Are My Shoes Hypocritical?

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Earrings: secondhand, vintage hand-me-downs from my mom
Scarf: secondhand, free from clothing swap
T-shirt: Hanes brand via Big Lots, $4 for 3-pack
Bracelets: lotsa places - Disneyland, American Eagle, Wal-Mart, gifts, family heirloom, antique shop
Jeans: Old Navy, $25
Shoes: Rampage brand via Famous Footwear, $10

I mentioned yesterday that my wireless camera remote broke. Clarification: the 2-second delay button doesn't work anymore, inexplicably, while the instant button still does about 50% of the time. So unless and until I get it fixed/replaced, the remote will be visible in all of my pictures. Heads up on that. Oh, and I got a new tripod.

Today's outfit was super-simple, as you can see, but I was diggin' it. I mainly just wanted to try stacked-up bracelets, a la Atlantic-Pacific:


See how good she makes it look? Color me inspired. I'm literally wearing all but one of the bracelets I own as I type this -- and believe you me, I tried that one remaining bracelet on as well; it just got overwhelming. Bracelets are a tricky piece of jewelry for me, as they always seem to get in the way of writing, typing, hand-washing, cooking, sweater-putting-on-ing, etc. It's sort of counter-intuitive that wearing fourteen bracelets would be easier than wearing one, but voila, it is.

Today is Rock the Red Pump day for The Red Pump Project, and in recognition, lots of style bloggers are wearing red shoes and saying a quick word to raise awareness of the impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls. My red shoes only have the teensiest of heels, but I say they count. I loved this simple overview of the facts on HIV/AIDS and how we can all work towards personal prevention.


I tend to be somewhat ambivalent when it comes to wearing __________ for a cause. Does donning a pink shirt or red hat really do anything for breast cancer survivors? Does wearing purple really fight bullying? Part of me feels like these campaigns trivialize the issues they claim to care about, because they give off the false impression that you can fight cancer/AIDS/violence/etc. by wearing _________ instead of calling upon people to do work that will actually count (volunteering, petitioning, donating money, etc.). I don't mean for this evaluation to sound as harsh as it probably does; mostly, I just find myself wondering if I'm being hypocritical, feeling charitable and oh-so-good for wearing red shoes when I haven't done anything of real worth in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

But you know what? Hypocritical or not, there's substantial precedent for using the color of one's clothing to represent something. Black at funerals, a white dress on your wedding day -- the colors and meanings vary across cultures. I figure if wearing red shoes or a purple sweater draws my attention to a cause I care about, then where's the harm in that? It doesn't make me an advocate or an activist, but it carries meaning and serves as a reminder for me. And so, red shoes it is.

How do you feel about wearing a color/clothing item for a cause?

4 comments:

  1. you have many accesories and looks good,those are really good shoes

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  2. Oh how I love this look!!!!! It's hard and edgy but the scarf ads a soft feminine detail.Very rock n roll! I really want a pair of red point to heels.

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  3. I am with you on the ambivalence thing. I think people could argue that passive activism is better than no activism at all...and perhaps that it may someday segue into real work for a cause, but it bothers me to the extent that for some people they may feel that it gives them a pass. See, I care. Done. Not that I worry about that with you because you seem to fall into the I-care-so-much-about-things-that-sometimes-I-can't-sleep camp (although I don't know exactly about your sleep habits).

    But despite that ambivalence, I don't think your shoes are hypocritical.

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  4. First of all - love the simplicity of your otfit with the red shoes.
    Second - I think wearing something for a cause is a nice reminder to everybody who sees you (and to whom you explain what you are doing) that there is a problem, and that we all can do something about it...

    Chiara (found you through Sunday Best)

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