The Louvre
How Capital is seen in “Identity/Self/and Culture” Through A Historical and Ethical Lens
The reason I am choosing this picture from the many I took in Paris,France would is because I feel like this picture gives us a glimpse into the politics of Paris. The Louvre in itself is a world famous attraction. It houses millions of famous painting with the most known being the Mona Lisa. This one building holds so much history, this was once the palace to many kings and queens before it was moved to The Palace Versaille. This relates to the concept of capital.Throughout the semester we have been learning about Fashion, Capital, and Ethics. This directly relates to capital because while in paris when we went to the Louvre we were given a look into what persians see when they think about capital. While here in Paris me and a couple of my friends were asked were we Americans . We told the young boy we were and he told us that he could tell. We then proceeded to have a conversation with him. During this conversation he asked us did we like Donald Trump. We then all proceeded to tell him no. After this he simply told us that he really did not know about American politics but that was something that he knew. When we got back to the United States we started reading more articles for global class. One that we took a look at we read and article titled “Our Daughter”, this article dealt with identity/self/culture. In these articles we discussed how we prejudge people. We guess people ethnicity a lot of times and reach on what we think people associate with. For example if we see someone and see they are Carribean we might assume they can dance. However this is not necessarily true. The same for the encounter with this young man he assumed because we are Americans that we were associated with Donald trump. Another thing this young man asked was what part of the United States we were from, we told him atlanta. After we told him that we were from Atlanta he immediately said Migos. Migos is a rap group from Atlanta that have recently become very famous. So once he saw that we were black Americans from Atlanta he assisted us with a rap group. This was really interesting to me because even in another country we were put into a category based on our skin color. But in the same day we were put in a category for our ethnicity. Because we were Americans we should like Donald Trump, and because we are black we should like Migos. This whole experience and the history of where we were represented capital very well in my opinion.
How is Ethics directly links to Fashion
This picture was taken of me and my friends in one of the shops we visited. This particular fashion shop was founded by two women. What was so cool about this store was that everything was unisex.While in Paris we went to a lot of shops and places that changed fashion and the way we see it. This first place where we are pictured was really important to me because a lot of times we are told we can wear clothes as women because they make you look like a “little boy”. And men are told the opposite or even called gay for liking certain preferences of clothing. Personally I like to wear male clothes because they are more comfortable. This store caters to anybody so whatever a person identifies with is accepted and you can find clothes there. Another cool place we traveled to was the Yves Saint Laurent foundation. This was one of my favorite places we went on account of me really loving his work. Throughout this semester we dedicated a whole week into learning about him. We learned things such as why his designs were the way we see them. We also discussed how your life can directly affect your work. We watched a movie with him in it and in this movie we saw how he interacted with everyone around him, and how he viewed himself. The last place we went I want to discuss is on a tour of little Africa. I learned so much about how fashion directly correlates with ethics from our trip there. Our tour guide told us some of her personal stories. One of them was her talking about how she really tried to run away from wearing African prints in her childhood. The people around her were not accepting of the dashikis and the prints that they wear. She basically was saying how she begged her mother not to make her wear it,this was not just her situation. A Lot of people are not confident in wearing cultural clothes and representing their culture freely because of fear of being bullied. This really touched me because now you see so many people wearing the african prints. She told us that as it became more of a fashion statement she started getting courage to wear what she was wearing from the beginning. One big contrast to he was how the same clothes she was bullied for were now accepted. My friend is Muslim and when we were little she used to get picked on for wearing a hijab. Everyday when we got to school she used to take it off. Now they are much more accepted and copied. My friend now feels confident to wear her hijab. These are just some ways that fashion and ethics play a hand a hand role in each other. Fashion is a direct way to express what you believe in, your culture and how much it means to you.
Why travel? As it relates to Capitalism and Ethics
When I was trying to find which picture I wanted to use to represent my topic for this post I kept running into a dead end. I then realized after passing the picture of the Eiffel Tower multiple times that this one would be prefect. Jamaica Kincaid’s article really got me thinking about travel all together and why it is good and bad. In her article she discussed growing up with her life being hard, however where she lived came with a lot of tourist. She discussed how they did not see the real problems that were being faced and were only there to have fun. This really was on my mind as we went to Paris. With me living in Atlanta it was always tourist here and people who only come for the concerts and do not see everyday struggles. While traveling to Paris I really did not want to be that person to the people there even though Paris is a huge tourist spot. During our trip I was so grateful that I was able to visit places that were not just for tourist and were for the actual people who live there. In the article she talked about how when people come they only see the pace and not the people and are not sensitive to the fact that people call these tourist spots home. When we visited restaurants that are not going to pop up first on google and actually go to talk to real french people and talk to them one on one about their everyday life not just see the Eiffel Tower and Versaille and ignore the fact that people who live there face struggles too. In Paris especially i would say it is hard to seperate yourself from being a tourist and to figure out how the people there really feel. For example French are misunderstood. Most people say that french are rude. This from my experience is not true. What I observed was that they are working hard and they are having everyday problems, we come as tourist and expect for everyone to be happy that you are there and open you with wide arms. This however is not the case in the United States either, we all have our own lives and get wrapped up in them. This is in my opinion why capital and ethics correlate because we see how the place you live and what you are taught and what is instilled into you is a lot of times based off of where you were born. Also we discussed being a good traveler. This goes in with capital and ethics because if you respect another country and the people who live their then you will be a good traveler.
Reflection
Throughout this course I have been able to experience so much. From seeing the Eiffel Tower to visiting the Louis Vuitton Foundation, going to the palace of Versailles. I feel truly blessed to have the chance to experience what some people will never experience in their lives. I was totally immersed this semester. I learned more about fashion and what it truly means, I dove deep and truly started to understand that fashion is just how it appears on the surface there are so many layers. I made so many lasting memories on this trip. I made friends that i never expected to be my friends and I was doused with French culture. I learned what it takes to be a good traveler, I educated myself on how French culture was so when I went to France I would not do anything offensive. I truly learned how to be a tourist. I personally this wasn’t my first trip out of the country. However a god amount of my classmates had not been out of the country or even flown before. I was so excited for the to be able to experience new things and to be able to travel and grow within a week. Within the week that we were in Paris we grew closer as a group due to the fact that we were all fish out of water so we sort of swam together. It was really amazing to see us go from barley talking to class to helping each other on the metro. We learned about so many things in class before the trip and to be actually able to see them in person was amazing. For example we spent over a week studying Marie Antoinette for me to be able to go to her palace where she was the last queen was awesome. We also saw her gardens that we saw in a movie in person. When we were walking through there you could almost feel the history and could picture what it was like during the time when it was actually lived in. The trip was the pinnacle but the class was definitely amazing too. I was taught how to be more conscious of my surrounding and to take things seriously and realize that life is complex. Our trip was looked at as the least education because it was Paris but I think we got a great education. Our professor and co leader on our trip were tremendously helpful along with out student leader. I feel like by taking this course I truly know the Fashion, Ethics, and Capital that come with Paris and I could explain it to someone openly and freely.
