Blog 10 - Communicating through Clothes

People now days are using their clothing and humor to communicate their religious views and/or affiliations. Depending on the shirt's text, some shirts did not seem as bad as the others. For example, the shirt shown on page 319, which has 'coexist' written on it is not as bad as the other shirts shown because it does not directly poke fun at religion through its images (LaFerla). In my opinion, the visual aspect of the shirt shows more humor than the textual and is a parody. Since I am religious, I would never consider wearing a shirt that would poke fun at my religion or any of it's beliefs.

In Paul Mitchell's essay, he says, "we could say that the previous examples are typical of a culture that ignores God." Mitchell says this regarding the shirts, such as the 'Jesus is my homeboy' and 'Mary is my homegirl', which he feels attack religion. However, by wearing shirts like the ones listed, can Mitchell really argue that they are "of a culture that ignores God"? Rather, people seem to remember God through their shirts, not ignore him.

If the shirts only contained text, they would become less humorous. Thus, they would be less upsetting to those who are religious. It would change the way I react to the shirts because I would find them less harsh to religion.

The shirt on the left displays a picture of a 'buffed up' Jesus outlined by white in a black background, or in other words, a Jesus who seems to have muscles. His face is calm, but with a 'don't mess with me' type of look aided by the black background. The text is written in bubble letters with Jesus written in the biggest font, and Homeboy written in a bit smaller font. Furthermore, the text is centered right over Jesus's chest, which draws your attention to his built. The halo in the picture makes you realize that the man in the shirt, or Jesus, is a god, or more like a type of strong guardian. The shirt to the right depicts an image of Jesus holding up a peace sign with his hand. He seems to be wearing a red hoodie with a white cap, which attempts to indicate how modern he is. He is standing in a very laid-back pose, leaning to one side. Thus, the shirt on the left seems to be more serious, while the shirt on the right is more humorous.