Blue jeans, fam? How is it a weird word to use when the typical term is blue jeans?
It’s about the double entendre: jeans/genes.
That’s why I said, if you ignore the cultural context around Sweeney, none of the eyebrow raising makes sense. But when you factor in her popularity, the messaging about passing down jeans/genes, and when you consider the symbolism of “blue genes,” you kinda ask yourself questions.
You gotta remember that a lot of those mall brands (AE, Abercrombie) tried to maintain a very particular aesthetic decades ago in order to appeal to the suburban crowd, and they got in trouble for policies that were racially exclusive.
This whole thing could be a dumb PR oversight, but there’s history there…
The whole symbolism is less shocking than the speed with which a lot of those companies went from inclusivity to featuring white folks pushing that genetics talk. 6 months in and they got the robes and hoods dry cleaned and ready to go
I ain't even quote you about that, but your last sentence was like huh?
I quoted to ask about the royals. My understanding was the pure blood line was actually implying them being inbred...not just that they didnt race mix.
Granted, I did no research as the topic does not interest me in the slightest. But was that not true?
It is in a roundabout way.
Beliefs about genetics in those times blended the observable with the supernatural. If absolute monarchs were direct descendants of god (as, for example, the French believed), it made sense to think having children with the peasantry would corrupt the bloodline, so inbreeding was the surest way to maintain purity. From a practical/realistic standpoint, it was also a way to limit the number of people who could make claims to the throne (power was inherited).
