Blah-blah-blah Jeans

Reading Response to Umberto Eco's Blue Jeans

Umberto Eco, in his essay Blue Jeans, engages an exploration of the physiological response to types of clothing, and how they have reflected and formed social and societal "morality". He delineates two categories of historical clothing - those that guide thought internally and those that guide thought externally. He, in turn, likens these to the characteristics of what he refers to as thinkers and warriors respectively. He claims that clothes that are physically liberating foster thought and philosophy, while armor (as he calls it) that is physically constraining contradicts such internal thinking. He goes on to make a feminist conclusion that the physically constraining clothing imposed on women (concerned with the exterior physicality of appearance) is a chief cause in feminine "enslavement". After lengthy rhetorical reflections, and specious reasoning, he makes a final observation and conclusion. He observes that "clothes are semiotic devices" and feels that he has demonstrated "how many mysterious paths the dialectic between oppression and liberation must follow".
This last observation is truly relevant and worth exploration. At the very least it is easy to agree that fashion impositions have been a part of the oppression of women throughout history. Unfortunately, Eco's ambiguous sarcastic tenor makes it difficult to understand if he supports such a notion seriously or not. Much pivots on the reader's interpretation of one of his opening statements in which he posits "no everyday experience is too base for the thinking man". He follows with a metaphoric pun on the nature of modern philosophy and the human "loins" which does little to clarify whether or not he is serious with a poor sense of humour, or quite sarcastic overall.
The essay uses lofty language and is replete with historical allusion in an apparent attempt to elevate the topic of clothing to a worthy and viable academic consideration. For example, he describes jeans as having a primarily "utilitarian" function and he alludes to crucifixion in describing his experience with the "calvary" of fitting them. He discusses having "achieved heteroconsciousness" as "an epidermic self-awareness". He talks of "impos[ing] an etiquette" and refers to the "stiff collars" of the "Victorian bourgeois". He references Freud's Oedipal theories in relation to Viennese fashion and he discusses the historical "habit" of monks in contrast to the "cuirasses and tunics" of "Warriors". He goes so far as to extend his reasoning beyond the ecclesiastic into philosophical realms by mentioning "the beautiful mantles Erasmus wore". All these examples coalesce into what appears to be an attempt at witty repartee with his conclusion that "[t]hought abhors tights".
Eco's effort to canonize his topic is marred, however, by specious reasoning and a penchant for humour of the loins. He posits that the "Victorian bourgeois was stiff and formal because of stiff collars". He suggests that Freud's theories might never have been realized if he had been subject to the fashion of Bermuda shorts. He states that women have been "enslaved chiefly because [of] the clothing counseled for her". He ludicrously and frivolously mentions Hegel's exploration of phrenology as a point of credibility.
Furthermore, Eco has an insensitive and almost adolescent preoccupation with sexualized word play. He belittles serious and painful afflictions such as orchitis or urethritis by likening them to a "garment that squeezes the testicles". He almost passionately lists the sexualized fashions of women and later describes them as requiring women "to be pretty and stimulating" and "sex object[s]"; he ambiguously uses the highly connotative word "dirty" to describe monks in loose clothing; and he concludes that the only serious exploration of fashion he has posited must proceed "[e]ven via the groin".
Eco's confusing rhetoric fails to carry the reader along sympathetically, but rather cynically. One might conclude, then, that his essay intends to be a sarcastic poke at academia and its habit of rhetorically exploiting the most mundane reality as a highly relevant social or historical advent. However, since his final statements have some highly politically-charged, controversial validity, Eco also fails to be convincing in any sarcastic endeavour.
In the absence of a satisfying resolution to the problem of his seriousness or sarcasm, the reader is left outside of Eco's subject matter and only with his voice. Although he begins humbly enough with a simple anecdotal story of revelation in blue jeans, even this use of scene does not generate much sympathy. Unlike Van Herk's In Visible Ink, it is lacking in poetic style and rhythm, which in turn fails to cause any romantic literary effect on the reader. His writing does not sensually or emotionally engage the reader. His historical references, unlike those in Ladd's Berlin Walls, are marred with tasteless, shallow wit. His cultural literary allusions, unlike those in Love and Sex in the Life of an Arab, lack the honest passion of the writing of El-Saadawi as to their origin, significance and relevance.
Ultimately Eco's essay comes across as a pretentious, self-aggrandizing celebration of his own witty ability to philosophize intellectually using only a mundane subject base, entirely written from the first person perspective, "I". A demonstration of the disdainful effect of his writing style is perhaps best given by concluding with word-play modeled after his own irreverent language, which is sure to make everyone reading/listening smile politely but feel less than humourously sympathetic. The ultimate feeling left to the reader is that Eco has made an interesting simple point about the association between clothing, social morality, and suffrage - and that it is unfortunate that it took three pages of his verbally 'massaging his loins' to get there.


Works Cited

Eco, Umberto. "Blue Jeans." The Writing of Expository Prose - Course Readings.
Ed. M. Smith. University of Victoria: UVic Printing Services, 2008. Pp. 20 - 22.