SFist Fashion Focus: Kaffiyehs

Aren't the black and white ones very late-2006/early-2007 fashion?

I therefore... scoff

those chicks are puffy

Highly annoying on bike messengers and other forms of privileged white people.

i believe that when your mom sits around the house, she sits around the house.

therefore... zing.

I like seeing them as long as people understand what the "scarf" they're wearing stands for now as a symbol of Palestinian solidarity. Sure, that's not what it was originally, but that is what the keffiyeh has become and I hope people understand and are aware of it! Woo.

"That's not true. If most of us worm attire only according to its organic origins, or whatever, we'd all be naked."

Worm?

Anyway, I understand what you are saying (though it is rather flawed), but I am not suggesting that we do this for all pieces of clothing. However, because there are very specific social, cultural, and political implications associated with the keffiyeh, and because I have found that most people I have recently seen wearing them do not understand, acknowledge, or even have any awareness of this meaning, I take offense at these people's adorning this item of clothing which means a great deal to me culturally, and therefore misappropriating my culture. In the Middle East, this is an ordinary item of clothing deeply entrenched in the culture, which has grown to have a certain political meaning, and I'd like to see it respected as such. As bianco has said above, it would not be acceptable to wear a feather headdress, for example, or another item very significant to another culture-- at least not without having good reason to do so, and acknowledging its significance. People of privilege who pick up a manufactured version at Urban Outfitters may not care because this item means very little to them culturally and personally, but for others, it means quite a lot.

And for the record, you asked "yes" or "no" and I gave my opinion, so you are hardly justified in calling my opinion "not true."

@differentdog -

you put the "fur" in Darfur

Can I say, as a mexicana people wearing ponchos has never pissed me off.
Clothes are clothes. It's no big deal.

Hey, Robin! I guess all people of a particular economic group really suck, huh?
Also, people, the girls aren't puffy! They're all pretty cute.

As far as I can tell only two of these women are wearing kaffiyehs. Two people in the photo are wearing bandannas. Is this offensive to cowboys and train robbers?

The first non-Palestinians I knew to wear the Kaffiyeh were some Irish Republican kids. Something about showing solidarity with another group of colonized stone-throwing people. Looks to me like these young agitators are wearing them out of solidarity as well.

As for hipsters wearing them - eh, who cares? The kids are gonna wear whatever they want. At least SF hipsters haven't adopted the Nu-rave look! Yuk!

When you drive in from Walnut Creek, park daddy's SUV in the Stockton St. garage then change into your "hippie clothes" before walking down the street with your pre-printed signs, you are not "among the people." Then well, yes - some idealistic, self centered, ignorant people actually DO SUCK. We used to call them POSERS.

I wonder if you had real jobs with real responsibilities and weren't able to live off mommy and daddy's money that your political leanings would be so pronounced. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but don't get in my way of getting to work so I can pay my rent.

Not everyones "boss" is sympathetic to you street clogging hangers-on who think they are somehow "making a difference." You self-centered retards will follow the way of the old hippie boomers once they realized that the almighty dollar ruled and all else was bullshit.

Thanks for trying but the rest of us have lives to live too. You all seem so goddamn touchy-feely about your "causes" except when it comes down to considering your fellow man who is just trying to get by. I have been sympathetic to your cause but work for one of those tight-assed old men who doesn't care that I was 45 minutes late for work because some part time college students decided to block downtown SF. No you didn't because you are selfish little pricks with your own naive agenda. Fuck all of you.

If you want to make a real difference and really believe in your cause, gather all of your trust fund friends and have your mommies and daddies buy one way tickets for you to downtown Baghdad and go tell them how to "make a difference." If not then STFU, stay in Walnut Creek and stop preventing me from living MY life for a change.

Assholes.

Eh. I have appropriated my opinion on this matter from a Syrian friend, who taught my privileged white self to believe that that it is, as I said, highly annoying.

I really think it's dubious to assume that everyone at yesterday's protest (which annoyed me as it almost made me late), or every 'hipster', every young white person, counterculture type, or even everyone in a silly scarf is 'privileged'.

Doing so make one seem an ass, and worse it makes one seem ugly, petty and a bit bigoted.

This from a man who shouted 'hey fatty, just cause you have a $2,000 dollar track bike, doesn't mean you don't have to obey traffic laws!' a scant 45 minutes ago when almost run over by a 22yr old with $200 hair and the aforementioned track bike.

P.S. Kaffiyeh for non-cultural reasons = over piece of crap fashion. Rule: if it's trendy and sold at H&M it is done, done, done!

Jebus but there's some angry, bitchy motherfuckers in this city. And they all seem to be posting here.

I grew up in the CoCo and let me tell you, ain't none of those trust funders about to waste their time on politics - blow is way too important and expensive.

Who gives a shit about the scarves? WHY DOES THAT GIRL HAVE BLOOD POURING OUT OF HER MOUTH?

I've lived in this town my whole life, and I'm law student so my boss ain't GOP tainted exactly. Main problem is that this protest, and every protest that involves a scant few hundred people marching around downtown SF is a waste of everyones time and energy. It does nothing to discourage, end or question the Iraq occupation, it only provides a way for a few upset folks to blow off a little steam and feel like they did something.

a) This is SF and while fictional prep school girls may think they are annoying their fictional father -- this seems unlikely, the wealthy corporate fathers of SF a most likely as liberal, anti-war and anti-Bush as the rest of this town. Being against the war here is perhaps slightly less daring and controversial as being against child molesters or puppy torture.

b) It's not 1965, whooping it up at the demonstration doesn't startle anyone anymore, maybe if you can get hundreds of thousands of people, but really even then -- the protest march, especially in SF is not gonna impress anyone in power, or even on the street.

c) The few hundred folks protesting, well I'm glad they are staunchly against the war, but rather than organizing a protest that is basically a joke, perhaps they could do something more useful to go against the war. Raise money for legal challenges against the Detainee Treatment Act, or even send a slew of letters to congress people. Dang even working a phone bank for an anti-war political candidate would be more productive then being tritely predictable and running about on Weds. in orange jump suits.

As to fashion... I care dammit, it's almost the only thing we have left these days! Though agreed the headscarf thing is not as bad as certain elements of neo-hippie couture, though perhaps one can argue that at least with dreads and a scraggle beard one is showing commitment to a particular cultural space, whereas the headscarf is a temporary accessory indicating sub-cultural loyalty at a given moment, and thus allows for an uncomfortable fluidity of identity.

can we pause this scintillating discussion of fashion choices vis-a-vis political consciousness raising, and give a golf clap to Brock's charmingly misogynistic comment?

well done sir!

Growing up in Ireland in the 1980's we all wore them, not really for political reasons, but they were a cool fashion accessory.

No Chris. Actually you're "exactly the problem." You clearly understand nothing about the history of social justice movements.

Virtually every freedom you enjoy has been earned by regular people organizing and taking to the streets while people like yourself sat their asses and complained about the inconvenience.

If you and the rest of the whiners would join us in the protests, we could end the war tomorrow, have universal single-payer health care, and amazing public schools.

Chris, please tell me what you've done to help stop the war. Please. And if your answer is that you don't think the war needs to stop, then i'm sorry, you're a complete fool and we have nothing else to talk about.

If you and the rest of the whiners would join us in the protests, we could end the war tomorrow, have universal single-payer health care, and amazing public schools.

Kaffiyehs: Hmm total middle class white chick here, but where have you hipsters been? These things have been in the "activist" scene for years, at least since 01. Also it = Palestinian solidarity, so it's pretty much cool? I don't wear them regardless.

As for protests fucking up people's jobs, hmmm maybe you should be blaming your boss who is punishing people for issues beyond their control.

Also "It is not the advertised protests but the cumulative effect of all the goddamn protests that happen on a daily basis in this city. One day it is the rights of immigrants, hotel workers, bus drivers, union workers, peace activists, critical mass retards and the list just goes on and on and on. The unannounced, spur of the moment, nothing else to do that day jackasses like you who decide to grab a bullhorn, skip class - because you clearly do not have jobs or you would BE AT THEM EARNING MONEY - and tie up traffic all over downtown." Sounds fucking amazing to me!

PTFW-Despite your delusions and those of your cohorts, you have done nothing to stop the war. Nothing. If anything you and your ilk have further entrenched the pro-war idiots who use you as the poster boys/girls of the anti-war faction. They don't see professionals, housewives, doctors and lawyers, they see a bunch of crunchy fucks in stupid clothes making asses of themselves. You and your amazingly naive friends have given the right wing just the type of fodder they need to keep half of the American public on their side.

Tendernob,

Please. Have you read the comments directed at myself and the other protesters?! I was told to "kindly fuck off" merely because I marked the 5th anniversary of a disastrous and murderous war with one measly day of protests and made a few people late for work. I think considering the venom spewed at me, I've exhibited admirable restraint. I don't like to get nasty, but I'm going to defend myself and what I truly believe is right.

Besides, if you haven't already joined our "cause," which is simply calling for an end to the war, then there's something sadly wrong with you and we're never going to win you over no matter what we do.

Chris Weakly, you really have no idea who was at the protest or what the folks at the protest do the other 364 days out of the year. Many of them are committed peace activists who work tirelessly and selflessly to save lives and your hard-earned tax dollars.

The protesters include doctors, lawyers, school teachers, service workers, non-profit workers, public employees, students, laborers of all kinds etc. etc. etc. In fact they compose a cross section of the Bay Area racially, socio-economically, and age-wise. Is a protest only valid when it's made up entirely of well-dressed, middle-aged, wealthy white people?! Man, you scare me. You honestly do. Your supposed hatred for the protests betrays a much deeper, sicker hatred based on an apparent fear and of people who don't look and act like you.

And please understand that the demonstrations are merely one tactic in a broad variety of tactics used by the peace movement. If you had the most basic understanding of the peace movement, you would know this.

But sometimes when the evil being committed in your name is so heinous, it's truly necessary to just stand up, speak out, and demand to be heard. God, how obvious is that?! You ever heard of Tiananmen Square, the March on Washington, the suffragist movement, the abolitionist movement, or the Boston Tea Party?!

The demonstrations get press attention and create public debate. They remind people that our government is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people and it has wasted trillons of dollars that could be used to help people. The demos also serve as an opportunity for peace-loving people to show this city, this state, this country, and the world that not all people from the US support the President, the Congress, and their evil war. These demonstrations have a concrete effect in how the rest of the world views us. You should be thanking us for the remarkable positive PR we create in the global community.

Name a social justice movement of any significance that DID NOT use civil protest as ONE of its tactics. And the fact remains that if all you haters and complacent folks joined the protests, they WOULD work. The people have the power if they want it. But sadly most Americans these days seem content to sit at their desks, sit at their computers, and sit in front of their televisions and do precious little to engage in their democracy and serve the common good.

I got news for you people. Our democracy and our country are in serious trouble. Chris. Let me ask you. What WOULD it take for you to get out in to the streets? Anything? Or is your job and your boss' opinion of you the only thing that really matters to you?

And Chris. You never answered my earlier question. Please tell us what you've done to help end the war.

PTFW - Seeing as though the war has not ended, none of us have done anything to help end the war. And assuming I've done nothing except vote for anti-war candidates, at least that is a productive thing as opposed to the tragi-comic charade you involve yourself with.

PTFW - Last word. You really are not as effective as you believe yourself to be. The only people who pay attention to you are your fellow "activists". Now I hope your ego can handle that. Stay aware of that the next time you all chant "What do we want......" You know the rest.

I love your commentary, Brock!

If pleats come back in, I'll be protesting that.