There has been a lot of buzz surrounding sustainable fashion recently which is super exciting for someone like me who has centered her life around this pursuit. However, whenever something is talked about, not everyone will agree. I’ve noticed a lot of folks online sharing why they are totally against the movement towards sustainable fashion, and not surprisingly, I have some thoughts.
One of the most common things I hear is “Sustainable brands are so expensive. I’m just a broke twenty-something. All I can afford is fast fashion”
My response to this is always that thrifting is a great option because it is even cheaper than shopping fast fashion, plus you will be able to find higher quality items.
This part seems simple enough. But recently I’ve been seeing a lot of folks vilifying thrifting. Common things I hear is that not every town has a thrift store and it’s hard for folks in larger bodies to find things at the thrift store. These are barriers for some people. But what I ask these folks is this a barrier for you. If you are a straight sized person living in a nice suburb with three goodwills, saying that thrifting is difficult for some other person, doesn’t explain why you have chosen not to thrift. Barriers are a real thing, but we should always approach situations with our own unique barriers in mind, rather than pointing at someone else’s that don’t apply to us. At that point it’s just making excuses.
I have never been a preachy person, most of my friends shop fast fashion and I never
judge them for that. Heck! I’ll go to the mall with you and help you find what makes you feel cute. I know not everyone is going to swear off fast fashion like I have. I understand that I have chosen a rather extreme lifestyle, and I don’t expect others to follow suit. It just bugs me when other people, mostly strangers on the internet, tell me I’m doing something malicious by promoting sustainable fashion? I run a tiny blog and YouTube channel and was not expecting this much pushback on something I deem so unproblematic.
All of the sudden, people get angry when I talk about thirfting on the internet. Thriting of all things! Something I believe to be so beautiful that I don’t understand how anyone could see as anything less than neutral. I’ve spent many nights wondering why is everyone so angry? And I think I finally found the answer
They feel guilty.
For the first time, a shopping habit that they have had for years is being questioned. And instead of thinking “wow maybe fast fashion is kind of bad” and then trying to shop smarter in the future they jump to “well whoever said it’s bad is obviously some elitist snob who doesn’t really know anything they're the bad guy not me.” It’s a defense response.
In my psychology class, we learned about cognitive dissonance, which happens when beliefs and actions don’t match. For example, if someone thinks buying fast fashion is wrong, but they still purchase from fast fashion companies, they will experience a lot of mental discomfort. There are two ways to resolve cognitive dissonance, change the belief or change the action. In most cases, changing the belief is much simpler than changing the action. It’s easier for folks to think “Fast fashion isn’t actually bad, so it’s okay for me to purchase fast fashion” than for them to decide “fast fashion is bad, so I will stop buying it.”
Thanks to the hard work of many activists, most folks know that fast fashion is a real problem. My hope was that this access to information would help folks reconsider their behaviors, but unfortunately, it seems that for many, rejecting the information presented to them and vilifying those who share it was the easier path. My sincere hope is that all the angry internet humans out there can take a step back and realize people like me are simply trying our best to be good humans in a way that makes sense to us. For me, that means not buying fast fashion. For you, that might mean volunteering to run errands for the elderly, helping folks register to vote, or being a good friend. All of these are amazing ways to be a good human! So let’s stop criticizing folks on their path towards doing good, just because they are helping out in a different way than you. We’re all doing our part, there’s just so many different parts to focus on!
Please be kind.
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