CI 5150 Week 11 - Prison Tattoos and Teen Fashion

As I sat down to begin approaching this week's assignment on the subject of fashion, I immediately thought of an A&E special on prison tattoos that I recently watched before going to bed (random, I know). During the special, cameras were sent behind the "closed bars" (pun completely intended I'm pretty sure) of the nation's toughest prisons to explore the complex cultures, meanings, and functions behind prison tattoos.

Although what I learned about the cultures, meanings, and functions behind prison tattoos didn't necessarily shock me, a rather surprising observation dawned on me upon further reflection; there appears to be little (if any) difference between the visual, textual, and behavioral coding functions of prison tattoos, and the visual, textual, and behavioral coding functions of the fashions that our students spend millions on each year! Before I completely flush out my logic behind this observation, check out this montage of various prison tattoos that I discovered on YouTube. As you watch, pay special attention to the SPECIFIC WORDS that are often represented via tattoo art, as well as the SPECIFIC IMAGES that are often represented.

DISCLAIMER: Some of what you will see visually, textually, and behaviorally is rather explicit and prejudiced material. This material is being utilized for research and analytical purposes ONLY; in NOW WAY does it reflect any of MY particular ideological orientations or beliefs!



Throughout the A&E special, the authors' main thesis is that tattoos are primarily utilized in the prison setting as symbols by which to identify with, claim membership with, and / or represent various prison cultures and subcultures, including their respective ideological orientations and behavioral expectations. For example, one of the many prison cultures which the A&E special explored was the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (typically abbreviated as the "AB" or "ABT"), a radical, white-supremacist group with various soldiers and cells operating both in and out of the U.S. prison system. After potential recruits perform various acts of violence to earn the group's trust, acceptance, (one of the many required behavioral expectations for admittance to the group), they identify their membership with and represent the group and its ideological orientations by having a system of various visual and textual codes tattooed onto their bodies - some arrangement of the swastika (to represent their white-supremacist ideological orientations and help define what type of behaviors are expected of in-group members), sword and shield (to represent that they are "warriors" / "soldiers" with the responsibility of defending this ideological orientation), and some form of the text "AB" or "ABT" (as shorthand code for the group's comlete name). These visual and textual codes are then used to identify, represent, and define group behavioral expectations (you can fill in the blanks here...), as well as protect allied members of the in-group. Furthermore, these visual and textual codes are inversely used to alienate, set behavioral limits with, and often threaten members of enemy / other out-groups with differing and / or incompatible ideological orientations and behavioral expectations.

Take a moment to compare these sets of images side-by-side...































Given the above summary and discussion, I don't necessarily perceive any difference between the visual, textual, and behavioral coding functions of prison tattoos, and the visual, textual, and behavioral coding functions of the fashions that our students spend millions on each year!

THE "DESIGNER" GROUP

Just as the swastika, sword and shield, and textual "AB" / "ABT" are utilized to identify with, claim membership with, and represent the ideological orientations and behavioral expectations of a group like the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, the Hollister Co.'s seagull graphic and accompanying textual slogan "Surf Team" are utilized by wearers to identify with, claim membership with, and represent a particular culture with its own unique ideological orientations and behavioral expectations.
















On its own, I have never really considered what denotative and connotative meanings the seagull may carry. My best guess is that the seagull has an obvious denotative association with the sea, and perhaps less obvious connotative associations with peace, freedom, freshness, perhaps travel, and so on. As Hollister Co. markets itself as a California-based surfer "lifestyle" brand, pairing the visual symbol of the seagull with the text "Surf Team" creates a sort of visual and textual code representative of this lifestyle and respective ideological orientation valuing youth, spontaneity, and arguably members of the dominant, white, affluent, upper-class.

Although I'm about to perform a certain amount of stereotyping here myself, members of this particular in-group are likewise expected to behave in certain ways in order to gain AND maintain identification and acceptance with this particular group (for nomenclature purposes, let's call it the "Designer" group . For example, members of the "Designer" group are expected to ALWAYS dress themselves in "designer" and / or clothing considered to be "cool," "trendy," "fashionable" and / or otherwise representative of their affluent position in the larger society. In addition to the specific clothing they wear, members of the "Designer" group are expected to act "cool," often carrying themselves with the attitude that they are of a dominant, affluent class / group who is "entitled" to receive respect and admiration from other classes / groups lower on the social hierarchy than they. As such, members of the "Designer" group are often expected to treat members of out / other groups as not as "good" as them and / or "worthy" / "deserving" of their attention.

















THE "GOTH" GROUP

Let's take a quick look at another popular cultural group represented by unique visual, textual, and behavioral codes; again, for nomenclature purposes, let's call it the "Goth" group. As is displayed via the above images, one major fashion utilized by the "Goth" group is the color black, carrying with it the connotative meanings of darkness, death, depression, submission, and so on. In addition to the color black, the "Goth" group also utilizes dark finger nail polishes regardless of gender, dark eyeliner and other make up regardless of gender, multi-colored hair styles, chains as necklaces and bracelets, and so on, likewise carrying with them connotative meanings of darkness, death, depression, and so on. As similar to the "Designer" group (as well as the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas!), the "Goth" group utilizes these fashions to create a code representative of their lifestyle and respective ideological orientation valuing the fatality of life, non-conformity, and otherwise rejection / subversion of all that is valued in other, more dominant cultural groups.

Again, as similar to the "Designer" group and the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, members of the "Goth" in-group are likewise expected to behave in certain ways in order to gain AND maintain identification and acceptance with the larger group. For example, members of the "Goth" group are ALWAYS expected to dress themselves in the aforementioned styles that are considered to challenge the more dominant status quo. In addition to this specific clothing, members of the "Goth" group are expected to approach life with a sort of cynical, skeptical, glum, and / or at times apathetic attitude, as they believe that life is fleeting anyways. Furthermore, members of the "Goth" group are expected to value both the ways that they dress AND act as an expression of their individually and solidarity with the group's larger cause of dissociating themselves with, and even challenging, the more dominant status quo. Lastly, members of the "Goth" group are expected to more or less distance themselves from other groups under the guise that they "just don't care" about what others think of them, their fashion, their beliefs, and their actions. However, for not caring, the "Goth" group sure puts a lot of effort into dressing and behaving in ways consistent with the codes necessary to not only gain, but maintain acceptance with the larger group and their respective ideological orientations and behavioral expectations.

BUT WHAT IF I DON'T CONFORM TO AND / OR MISREPRESENT THE LARGER GROUP'S ESTABLISHED CODE?

Regardless of what sort of larger cultural group one belongs to, SERIOUS consequences are often incurred if one refuses to conform to and / or misrepresents the codes (visual, textual, and / or behavioral) as established by the larger group once identification with the larger group is established.

For example, these consequences are about as serious and violent as they get when considering a group like the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas. After being initiated into the larger group, in-group members face death, physical, and / or sexual abuse if they do not live up to and / or misrepresent the ideological and behavioral expectations as established by the group's visual and textual codes. For example, if a group member is spotted as much as associating with another minority inmate or member of another out-group, big problems are to be had. As a matter of fact, the MINIMUM repercussion to such a infraction is the REMOVAL of the visual and textual codes tattooed on the member identifying them with and representing the ideological orientation and behavioral expectations of the larger group! In other words, if group leaders do not feel a member is capable of representing what the group stands for, crude removal (often via common construction tools) of the visual and textual codes identifying one with the larger group (again, we're talking tattoos on human skin here) is often the next logical step.


Although the consequences following a similar infraction in the average high school setting are of course MUCH less violent (e.g., if a "Jock / Designer" decides to see how they look in black, or even worse, is actually spotted ASSOCIATING and / or making friends with a "Goth"), individuals violating and / or misrepresenting ideological orientations or behavioral expectations as established by certain group's visual / textual codes likewise risk harsh bullying, extradition, and other physical or emotional abuse. In other words, if group members compromise the larger group's location on the hierarchical ladder via the violation and / or misrepresentation of the larger group's visual, textual, and / or behavioral codes, they WILL face consequences. Hence, the argument for school uniforms! In closing, this arguably universal adolescent "need" to identify with and represent a larger cultural group runs the risk of encouraging isolation, conflict, and prejudice vs. tolerance, understanding, and curiosity amongst diverse student and larger societal groups.



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ASSIGNMENT #1: FASHION ETHNOGRAPHY

Given my exploration on the coding functions of popular fashion, I believe that another ethnography-esque activity would be a very authentic, applicable-based task by which to apply what is going on in class to the "real world."

Step one: scaffolding

-Like ALWAYS, provide whatever background context regarding how certain groups utilize various visual, textual, and behavioral codes to identify with, claim membership with, and represent their group's ideological orientations and behavioral expectations.

NOTE: Feel free to use whatever you wish from this blog posting. However, although provocative, I'm not sure that EVERY school will approve of my likening of teenage fashion to prison tattoos.

However, I have some additional, potentially safer, scaffolding activities in mind including...

• Bring in popular magazines to have students identify various visual and textual fashion codes, making inferences and critical analysis of WHAT ideological orientations / behavioral expectations the group has, as well as HOW and WHY the group's visual and textual codes communicate said ideologies and behaviors.
  

Step two: field notes

And like always, this is the fun part! Send students out into the "field" (I'm envisioning any sort of public space including the mall, park, coffee shop, and so on), having them observe X number of groups of subjects (I'm thinking at least 3-5 here, comprised of at least 3-5 subjects per group), taking detailed notes on...

-WHAT they are wearing / HOW they are dressed.

-WHAT they are doing / HOW they are doing it.

Step three: reaction paper

-Following the collection of their field notes, assign a short reaction paper (I'm thinking 1-2 double-spaced pages here), critically identifying AND analyzing the RELATIONSHIPS between the visual and textual codes that subjects where literally wearing, and the ideological orientations and behavioral expectations groups appeared to hold.

Step three: decompression

-Share and decompress in small groups, large groups, or however you see fit to your unique learning context!

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ASSIGNMENT #2: SCHOOL UNIFORM DEBATE / ROLE-PLAY

-Following whatever scaffolding and background context regarding the above sorts of group dynamics as based on visual, textual, and behavioral codes, conduct a class-wide debate / role-play on whether or not their school should have a uniform policy.

-Assign students various "pro" and "con" roles regarding the issue in question (e.g., conservative parent, liberal parent, school administrators, teachers, community members, and so on), having them research and argue the issue however they discover their role positions them.

-Require students to collect X number of sources to form and support their position (I'm thinking 3-5 sources here).

-Debate "in character"!

-Decompress in and / or out of "character" via large-group discussion

AND /OR

-Assign a reaction paper similar to what I discuss in assignment #1 critically identifying AND analyzing the RELATIONSHIPS between the visual and textual codes that subjects literally wear, and the ideological orientations and behavioral expectations groups argued.

Thanks again for reading, watching, and listening CI 5150!
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IMAGES USED

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3628/3421484332_60dafdab7e.jpg?v=0

http://api.ning.com/files

http://www.foto8.com/issue01/dprisontattoos/prisontattoo10.jpg

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFWe1gEKghUcihgEwce-EmS7xPVW-9CP0FzcS7uN-cE00QKlxPYHn1B40h155clJmCc8V2-Hi4l0CL2UZ3lBRr6B0j0gBV_HmP_6C_JLQN2b1nZBTS5FgU5xkSiErbkG1aQcJ7_GgsiiU/s400/goths_group449.jpg

http://patdollard.com/wp-content/uploads/gangs.jpg

http://www.fashion-icons.gabrielmichael.com/hollister_graphics.jpg

http://photos.friendster.com/photos/00/95/64795900/1_190215854l.jpg

http://delawarebeachguides.com/Shopping/images/Company/775/hollister_co_photo.jpg

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2TM3tiAQTtz9A_HuyEqp4cC7ru79pA0Gxu0N6uxcMPRxM-z8d7BWLDlNV2m-3yKPoQvgq5XLO7i56dmC1-47R3d7sbukvGwbiXoSlQVJllmbJNpFYFfCix9nIBue1kbXFMbjhXHqwu4_4/s320/better+goth+picture.jpg

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVEUzW6-qzy0LCB3JSndldTdGr-dv-uhRnj79nfHii2t2mdfpM_-ua5chlITJCC-ISZCMhVHRuqC4o28yLCzraJfeNngOymacSGf097qVGCflNgAJx2dte6qs-BVUC2W-J5J0dttQ4iqpI/s320/f_goth15m_f56c27b.gif

http://twopagans.com/gothic_chamber/gcactivities/quizzes/lexmax.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Belt_sander_bosch.jpg

http://images.quizfarm.com/1104014769loner.jpg