It's a gay gay gay summer, tell us those stacked chairs where the original four muskokas had more poetry and better design.
The previous Muskoka chairs in summer version of the Holt window display,
removed and replaced when "Pride" started to take over
[All Photos By: KPA]
Now all we see is the promiscuity.
But it is Pride Week after all, and we must CELEBRATE!
About a week ago, I posted the above image as a prelude to summer.
A couple of days ago, I went into the Holt department store and asked about the store designer who put together the window display.
A young woman told me that she did it, although she was following directions from "head office."
"You still have to interpret the guidelines. It looks great!" I encouraged her.
Then I had some kind of brainwave and asked if I could see the store's managers. I wanted to ask if I could somehow be involved in window display designs. That way, I can ask about this particular one without being too "inquisitive."
I went to the "customer service" post and asked the staff there to see a manager, who asked if he could help me.
"Well, I have some questions."
"Could you give me some idea of your question?" persisted the customer service assistant (a Chinese man with bleached blonde hair with dark roots showing - that is the pseudo-appropriation of white identity that is now common amongst non-white youth).
"Well, I have a design background. I would like to know if I could be involved in helping the design of future window displays."
"You can apply online and post your resume."
That was exactly what I was trying to avoid. I didn't want to work at Holt at all. Imagine my altercations with "rich" "foreigners" who have no real idea of the value, cultural specifically, of the goods they're buying.
"Oh yes. But could I still see a manager? It makes it easier to see if I qualify."
The man tapped his fingers somewhat aggressively on the counter. He thought a little. Then dialed a number.
Eventually a woman came down. She was short and stout and in her mid-forties. She also looked half black and half white. She was dressed in a black baggy get-up which did not fit with the colorful designer clothes she walked by.
To make a longer story short(er), the woman was just about to give me the email address of the Head Office honchos who direct the "visual look" of the store. Perhaps my insistence threw her off and she said: "It is better if you give me your phone number." I don't blame her. I would have done the same.
"Oh. OK. But I will give you my email. That is easier for me to communicate." (And I will also have a record of the transactions (or not) - although I didn't say this).
I added: "I have a design and photography background, graphic design, websites. But I also have textile design training and I can visualize things three dimensionally. I think that is helpful for window displays."
"Oh. Yes."
Me: "But could you show me if the theme of bright summer colors are a Canadiana theme with the Muskoka chairs?"
Manageress: "Well you know this has to do wth pride don't you?"
Me: "The whole display concept?"
Manageress: "Well it started off as a prelude to summer. But now it is merging with Pride Week."
Me: "Oh. I see!"
I didn't see that coming!!!
Me: "What exactly is "Pride? Is it to do with Multiculturalism?" I played the innocent.
Manageress: "No. It is Pride Week. There is a big Pride Month going on in Toronto and we wanted to be a part of it."
"Of course! The homosexual parades. Harry Rosen is also doing the same thing with their windows! And Simons too! I asked the young man at Harry Rosen what "Pride" meant and he said he didn't know!"
(I really did ask and he really did say "I don't know," as in "I have nothing to do with this!!!")
Then something clicked. This woman is a lesbian!!! The scorn for feminine beauty was apparent in her dark and shapeless garb; her obesity; her lack of any kind of decoration - no makeup, no jewelry.
And she had a long-developed instinct for potential "homophobia." And was intelligent too, able to gauge things in an instant. I could see why she was a manager.
She laughed at my anecdote. "We have nothing to do with the other stores."
She understood that people don't want to be associated with all this. And hence the clever and subversive ways in which she (they) lure the public.
I thanked her and left. I had given her my full name and my Reclaiming Beauty email address. I do that because it takes too much energy to sort out all my various pseudonyms. And plus my battle is now out in the open.
I haven't heard from anyone at Holts, head office or otherwise. I am sure this manager looked me up and saw my various profiles and my many blog posts, and never sent the communication.
Good!!! I am at least as clever as she is! I found out something I wouldn't have known, which is:
The Canadian landscape, which I blogged about here, was readily converted into a "Pride" canvass. " We're Proud to be Canadian!" they tell us.
And "We're all in it together!"
But no, we're not, all in this together!"
