Episode 194: The Question-sode

Thanks to Alden for spending some time with us and sharing so much helpful (albeit scary) information with us. Please read her book To Dye For: How Toxic Fashion Is Making Us Sick–and How We Can Fight Back. I plan on reading it as soon as I’m done with my job in another week. You can also find more of Alden’s writing (and a lot of helpful information) at ecocult.com. I’ll share a link to that in the show notes.

Ultimately we talk about some scary and depressing stuff around here. And Alden’s findings on the chemicals in our clothing definitely can be described by both of those adjectives. But that doesn’t mean we have the luxury of pretending that we didn’t hear any of this, right? Because once again, we can see how the clothing industry is having a negative impact on every single person in this world. It’s not–as some of us might have once believed–a problem that is far away, happening somewhere we’ll probably never visit. In fact, the repercussions of the fashion industry are playing out in every one of our closets, within our bodies, and in the world around us.

It scares the shit out of me. It makes me so angry. And it makes me so sad.

It’s easy to feel those feelings and kinda shut down. Because sometimes it just feels like life is too big and too hard already, why add more fear and anger to the mix?

But we can’t ignore it. We have to receive the information, process it, grieve the implications of it all –including grieving the realization that big business has been intentionally misleading you for a long time, or at the very least, lying by omission–grieve all of that. Grieve the horrific truth about how our clothes are made and how it impacts the planet and its people. Grieve the fact that we are being sold clothing that is making us sick. Grieve the knowledge that garment workers are paid pennies and work under terrible conditions. Grieve the fact that 85% of our unwanted, barely worn clothes end up in a landfill. And grieve the impact all of that fast fashion has on our planet, its people, and its animals when we are done with it.

It’s okay to be sad and angry. But what are you going to do with that? That’s the big thing! That’s the important thing!

It’s easy to give up, to say I’m one person, I can never have an impact on the world. But that’s not true. Operating alone, yeah, you won’t have much of an impact. But when you’re working with other people, a community like ours that is turning into a movement…big change can happen!

When I hear people say…oh, Amazon has such a bigger impact on the world and there’s nothing I can do about it…that’s just permission to give up. Because the reality is that we have been letting Amazon (and every other company) do whatever the heck they want for years now…and it turns out that we can’t trust them to do the right thing. They aren’t going to change without us. We have to demand it. And we have to do it together!!!

We have a major opportunity to demand change from brands, from our governments, and from ourselves. And we can do that together by learning the facts, unifying, sharing our knowledge and experience, supporting one another, welcoming others into the movement, and educating those around us.

I know we can do that! Who’s in?