Whilst reading Chabon’s, “My Son, The Prince Of Fashion” and Roxanne Gay’s, “Bad Feminist” I noticed a lot of similarities within the societal views of people and their passions. For starters, in “Bad Feminist”, Gay brings up the fact that she does not know whether being a feminist is a good or bad thing in todays world. She is more caught up in wanting to be considered a ‘good feminist’ which means she would be conforming to society’s view of the ‘good feminist’ traits. For example she says, “the right way to be a woman is to be thin, to wear make up, to wear the right kind of clothes (not too slutty, not too prude, show a little leg, ladies), and so on. Good women are charming, polite, and unobtrusive.” (Gay, Paragraph 2) She seems to believe that conforming to the set traits of a ‘good feminist’ is the only way to make her one, which completely contradicts what Abe in Chabon’s article believes someone should do when they are passionate about something.
Abe is a young man that is very indulged in the fashion industry, even at such a young age. He does everything in his power to make sure that he looks his best with up to date styles and brands.
Yes, Abe does make sure that he is looking the best with the most popular clothing lines and styles according to what everyone loves and lusts over, but he puts his own spin on it. That is why I think these two articles can relate at some levels, but mostly are on the opposite spectrum. There isn’t one line in the Chabon article that suggests that Abe wants to be a follower. From what I see he wants to learn and eventually be one of the trend setters. Unlike Abe, Gay seems to want to fit in rather than being that trend setter and that is where I think the line gets crossed between these two societal driven views.
