Aesthetic Politics

The New York Times reports: guys have gone wild with their hair! Now it’s well nigh impossible to tell what a man (okay, lad) does or who he is just by assessing his do. It’s like Renaissance Italy — freaks prowling proudly everywhere, completely outside the envelope of fashion tribalism or even trends. And I say good for it.

At least in theory. In practice, ugh, look at those pictures, what were they thinking? A riot of category-violating styles, a popular destruction of ‘the whole’, of ‘tradition’, seems to me in the world of personal aesthetics to be a harmless, and occasionally inspirational, public adventure. But I’m pretty sure that holds so long as we retain a nice public culture of free and open aesthetic criticism. Obviously we don’t want to spend too much time fighting savage verbal wars over Simon Le Bon references vs. J. Geils Band appropriations. Still, harmless creativity becomes a problem the more that respect for what’s created comes to be thought of as mandatory . . . because ultimately that blanket, universal respect attaches to ‘creativity’ and not the individual doing the creating. Heathenism!

Think about it: would you , enlightened person steeped in the pop aesthetic, let a friend or loved one walk out of the house with crimped hair? And would you be able to advance a reasoned, even if not Rational, argument as to why? You betcha. Even with the stakes as silly and low as they are in a world captivated by fully personalizing style, we’ve got to retain an appreciation for the essential messiness, yet reasonableness, of aesthetic politics.