Women's sexy underwear is a minor but significant growth industry of late-twentieth-century Britain in the twilight of capitalism.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the rise of the lingerie industry in late-20th century Britain as a noteworthy aspect of capitalism.
Angela Carter's quote reflects on how women's sexy underwear became a notable and profitable sector in the British economy during the late-20th century, indicating broader themes of consumerism and the dynamics of capitalism. This growth industry not only demonstrates changing cultural attitudes towards sexuality and femininity but also illustrates how market forces shape personal identity and expression within the scope of capitalism.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion on the evolution of women's rights and self-expression through fashion.
She stands and moves within the invisible pentacle of her own virginity. She is an unbroken egg: she is a sealed vessel; she has inside her a magic space the entrance to which is shut tight with a plug of membrane; she is a closed system; she does not know how to shiver.
Cities have sexes: London is a man, Paris a woman, and New York a well-adjusted transsexual.
Those are the voices of my brothers, darling; I love the company of wolves.
For most of human history, 'literature,' both fiction and poetry, has been narrated, not written β heard, not read. So fairy tales, folk tales, stories from the oral tradition, are all of them the most vital connection we have with the imaginations of the ordinary men and women whose labor created our world.
Iconic clothing has been secularized. . . . A guardsman in a dress uniform is ostensibly an icon of aggression; his coat is red as the blood he hopes to shed. Seen on a coat-hanger, with no man inside it, the uniform loses all its blustering significance and, to the innocent eye seduced by decorative colour and tactile braid, it is as abstract in symbolic information as a parasol to an Eskimo. It becomes simply magnificent.
To pin your hopes upon the future is to consign those hopes to a hypothesis, which is to say, a nothingness. Here and now is what we must contend with.
I'm not a fashion victim, and I don't closely follow trends. I dress the way I feel comfortable because, at the end of the day, you have to be comfortable.
Why am I so determined to put the shoulder where it belongs? Women have very round shoulders that push forward slightly; this touches me and I say: 'One must not hide that!' Then someone tells you: 'The shoulder is on the back'. I have never seen women with shoulders on their backs.
Clothes are status signifiers, and no matter how restrained, they always give you subtle symbols of what your values are.
You gotta have style to get up in the morning
Iβve always been about style for people, not βYouβre going to wear this outfit,β... It was the way you put yourself together and the imagination, not buying this number off the rack, but the way you wear it
Always choose style over fashion: wear something that makes you look beautiful.
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