Sociology, Marketing, and EFL: some thoughts on #FitchTheHomeless

As many of you have heard, the CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch hates fat, non-cool people.  Is anyone surprised? No? Ok, good then, moving on.

This article showed up not too long ago, detailing why A&F doesn't market to XL or XXL women (and why they do market to XL and XXL men, which is another post  in and of itself on the double standard of size and 'attractiveness' which I will not get into now, but have very strong opinions about.)

In a nutshell, A&F only wants "cool" people to wear their brand, to keep the brand pure with "thin and beautiful." This shouldn't really come as a shock to ANYONE who has ever, you know, walked by an A&F store, seen anyone wearing A&F, or looked at an A&F advertisement.  

The thing is, now that feeling that we've all had, that understood opinion that A&F has about their brand and their market, now that feeling has WORDS. 

Words like:

“[Sex appeal]'s almost everything. That’s why we hire good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don’t market to anyone other than that"

“In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids,” he told the site. “Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely."

Surprised? Probably not. Outraged anyway? Perhaps.

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This morning, my sweet Saffa sister posted this article on facebook and it caught my attention immediately. In the attached video (see below), a writer from LA named Greg Karber decided to re-brand Abercrombie by giving old A&F clothes to the homeless.  He invites everyone to partake in his re-branding efforts and broadcast their contribution using the hashtag #FitchTheHomeless. I love his thought process, I really do.  Sticking it to the scantily-clad Abercrombie man (with washboard abs) using social media?? WOOHOO! Let's do it!!

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I saw the video this morning and instantly decided to base half of a lesson on it. I felt like there was enough cultural relevance to Korean society that would make for some really interesting dialogue in my Screen English class, and since this particular class is 2 lessons ahead of the other section (thanks to the incredible Friday holidays we've had), I could afford the extra time.  

First, we read the earlier article and I explained about the status symbol that was A&F to an average American teenager, how I was very much not a "cool kid" in high school and that my mother would never let me drop that kind of change on clothes (100 dollars for jeans with tears already in them? Absolutely not, Zara. And then my dad would chime in: Z, I've got jeans with holes in them, you want to wear those instead? Aren't my parents great? I'm so thankful that they are wise, raised me well, and never let me shop at A&F).  

My students had some great opinions and questions about the article.  Mostly, they were flabbergasted that he would SAY such outlandish things out loud.  It's one thing to be influenced by a "beauty culture" (something very very much a part of Korean fashion and society), it's another to come right out and articulate it. They were able to compare the opinion of the Abercrombie CEO to views held all over Korean society in regards to beauty and weight.  

We were able to talk about (but didn't get into it very deeply) the subtle influence and impression of such opinions on individuals through the mass media, both in America and Korea.  Maybe we don't hear opinions like that every day, but we damn sure feel them. The pressure. The impossible standard of beauty and perfection and acceptance. And the damn-it-to-hell feeling that we will never, never measure up.  

We talked about how women might feel about his comments.  We briefly entertained the thought of our own daughters someday having such horrific statements made toward them. I mean, it's one thing to call me fat and ugly and tell me I can't shop in a store for skinny, cool people. It's a WHOLE 'nother bag of potatoes to tell that to my [non-existent, proverbial, future] daughter. I will go ALL mama-bear on you at the very thought. 

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We watched the video next, stopping when I felt we should dig into the main ideas and broad themes. It was a great opportunity to introduce new and/or cultural vocabulary like "irony" and "thrift shop" and "douchebag."  I didn't explain the "narcissistic date rapist" line, but inwardly cracked up because... yes. [Another aside: how funny that he said to broadcast your contribution to the cause on facebook and twitter, then added "and Google+ ...if you actually use it. Bahaha poor Google +.  The emotionally-abused stepchild of social media.]

We had a great moment talking about marketing, target markets, and branding. My students, yall.  My incredible students! Marketing, business, understanding the effect of what the CEO has said on the general consumer, and understanding that their so-called "target market" will probably, tragically, be unfazed by the misogynistic, arrogant opinions of a pretentious asshole. How will/have his comments affect public opinion? Likewise, how will they affect A&F profits? Only time will tell.  

I tell you what: I was in teacher-geek HEAVEN at this point. My students were involved, discussing sociology (which I love) and marketing (which I love and studied as part of a business minor, which goes HAND IN HAND with sociology!) in an ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE class!! Higher-level thinking! Controversy in advertising! Thought-provoking debate! Such great fun! AND ALL IN A LANGUAGE THAT THEY HAVEN'T MASTERED. Impressed? YOU SHOULD BE. 

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At the end of the lesson, several students came up to me to talk more about what we'd read and seen and what their reactions were. (We even talked more about irony: how ironic it is that A&F advertises its clothes by the lack of them.)  Is there ANYTHING more rewarding for a teacher than to hear students enthusiastically continuing a lesson after class? That by itself brings a tear to my eye. They are learning! They are engaged! They are voluntarily participating! 

The last student who waited to talk to me, 

ABSOLUTELY 

BLEW

ME

AWAY.

He said, "Zara... his idea is good... but... He is using the homeless people." 

Zara, he is using homeless people for his own gain. Zara, he is using poor people as a means to an end.

Zara, by asking us to help take down Abercrombie & Fitch, he is saying something about the homeless that hurts. 

By giving A&F clothes to the homeless, he is trying to say that A&F isn't good. By saying that A&F isn't good and giving them to the poor, he is inadvertently saying that poor people aren't good. 

By attempting to degrade A&F clothes, he is saying that poor people are worth less. 

If he is attempting to sully the name of A&F by giving their product to the homeless, he is calling them dirty. 

Believe what you will about the homeless or the poor, but we all deserve dignity.  Being poor, being homeless, these things do not make anyone less human. Less worthy of respect as such.  Less worthy of kindness.  Less worthy of grace.  

Why would I give clothes - a brand - that I don't respect to people that I do?

Maybe the people in the video were reluctant to receive them at first - not because they don't want to be mistaken as narcissistic date rapists (LOL) - but because of the dignity of the human condition. 

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This kid, this beautiful 19-year-old-ish student, got something from this video that completely passed me over the first time I saw it, but started to sneak up on me the second time... there's something wrong here...

This boy got compassion.

This boy understands dignity.  

This boy gives respect. 

I have never been so proud of a student.  Lord, that we would all look at your creation with such love. 

Perfumania

So, you can find some weird things when you go shopping.  The other week, I was out downtown and there was a huge display of perfume with really awful non-perfume, you'd-never-want-to-smell-like-that-(right?) names.  They were the weirdest/grossest fragrances I have ever seen.  I only snapped a few pictures for the blog, but there were more!  They were even worse than they look.  I would hope no one would actually wear these... what research team told that company that these would be a good idea?  The things you can find downtown!!

Drinking them is one thing, but smelling like them?

?????

Please stop.  

???????

Typhoon Sanba

Yet another typhoon hit Korea today.  This makes... five?  I think?  since I've been here.  The first was Khanun, which was unimpressive, but there have been a couple now that have made Brighton and most schools in Korea cancel school for the day.  Last time that happened, when Typhoon Bolaven hit a couple of weeks ago, my school still had us go into work to "desk warm," even though there would be no classes that day.  I didn't mind so much cause I got a ton of stuff done without students there!  

Typhoons are classified differently than hurricanes are at home, so these that we've been experiencing have been about as strong as tropical storms, not quite as bad as Category 1 hurricanes would be.  We've had worse thunderstorms come through.  I've heard rumors that the typhoon gurus inflate the hype around typhoons so that their "projected number" of storms matches the number of typhoons that come through.  I don't know if there's any merit to that, but Typhoon Sanba just amounted to another rainy, windy day in Korea.  

Today's typhoon caused classes to be cancelled again and THIS time, foreign kinder teachers didn't have to go in at all!  Of course, I didn't get the text that our boss sent at 7:20 am letting us know, so I showed up to work.  And of course, today of all days, I was actually EARLY.  I'm pretty much never early.  I was proud of myself... and then my boss was like, "Zara, what are you doing here?  Didn't you get my text?"  Uh, no?  Dangit.  

I had also just given my apartment key to Jennifer, who was headed to the hospital for new x-rays of her broken finger, so she could hang out at my apartment after her appointment until I got off work... which meant I couldn't get back into my apartment now that I didn't have work.  Awesome.  Lucky for me, I've got a good friend/next-door-neighbor who let me chill at her apartment.  Thanks Marisa!  

Here's a few pics of the rain:

So after her appointment, I met Jennifer downtown for coffee, laughed at people walking by with their umbrellas all in a twist from the typhoon winds, proceeded to be laughed at when we became the people walking by with our umbrellas all in a twist from the typhoon winds, and then we made our way to Home Plus.  

Let me tell you, if you ever want to see that store EMPTY, go shopping during a typhoon.  There was NO ONE there!  It was AMAZING!  

They had new shopping carts, too, with CUP HOLDERS!  Cool, huh?

Ok, this is one of those things that cracks me up about shopping in Korea.  You get "service" with some purchases, aka free stuff, and it's usually just taped to the box.  Sometimes they'll add extra free stuff while you're looking at a box of cereal, so instead of getting two free sample-sized boxes with your purchase, you may get three just cause you looked interested in what the shop clerk was assigned to sell for the day.  It's pretty legit.  See above: Light Up cereal with THREE sample Light Up boxes taped on.  (Light Up is a competitor of Special K.)

Here's a box of cereal with a cereal bowl taped on.  You can get all sorts of cereal swag with your box.  I LOVE IT!

Our cart even had a calories-burned indicator and a distance meter!  I'm not exactly sure how to interpret the numbers, but it looks like we burned 19.5 calories while we walked around the store and either walked 434 meters or took 434 steps... but I could be very wrong.  Anyone else got a read on that?

Anyway, I highly recommend going to the store in the middle of the day during a typhoon.  You will have the most pleasant shopping experience of your life.

Later, on our way to meet Becky and Eleny for lunch, this sudden gust of wind killed Jennifer's brand-new umbrella.  It caught us completely off-guard!  We about died laughing, as you can see :)

Poor little umbrella.  Went and joined the umbrella cemetery.  RIP little cheap umbrella.  

We spent the afternoon watching Lord of the Rings, drinking red wine, and planning our trip to Japan at the end of the month.  It was a phenomenal typhoon day!  Thank God for a day off of work and a storm that wasn't very bad.

Swimsuit Service

Have I mentioned how awesome it is to shop in Korea?  I mean, not when you shop for clothes and the largest size they carry IN THE STORE is a size 6.  Some stores carry up to an American size 8/10, which is nice.  But if you're not shopping for clothes, and even sometimes when you are, shopping here is really awesome.  Very often, shop keepers are so happy to have you in their shop that they drop extra goodies in your bag to be nice and convince you to come back later!  They call it "service."  Here's a quick story about one of those times.  :) 


The swimsuit shop down the street from my apartment is now officially my favorite swimsuit shop in the world.  Last month, I went in to check it out and it turns out they were having a humongous sale.  I bought a couple of nice bikinis, with cover ups included, for a total of 34,000 won, or $29.  Incredible!!! 

I went by again this week to see if the mega-sale was still going on (it was) and to see about buying some swim shorts, but I didn't find any that I liked.  The clerk was so helpful, though!  She spoke a little English, so it was nice to chit chat with her.  I decided to buy a swim cap, because you can't swim at a public pool in Korea without one, and I figured I'd want to do that soon.  I found a cap with an American flag on it for 10,000 won, so I decided to represent my country and get that one.  It seems appropriate with the 4th of July and the Olympics coming up :)

The sweet little clerk rang me up, then pulled out more swim caps from the drawer.  She let me know that one of them would be included as "service" and asked me which color I wanted, black or blue, then pulled out a pink one.  The one I'd just purchased was navy, so I went with the pink one, and she not only included the pink Speedo cap, but pink Speedo goggles, and a pink Speedo drawstring backpack!  What is this??  I buy a single swim cap for 10 bucks and get an extra cap, nice goggles, and a nice bag with adjustable drawstrings too??  Now that's customer service :):)

Amaaaazing weekend

Man oh man it was a good weekend!  I really like living in Gwangju.  I feel settled, finally, and I really really really like the friends I've made here!  Here's a little bit about my amazing weekend:

(Ok, this part's not amazing, but it was essential to make me feel better so I could enjoy the amazing that was to come! Plus it's one of those day-to-day things that I'd be interested in if one of my friends moved overseas, and those are the things I want to post for all you folks.)  Thursday, I finally went to a doctor because my ribs hurt SO bad.  He spoke great English and told me that all the coughing caused a strain in my inter-coastal cartilage and the muscles around my ribs.  That's why it felt like I'd bruised or broken my ribs from coughing so hard!  He told me that I need rest for 10 days, aka no coughing, to heal my inter-coastals.  So he referred me to a family practice doctor who didn't speak English well, but used his handy English medical phrasebook to direct the visit.  Some of the phrasing was a little suspect... when he wanted me to lift my shirt so he could listen to my breathing with the stethoscope, he said "take off your clothes," to which I was like WHAT? and then I realized that he just meant "lift up your shirt a little."  Turns out that I've had bronchitis (among other things) for a couple weeks.  He gave me a prescription for drugs and little packets of antibiotics (which were delicious) to knock out what ails me.  Sweet!  (The doctor also said no alcohol or coffee for 3 days while I was taking the medicine... oops... Friday night I definitely had a glass of wine and on Saturday I plumb forgot and ordered a coffee while out with a few friends.  I'm sure I'll be fine, though) Anyway, I went down to the little pharmacy that I passed on the way in and they hooked me up, and all-in-all my doctor visit and meds totaled 24,500 won, or $21.63, without insurance.  Legit. 


On with the amazing weekend!

Friday, I got my Alien Residency Card, which makes me an official person in South Korea!!  It was also PAYDAY so I got my first official paycheck!!! That paycheck is also in my new bank account, which I got to set up because I have my ARC.  It is such a relief to know that I have money in the bank, and that I can use my debit card at the grocery store and not freak out if I don't have enough cash for my groceries...  There have been many times that I've had to put things back cause I didn't bring enough cash to the store.  Those days are over! 

Friday night, the group of teachers from my school all went out to this western buffet, which included ALL SORTS OF THINGS like salads, soups, pork ribs, chicken, pastas, etc, desserts, a waffle bar, wine on tap, cokes, and specialty coffees.  Yum!!!!  After dinner, I went over to watch a documentary about healthy juicing at a friend's place.  I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have to buy a juicer now and juice all my fruits and veggies.  We sampled some and they're quite delicious :)

The rest of the weekend, I used some of my new money in my new bank account to do some much awaited shopping!  There's a great flea market page on facebook that lets folks buy and sell their stuff when they move.  I've done some exchanges here and there, bought a nightstand and a portable heater, an extension cord, etc.  None of that compares to my big Saturday purchase though :)  I had been thinking about learning how to play piano again while I'm here, cause I love it and miss it.  Lo and behold, someone posted about a keyboard for sale and I snatched it up!  It's a portable grand piano, it came with a stand, a petal, and a carrying case.  It's a Yamaha, which is a good brand of keyboard.  I. am. so. excited!  I pluged it in as soon as I got home from the meet/drop with its former owner (who's a really neat guy going back to the states with his little family to do some fundraising for another facebook friend of mine who's doing ministry in Thailand.  Small world, right?).  It plays so nicely!  Just like a beautiful Yamaha keyboard should.  It's got volume control, so I won't blare out my neighbors, and it's even got headphones so I can play for my ears only.  My mama's going to mail me a piano book that I bought a couple years ago when I took some lessons at A&M UMC so I can keep teaching myself.  I've already got a friend lined up to give me a couple of supplemental lessons too.  Did I mention that it's so beautiful??  The only (small) problem is that I literally don't have room for it in my tiny apartment.  I need to rearrange some and figure out some way that I can leave it set up and still have room to walk without knocking it over.

Saturday was an eventful flea market page shopping day, cause I also got a great deal on a (very) used toaster oven and a bunch of spices and stuff that the girl was getting rid of.  Thank you, Dave Ramsey, for teaching me how to use walk-away power.  Now I can bake!!!  Next step is to get a surface to set it on in my kitchen.  I have zero horizontal space.  Zero.  That's not an exaggeration.  I have a sink and a stove and 2 cabinets and a fridge.  No counter, no drawers.  I've even been using my multi-function tabledesk as a pantry.  All in good time. 

The rest of Saturday was spent hanging out with good friends.  One of my friends got a rescue kitten (poor dear, she'd been attacked, but she's better now) and I went over to hang out and have coffee (oops) and play with the kitty!  Sooo precious!  Then some of us went out for samgyeopsal, which is about the same thing as galbi, just a different type of grill-on-your-table meat.   After dinner was an open mic night sponsored by the Gwangju Vagina Monologues, then a going away party downtown, followed by late-night nachos at a friend's food truck (mmmm!!!).  It was an eventful evening! 

Today (Sunday), I went out to eat with friends after church, as usual.  We went to a bar that doubles as a "Mexican" food restaurant during the day and had breakfast burritos.  Eggs, refried beans, bacon, all wrapped up in a tortilla with salsa and sound cream.  They were awesome.  I don't know where they found sour cream here, cause I've looked and can't find it!  One of my church friends has a car, so we went to HomePlus (giant awesome superstore) where I got a couple more things that I've been wanting, like a magic bullet-style blender!  My kitchen is equipped now!  I can cook, bake, and blend!  What more could a girl want? 

I have been so blessed here.  I'm sure I'll say it 1000 times, but I have found some incredible friends.  They make life so full!  I'm really starting to feel settled now that I can buy things to make my apartment more "mine" and homey.  The piano, the toaster, the blender, such great improvements to this little space.  It's the little things that we often take for granted that made this weekend so very great.  I really like living here.  And I really enjoyed this lovely, warm, spring weekend!

Cleaning house

I moved into my apartment yesterday!  It is small, like I expected, but I love it.  It's got mainly neutral wall paper and a pop of bright pink flowers on one wall, by the bed.  The school provides bedding and the director took me yesterday to get it... it's got lots of color blocks in bright pink, light pink, normal pink, and magenta.  I like pink, don't get me wrong, but I would never have expected to have SUCH pink bedding.  It works though, and it was free, so I choose to be happy with it :)

I've been cleaning a TON last night and today.  The person who lived in this one before me is a guy, and though he says he cleaned it and it looks 'so much better' than it did when he moved in, it grosses me out.  Mayyybe I'm a little OCD but you all know who my mother is, and she taught me to have a clean house and especially, *especially* a clean kitchen, so, there.  I spent a few hours cleaning the bathroom yesterday and a few hours cleaning the kitchenette this morning and I'm not even close to done.  I'm going to re-bleach the bathroom later and finish cleaning the kitchen.  The stove has a greasy layer on it that I haven't even begun to tackle.  Challenge accepted, grime! 

I just took my second trip to the store to buy more cleaning supplies.  To get to the store from my place, I go down the hill, across the street, through an apartment complex, down some stairs, across another street, and one block to the right (to grandmother's house we go?).  Then when I'm done shopping, I carry everything I buy back with me the whole up, up the stairs, through the complex, across the street, up the hill, and then up 2 flights of stairs.  I can handle about 3 bags at a time by myself :)  I think that's quite an accomplishment!  I looked ridiculous today carrying a swiffer with its long handle and big containers of bottled water up that hike! 

Today while I was at the store, a store clerk seemed to want to help me with my list, so I showed her that I was just looking at the detergent.  She was very interested in my English scribble (since it was just a shopping list and I have terrible handwriting, it's not the greatest sample of English writing for her to read), and she wouldn't give me my list back til she had read everything on it!  It was strange.  I like to browse a lot when I'm in a new area, get the feel for the store, figure out what exactly I want to buy, change my mind several times and backtrack to put stuff back or pick up stuff I initially passed on.  She didn't seem to understand why I didn't have some things on my list in my basket.  I couldn't quite explain that I wouldn't have room in my bags for everything on my list, so I was prioritizing, and that I was looking at the laundry detergent to see if I recognized brands, so that when I come back another time, I will have more of an idea of what I want to buy, since I can't carry it with me today.  She finally gave me my shopping list back and I quickly scadoodled over to the toilet brushes and then checked out and made my way home. 

Oh, Korea.  I don't know if they always watch people while they walk around the grocery store of if it's just cause I'm a foreigner and they aren't used to the way I look.  I feel eyes on me everywhere!  I'm sure I'll get used to it, but it's strange.  I really feel like I'm here now, though, instead of just feeling like I'm visiting.  So that's good. 

If you're praying for me, could you continue prayers that I adjust well?  I'm starting to feel pretty lonely without my support system that I have at home.  I have been so blessed with such a close family, emotionally and geographically, and it's so strange to be so far away.  I know that the solid groups of people that I had in College Station and Cy-Fair took years to build; they didn't form overnight.  I remember feeling lonely when I was a freshman at A&M, too, away from home for the first time, before I formed those bonds with girls in the dorm and before I joined my church.  It's a similar feeling to what I'm experiencing now.  My faith is a lot stronger now than it was 7 years ago, but I'm also a lot farther away from home than I was then.  I like the other foreign teachers but I've only known them for, like, 5 days, so it doesn't compare to the incredible friends I've known so long at home.  Pray that I continue to depend on the Lord when I get frustrated or lonely.  Pray that I find restaurants that I grow to love, nearby, that understand my pathetic attempts to order in Korean.  Pray that I clean that kitchen and can start making my own food in it!  Pray that I learn the hangul alphabet so that I can read signs in Korean.  That's my prayer list right now :) 

I'm going to go to Seoul on Saturday to do a little sight-seeing!  I promise to take lots of pictures.  Bye for now!