Pop Culture is expressed in the mass circulation of items from areas such as fashion, music, sports and film. After deliberating among several distinguishing items of pop culture that have affected my life, I settled on one of particular significance in American pop culture. The ‘invention’ of blue jeans greatly preceded my birth and is a pivotal piece of history for women and fashion. Whereas jeans were once clothing for workers and a status symbol of physical labor, they now adorn the most beautiful of women as pop culture and designer fashion. Blue jeans have helped make me who I am and have helped to form my outlook and perspective on American feminism or the lack thereof.

In 1853, Levi Strauss began a wholesale clothing business in order to provide strong denim clothing to the California Gold Miners who wanted clothing to be tough enough to withstand the physical demands of mining. Blue jeans were only meant for the working man and were never conceived of becoming a fashion icon by women everywhere. After all, the women’s rights movement was just getting starting around this time. My great-grandmother, as well as every woman she knew, were restricted to being bare-foot and pregnant while caring for her husband and children. Women never conceived of wearing anything but the long skirts that their mothers had worn.

Blue jeans slowly became symbols of pop culture when in the 1930’s western movies and the American cowboy wore jeans on the big screen. Popularity was spurred when the American public watched heroes wearing blue jeans. They soon became synonymous with teen rebellion. My grandmother at the age of 17 was once caught wearing her brother’s jeans while working in the tobacco field. She was punished with her father’s leather belt because young ladies were taught that their reputations would suffer if they did not dress and act properly. By the time my mother was a teenager in the 1960’s, the individualization of jeans began as people experimented with different styles and decorations such as patches, embroidery and wild colors. My mother’s favorite styles were the bell bottomed and hip-hugger jeans. She once told me that her hip-huggers were what won over my father. Jeans were quietly transforming from a necessity in the workplace to a sex symbol for women. The older generation still believed that jeans were a sign of rebellion and that a woman’s social reputation was tarnished if they wore them.

Blue jeans evolved into an American Pop Culture phenomenon holding their own against becoming yet another fad. I grew up in the 1980’s when jeans skyrocketed to the peak of their popularity and began to draw the attention of major designers. Blue jeans were glamorized, created in new styles and marked with designer logos. My friends and I were driven to be the first girls in our school to purchase the newest pair of stone-washed or acid-washed jeans. Teen rebellion was fulfilled in these blue jeans of social and sexual freedom. The tapered leg of my high school jeans raised my confidence as they elongated my legs while walking down the hallways to class.

Unfortunately, by the 1990’s, the peak of blue jeans couldn’t be sustained as the demand for more traditional styles of blue jeans decreased. The trend was largely attributed to the idea that young adults didn’t want to wear “their parent’s jeans” and were in search of other fabrics and styles with which to make their own fashion statements. I have never deviated from my beloved blue jeans, though I have adjusted my tastes to fit my body style. Now, I am often more partial to the straight or boot-cut leg so that my body is seemingly slimmed down. After all, I have four children and I don’t resemble the tall, skinny girl of my high school days. Blue jeans have taught me that what a woman wears is not who she is or who she will become. Fortunately, blue jeans have become a close part of a woman’s femininity and I hope they will stay that way.