Sunday, November 24, 2013

16. How to fold a thong: A straight man working at Victoria’s Secret

The article mainly tells his experience and the lessons the author got from working at VS. At first, he tells how unexpected this employment was for him, because he was planning to “begin [his] trek toward normal, civilized life.” His urge to find a job in VS came when he was dumped by his girlfriend and decided that “[he] needed to study women.” However, “what [he] failed to realize was just how difficult this would be.” Aided by his inflaming persistence and his courage to confront the risks of “registering [himself] as a sex offender for the rest of [his] life,” with nearly two months spent in the process of getting the job, he finally got approved in the interview. He told the interviewer that he had “been raised in a family full of women”, and was comfortable handling women’s undergarments. In order to confirm what he’d told the employer, he was told that the company would call all people cited in his speeches. Consequently, the author was forced to tell everyone that “[he’s] applying for a job at Victoria’s Secret right now, where [his] mother occasionally shops for high leg briefs.” During his stay at VS, he “figured if [he] learned anything about women, it was going to come from watching and interacting with them.” His condition as heterosexual man in a lingerie store minimized his efforts on interaction, because women “wanted to know what a straight guy thought about things. Lingerie, swimsuits, panties.” The author tells “[he] was also surprised to find how forward they were,” but at the same time, notes how “they talk, they talk in explicit detail.”His experience “at Victoria’s Secret didn’t necessarily make [him] better with women, it simply brought [his] image of them into a more realistic and startling focus.”


The essay is mainly structured by anecdotes, complemented by his analysis and personal approaches of the given situations. His language is informally humorous, for he uses words like “freaking-the-hell-out” and constantly makes fun of his condition as a man in a women’s space, as he writes: “I assumed they would think I was one of three things: a gay man, a pervert or a perverted gay man.” The quote starting the article has a strong tie to the title, since the quote has an explanatory function to the title. The author also has a strong use of questions and separates them in different paragraphs. It’s noticed that paragraphs are very unequal, some made up by one sentence, while there are others that take 9 lines. Dialogues are also present, and they speed up his anecdote’s flow. He uses simile, diacope,. The author has a very personal approach to the reader using the pronoun “you”, because after all, it’s all about him.  His essay is well organized and easy to follow, even when some chronologically disorganized situations surface. 

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