What's the interest in that, you ask? Quatrillions of 20-something white females work in clothing stores and bitch about it to their friends after long shifts of politely folding jeans that selfish customers recklessly bandied about. Why tune in to hear Nelson Mandela rattle on about how some lady pitched a fit when the store didn't carry her size? Why faithfully follow the beating-a-dead-horse discussions about using every trick in the book to better lure customers into the trap of spending too much money on shit they don't need? Because. I'm a mole. And the project is more than just a rant. It's an experiment. I will be playing a part. I will be Nelson Mandela.
The irony of my choice of profession--shop girl (or shop man, as it were, since I'm Nelson)--is that I really rather hate chain retail stores, and I don't like selling things to people. But I needed a job, and Podiatry was the first place that took me in. Instead of being thrilled to get a call from Podiatry's manager offering me employment at 9.25 an hour, I felt that by working there I would be simply cowing to the whims of the affluent, insodoing being complicit with the negative power structures inherent in our capitalist society.
But I decided to transform it into a kind of performance art/undercover piece. I will craft a persona during my tenure there, a persona aimed at probing prejudices, digging into discrimination, and uncovering unwarranted privilege. Perfect happy reading for these tough economic-social-political times. Let the great! experiment! BEGIN!
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