10. The concept of the spectacle brings together and explains a wide range of apparently disparate phenomena. Diversities and contrasts among such phenomena are the appearances of the spectacle - the appearances of a social organization of appearances that needs to be grasped in its general truth. Understood on its own terms, the spectacle proclaims the predominance of appearances and asserts that all human life, which is to say all social life, is mere appearance. But any critique capable of apprehending the spectacle’s essential character must expose it as a visible negation of life - and as a negation of life that has invented a visual form for itself.
I chose these images for responding to Debord’s 10th thesis. They are the advertisement from Dior 2019 and Victoria Secret Fashion Show 2015. As the point of “wide range of apparently disparate phenomena”, the fashion designers didn’t understand the foreign traditional cultures. They preferred the Native American accessories ( feathered headdress, tassels and turquoise jewelry) or Mexican Escaramuza dressing style (Long Dress and Wide-brimmed hat ) as the design elements but just because of dramatic and eye-catching looking, not the original meanings or functions. Moreover, some of the patterns or colours have serious meaning in the traditional culture, they cannot be quoted easily without any explanations. Plus, the audiences also would not 100% understood the original meanings, those truths and rules would be covered. Unless some critiques to expose the cultural appropriation.
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