Many of the cruise-friendly Caribbean countries have camouflage as their military uniform and so it’s illegal to wear it in these countries.
Many of the cruise-friendly Caribbean countries have camouflage as their military uniform and so it’s illegal to wear it in these countries.
I mean it’s kind of a fun pattern in streetwear. I like mashing it up with queer or androgynous stuff 🤷♂️
Edit: can anyone tell me why I’m being downvoted? I don’t really care but it’s clear some people really strongly disagree with me and I’m not entirely sure why…
People disagree because it’s still an abstraction of camo. Wearing it in the first place came from people fawning over militarism.
I actually think it can work with a queer look in one of two ways, so you are likely fine: Either it’s effectively teasing the pro authoritarian militarism camo types, or it’s a radical anarchy armed rebel look, which without praxis is really just the former look again. Either way these are fine.
Another reason maybe you’ve been downvoted is that people loathe the deep abstraction of modern, or rather postmoderm society. Camo was made for soldiers > Camo was worn by patriotic civilians simulating the soldier aesthetic > particularly under the Bush administration, it became less a symbol of soldiers, and more a symbol of patriots. Patriotism is nationalism.
Today when most of us camo in the military cosplaying way, we think ‘nationalist’. When we see a person in a little bit of camo, perhaps just some came shorts and a regular t-shirt, we think either ‘nationalist’, ‘okay with nationalism’ or ‘ignorant of nationalism’.
So when most people see someone in a blended queer and camo look, they probably assume one of three things: ‘ignorant of nationalism’, ‘critical of nationalism in a rebellious manner’ or ‘pro nationalist queer’. Of course one of these is fine, but one is very bad.
Thank you for explaining your perspective.
I do think there should be room for playing with the aesthetics that make up our world without them always being a political or societal critique though.
Everything that exists was made by people and comes with the baggage of having been crafted by things as messy as we are. I think there should be room to play and enjoy how your clothe yourself even if it doesn’t fit into a narrative about your beliefs.
Its wonderful when it does, but given that it’s a creative enterprise basically every human will participate in for tens of thousands of reps over the span of your life, I think looking at someone’s clothes and making a snap judgement on who they can be or what they can stand for because of what “playing with aesthetic” looks like for them is a bit silly
We all draw lines, some imagery is intended to convey cruel meaning- I’m not about to play symbols designed to represent the oppression of certain people. But short of when people intentionally advertise a certain world view (with pride flags or swasticas or punk patches or various other ideological symbols intended to communicate who you are and what you stand for) it seems much more productive to judge people for the ideas they advocate and the impact they have on the world around them than the prints they think are fun for clothes.
To me this feels like a similar fascet of hyper abstraction rather than engaging with substance 🤷