A garment factory in Bangladesh collapses, killing 110 workers who made seventeen cents an hour; a tenant building in the Bronx collapses, killing seventeen adults and seven children. In both cases, construction errors were the cause as well as ongoing maintenance problems like the fire alarms in the Bronx that went off so often mistakenly that tenants had begun to ignore them. And the cracks on the Bangladesh building, visible for months? No use complaining—you risk losing your job.
As a basis for capitalism, buying, buying, buying is both inevitable and fatal, depending on the exploitation of workers in third world countries and our susceptibility to advertising, Hollywood and the cult of appearances. I started this piece assuming that lipstick sales have gone down during the pandemic: why put on lipstick when wearing a mask? Yes, they have gone down—but plastic surgery rates have risen 30 percent. We are still in the grip of this mania, now fueled by staring at our faces on Zoom where every wrinkle is cruelly revealed.
With all bad news, we have a tendency to sigh and say, “Well, that’s bad, but what can I do?”
In the case of the clothes we buy, there is something we can do:
First of all, buy less. As the pandemic has made many of us hesitate to go to stores—and perhaps even hesitant, at least of late, to spend endless hours ordering on line and pilling up plastic bags and cardboard boxes that bring our purchases to our doors—we can also refuse to buy the clothes made in Bangladesh factories:
The number of brands is astonishing, including both cheap goods at Target and higher-priced goods at The Gap, PR Marx, H&M (all made in the factory that collapsed), Austin Reed, Jaeger, Bon Marche—the list goes on and on. Surely we can begin to ask on a buying spree, “Where is this garment made?” If the person waiting on you doesn’t know, you can assume it is made in Bangladesh.
What does it take to change ingrained human behavior? I am not the only woman who for years used a moment of depression to excuse going and buying something pretty. I thought I could afford it, and I could in terms of dollars spent. But can I still afford it, knowing where these pretty things are made?
As to the tragedy in the Bronx, afflicting many African-American tenants, again, we bear some responsibility. All the developers of low-cost substandard housing have wives, mothers, and daughters; all the profits we accept without question from these poisoned sources flow into the bank accounts of numerous women stockholders. We benefit, and we must begin, at the very least, to question the source of our benefits.
As to wearing lipstick under a mask, I have committed this absurdity from time to time, and I, too, am appalled by the way my face looks on Zoom. Do I dare to say this is a spiritual issue?
Recently, I purchased a new spool of black thread and wound up some bobbins. it feels right.