Alex Shakar – The Savage Girl

Alex Shakar’s “The Savage Girl” gave us a narrative to read rather than having an article or thesis essay to examine. One particular aspect of the story I noticed was that it seemed to incorporate many of the themes we have been reading about over the course of the semester. This is seen mainly through two of the characters, Javier and Ursula, as they go about trendspotting new clothes, looks, etc. to market to younger people. Eventually, there came to be so many philosophic discussions on life, behavior, etc., it started to become overwhelming! Through their many conversations and observations of the world around them, it was easy to point out at least some of the ideas we have read about so far.

One of the first themes I noticed in the story was from Dick Hebdige’s “Subculture: The Meaning of Style.” To foreshadow the use of the theme, Javier says at first that he saw a sorority girl reading a book (the same one perhaps?) called “Subcultures.” In looking for a new style to market, Ursula shows her boss her observations of the “savage girl,” to which he asks if it is some sort of “punk hippie.” Just by observing one chosen person, Ursula is trying to market a new subculture to anyone it might appeal to. In a sense, the savage girl’s aura will be lost if her look is made available to the public. Javier expands on this later when he tells her about how “niche marketing” can allow anyone to learn about anything and use it to shape their identities – every life experience can be customized by choosing “everything that makes us who we are from a vast array of choices” (Shakar 24).

He later states that using beauty in marketing inspires people to be better, and that it is the “PR campaign of the human soul” in which beauty will ultimately bring love. This reminded me of the seventh essay in “Ways of Seeing,” where advertising and publicity seem to give people the “choice” to better themselves and be loved by buying a product. Mulvey came to mind when Ursula mentions a patient of her plastic surgeon mother who wanted to look exactly like Betty Boop. She was so obsessed with her image that she wanted to become what the story calls her “Boopleganger” (much like the appeal of Superman in the presentation Laura and I gave). More of Mulvey’s analysis of visual pleasure was reminiscent in the supermarket scene, when the ever-observant Javier looks at the way a female shopper’s choice of long salami becomes her “dream phallus,” sustaining her with the long-term security it gives by lasting for many meals. Further innuendo comes in the form of ice cream and malt shop discussions as well.

Bordieu’s “Distinctions” comes to mind in discussions about consumption in the way “muzak” encourages people to keep shopping. Also, our discussions of national culture seemed to come up with Chas’s (Ursula’s boss) observations on Soviet advertising vs. America’s, where anything Soviet was seen as propaganda, while American marketing was meant to be a good thing.

As for the story itself, Shakar has thought up some unique ideas. One fascinating idea was “paradessence,” which allows two opposing desires to simultaneously satisfy. Examples of this include air travel (sanitized adventure & exoticism and familiarity) and fine dining (animal needs are divine). Positrony seems to refer to the ways people create an artificial life for themselves, and choose to live in a bubble, ignoring the rest of the world. Essentially, Chas says, positrony is schizophrenia. This is part of Chas’s new campaign, “The Lite Age,” designed to allow people to create their own identities through consumerism. This reminded me of our discussions on collections from the Clifford reading. I did find this story very entertaining and thoughtful, and I’ll be curious to see what other themes from the semester highlighted in the story that I might have missed.