Vrinda Gupta
ASA 141
Week 2 Blog
Clothing, Empathy, and The Power of Stepping Into Someone's Shoes, by Michael Hurt discusses the significance of wearing clothing and taking style influence from other cultures and nations to promote social empathy and understanding. As Hurt describes, when tourists wear the clothing of the nation they're in to "experience the authenticity of the culture". However, does this practice of participating in another culture create a sense of connection between tourists and the locals, or just exotify and homogenize diverse groups of people into one style of "traditional" dress? For example, a lot of South Asian fashion and specific ethnic styles get labeled as a "sari". South Asian fashion is diverse and extensive, in which styles, patterns, and fabrics differ based on geography, religion, languages, function and lifestyles. All of them are definitely not saris and saris are not the archetype of "tradition" for authentic South Asian communities and cultures. Additionally, saris are not even worn the same way across the board and there are many different styles and ways to wear them that also depend on the specific cultures and peoples. Although tourists may be able to feel connected to the country of visitation for a superficial and fleeting by wearing ethnically specific clothing, I don't believe it achieves any long term empathy or social understanding between them and locals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIsuEqLgsfc
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