On page 159 of the book Titus and Violet go to a party at Marty's house. At the party some of Titus's friends are wearing Riot Gear. In the book, Riot Gear is clothing that is stressed and faded in a way that simulates what protesters clothing would look like in after a riot. One of these lines of clothing is WTO Riot.
This is what happened at the WTO (World Trade Organization) Riot
All the WTO Rioters did to provoke this violence from police was hold a march near the Washington State Convention Center where the WTO Conference was held.
Feed brings up a practice that has been going on for decades. Groups of dissident people like punks and hippies seem to create a style of clothing that is stereotyped mainstream fashion designers. Below is an example.
People that are not part of that dissident group but want to seem edgy demand this fashion so they too are edgy.
In the dystopic future that exists in Feed fashion designers have removed themselves so far from reality that they market a brand to the entire world called WTO Riot Gear to a global community. The WTO Riot was against globalization and everthing that the "feed" is. M.T. Anderson did a great job of making painful irony in Feed.
- Jason McCoy
This an interesting post about riot gear. Do you think that riot gear may actually provoke violence? Does the presence of reinforcements help initiate behaviors that spiral out of control? Though I didn't read Feed for this week, your post has definitely interested me in reading this YA novel.
ReplyDeleteThank you,
Rachel Ball
All of the examples of trends in the novel and how quickly and virally they catch on were frightening. The lesions were a great example of the shallow things the characters are concerned with in the novel, and they show how teens, or people in general, will sometimes do anything in order to fit in or attract the attention of the opposite sex (like Quendy did with Link). It is scary to think that people will go so far as to physically harm themselves in order to keep up with the Joneses.
ReplyDeleteWow Jason this is so interesting! I read Feed this week, too and I remember the scene where they talk about riot fashion, but I had no idea what WTO Riot meant. It's amazing how M.T. Anderson is able to make such a big statement in such little details. Thanks for the info!
ReplyDeleteKatie