he wrote something new. Knowing how highly Jesus regarded Peter, he wrote that Jesus had praised him for seeing something that only his Father in heaven could have revealed, and that he had gone on to make a pun on Peter’s name, saying that he was the rock on which Jesus would build his church. That church would be so firmly established that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. Finally, Christ wrote that Jesus had promised to give Peter the keys of heaven. When he had written these words, he trembled. He wondered if he were being presumptuous in making Jesus express the thoughts that he himself had put to his brother in the wilderness, about the need for an organisation that would embody the Kingdom on earth. Jesus had scorned the idea. But then Christ remembered what the stranger had said: that in writing like this, he was letting truth from beyond time into history, and thus making history the handmaid of posterity and not its governor; and he felt uplifted. 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