paisleypiper's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- we have met the enemy and he is us We have met the enemy and he is us I am tired of marketing and of being a consumer. But I love shoes and decided that I needed to buy a new pair. It has been over ten months since my last shoe purchase. Shoe-buying is a joyful occasion for me. When I was 3 I got my first pair of red buckle shoes and developed a special way of walking that enabled me to lift each foot up high in the air so I could see my shoes. This was the beginning of my shoe thing. Because my every-day shoes were 8 years old and my black work shoes had lost their insides and were letting in the rain, it was time. I don�t plan to purchase shoes, the time just arrives when I find myself in the shoe store, looking at the next pair. On Saturday, I bought new black play shoes. They are extremely cute, at least to me, and comfortable. I walked around the store, trying to make up my mind. The salesman and I talked about how they were sort of different and on sale for more than half off, presumably because they were not selling. I place a value on wearing unusual shoes or at least shoes that are a bit different. I have had all variety of shoes and have worn them to work. At all of my jobs, I become known for my unusual footwear. This is not such a bad thing � a good icebreaker at meetings. When I worked at the umbrella agency, people used to tease me about my blue suede shoes that I wore with an adorable blue and gray plaid cotton suite (this outfit made me feel extremely cute and extremely lucky because I wore it to get the job at the umbrella agency). The downfall of being known for your unusual shoes is that people know when you are in the restroom stall next to them. Inevitably there are the types who talk through the stall. This is a pet peeve of mine. Is there any small talk that is appropriate accompaniment to going to the bathroom? Is it really necessary to talk about work while going to the bathroom? Well, when you wear distinctive footwear, all of this happens. �Oh, it looks like Piper is in here.� Or, just last week the Esquire says �Piper, I see your feet. When you get back to the office, will you call Dr. Popcorn brain and see how he is moving forward on XYZ?� In the store, I stood around in the shoes that were about to become mine, imagining myself wearing them to work, to coffee, to poetry readings, lectures and plays. I imagined walking in them to the entertainment district or the shopping district. I wondered whether they would be the sort of shoes I would throw on to run over to Citizen Gerta�s and drink a glass of wine in the evening and listen to some tangled story that doesn�t really make sense. After some minutes of deliberation and a few looks at Quinn, I knew that there were the shoes for all of these activities. I wore my shoes out of the store � this is an important part of buying new shoes. I take great joy in looking at the salesperson and saying �can I wear them out of the store?� And they always smile and box up whatever tired shoes I had worn into the store. This time, stopping to admire the age of my eight-year-old doc�s. Quinn thought he looked a bit incredulous upon examining my shoes, but I guess since he was regarding my �just-the-shoes� (nothing will replace those docs) I saw something different in the situation. My shoe box sat around for a while, as I wore my new shoes almost exclusively. But this morning I opened the box to remove my doc�s to wear to work today�. And there, in addition to my shoes, was a series of pamphlets. Not one of them about taking care of the shoes. Instead, they informed me of the following: �You are passionate. You�re passionate about your individuality. You�re passionate about going your own way. You�re passionate about walking on Earth. �. You are stylish. You�re stylish in the way you handle yourself. You�re stylish in the way you handle others. You�re stylish walking on Earth. �. You are confident. You�re confident in everything you say. You�re confident in everything you do. You�re confident walking on Earth. There�s no one like you. � There�s no one like you in the crowd. There�s no one like you in this world. There�s no one like you walking on Earth. Earth and you are one.� Somehow it was no longer about my cute new shoes. I was, once again, a marketed consumer. That feeling of it being about me and my shoes disappeared. All of the sudden, I began thinking about how people in thousands of stores on several continents probably purchased these shoes. And each and every one of them have all been told that they are passionate, stylish, confident, and unique. The pamphlet withered away my willingness to just go with the flow and see some clothes on the emperor. As a pensive sort of person, I am amazed at how much of life is spent seeing beyond, through, around and in-between. But some things I just take on the surface terms. Here is a mass-produced shoe. Here it is on my foot. Looks good. Accentuates my style. OK. I�ll take it. Things like this make me draw a bigger circle of skepticism around myself and sometimes I just get tired. I�m tired of corporations coaching consumers that it is possible to purchase personality and individuality. Probably, no one would own that they actually believe they are buying individuality. At the same time, our contemporary culture values individuality quite highly � but only the sort of individuality that an outfit, a vehicle, taste in music or home furnishings can declare. Otherwise, to value someone�s individuality would involve respect and getting to know them, both of which can not be done on a mass level. But in our personal lives, we like things about people that move beyond their taste. At some point, their taste becomes some sort of path, but the path becomes part of the landscape becomes part of the world and we are in it together. I believe that people take over their belongings. That somehow, their belongings are only their belongings. Just like seeing someone�s clothes in a pile � how quickly the items have no meaning. It bothers me when some company takes this on also. When some company tries to validate my self by telling me who I am as their consumer, it bothers me. But I still really like the shoes�.. 11:02 p.m. - 2002-11-13 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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