Camo Is The New Pink...Or Is That Black?

So a couple of weeks ago, I bought myself a new hat. I love hats. I started wearing hats in high school, and my years of hat abuse led to premature baldness. So now I wear hats to cover my increasing peninsula of hair. Its a vicious cycle.

But this new hat is pretty sweet. Check it out. Its officially listed as a "Boston Red Sox Woodland Camo Clean Up Adjustable Cap" on the shop.mlb.com site. Its probably one of the most comfortable caps I've ever had, and the brim is already nice and broken in. Good stuff.

But I've noticed that camo hats are the new thing. Nascar has Camo Hats available, although they offer an interesting take on the style. As opposed to the MLB camo hats which are available in woodland and desert camo, Nascar's hats are in the colours of the driver's car. So Tony Stewart's camo hat features orange and black, while Clint Bowyer's is in black and white. There are also NFL, NBA and NHL camo hats all out there, if you want to find one.

This is important because it says something about the ways in which the militaristic aspects of dominant society are reinforced. I wasn't seeing these hats a few years ago. This isn't to say that they weren't available, simply that I wasn't seeing them. But now the MLB and Nascar hats are featured prominently on their shopping websites. Why? Because they help people identify with the military.

By featuring and promoting these styles, people are encouraged to make a personal connection with the military, an important tactic in times of war. Just as WWII propaganda encouraged people to do their part on the homefront through fear and appeals to patriotism, these hats are attempting to build support for the war currently being fought. Not just support for the soldiers in that 'Please don't get all blowed up" kinda way, but encouraging people to make an emotional connection to the actual military action. Wearing camo says, "I wish I could be over there with you, but since I can't/won't, I'll make sure people know that I wish that." They won't actually enlist, because that's for poor people, but they'll say they support the troops and the war, defending "America's" "freedoms" from its "enemies".

In wearing these hats, people are aligning themselves with the military. They are identifying themselves as members of the military community, whether or not they actually are. As more people self-identify in this way, it will appear that more and more people support the war. In much the same way that American flags were used post-9/11 to identify people as supporting "America", these hats are making an implicit connection to the military identity.

As public support for the war continues to wane, and George W. Bush and his henchpeople continue to be revealed as the people they truly are, I think there will be an increase in this military identification. Camo will be back in style like meshbacks were a few years ago. Of course, it will be done in a way that makes camo less a 'war' thing, and more of a style thing, but the message will remain the same. I expect to see more camo pattern shirts, and other clothing items for men and women, as well as accessories such as purses and whatnot for the ladies.

And why do I wear the hat, given that this is how I feel about camo patterns in this post-9/11 wasteland of the spectacular? I like generating controversy and discussion. I like the camp value of wearing such a hat. I like irony. Plus, its a really comfy hat.