Gap's Image Around the World

I traveled abroad last semester to Paris- living, speaking, breathing the culture. I was warned before I left that Europeans can be somewhat rude and even cruel at times. I had traveled abroad once before right after high school but was with 30 other students my age and so had no real need to interact with the culture; however, now was different because I would be living with the people in the country and as an American, being an outsider can be somewhat difficult, or so I heard. Fortunately for me, Obama had just become President of the U.S. and Parisians seemed to like this, so that helped quite a bit. Yet I did encounter numerous situations where I would hear Europeans speaking about my country in negative ways- criticizing the politics, the war, the culture in general. Yet I did feel it was somewhat ironic that a country which seemed to gather so much of its culture from America would say these things about it in return.

What I mean is that I honestly did not have a chance to be homesick while abroad because everywhere I turned I would encounter American culture. In my opinion it seemed odd to me that the media in Europe would sometimes portray America in such a negative light when all you had to do was flip the channel on your television and MTV would start playing American music, with American adds. I would walk underground to the metro and would also encounter numbers American movie posters- most of which had already come out in America months before. The more I spoke with European teenagers the more I saw how they were trying to catch up to American culture. They tried to use American teen slang like “whatever” and “sick.” It almost made me laugh because a lot of times the slang was used so out of context. But still, it showed that despite some negative publicity in their social media (in regards to Iraq, and other things), most citizens in Paris in this era did appreciate America and its resources.

I don’t remember how many times I would walk the streets and begin to start counting Gap sweatshirts, and it wasn’t until I got to about 12 sweatshirts in the span of just a few blocks that I finally realized the Parisians’ love-hate relationship with my country. The fact that Gap meant something to me, and something different to these foreigners, allowed me to see the power of this icon. Walter Benjamin spoke about the power of the icon and its ability to keep its authenticity even when it is reproduced multiple times. That’s what had happened with this Gap icon. It had been replicated thousands of times and was spread across the world, to countries much different than my own. To me Gap was a symbol of home, of America. I remember buying my first Gap sweatshirt in 5^th grade and never wanting to part with it. I would wear the light blue sweatshirt to school almost everyday and in turn I parallel Gap to my youth, to comfort, to home. When I would see these Gap sweatshirts everyday on Parisians it made me feel comfortable, like I wasn’t actually thousands of miles away. However, I did remind myself that Gap could symbolize something completely different to these Europeans. It was almost like the phrase “bon voyage.” It is a French phrase but as Americans, when we use it, we almost never think of its actual origin. That is what happened with Gap. It is almost like Susan Meiselas’ photograph and how its context became distorted as it was separated from its original frame and placed into ads and commercials which had nothing to do with the Molotov Man. Obviously Gap is not the Molotov Man and doesn’t represent rebellion or anything quite to that extent. But it still meant something to me and something different to these Parisians, who had no idea how much I loved the sight of their sweatshirts. Gap may have been taken out of its original environment, but I think it still held its original message overall. So in the end I guess I do agree with Benjamin in that Gap did keep its authenticity because although it represented something different for the people who wore it, it still maintained its original purpose- to clothe and to comfort; it held the same message as it did in America. And while it may hold different representations for Europeans, the icon still stood for everything I remembered from my home.

Overall the media in Paris did reflect America in both positive and negative lights. Sometimes I would hear harsh criticism of Obama’s future health care plans or how Americans need to stop bombing the Middle East. Yet, the power of the icon and the actual idea of extensive replication did show me that although Europeans may not even realize it- they use America’s resources, wear American sweatshirts, watch American films, and in turn they actually may, underneath all of the criticism, like America.