Document Type
Master's Non-Thesis Paper
Date of Original Version
2024
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to interpret how absurdity can be ironic through dress and appearance. By using two popular culture examples, one contemporary and one from the 1990’s, I look at how existential philosophies impact comparisons to society and how their reactions of dress and appearance can be ironic. This paper discusses Lee Alexander McQueen and Austin Babbitt (AssPizza) to find the intersection of irony, absurdism, social comparison, and dress and appearance. These two examples prove irony can be interpreted through an understanding of existentialism and how one views society and if they draw comparisons to their peers. McQueen and Babbitt–aligning with philosophers like Friedrich Nietzsche and Albert Camus–are unique as individuals within their respective practices, but aspects of their ideologies and irony can be seen across society today.