Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Taking the law into your own crotch.

Photographer Seth Butler produced a thought-provoking photo essay entitled "Tattered: An Investigation of an American Icon."

Taken from panel 2 of 51 of the essay:
"Tattered is a documentary photo essay investigating the desecration and misuse of the American flag in the context of the U.S. Flag Code. If we are searching for who we are, America, we can find no better point of focus than our own Stars and Stripes."

Debate continues to this day over proper use and misuse of the flag. The often re-proposed Flag Desecration Amendment has never been passed because, while the most altruistic proponents seem to be merely trying to protect the integrity of the flag, there are undeniable implications on the effect such an amendment might have on free speech, artistic expression, political commentary, protesting, etc.

A customer picked up a pair of low-rise blue-lace-trimmed hipster panties made in Vietnam, featuring red and blue sponge-painted stars on a white background. Judging from the size she appeared as compared to the size of the garment, that lace was just barely going to cover her Old Glory.

United States Flag Code, Title 4, Chapter 1, Section 8, {d]. The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery. It should never be festooned, drawn back, nor up, in folds, but always allowed to fall free. Bunting of blue, white and red, always arranged with the blue above, the white in the middle, and the red below, should be used for covering a speaker's desk, draping the front of the platform, and for decoration in general.

Fall Free - Does this mean she must display it?
Blue Above - the lace, evidence for a deliberate statement by the designer lost upon the masses.
Red Below - For the sake of common decency I decline to comment on the comparison between the wording of this code and the application of it in the context of a woman's undergarment.

"Oh mohai gawd how cute, it's so patriotic!"



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