The True Cost

I had a sick day a few days ago, and I spent the morning watching "Mansfield Park" with my baby snuggled on my chest. He is teething and a little sick himself, so he fell asleep partway through.

So I HAD to keep lying on the couch and finish the whole movie.

This version of the movie tells Jane Austen's story, adding another historical backdrop related to slavery. At one point, Edmund and Fanny go off horse riding and talking, as one is wont to do in a period drama:

E: "It's just it's problems with the slaves on the plantation. The abolitionists are making inroads."
F: "That's a good thing, isn't it?"
E: "Well, we all live off the profits, Fanny. Including you."

And it hit me just how awkward her position is-- can you imagine?

She's opposed to slavery, and yet every time she ate a meal, put sugar in her tea, or hosted a dinner party, she was contributing to the problem and benefiting from the oppression of others.

But how was one young woman supposed to make a difference? She could enact a one-woman boycott on sugar, cotton, tobacco, and anything else directly created by slave labor. But this tiny drop in the huge bucket wouldn't equate to any slave's burden being eased. It probably wouldn't even reduce her family's consumption of these materials. The system had to change.

Later in the film, Fanny Price speaks her opinions to her family and friends: "Correct if I am in error, but if you were to bring a slave back to England, there would be some argument whether or not they should be freed-- if I'm not mistaken."

Certainly, this wasn't an earth-shattering, revolutionary statement, leading immediately to the emancipation of all enslaved people. (It's fictional anyway.) But it's evidence that awareness was growing and change would be supported. And that's one step in the right direction.


After watching Mansfield Park, I had to pick up Naomi from preschool, put William down for his nap, and then collapse on the couch for another movie. This time I chose a documentary on Netflix called, "The True Cost."

I am learning about fashion, and I write a fashion blog. It's a documentary about the fashion industry. This is something I needed to see.



It was fascinating, eye opening, challenging, disturbing, inspiring.

It bothered me.

To briefly summarize, the fashion industry, and especially "fast fashion," which has developed in the last couple decades, have provided cheap and abundant clothing in the developed world, paid for by the labor and lives of millions of manufacturers around the world.

It made me question how I can be a moral person and still wear clothes-- which is a question I've never asked myself before.

How can I write about fashion and dressing well and buying new clothes, when the fashion industry has built itself on the backs of people paid in a month what many Americans make in an hour?

How can I enjoy getting a good deal on a shirt when I know more of my money is going up the totem pole than down?

It's not okay.
But what can I do?

I could boycott new clothes or certain fast-fashion brands, but like Fanny Price, how much good would one woman's boycott do?
I could write criticisms and complaints, heaping deserved shame on a greedy, materialistic system. But the world-- and especially the internet-- has enough negativity. My goal has been to write a blog I would enjoy reading, and I want to stick to that.
And I don't want to guilt myself or others. Guilt is a terrible motivator. (Have you gone to the gym yet today? Why not? Didn't you promise yourself to exercise more? See! Terrible motivator!!)

So first, I'm going to share the news. Watch this documentary, please! See if it troubles you, inspires you, bothers you, motivates you. Let me know what you think! Let me know if you have any ideas-- and not just for what OTHER people should do. How can I change? How can WE change? What can we do, on a small scale or on a larger scale?

I'm trying to dress better, and after watching this documentary, I feel like "better" has to mean more than just gracing the world with my dolled-up presence.