The mass marketing of working-class cultureThe father's fashions are passed on to the son: we have all seen how adult fashions are passed on to their children. We've seen how cargo pants have become popular, thanks to Gap, Baby Gap, and Old Navy (all companies owned by The Limited, Inc.). Cargo pants have always been a mystery to me. What's interesting about them is the storage space (which I'll talk about later), the blandness, and the personal appearance. I considered wearing cargo pants just because they would hide how big my thighs are. And they're beige and boring: they go with everything. I also don't understand this fascination with the working class look (in a recent copy of Vogue, there were luxurious and expensive versions of lumberjack suits). There's absolutely nothing wrong with that and I don't want to sound like an elitist, because I'm definitely not working class. I just wonder why this trend, because white collar workers want to look like they work with their hands. But this fascination with storage, with so many products presents a problem. Cargo pants were designed so that workers could essentially wear their toolbox. Today's kids who wear cargo pants don't need that space for hammers and nails. To avoid recognizing that cargo pants are a silly trend, wearers unconsciously try to fill their pockets. As Lacan would say, empty pockets remind us of our shortcomings. Cargo pants only encourage the reckless. The Gap, like any other capitalist corporation, wants consumers to spend large amounts of money. Providing more space to store a pair of pants allows kids and teens to spend even more money stuffing them. What Gap has done is transform the meaning of cargo pants. This is a redefinition: those who wear cargo pants today are not workers, they are spenders. Isn't that a glorious thing, The Gap might ask us. It is a way of showing how the upper class has always prevailed over the lower class, taking the aspects of its culture that it prefers and discarding the individuals involved. We have seen this time and time again, but usually it has been the culture of a race that has been used while individuals are deemed meaningless by the ruling classes. This still happens today with Latin culture. White culture takes the few things it likes (i.e. Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin, maybe a salsa beat and some Tex-Mex food) and celebrates them as all Latin culture has to offer, ignoring the debates on the "Latinity" of these aspects. Anyway.