Literacy on the Body

As I was preparing to write this blog post by rereading this article, something Hamilton said stuck out to me because it reminded me of the example used when we discussed it in class. Literacy isn’t found only on paper or signs, but also on our bodies and the clothes we wear. Tattoos and body paint, uniforms, and sports merchandise are other examples.

Additionally, clothing with a specific brand name is automatically seen as “better” than other types of brands because of the meaning behind the label. This includes better quality, but mostly expense. Being able to afford multiple Coach purses is a status symbol. My literacy artifact is something I saw on Tumblr a long time ago, but this article and the example used in class reminded me of it. The picture below depicts a T-shirt with The Great Gatsby printed on it in tiny writing.  It serves as a way to identify oneself to other fans of the novel without walking around asking.

People use clothing all the time to identify themselves to other members of their group. For example, the first day of class, I wore a San Francisco Giants sweatshirt. Before she even knew my name, my grade, or my major, Kim pointed me out and said, “Giants? We’re going to be best friends.” I regularly wear a sweatshirt with the logo for my youth organization and often receive comments from people saying they were in it or had a relative in it.

This sort of literacy begins well before kids are able to read or write. A study (http://abcnews.go.com/Business/kids-mcdonalds-toyota-disney/story?id=10333145) involving 38 preschoolers ages 3-5 found that despite being “illiterate”, many of the children were able to correctly identify a plethora of company logos. This included the obvious such as McDonalds and Disney, but also included seemingly random companies such as Shell and Toyota.