Why is Che Guevara such a pop culture icon?

He looks good on a T-shirt and he’s a vague counterculture icon for rebellion and “sticking it to the man”.

Ask the youth what he actually did, and they will reply vaguely with a “Umm… yeah, he fought the US for Cuba, right… and they all wanted to make money, man, but no. Che was like: this is Cuba for the people, right? We ain’t gonna get bought off by The Man, yeah? So, like, he was a bit like Jesus, because he preached his message of peace, yeah, and they killed him. Only he rode a motorbike, yeah, like in that film. No, not Easy Rider, the other one with the Mexican guy in it. Yeah. Motorbike Diaries. That’s the one. Anyway, yeah. The Che Guevara T-shirt is like my second favourite top, after that one of the pope smoking a spliff. That one’s fucking wicked.”

Posted over 3 years ago by themanwhofellasleep

True, point taken, Ben. Perhaps that was an unfair comparison, but it’s true that most of the people wearing him on their persons probably wouldn’t know the history of one from the other, beyond the difference in facial hair.

Posted over 3 years ago by Lauralou

Che fetishisation has been going on for years (all the semicool kids had Che Ts when I was at uni, and that was the 90s!), and Motorcycle Diaries did its fair bit keeping the franchise going. Yet another chapter in the commodification of radical politics.

Might as well hop aboard the train. New from FridayCities starting 1 April:

-Baader-Meinhof flat caps

-Osama Bin Ladel kitchenware

-Fresh Al-Aqsa Martyrs Baguette.

Posted over 3 years ago by comradem

Classic, TMWFA, you nailed that one alright.

But Laura, I don’t think it’s fair to compare Che with Hitler, He didn’t start any wars of attrition, and didn’t commit genocide either.

Posted over 3 years ago by Ben

I think the majority of the youth of today wear the t-shirts just for fashion and haven’t a clue who he was or what he did. But hey that’s fashion for you innit.

Posted over 3 years ago by lalalucy

When was Guevara a dictator? The appropriation of his image to sell everything from jeans to vodka is depressing, but I hope the backlash doesn’t result in his being remembered as akin to Hitler.

There’s a hair product ad out though, maybe VO5, that implies the Cultural Revolution frowned only on a youth’s right to gel his hair, and perhaps the descendants of the 20m+ victims of Maoism might find that a bit insulting to their memory.

Posted over 3 years ago by Mockernee

It is similar to the recent fashion of skinny jeaned twats wearing AC/DC or Motley Crue t-shirts ironically…

Posted over 3 years ago by jamespo

Those fucking hairgel kids make me think perhaps Mao was right.

Posted over 3 years ago by cutta

Stupid trade unions just make work for me, I’m all for locking them up.

Posted over 3 years ago by Simone

Whether oficially a dictator or not, he had all the characteristics of a one: believing the end justifies the means that achieved it. He also penned those infamous words printed in the identity booklets of Cuban soldiers: “Blind hate against the enemy creates a forceful impulse that cracks the boundaries of natural human limitations, transforming the soldier in an effective, selective and cold killing machine. A people without hate cannot triumph against the adversary.”

And let’s not forget he helped put in power a Stalinist dictatorship that imprisons gays and trade unionists, but anyway.

Posted over 3 years ago by Lauralou

it’s because he looks a lot like Robert Lindsay, who was a famous revolutionary from the Tooting area.

Posted over 3 years ago by iSleepDiagonal

How does the notion that the end justifies the means exclusively tie in with dictatorships? Given it was the reason given by a “democracy” for both dropping the bomb in 1945 and, retrospectively, removing a dictator 4 years ago.

We’ll skip past Guatemalan history, it’d throw up too many contradictions on trade unions and homosexuality and the dictatorship that oppressed both. Is Castro’s stance a direct interpretation of Guevara’s wishes, or contrary to the very struggle that first energised Guevara?

Posted over 3 years ago by Mockernee

My dictator of choice is Margaret Thatcher. She is.

Posted over 3 years ago by Chez

Almost all political leaders end up doing dodgy things. It kinda comes with the territory. Which is why you very rarely see political leaders on T-shirts, unless they are dead, bearded, foreign or ironic. Moustaches don’t count as beards, so you rarely see Hitler, Stalin or early Peter Mandelson T-shirts.

I’m off to Wood Green in my Jacques Chirac vest.

Posted over 3 years ago by themanwhofellasleep

It sounds like you secretly know the answer to your own question, unless you’re living up to your ‘avoiding reality’ tag.

Posted over 3 years ago by BraveNewMalden

Mockernee, I think that when we’re talking about violence, i.e. working with the belief that extremely violent means justify an end goal, and when we’re talking about the execution of countless counterrevolutionaries, including numerous women and children, it does tie in – I didn’t say exclusively.

I’m afraid I’ve made this thread far too serious now.

Posted over 3 years ago by Lauralou

Calm down lads and leave my girl alone. :)

Posted over 3 years ago by Chez

David Niven: all sorts of socio-political rabble-rousing there, plus a great moustache.

Posted over 3 years ago by Simone

Only arguing with the statement “Whether oficially a dictator or not, he had all the characteristics of a one: believing the end justifies the means that achieved it.” History doesn’t correlate the ends and means analogy with dictatorships any more than the ends and means and democracies.

But we’ll agree this is far too serious, if we’re not careful we’ll rouse Part-Timer. So, changing tack….

If you could emblazon an obscure historical figure on your t-shirt, who would it be, and why? I’ll start with Zapata, because obviously he had the best moustache.

Posted over 3 years ago by Mockernee

Anyone fancy a liquorice allsort?

Posted over 3 years ago by Chez