Before we even make eye contact, I realize I hate the man walking down the grocery aisle toward me. He�s never kicked my dog, I�ve never slept with him�in fact, we�ve never even met. But in bold white letters, the word �VEGAN� is printed across his black T-shirt. Staring at his malnourished frame as it hovers over the seasonal produce, I clutch my package of extra-fatty bacon and feel as though we�ve had an argument.
I�ve been having this reaction more and more frequently as the streets of Toronto turn into a silent battleground of the slogan. Cheap pastel Ts are usurping the button, the blog and the bumper sticker as the vehicle du jour for pop-cultural identification. And it�s not just here. Every city in North America has been inundated with these bold, reductive catchphrases. They are the passive-aggressive accessories of a mute generation.
From The Clothes Make The Man, by Siri Agrell, in the February/March issue of Maisonneuve.