Skip to main content

Underwear, Entitlement, and the Value of Bangladeshi People

The comment that caught me was this: "We are basically saying, I deserve to buy a shirt for $10."

It was February, and I sat in Amelia & Varun's living room. We were drinking chai, of course, and laughing and talking about many things. Somehow, it came 'round to clothing and ethics. We discussed the desire to do right by the faceless masses involved in producing my (oh-so-fashionable) wardrobe, and the cost of living in southern Ontario. Is it possible to purchase ethical goods on my budget? I wondered.

And then she said it.

"By shopping at these stores, we are basically saying, I deserve to buy a shirt for $10. Instead of saying, I can't afford so I'll go without, we say, I deserve a shirt that is affordable, so I'm going to buy this one."

Deserve. What do I deserve?

I deserve a closet full of clothes.
I deserve to purchase 6 new shirts every season.
I deserve to look good and pay less.
I deserve to have enough clothes to do laundry every other week.

And what do the workers deserve? What about the humans who happened to be born in a developing country? Do they deserve fair wages? Safe working conditions? Does my entitlement to cheap clothing trump their entitlement to a reasonable life?

This struck me. I slept on it. And in the morning, I felt the same. I decided it was time to stop saying, "I can't do this," and to start saying, "I can't change the world, but I can change my own habits."

I told Amelia that I was contemplating a challenge to myself. It was too far into the year to call it a resolution, but it was, in fact, exactly that. I resolved that for the rest of the year, I would only purchase clothing or shoes that I could guarantee were ethically made or second-hand* (exceptions: pieces required for the weddings I was in, possibly soccer cleats). And she decided she was also in.

So now it is May, and I have purchased 3 items of clothing, all used. One skirt and two sweaters. I have some other new-to-me clothes from our third clothing swap. I bought one pair of non-ethical shoes for a wedding, and I bought two necklaces that were definitely not ethical, because I forgot. I regret those necklaces, not just for their cheap price, but also their cheap quality.

I'm relieved that I have plenty of underwear (thanks, Amelia for sourcing where I can get it next time I'm in need). I'm nervous about how the summer will go; I own precisely two pair of shorts, and find them the most difficult wardrobe piece to find.

But you know what? I'm doing just fine. I'm buying less. I'm curbing the urge to buy emotionally, I'm challenging myself to redefine what I "need," and when the factory complex in Bangladesh collapsed, I felt the conviction of someone who has shopped at Joe Fresh, who is implicit and responsible for the lives that were lost. And the relief that I had already chosen to change my habits.

My friend Michelle wrote more about personal responsibility and how we can make a difference. I encourage you to check it out! 

What are your thoughts? Do you think about the ethics/source of your clothing purchases? What are ways we can demonstrate that we value the humans involved in the process of clothes manufacturing? Want to join me in my resolution for the rest of the year?



*Buying second-hand isn't a perfect solution. There are actually quite a lot of ethical issues within the used clothing industry. For me, this is a starting point - I am hoping this small change leads to further small changes that eventually add up to significant and influential change.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Simone Weil: On "Forms of the Implicit Love of God"

Simone Weil time again! One of the essays in Waiting for God  is entitled "Forms of the Implicit Love of God." Her main argument is that before a soul has "direct contact" with God, there are three types of love that are implicitly  the love of God, though they seem to have a different explicit  object. That is, in loving X, you are really loving Y. (in this case, Y = God). As for the X of the equation, she lists: Love of neighbor  Love of the beauty of the world  Love of religious practices  and a special sidebar to Friendship “Each has the virtue of a sacrament,” she writes. Each of these loves is something to be respected, honoured, and understood both symbolically and concretely. On each page of this essay, I found myself underlining profound, challenging, and thought-provoking words. There's so much to consider that I've gone back several times, mulling it over and wondering how my life would look if I truly believed even half of these thin

Esse - Czeslaw Milosz

I'm on a bit of a poetry binge this week, and Monday afternoon found me lying on the luxurious shag rug of a friend's tiny apartment, re-reading some of my favourite poets (ee cummings, William Carlos Williams, Czeslaw Milosz). It is an adventure to re-open a collection and wonder what will pop out, knowing something you've read before will strike you afresh, or you will be reminded of a particularly moving line that you had somehow forgotten. Like this piece from Milosz, which floors me. Every. damn.* time. The first time I read it, I lay in a park with a friend (this same friend who offered me her rug as my reading burrow) and demanded that I share it with her. I spoke it carefully, and then, into the post-reading silence, I slammed the book shut, and dropped it as loudly as I could onto the grass. "I'm never reading anything again," I declared, "What else is there to say?" Esse I looked at that face, dumbfounded. The lights of métro st

I Like to Keep My Issues Drawn

It's Sunday night and I am multi-tasking. Paid some bills, catching up on free musical downloads from the past month, thinking about the mix-tape I need to make and planning my last assignment for writing class. Shortly, I will abandon the laptop to write my first draft by hand. But until then, I am thinking about music. This song played for me earlier this afternoon, as I attempted to nap. I woke up somewhere between 5 and 5:30 this morning, then lay in bed until 8 o'clock flipping sides and thinking about every part of my life that exists. It wasn't stressful, but it wasn't quite restful either...This past month, I have spent a lot of time rebuffing lies and refusing to believe that the inside of my heart and mind can never change. I feel like Florence + The Machine 's song "Shake it Out" captures many of these feelings & thoughts. (addendum: is the line "I like to keep my issues strong or drawn ?" Lyrics sites have it as "stro