#and ppls (mostly mens) dismissal of its importance

[hoodienanami]

Fashion is not limited to runways and red carpets. It surrounds us. Fashion includes how subcultural groups such as punks, skaters, and hip-hop fans dress. It's about cultural expression. People self-fashion even in non-capitalist societies. They even self-fashion in prison! Prisoners customize their dress as a way to regain some sense of humanity and individuality. It's central to human expression. The Met Gala theme this year is “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style," which is based on Monica Miller's brilliant book "Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity." It tracks three centuries of Black dandyism, from when dandyism was imposed on Black men to when these clothes were a way for Black men to create new political and social possibilities. It's a great look at how clothing can be central to identity and self-empowerment. I've always believed that fashion is uniquely disrespected because it has historically been considered a "feminine" subject. Areas of culture or the arts that have been historically coded as "masculine" are not routinely treated with such disrespect and disregard. It has been a struggle even to get academic institutions to recognize the importance of fashion as a field of study. Since fashion is coded as "feminine," it's thus also seen as "frivolous" and not "high minded." IMO, you can take any area of study and link it to fashion: globalization, economics, politics, sociology, history, etc. If a story involves humans, it will likely include fashion because humans wear clothes. Every time I see someone loudly and performatively declare how much they hate fashion, I notice that they, too, are very particular about their dress. These people, often men, will have specific preferences about clothes. If given a choice between a free pair of pink jeans and $50 blue jeans, they will choose one based on what they think the colors represent. Counter-cultural types will also dress in precise ways to signal their cultural identity. They are not, in fact, indifferent to clothes. I try very hard to communicate that you should never judge a person's more profound, more important qualities based on their clothes. I've also spent the last 15 years writing about how to build a wardrobe on a budget (including doing three eBay roundups per week). I cover a breadth of styles, including workwear and Americana. The things many people project onto me are more about their narrow-mindedness regarding the importance of dress in society. Fine to hate me, but at least please accurately represent my arguments. I'm not telling you to buy Gucci and Louis Vuitton. I'm simply saying that dress is important to culture and a form of cultural language.

— derek guy (dieworkwear)

[conanssummerchild]

finallly analising this jdskdjsksj

okay so to start off, the song summer child is pretty much about a person who is hurting, who's struggling but people dont notice, just to summarise it very very quickly. there is so much more to the song tho, and i'll get into that now.

and disclaimer in case i make someone mad, im not saying that mike fits every word of the song, this isnt even rlly an analisis, more of like a silly thing i decided to make so no one come for me 😭 i am interested in hearing ur opinions tho

so anyway, conan starts the song with the lyrics

so with that first line hes saying smth like you see beauty even when there is none, or even when no one else does and in s1 yk how mike is tho only one who wants el to stick around, yeah. also when theyre getting bullied by troy and he says to dustin that he thinks its cool, like he has a superpower like the x men or smth (cant quite remember it)

anyway i dont have much to say abt line two but with all the shit they went thru with the upside down, its hard to imagine he wouldnt be at least a little afraid of the dark at night (also when i was little i was rlly scared of the dark and i kin mike so what i say goes /j)

(TW SELF HARM) i rlly cant say much abt the next line without turning this into projection central, but what i take from this line is conan talking abt self harm, i rlly dont know if this could b interpreted any other way tho? anyway its not that i think mike hurts himself, and there is no evidence in the show claiming he does (at least none that i know of, if there is tell me so i can project harder) but one time back when i got sent to therapy (and refused to talk to my therapist abt anything but mike wheeler) she tried to get deep w me and told me that a lot of people self harmed because they bottled up their feelings so much that in the end that was the only release they could get or theyd like explode, smth abt ppl who felt too much too big. ngl i dont rlly remember but honestly thats so mike wheeler if u ask me (what my therapist said)

ok so this is what i meant when i said not everything fit exactly, bcs while i dont think ted is a good father, i also dont think hes 'mean' in the way i think conan means it

green = byler. mindblowing ik /s

anyway the last two lines i feel like are less abt someone specifically running through sprinklers on their street and more about how when u were younger things were more simple and imo an important part of mikes arc is how he tries to make himself grow up faster, only to later mourn the better days that he lost and it was his fault, and if u ask me this part of his arc has to do with neurodivergency and maski- [GUNSHOTS]

ok and so we get to the part that made me start to think mike was summer child coded, mikes whole little pretense game he has going on, hiding parts of himself he feels arent good enough for people to see, how people have ignored and dismissed his feelings so many times to the point that he just gives up on trying to talk about them, how he struggles with his depression (yes i am a therapist i can officially diagnose him /j) but still puts so much time and effort into helping other people, he's selfless to a fault, to the point that hes hurting himself more than anything else.

how theres always a part of him in the dark, never quite revealed to the audience, portraying how he never fully reveals it to his friends.

so once again i'll mention how ppl have always dismissed and ignored mikes concerns and struggles to the point where he starts to just keep it to himself, and acts angry or grumpy when rlly there is so much more brewing under the surface he just doesnt think he deserves for someone to care, or even just directly thinks they dont care anyway

and ive tried to stay mostly partial so far and not bring up will or mikes sexuality, but in the end i think him being gay is an important part of his arc and definitely present in his struggles and the second to last line makes me think of will being shown to be like mikes sun (his heart ;)) and how hes keeping up a pretense about the way he really feels both about will and el to everyone but himself (no i dont think hes clueless ._.)

so this is actually the part that made me make the original post bcs hello?? the first three lines, did conan just literally write this song about mike wheeler?? mikes self sacrificial nature is something that comes up repeatedly, whether you want to acknowledge it or not. that boy would do anything for his friends, and im not even gonna get into the cliff scene bcs we'd be here all night. but like i was saying, the rest of the lines reference how mike sees the beauty in things others dont, EXCEPT when it comes to himself.

yeah, when it comes to himself he won't see the best parts of himself, only the bad, its up to a bystander (will?? the audience? mikes self concious, or is that too far-fetched?) to quietly observe the way hes falling apart

anyway slay that was bad and long and also excuse any spelling mistakes and incoherency its like 1 in the morning where i live so im analising mike wheeler, as any sane person would. once again, this isnt a proper analisis just something i pulled out of my ass so idk

@apocalyptic-byler no pressure to read this nonsense but u said youd b interested and i said id tag u so here it is lol

Mike Wheeler is so very summer child coded. There, I said it.