Spear's Space
Spears’ Space: The Play of Innocence and Experience in the Bare-Midriff Fashion
DENNIS HALL
where in evidence: on the street; in restaurants and theaters; at tourist attractions in the classroom, on the floor of dance clubs; at parties big and small, public and private; possibly even at work; as a run of Cathy Guisewite comic strips suggest. Indeed, this fashion motif is so common as to have become almost unremarkable. Only the truly cloistered have yet to see young women—or pictures of them in fashion articles or clothing advertisements—clad in an abbreviated T-shirt or blouse or other top worn with low-rise1 jeans or pants or shorts or hiphugging skirts that, in tandem, bare the midriff in varying degrees, from a mere slip of skin occasionally revealed in walking or sitting to wider expanses, commonly revealing the navel and occasionally exposing what is called ‘‘butt cleavage.’’ Some find here a canvas for the body arts, most commonly naval rings and tattoos,2 while others adopt a minimalist approach, exhibiting only what nature, tanning, and exercise hath wrought. The evidence of informal observation suggests that this fashion is pitched to, and has been adopted principally by very young women, in their early teens through the early to mid twenties. Some evidence, more seen in advertising than on the street or in the salon, suggests that youth culture once again has been looted by high fashion. While the bare-midriff motif, as did the Grunge Look, has become a fashion option for some older and high-maintenance buyers, it remains the fashion coinage primarily of young women of the working and middle classes—if these designations mean anything any more.3
The Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 39, No. 6, 2006 r 2006, Copyright the Authors Journal compilation r 2006, Blackwell Publishing, Inc.
T
HE CURRENT POPULARITY OF THE BARE-MIDRIFF FASHION IS EVERY-
1025
1026
Dennis Hall
The practice of women baring their midriffs, of course, has a fairly
DENNIS HALL
where in evidence: on the street; in restaurants and theaters; at tourist attractions in the classroom, on the floor of dance clubs; at parties big and small, public and private; possibly even at work; as a run of Cathy Guisewite comic strips suggest. Indeed, this fashion motif is so common as to have become almost unremarkable. Only the truly cloistered have yet to see young women—or pictures of them in fashion articles or clothing advertisements—clad in an abbreviated T-shirt or blouse or other top worn with low-rise1 jeans or pants or shorts or hiphugging skirts that, in tandem, bare the midriff in varying degrees, from a mere slip of skin occasionally revealed in walking or sitting to wider expanses, commonly revealing the navel and occasionally exposing what is called ‘‘butt cleavage.’’ Some find here a canvas for the body arts, most commonly naval rings and tattoos,2 while others adopt a minimalist approach, exhibiting only what nature, tanning, and exercise hath wrought. The evidence of informal observation suggests that this fashion is pitched to, and has been adopted principally by very young women, in their early teens through the early to mid twenties. Some evidence, more seen in advertising than on the street or in the salon, suggests that youth culture once again has been looted by high fashion. While the bare-midriff motif, as did the Grunge Look, has become a fashion option for some older and high-maintenance buyers, it remains the fashion coinage primarily of young women of the working and middle classes—if these designations mean anything any more.3
The Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 39, No. 6, 2006 r 2006, Copyright the Authors Journal compilation r 2006, Blackwell Publishing, Inc.
T
HE CURRENT POPULARITY OF THE BARE-MIDRIFF FASHION IS EVERY-
1025
1026
Dennis Hall
The practice of women baring their midriffs, of course, has a fairly
Cited: Conrad, Peter. ‘‘The A to Z of Britney.’’ The Observer 17 Feb. 2002. 29 Aug. 2002 hhttp://www.observer.co.uk/review/story/0,6903, 651264,00.htmli. Cowley, Abraham. ‘‘Ode: Of Wit [1656/1668].’’ Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol. I. Ed. M. H. Abrams et al. 5th ed. 1665. Dominus, Susan.‘‘Abstinence Minded [The Way We Live Now 1-21-01].’’ New York Times 21 Jan. 2001, sec. 6: 9. 29 1034 Dennis Hall Aug. 2002 hhttp://www.lsa.umich.edu/history/history386/Articles/ abstinence-minded.htmli. Guisewite, Cathy. ‘‘Cathy’’ Comic Strip. Louisville Courier-Journal. 2 – 6 Sept. 2002. Hall, Dennis. ‘‘Delight in Disorder: A Reading of Diaphany and Liquefaction in Contemporary Women’s Clothing.’’ Journal of American Culture 23.4 (2000): 67 – 97. Hayt, Elizabeth.‘‘It’s Never Too Late to Be a Virgin.’’ New York Times 4 Aug. 2002, sec. 9: 11. Holson, Laura M., and Alex Kuczynski. ‘‘Schoolyard Superstar Aims for a Second Act, as an Adult.’’ New York Times 6 Oct. 2002, sec. A: 11. Johnston, Lynn. ‘‘For Better or For Worse.’’ Comic strip. Louisville Courier-Journal 17 June 2002. Lockard, Joe. ‘‘Britney Spears, Victorian Chastity, and Brand-name Virginity.’’ Bad Subjects, Issue #57, Oct. 2001. 16 May 2002 hhttp://eserver.org/bs/57/lockardB.htmli. ‘‘Midriff Tops,’’ Yesterdayland Fashion 17 May 2002 hhttp://www. yesterdayland.com/popopedia/shows/fashion/fa1630.phpi. Teen Advice. ‘‘Teen Life Q&A: Why oral sex is still sex—a Christian Q & A.’’ 30 Sept. 2002 hhttp://teenadvice.about.com/library/ weekly/qanda/blchristiansonsex.htmi. Dennis Hall teaches English and popular culture courses at the University of Louisville. He is, with Susan Grove Hall, co-editor of American Icons: An Encyclopedia of People, Places, and Things That Have Shaped Our Culture, published by Greenwood Press, June 2006. He is currently working on papers on the rug in The Big Lebowski and on the little black dress as cultural icon.