research blog

For this blog post, I’m going to write the “paragraph” of my analysis that establishes my topic/issue and gives background information.

Everyone knows a fast fashion industry: H&M, Forever 21, or basically any shop in the mall. Fast fashion is consumed daily whether it be through television ads, magazines promoted the newest “look”, or seeing the stores every step you take within a local mega mall. Most people shop at fast fashion stores because they offer something first world consumers demand: the ability to change frequently. Looking through trendy magazines, lifestyle bloggers’ Instagrams, or just seeing an attractive person on the street, consumers realize that every few months a new trend pops up; according to Fashion/Lifestyle magazine, Bustle, “some fashion houses now produce eight or more collections in one year” (Thorpe). So how do consumers keep up? It’s simple in the eyes of the fast fashion producers: making incredibly cheap clothing. Consumers keep coming back to fast fashion stores despite the low quality and constant documentaries and news stories released on how awfully workers are treated. After all, how could something so cheap be so bad?

Many news stories and documentaries focus on the humanitarian side of the fast fashion industries sins: pulling at the heart strings is an Aristotelian method of getting an audience to react–or even just click on the video with the saddest or most shocking thumbnail and description. People all see the atrocities committed against workers in third world countries (ones we dump the burden of production on) and realize how gross this exploitative industry is. Writers and filmmakers also point out the exploitation of young women and their compulsion to conform to the latest trend, no matter how much they have to spend or how much they actually like the trend. One aspect that is not thoroughly delved into by mainstream media is a topic popularly debated and ignored: our environment.

The fast fashion industry manages to destroy our environment through “each step of the clothing life cycle generating potential environmental . . . hazards” (Claudio). Through its production, its purchase, and its inevitable dump to other countries, fast fashion clothing destroys our environment in various ways, some not at all described to us in the media.

According to an article via the Environmental Health Perspectives, a branch of the National Institutes of Health, even the very beginning steps of the production of fast fashion clothing is unhealthy and not sustainable. Polyester, a popular material used to make cheap clothing, is made from petroleum, which is identified time and time again as not sustainable and frequently unsafe to harvest and make usable and utilize (Claudio). Cotton, another popular material to make cheap clothing from, requires about a quarter of all the U.S. pesticide use to maintain (Claudio). Cotton also requires vast amounts of water to grow in comparison to other crops (Nature Research Journal). Emissions from factories are also at play:  “Total greenhouse gas emissions from textiles production, at 1.2 billion tonnes annually, are more than those of all international flights and maritime shipping combined” (Ellen MacArthur Foundation). Only about 15% of all [difficult to biodegrade] clothing bought does not end up in a landfill or dumped into another, poorer country (Claudio).

For this week’s blog post, my mission is to find one to three articles from stakeholders of my issue and to dissect their credibility. Since most stakeholders for my topic, the abuses of the fast fashion industry, are mostly unheard, unrepresented voices, I had to get creative with the articles I decided to use. Most of my sources are secondary, but provide good information about the primary source: the stakeholders.

https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/blog-post/why-fast-fashion-needs-slow-down

I found one article that I really like and like do delve further into, despite it being a bit short . . . I’ll explain a bit later. The article I chose describes the stakes held by the entire world in terms of our environment and fast fashion’s destruction of it. The United Nations reposted this article from Kaya Dory of Food Tank describing the destruction of our oceans/marine life and o-zone via the fast fashion industry’s waste. The United Nations represents the entire planet as a stakeholder in this case because we all suffer from the destruction of our environment: what will we do once our planet is 100% destroyed? This article distributes various statistics about different ways the fast fashion industry is destroying our environment and also how we can slow down (and possibly stop) said destruction.

To be honest, I found this article just by Googling “fast fashion articles” and clicking a source I considered trustworthy, the United Nations official organization website.

I have mixed opinions on whether this article is truly credible or not. One detail that leads me to believe it IS credible is the incredibly convenient use of hyperlinks in this article. Every single statistic or piece of information is cited through links on the information itself to its source–establishing very good ethos. This made fact checking this article was surprisingly simple. Also, the sheer amount of information given in this article makes it seem like a lot of time, effort, and thought was put into this piece–a good use of logos. What makes me a bit suspicious of its credibility, however, is the shameless self-plug in an otherwise strictly informational/argumentative piece. About halfway through, the author puts a small paragraph on how she has her own sustainable clothes brand, while throughout the entire article pushing sustainable fashion practices. The brand plug seemed, to me at least, as a bit of a shift in this paper’s purpose. Was this really about the environment alone or was this also about promoting her own clothing brand? To her credit, however, she does address how even her company could do a bit better and how more needs to be changed fundamentally within the fashion industry: even the seemingly “sustainable” brands.

For this week’s blog post, my task was to find a primary research artifact relating to my topic. Most think of primary sources as diaries or letters; I know that’s just about all that I was taught, at least. There is a lot more to primary sources than this, however. For my research specifically, since it is a relatively contemporary issue, I went with a completely different format: video.

This video is of an interview with a textile worker in Bangladesh that mass produces pants for stores such as Sears, Tesco, Primark, and others. Shuma Sarkar describes the poor conditions of working in a textile factory, delving into what that means for workers’ wellness as well. Horrors such as unclean drinking water, dirty bathrooms, constant pressure, poor lighting, extreme loudness, and no breaks even just to simply drink water. Sarkar tells the interviewer about the various health issues caused by such stressful and unhealthy conditions: “Some girls get jaundice, kidney problems . . . a lot of workers [suffer] hearing problems.” All of these issues are just ones caused physically within the factory. How are these workers affected outside of the factory?

Sarkar goes into the poor living conditions she’s forced into due to her extremely low salary. She, a widow with two sons, is forced to live in slums with little to no hygiene because she doesn’t make near enough to live in what she refers to as “a decent house”. Sarkar has to raise her family in a positive feedback loop of poverty: growing up under poor conditions leaves you with almost no option but to keep living and working in poor conditions.

For me, this raised the question: what is a decent house to her? What are her dreams and expectations when her reality is so bleak? This question isn’t answered in her interview and I can not stop thinking about it. For most, our dream of a decent house is one with a huge yard and a jacuzzi tub (or equally fun but extraneous features). What is it that Sarkar thinks of and says “one fine day”?

Sarkar explains that she is looking into how to change her reality. She joined a local union and is learning about her rights as a worker. While she doesn’t go into detail about what she has learned, she gains a bit of a determined or proud look on her face when she’s describing her joining of the union. Sarkar is pushing and fighting to have better treatment for herself, her family, and other textile workers. Her interview is ten years old, so there is obviously still work to be done, and can’t entirely be done by badass workers. This interview showed me that these people do not consent to working in these conditions and they refuse to treated like machines. This interview also personalized the issue; instead of just seeing statistics and B-roll footage of people in sweatshops you hear genuine accounts of what it’s like and how it affects them. These workers are people too! And they deserve to be treated as such.

Hello again! Regarding the issue I’ve decided to focus on for my research, fast fashion and its effects, I’ve noticed something in my own life.

Just the other day I sat down to have lunch with my friend when I noticed her playing with the thread on her sherpa sweater. She sighed and looked up at me to say “I think I might have to throw this out soon. It’s already ruined. How long has yours lasted?”

I sat back for a second to think about how long I had my almost identical sweater. “I don’t know, a year or so? Why?” She replied, explaining how hers was cheap and she wasn’t expecting it to last long anyways.

This is what I noticed. She bought that sweater just to fit the trend. She (more or less) bought it just to buy it. Why would she have bought that sweater if she didn’t expect it to last long? Shouldn’t the whole point of buying something to be enjoying it as much as we possibly can for as long as we possibly can?

I noticed how useless her purchase was. Identifying the issue can be more complex though. Lots goes into a purchase from a fast fashion industry, especially a completely useless purchase. The money from that purchase supports an industry that both abuses underprivileged humans,  hurts our environment, and hurts our self-esteem through gross advertisements. The opportunity cost of that purchase is money that could be filtered back into the local community with businesses such as Goodwill. The opportunity cost, on a less preachy scale, is just spending money to spend money versus saving it for something more important. We wouldn’t spend money on a backpack we knew was going to rip open after using it for more than a week would we? Even just if an ad said we needed it to get ahead on Spring or Fall fashion?

So what really drives us to give into fast fashion? How are we targeted: especially us young women? Where exactly does our money go? I want to know where each cent ends up in the end. There’s so much unexplained on the surface, but with some digging, I’m sure I’ll find a way to get lots of answers for my questions, and hopefully form some new, more thought-provoking questions.

Hi! My name is Alexandria Darmody. I’m a second semester freshman at the University of Kentucky. I’m originally from St. Louis, Missouri and spent some time in Seattle, Washington as a kid. I’m used to cities a lot larger than Lexington, and it’s definitely been quite the process to adjust. I love it here though and am perfectly willing to adjust. I really miss my dog though (pics included below).

Right now I have neither chosen a major nor a minor. To be honest, I have no idea what I want to do with my life. I have a lot of different dream jobs and pathways I’d love to pursue, but I really haven’t narrowed anything down yet. For now, I’m tentatively telling people I’m interested in communications, due to the fact that I love to write. A dream job I have for sure it to write for some sort of TV show. We’ll see where college takes me.

For this semester, I’d have to say my personal goals are to really be more outgoing. I’m already a somewhat outgoing person, but in giant lecture halls or classes where I’m obviously the youngest, I feel as though I quiet down. I don’t want to do that anymore. This semester I’d like to speak up more, even if I feel kind of stupid doing it. Academically, my goals are probably about the same as most other kids’: getting good grades. Whether that means As or Bs I’m not quite sure yet; we’ll have to see how hard all my classes turn out to be.