# Dear Major Tom,
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [November 12, 2007, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144 "2007-11-12T17:07:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2007, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144/41 "2007-11-14T18:24:51Z")
[QUOTE=PoorYorick]
“The papers” refer to the modern post impressionistic newspeak that informs confabulatory anomie. “Shirt” and “wear” are obvious neofeminist reactions against the patriarchal roles foisted on young girls who are forced into certain gender roles. Notice even with the lack masculine pronouns that the intuitive reaction to the song is to assume that “Tom” is an abbreviation of “Thomas” rather than "Tomasina, or even “Tomas,” also proving NASA’s neocolonistic . . .
.
[/QUOTE]
Dammit,I thought about posting that myself but it just seemed so blatantly obvious.
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### Author:  [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2007, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144/42 "2007-11-14T18:37:16Z")
[QUOTE=HelloNinja]
I always assumed that Space Oddity was a metaphor for Bowie’s own dealings with celbrityhood. When he says in Ashes to Ashes that Major Tom’s a junkie, he’s talking about his own drug use.
[/QUOTE]
Was Bowie a celebrity when he wrote Space Oddity? It was his first hit, wasn’t it?
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### Author:  [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2007, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144/43 "2007-11-14T18:39:46Z")
I always thought “whose shirt you wear” referred to sponsorship deals, as if he’d promised to wear a Nike shirt into space. Athletes and media stars are always doing endorsements, and I thought the idea was that astronauts are stars like them.
Sailboat
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2007, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144/44 "2007-11-14T19:46:25Z")
[QUOTE=Sailboat]
I always thought “whose shirt you wear” referred to sponsorship deals, as if he’d promised to wear a Nike shirt into space. Athletes and media stars are always doing endorsements, and I thought the idea was that astronauts are stars like them.
Sailboat
[/QUOTE]
While athletes and movie stars have appeared in commercials for decades, nothing really equivalent to the modern practice of endorsements existed in the 1960s. Besides, I’m pretty sure that the astronauts then were prohibited from doing any commercial deals. Active NASA astronauts today certainly are.
The world of the 60s was very different from today’s.
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### Author:  [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2007, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144/45 "2007-11-14T20:11:45Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase]
While athletes and movie stars have appeared in commercials for decades, nothing really equivalent to the modern practice of endorsements existed in the 1960s. Besides, I’m pretty sure that the astronauts then were prohibited from doing any commercial deals. Active NASA astronauts today certainly are.
The world of the 60s was very different from today’s.
[/QUOTE]
I don’t think he thought the astronauts had endorsement deals. I think he was cynically comparing them to people who did. Artistic license and all that. Weren’t star endorsements of Chesterfields and the like as old as radio?
Sailboat
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### Author:  [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2007, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144/46 "2007-11-14T20:28:43Z")
I don’t know about Major Tom, but Custer wore Arrow shirts.
StG
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### Author:  [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2007, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-major-tom/426144/47 "2007-11-14T21:11:52Z")
[QUOTE=Sailboat]
I don’t think he thought the astronauts had endorsement deals.
[/QUOTE]
Although, if I remember correctly, the Mercury astronauts all received free Corvette Sting Rays (and maybe other astronauts as well). Pretty darn good advertising for Chevrolet.
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