Juliet Schor, author of ” The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don’t Need, discusses our social positions as items that are visible that others can see and that aren’t visible to the social life we live in, which would be the invisible items. Turning invisible things into visible creates advertising for that product, making the consumers who wear it look and feel cooler because they’re wearing a product thats either expensive or popular. People start to notice not only that product, but the person who’s wearing the product.
When consumers wear the product they actually advertise it, making others want to purchase that item. There are cars, clothes, and food companies who put logos that people like that will buy it just because they want it not because they need it. All these fashion brands now make people care what others think about their visible consumption choices. Visible goods give status that invisible goods don’t because the visible products makes an obvious reason for you to be able to figure them out, which invisible goods being that no one can see so they can’t identify you as well as they would if they could see that product.
Wearing boxers from Wal-Mart, but wearing a suit that cost over $100 is a great example for this. The boxers are invisible because they are inside so therefore no one will notice them but on the other hand the suit which everyone will notice because it’s what you wear on the outside, which is visible. Changing the outside of Brian; s appearance doesn’t mean the inside of him will be Made. In the reality show ” Made” Brian a high school student wants to be made into a ladies’s man and someone who’s cool, so that he can fit in with the rest of society today.
Brian wants attention from others and wants to be able to talk to any girl that he wants to without any trouble, so that he could find a date for prom. Before Brian got made everyone saw him as a nerd/geek because of his appearance. He always had crazy hair that was dirty, always wore banana shoes with no logo on them, had long dirty finger nails, played dance dance revolution. Brian also likes dragons and dungeons and they also didn’t like him because he spoke proper, using big words and had manners/respect. Whenever Brian had a chance to talk to a girl, he never could hold an conversation which led him to failure.
Brian gets introduced to Tariq Nasheed, a dating expert that is the author of ” The Art of Mackin’,” who teaches him how to be a ladies man. Becoming a ladies man you first have to wear products that will attract them. Juliet B. author of ” The Overspent American” discussed that ” The coolest brands are often fashion that kids wear to give messages to others about themselves” (65). I totally agree to what Schor said, because In the era we live in today you see everyone wearing the top name brand clothes just to try and fit in with the everyone else.
Tariq, Brain’s Made coach starts off by teaching him how to communicate with a female, what things you say and how to say them. Whenever Brian got nervous while trying to talk to a female, he started to talk about dungeons and dragons, which isn’t the best thing to do if your trying to meet someone. The next step was to change Brian’s appearance and by doing that Brain had to start wearing name brand clothing that will make people recognize him more because of the logos, which is a huge thing, because having expensive clothes shows others that you have money and also could give an result as being someone cool, as you can see in America now.
Brian gets a new hair style and starts wearing contacts, so he wouldn’t look so much like a nerd that others seen of him. Doing this makes him looks better on the outside, making not only him realize how much better he looks, but others giving him compliments, building up Brian’s confidence even more. He now go and try to get a date for the prom and succeeds at it because he changed his appearance, which made him get a prom date because now he looks apart of everyone else, which makes him looks cool because of his new clothes that everyone knows of, due to the brands.
Schor mentions that “ You’re aware of the visible status items, but not the invisibles” and that “ Visible products become status goods for an obvious reason”(64). You can pay attention to someone and look and see their visible things, which are hats, watches, what type of cars they drive, and etc, but you wouldn’t know whats in their house because it’s behind doors, which are invisible. In this case with Brian wanting toc change his appearance wearing name brand clothings gives off an reason him wanting to be a ladies man and just cool.
Brian appearance was completely changed on the outside; he had become the cool guy around his school because of the name brand logos he started to wear which others recognized. He was also able to get one of the hottest prom dates, which made more people accept him more for being able to do that from knowing him before. After that Brian was able to sit with any group of girls at lunch and talk with them about gym, movies, and parties now, instead of talking about dragons and dungeons and about school also. Everyone seen Brian appearance changed, but in the inside Brian was still the same.
He still liked DDR, dragons and also dungeons to. Brain said also said that he still likes his finger nails long, but clean now so he can grab things like coins. You can change someone’s appearance, but doing so can take some time as we seen Tariq going through the process with Brian. Tariq changing Brian’s appearance made him well known around his high school, but he still had the same personalities as he did before Tariq made him into a ladies’ man. Brian first semester attending college, he lost his knowledge about being a ladies man and needed Tariq help.
