America’s stuffiest columnist, George F. Will, is outraged that Americans wear blue jeans:
On any American street, or in any airport or mall, you see the same sad tableau: A 10-year-old boy is walking with his father, whose development was evidently arrested when he was that age, judging by his clothes. Father and son are dressed identically — running shoes, T-shirts. And jeans, always jeans. If mother is there, she, too, is draped in denim.
Writer Daniel Akst should be given the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Writing in The Wall Street Journal, he has denounced denim, summoning Americans to soul-searching and repentance about the plague of that ubiquitous fabric, which is symptomatic of deep disorders in the national psyche.
Wow.
This brings back very hazy memories of a Harvard Lampoon Newsweek parody from the mid-’80s, which included a “George Fwill” column headlined: “Why I Love The Feudal System.”
This article appears in Apr 16-22, 2009.
I’m no fan of GFW, but Americans could certainly dress a little better. And I do agree with Will that slothful dress is an outward phenotype (if you Will) of deeper issues. Like: “Waaa! Waaa! I want my cake and I want to eat it too and I want to eat it while wearing comfy sneakers made by a 10 year old Asian girl.” Having said that, I noticed a very well-dressed “mild-mannered” reporter with initials JN on last week’s Roundup. Lookin’ good!
Hey David: Thanks! Everything I need to know, I learned from Queer Eye. As far as I’m concerned, George Fwill is no Carson Kressley.