5 ms·

I've noticed that fast fashion is also a gendered problem. I'm often assured that "toxic masculinity" doesn't mean an inherent criticism of masculinity, and is

I've noticed that fast fashion is also a gendered problem. I'm often assured that "toxic masculinity" doesn't mean an inherent criticism of masculinity, and is a phrase that many institutions seem to think is a productive way to talk about problems they perceive as being male gendered. I find it interesting to consider whether it would also be productive to refer to fast fashion as "toxic femininity", as it's often literally so, given pesticides, plastics, fertilisers. I will not perhaps be the first to do this, however.

viraptor 5y ago
Is that term giving us better description than concentrating on the fashion part though? Toxic masculinity works because it's about bad traits we as a society teach and normalise for men. I don't think that idea matches this case. The fashion industry is responsible for lots of toxic behaviours both in literally toxic production and in harmful trends for all genders. (Even if women are disproportionately affected)
- wccrawford 5y ago
  In that we encourage women to wear clothes in ways that we don't encourage men, yes, I think it is "toxic femininity". Toxic to both women and the planet. We teach them that they can't wear white after a certain time the year, and then black after a certain time. Why? Just because. We teach them never to wear the same outfit as their friend at the same party. We teach that they always have to wear perfect clothes. There are examples of people fighting these things (such as ripped jeans) but they're the rebels, not the norm. So yeah, I think that in regards to most clothing issues, "toxic femininity" definitely applies. For fast fashion... I don't know. I have never paid attention to that scene, so I don't know how much it affects men. Also, I should note that "toxic masculinity" generally only refers to behaviors that straight men show, and not gay men. And is often badly applied.
  - micromacrofoot 5y ago
    one could argue that women’s fashion originated primarily to please men in a patriarchal society
    - heurisko 5y ago
      I would like that argument put forwards to the fashion editor at Vogue. One could also make the argument that it is a patriarchal attitude to suggest women are so lacking in agency, that a popular interest amongst woman could be reducible solely to the interest of pleasing men.
      - micromacrofoot 5y ago
        Well once women have agency equitable to men maybe we can start figuring these things out in earnest.
        ryan93 5y ago
        Seems like very rich women enjoy fashion a lot.
        micromacrofoot 5y ago
        we live in a society
        ryan93 5y ago
        Women with agency still like fashion. What’s your point about society?
        micromacrofoot 5y ago
        Sorry, It's a bit of a joke (https://happymag.tv/we-live-in-a-society-meme-explained/ https://happymag.tv/we-live-in-a-society-meme-explained/) But jokes aside I think it generally applies here, we don't live in an equal society so women don't experience the level of agency men do, even in the presence of wealth. There are immense pressures for women to like certain things, dress certain ways, etc. Men have their own pressures, but they have more agency when choosing how to dress specifically. Can you think of a single woman CEO that can get away with dressing like Mark Zuckerberg or Jack Dorsey, for example?
  - drekk 5y ago
    I'm not sure where you're getting this information from, toxic masculinity applies to men regardless of their sexuality and originated as an academic term. The difference I'd highlight to you is that women are taught these things to get a husband and fulfill their traditional roles in a patriarchal society. They are baby incubators as far as that system is concerned. Men are taught to be aggressive or not show emotions not because it will get them a wife and family, but because in Western society the chain of command goes: God -> Father -> Mother -> Children In fact many of our cultural cornerstones rest on this baked in assumption, like The Iliad. The entire plot is set into motion by a tantrum wherein Achilles does not want to hand over a captive woman he views as his property. Thousands die in that pissing contest with a human being as the prize. Now imagine we say Helen of Troy is displaying toxic femininity by investing so much in her appearance. Well, the reason she does is because it's the only source of her worth (besides making children of course) to a patriarchal society such as that of Ancient Greece
    - heurisko 5y ago
      > Men are taught to be aggressive or not show emotions ... > In fact many of our cultural cornerstones rest on this baked in assumption, like The Iliad. "So speaking glorious Hektor reached out to take his son. But the child shrank back crying against the breast of his girdled nurse, terrified at the sight of his own father...Hektor took the helmet straight from his head and laid it gleaming on the ground. Then he kissed his dear son and dandled him in his arms..."
    - RHSeeger 5y ago
      > Men are taught to be aggressive or not show emotions not because it will get them a wife and family, but because in Western society the chain of command goes: God -> Father -> Mother -> Children I challenge this. Men are taught to be strong, aggressive, and not show emotion precisely because it's seen as how strong men behave, and being a strong man is seen as a way to get a wife and family.
  - hellbannedguy 5y ago
    In America, men (straight men) are clueless towards what women wear. I have never met a man who cared about what color of anything they wear. I have never heard a man even notice makeup, other than being too much. And the big one--shoes. Men don't notice shoes. We just gasp at the price. I have a sister who because a multimillionaire making/selling shoes to women. She knew how they felt about shoes, and exploited it. Oh yea, throw in hand bags. I have never heard a male utter this sentance, "But did you see her handbag?" Female fashion is not due to men. Men got a break on this one war. You can argue the mini-skirt was man's doing, but that's pretty much it. (This is just for America. I have no clue to the rest of the world.)
  - anchpop 5y ago
    I think you’re absolutely right here. I’ve noticed that there’s already an analogous concept to “toxic masculinity” for women, which is “internalized misogyny”. An example of internalized misogyny is when women believe they have to be rail-thin to be properly feminine or attractive. I’ve never understood why this isn’t called toxic femininity. If society’s standards of femininity cause women to become anorexic, that standard of femininity is clearly toxic. Just like how a standard of masculinity that causes men to take steroids and damage their bodies would rightly be considered toxic by everyone. I think the reason is that there’s a kind of cat-coupling. When you say “I visited the famous golden gate bridge”, you don’t mean “among all the golden gate bridges, I visited the one that was famous”. You mean “I visited the golden gate bridge, and by the way the golden gate bridge is famous”. When you say “toxic masculinity” even if you mean “the subset of masculinity which is toxic”, it’s possible to interpret that as “masculinity, and by the way masculinity is toxic”. Feminist academics, being mostly female, have no emotional response to the idea that saying all masculinity is toxic, so the possible misinterpretation doesn’t bother them. But they might have a response to someone saying all femininity is toxic, so they wisely chose a term that was less likely to be misinterpreted (“internalized misogyny”). More diversity in their field would have prevented them from making the same mistake w.r.t. toxic masculinity.
    - mc32 5y ago
      > there’s already an analogous concept to “toxic masculinity” for women, which is “internalized misogyny” Perhaps it would then also be helpful to use toxic misandry instead of toxic masculinity because as you mention people can take it to mean that men by nature are toxic.
      - anchpop 5y ago
        I agree, toxic misandry or internalized misandry would be much clearer.
      - dragonwriter 5y ago
        > Perhaps it would then also be helpful to use toxic misandry instead of toxic masculinity Toxic masculinity isn't misandry, so, no, it wouldn't be helpful. Both toxic masculinity and internalized misogyny are aspects of partriarchal socialization; they aren't symmetrical with regard to sex or gender.
  - viraptor 5y ago
    I don't agree that it's specific to women. How many times did you hear about reversible belts being "cheap"? How many people have strong opinions about the width of the tie, even though the target changes every decade? What about shoes / trousers / belt colour matching? Why are socks and sandals a bad match? Why is a vest a wife-beater? There's nothing intrinsically better/worse about those situations - they're weird norms created between the industry, society and Beau Brummell. Men's fashion or even just basic clothing choices are very restricted as well and have their own rules. In that case it's not fast fashion, but the toxic fashion industry goes well beyond feminity.
zeckalpha 5y ago
Fast fashion is definitely a problem no matter the gender. The rate of replacement per item and the amount of fabric per item are negatively correlated so cancel out a bit. There’s a lot of junk clothing made for both men and women out there. I currently have a bag full of mens clothes to take to the tailor to repair: holes in pockets, elbow holes, loose buttons.

viraptor 5y ago

Is that term giving us better description than concentrating on the fashion part though? Toxic masculinity works because it's about bad traits we as a society teach and normalise for men. I don't think that idea matches this case. The fashion industry is responsible for lots of toxic behaviours both in literally toxic production and in harmful trends for all genders. (Even if women are disproportionately affected)

wccrawford 5y ago
In that we encourage women to wear clothes in ways that we don't encourage men, yes, I think it is "toxic femininity". Toxic to both women and the planet. We teach them that they can't wear white after a certain time the year, and then black after a certain time. Why? Just because. We teach them never to wear the same outfit as their friend at the same party. We teach that they always have to wear perfect clothes. There are examples of people fighting these things (such as ripped jeans) but they're the rebels, not the norm. So yeah, I think that in regards to most clothing issues, "toxic femininity" definitely applies. For fast fashion... I don't know. I have never paid attention to that scene, so I don't know how much it affects men. Also, I should note that "toxic masculinity" generally only refers to behaviors that straight men show, and not gay men. And is often badly applied.
- micromacrofoot 5y ago
  one could argue that women’s fashion originated primarily to please men in a patriarchal society
  - heurisko 5y ago
    I would like that argument put forwards to the fashion editor at Vogue. One could also make the argument that it is a patriarchal attitude to suggest women are so lacking in agency, that a popular interest amongst woman could be reducible solely to the interest of pleasing men.
    - micromacrofoot 5y ago
      Well once women have agency equitable to men maybe we can start figuring these things out in earnest.
      - ryan93 5y ago
        Seems like very rich women enjoy fashion a lot.
        micromacrofoot 5y ago
        we live in a society
        ryan93 5y ago
        Women with agency still like fashion. What’s your point about society?
        micromacrofoot 5y ago
        Sorry, It's a bit of a joke (https://happymag.tv/we-live-in-a-society-meme-explained/ https://happymag.tv/we-live-in-a-society-meme-explained/) But jokes aside I think it generally applies here, we don't live in an equal society so women don't experience the level of agency men do, even in the presence of wealth. There are immense pressures for women to like certain things, dress certain ways, etc. Men have their own pressures, but they have more agency when choosing how to dress specifically. Can you think of a single woman CEO that can get away with dressing like Mark Zuckerberg or Jack Dorsey, for example?
- drekk 5y ago
  I'm not sure where you're getting this information from, toxic masculinity applies to men regardless of their sexuality and originated as an academic term. The difference I'd highlight to you is that women are taught these things to get a husband and fulfill their traditional roles in a patriarchal society. They are baby incubators as far as that system is concerned. Men are taught to be aggressive or not show emotions not because it will get them a wife and family, but because in Western society the chain of command goes: God -> Father -> Mother -> Children In fact many of our cultural cornerstones rest on this baked in assumption, like The Iliad. The entire plot is set into motion by a tantrum wherein Achilles does not want to hand over a captive woman he views as his property. Thousands die in that pissing contest with a human being as the prize. Now imagine we say Helen of Troy is displaying toxic femininity by investing so much in her appearance. Well, the reason she does is because it's the only source of her worth (besides making children of course) to a patriarchal society such as that of Ancient Greece
  - heurisko 5y ago
    > Men are taught to be aggressive or not show emotions ... > In fact many of our cultural cornerstones rest on this baked in assumption, like The Iliad. "So speaking glorious Hektor reached out to take his son. But the child shrank back crying against the breast of his girdled nurse, terrified at the sight of his own father...Hektor took the helmet straight from his head and laid it gleaming on the ground. Then he kissed his dear son and dandled him in his arms..."
  - RHSeeger 5y ago
    > Men are taught to be aggressive or not show emotions not because it will get them a wife and family, but because in Western society the chain of command goes: God -> Father -> Mother -> Children I challenge this. Men are taught to be strong, aggressive, and not show emotion precisely because it's seen as how strong men behave, and being a strong man is seen as a way to get a wife and family.
- hellbannedguy 5y ago
  In America, men (straight men) are clueless towards what women wear. I have never met a man who cared about what color of anything they wear. I have never heard a man even notice makeup, other than being too much. And the big one--shoes. Men don't notice shoes. We just gasp at the price. I have a sister who because a multimillionaire making/selling shoes to women. She knew how they felt about shoes, and exploited it. Oh yea, throw in hand bags. I have never heard a male utter this sentance, "But did you see her handbag?" Female fashion is not due to men. Men got a break on this one war. You can argue the mini-skirt was man's doing, but that's pretty much it. (This is just for America. I have no clue to the rest of the world.)
- anchpop 5y ago
  I think you’re absolutely right here. I’ve noticed that there’s already an analogous concept to “toxic masculinity” for women, which is “internalized misogyny”. An example of internalized misogyny is when women believe they have to be rail-thin to be properly feminine or attractive. I’ve never understood why this isn’t called toxic femininity. If society’s standards of femininity cause women to become anorexic, that standard of femininity is clearly toxic. Just like how a standard of masculinity that causes men to take steroids and damage their bodies would rightly be considered toxic by everyone. I think the reason is that there’s a kind of cat-coupling. When you say “I visited the famous golden gate bridge”, you don’t mean “among all the golden gate bridges, I visited the one that was famous”. You mean “I visited the golden gate bridge, and by the way the golden gate bridge is famous”. When you say “toxic masculinity” even if you mean “the subset of masculinity which is toxic”, it’s possible to interpret that as “masculinity, and by the way masculinity is toxic”. Feminist academics, being mostly female, have no emotional response to the idea that saying all masculinity is toxic, so the possible misinterpretation doesn’t bother them. But they might have a response to someone saying all femininity is toxic, so they wisely chose a term that was less likely to be misinterpreted (“internalized misogyny”). More diversity in their field would have prevented them from making the same mistake w.r.t. toxic masculinity.
  - mc32 5y ago
    > there’s already an analogous concept to “toxic masculinity” for women, which is “internalized misogyny” Perhaps it would then also be helpful to use toxic misandry instead of toxic masculinity because as you mention people can take it to mean that men by nature are toxic.
    - anchpop 5y ago
      I agree, toxic misandry or internalized misandry would be much clearer.
    - dragonwriter 5y ago
      > Perhaps it would then also be helpful to use toxic misandry instead of toxic masculinity Toxic masculinity isn't misandry, so, no, it wouldn't be helpful. Both toxic masculinity and internalized misogyny are aspects of partriarchal socialization; they aren't symmetrical with regard to sex or gender.
- viraptor 5y ago
  I don't agree that it's specific to women. How many times did you hear about reversible belts being "cheap"? How many people have strong opinions about the width of the tie, even though the target changes every decade? What about shoes / trousers / belt colour matching? Why are socks and sandals a bad match? Why is a vest a wife-beater? There's nothing intrinsically better/worse about those situations - they're weird norms created between the industry, society and Beau Brummell. Men's fashion or even just basic clothing choices are very restricted as well and have their own rules. In that case it's not fast fashion, but the toxic fashion industry goes well beyond feminity.

zeckalpha 5y ago

Fast fashion is definitely a problem no matter the gender. The rate of replacement per item and the amount of fabric per item are negatively correlated so cancel out a bit. There’s a lot of junk clothing made for both men and women out there. I currently have a bag full of mens clothes to take to the tailor to repair: holes in pockets, elbow holes, loose buttons.