This is a PART TWO: Here's a link to part one. T;Dr from Post 1: Boyish Jeans feature exclusively thin women, and almsot exclusively white women, with the near-complete exclusion of black women. They have responded extremely poorly to these criticisms and have made delayed and half-hearted responses to pressure to comment on the BLM movement. Racism and exclusion has no place in sustainable fashion!
PART TWO:
Since part 1, Boyish has continued to be very active on their social media.
On 6/3: Boyish made an IG post in a series of slides saying
- "We will do better <3"
- "What we currently do: Post all different ethnicities in our feed./ What we will do better: We will incorporate more POC in our feed, more frequently".
- "What we currently do: we support numerous organizations that help people like Generation Her & Midnight Mission through our Cool To Care events. / What We Will Do Better: We will support more organizations who specifically help the black community".
- "What we currently do: We donate to organizations that help the environment and women's rights like Solar Sister which helsp black women in Africa. What we will do better: We will donate to organizations who support the black community."
- "What we currently do: We constantly share info and educate on how to live sustainably and consciously./ What we will do: We will educate and encourage change on how to support the black community."
- "What we currently do: All people matter to us. Most importantly Mama Earth, if we don't put the Earth first we won't have a place for all humans./ What we will do better: Black lives do matter to us so we will be more specific in helping this community."
On 6/4 they made a post all the black creators they have worked with over the years (fewer than 10 women) as well as some they "admire" but have not yet worked with.
They have also continued to feature several black models. If this will continue after the heat has been taken off of them, we will have to see.
These posts received a LOT of criticism (though the most critical and most liked comments have been deleted and blocked, including my own). The criticism included the following:
- Approx. 10-12 out of 880 of their IG posts contained BIPOC women, around 1%, and only 3 in the 12 months. Saying "We currently post all different ethnicities" felt like a way to deny cuplability. The post showing all they've "worked with" felt like more finger-pointing and hand-waving, but if you look at their actual feed, it's literally >98% white women. That's not diversity. Further, Trotting out the small handful of black models they have worked with as evidence that theyre "actually fine and don't have a problem" is absolutely disgusting. They have still not acknowledged the criticism that they grossly underrepresent minorities, just that they know we "want to see more".
- They have not said a word about their sizeist practices, and no mention of having more diverse body types of models have been mentioned, despite that this criticism has been raised many times.
- There is no evidence that they have ANY BIPOC people on staff or in their executive leadership, either in articles or on LinkedIn. No response from Boyish has been made to this claim. Their CEO is a white male. There is also no evidence that any BIPOC people were consulted on their instagram posts or on their initiatives, despite that this was also suggested many times. Tokenism in the form of featuring models is a step in the right direction but it should not be the ONLY step. The fact that this was permitted to occur means that they have a gross systemic bias in their company that NEEDS to be corrected, and they do not understand that on a corporate level.
- To say that "Mama Earth" is more important than the BLM movement is a way to deflect criticism by saying "Well yes we were insensitive to keep advertising our clothes with only white girls during these troubled times but we're doing the bigger work here so it doesn't matter". But it DOES matter. It's insanely insensitive and inappropriate. They did not respond to these criticisms either.
- They have not made any mention of the steps they are taking to educate themselves, only that they're going to "continue to educate others" on how to better help the black community. Given everything they've said and done so far, I have absolutely no clue what makes them think they're qualified for that.
On 6/12 (?) they made another post stating: "Don't lose focus or forget about Mama Earth. If we don't have a planet, there's nothing to fight for."
OF ALL THE THINGS BOYISH HAS SAID, I FEEL THAT THIS IS PERHAPS THE MOST EGREGIOUS. Here's why:
- First: Causes are not a competition. Children dying of cancer are not inherently more important eradicating malaria. Simialrly, reducing waste in manufacturing is NOT MORE IMPORTANT than BLM. IT IS NOT. And to say so is coming from a place of extreme privilege, where they are NOT afraid of being killed in their beds, where they have extra MONEY to spend on $200 jeans, where they have the extra mental SPACE and TIME to be able to care about the environment because they don't have to work 3 minimum wage jobs! From THEIR perspective the planet is more important because they are not impacted by systemic racism!
- Second: Systemic oppression of minorities and sustainability go hand-in-hand. On 6/13 (?) they made a post detailing how harmful manufacturing practices adversely affect poor minorities who are more likely to be exposed to toxic chemicals from manufacturing plants, leading to higher rates of asthma. Yes, this is a problem, but what they fail to understand is that improved sustainability doesn't just improve the quality of life for black people, improved quality of life for black people WILL improve sustainability. If the only pair of shoes that a family can afford is terrible quality and will need to be replaced every 3 months, that is the pair of shoes they will buy, sustainable or not. If they are able to rise out of poverty, which was imposed upon them by systemic racism, then they will be more likely to afford products that ARE sustainable (like your $200 JEANS Boyish!), and have the time, energy and income to invest in eco-friendly practices like solar panels, longer-lasting products, etc. Furthermore, black voter suppression has LONG been a problem, and if they are allowed to vote for sustainable policies then more the better! We NEED to be supporting the poor and the oppressed because it WILL make things better for everyone! We cannot relegate "sustainability" to the sphere of the privileged! If we target the root of systemic inequality we may have a chance at also addressing the root of ecologic damage- namely, capitalism and hyperconsumerism. But a brand that is aggressively pushing its jeans wouldn't want to hear that, would it?
- Third: IF Boyish Jeans cared so much about spreading their "sustainability" as far and wide as possible, why do their jeans cost $168-$188?? I am aware that sustainable clothes are more expensive to produce but really? Nearly $200? In an interview with Boyish Jeans CEO Jordan Nodarse by WWD in 2019, the article states "[Nodarse] admits that sustainability is also driven by efficient practices... Boyish Jeans employs recycled cotton from leftovers coming from its own industrial cycle, as well as from other facilities in Thailand... The material is blended with other green fabrics including Lenzing’s Tencell lyocell obtained from wood pulp ... The company also leverages sustainable washing techniques, with laundries going through two to three wash cycles instead of the traditional six. " These do not, to me, sound like practices that should quadruple the price of jeans, thereby making them completely inaccessible to large portions of the population. Figuring out what Boyish jeans' exact revenue is is difficult, but considering they just expanded to Europe, we can guess that they're doing pretty well for themselves. One website estimates their revenue at $5 million annually, another at $27 million annually, but I have no way of knowing if these are in any way accurate. Nonetheless, we can postulate that if they really cared about making their jeans have the maximal sustainable impact, they would either lower the prices of their jeans so more people could buy tem OR donate more of the profits. You can't have it both ways. If they care so much about the environment that they feel the need to aggressively advertise during COVID and BLM, shouldn't they also be making larger sacrifices? The same they're asking of us??
- Trying to suck attention away from the BLM movement in order to sell JEANS is....horrifying. It's blithely sipping Kombucha while your neighbor's house is burning down and saying "Ok yeah your house is on fire, that sucks, but what about what all that smoke is doign to that atmosphere? Why aren't you more upset about that?". It's privileged, hot nonsense, and said with a smugness and self-satisfaction that we cannot endorse. YES the environment matters. But to support another cause does not detract from that cause either. Progress is NOT a zero-sum game. It's all part of the same, bigger fight and we should not throw each other under the bus for our own causes- especially if that cause is being used to push products and make money.
So, no. I still won't be supporting Boyish and they have a LONG way to go. I care very deeply about sustainabiltiy and fair labor practices but it is not the ONLY thing I care about, and I understand that the larger systems at play affect not only social justice but ecologic justice as well.
Submitted June 15, 2020 at 06:20PM by pellmellmichelle https://ift.tt/37yhUCl
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