the planet – freadom

Hoda Katebi, fashion writer/creative

Author bio

Hoda Katebi is a Muslim-Iranian creative, fashion writer and activist, with a voice that is as unapologetic as it is powerful. The daughter of Iranian immigrants, Katebi writes from a on ethical issues on fashion created by the capitalist western world. Her sensational blog, Joojoo Azad, platforms her insightful and eye-opening articles. She doesn’t stop there though – Katebi is also: author of the book Tehran Streetstyle celebrating illegal fashion and Iran; host of worldwide book club #BecauseWeveRead; and founder of Blue Tin Production, ‘an all-women immigrant and refugee-run clothing manufacturing co-operative in Chicago’. Yeah, this woman is doing absolute the most.

REVIEW

Whilst Katebi’s blog is loaded with essential reading, I’ve chosen to focus on the following two:

‘How H&M is erasing war crimes in their latest marketing campaign’

‘All fast-fashion requires systemic gender-based violence: Conscious collections are fake news’

If you’ve ever shopped at ASOS, H&M, and the like, you’re probably wincing at those titles. So did I – because I have been a thoughtless customer of these brands for years, only recently becoming conscious of the dangers of fast fashion. In our growing movement in environmental concerns, fast fashion is the most devious industry. As Katedi writes, brands increasingly make feeble changes and mask themselves with labels like ‘fairtrade cotton’ and ‘conscious collection’. This makes it easy to feel as though our guilt can be relieved. I certainly hid behind this screen for a while, but Katedi’s powerful words make that almost impossible uphold that charade.

‘How H&M is erasing war crimes in their latest marketing campaign’

In this article, Katebi very importantly analysis the marketing practices of H&M in the context of green-washing: ‘an attempt to use self-proclaimed environmental sustainability to wash (or attempt to hide) the human rights abuses that the rest of their clothing is complicit in’. In this practice, brands hide behind futile labels – that don’t even cover their entire range – to mask their unethical operations. I for one can’t deny that I have walked into a H&M store before, looked at an ‘organic cotton’, green-labelled T-shirt, and thought, ‘wow, I love that H&M are becoming more eco-conscious!’ Honey, no.

Because logically, if H&M has constructed an entirely separate ‘sustainability’ collection, what are they then implying about how the rest of their clothing is made?
Hoda Katebi, ‘How H&M is erasing war crimes in their latest marketing campaign’

What’s brilliant about Katebi’s writing is that she places no blame whatsoever on the consumer here. Shopping at shamelessly cheap, fast-fashion brands like Boohoo and Pretty Little Thing is hard to justify if you’re economically able to shop better, but when brands like H&M plaster ‘eco’ on their labels, we (the consumer) are tricked. It’s only because I follow fast-fashion fighter Venetia Falconer on Instagram that I ever discovered the use of greenwashing at H&M, and without that I’d still be happily consuming their BS. We can’t possibly expect every individual to research the exact manufacturing process behind every product or item they consume – that’s on the business. And H&M is failing us. That’s why Katebi’s article is so effective – rather than saying ‘why are you shopping there? don’t shop there!’, she’s saying ‘H&M are tricking you whilst mistreating their workers and that is not ok’. By making consumers feel tricked rather than guilty, we can increase the allure for ditching these brands altogether.

In the main section of this article exploring its titular issue, Katebi explores the revolution-washing behind H&M’s latest marketing campaign. The campaign is in collaboration with fashion blogger Andy Torres and explores Israel, branding it as a fun, happy, progressive destination. As Katebi states, ‘in short, H&M’s latest collaboration with Andy Torres works to portray a violent apartheid state as the world’s next best travel destination’. Being honest, I know very little about the current political and social climate of Israel, so I don’t want to comment much on something I don’t understand. However, I understand the basic gist of it from Katebi’s accessible and informative writing. In an easily-digestible nutshell, H&M are essentially erasing the destructive political and social happenings of their glammed-up campaign destination, turning it into the backdrop for photoshoots of models in cute £4 tops. What do we say to this kind of green/revolution/everything-washing? Not today.

There is nothing apolitical about a fashion editorial story that works to wash out (whether intentionally or not) war crimes and make normal what is not: Israeli apartheid.
Hoda Katebi, ‘How H&M is erasing war crimes in their latest marketing campaign’

‘All fast-fashion requires systemic gender-based violence: Conscious collections are fake news’

This article was difficult, poignant, and wholly essential to read. As a feminist, I felt appalled that I’d been supporting the faux-green, unethical practices of gigantic corporations that directly harm female workers. If you feel like you want to know more but don’t know what to think when every tweet and article is pulling you in a different direction, then Katebi’s article is for you. She articulately uses fact, first-hand experiences of abused workers, and certified reports to convey the barbarity of brands like H&M in their supply chain. In a time of greenwashing, this is the wake up call we all need.

Pulling hair, hitting breasts, firing pregnant women, threats of sexual violence and non-renewal of work contracts are just some of the forms of difficult-to-read gender-based violence documented in the report that frame the daily realities of female garment workers across South and Southeast Asia.
Hoda Katebi, ‘All fast-fashion requires systemic gender-based violence: Conscious collections are fake news’

What makes Katebi’s article so powerful is that the facts she presents are both difficult and easy to believe – although undeniably hard to swallow. When we pour into our favourite shops for the week’s new items, we forget the significant of the fact that fashion really is a weekly event now. A ‘season’ has been reduced from an actual season, when our clothing choices endure practical changes, to mere weekly rotations of new prints and ‘essential’, ‘must-have’ styles. I remember when I was younger and everything I owned was either summer or winter clothing – each year, my mum would take me on one shopping trip to buy any new summer clothes I needed, then once again in winter. Now, the need to keep up with the conveyer belt of mass production is forced down our throats at an ever growing rate.

When we think about the mass and frequency of clothes produced by many brands, to then be sold for a feeble £3.99, can we even be surprised that factory workers are being abused in the process? Even for those being paid a fair wage (which is rare), the demand for mass consumption means that factory workers are being ran off their feet, forced to work at an unachievable pace and punished when they aren’t able to do so.

Garment factories exist in nations of color due to the legacies of colonialism, and are systematically dependent on exploitation and gender-based abuse to function within the fast-fashion model of production.
Hoda Katebi, ‘All fast-fashion requires systemic gender-based violence: Conscious collections are fake news’

Again, I want to point out that this isn’t my specialist area of knowledge. I know shamefully little about the realities of fast fashion production, but I’m learning. People like Hoda Katebi are making a huge impact by raising their voice on these essential issues. I love Katebi’s writing in particular because of her unapologetic, angry stance – she is taking no BS from fast fashion, and she does all she can to ensure her readers don’t fall victim to this greenwashing. I particularly love how she intersects fast fashion with other issues, such as feminism and colonialism. Whilst these are all inherently tied to fast fashion anyway, Katebi’s exposure of these ties brings the issue into more easily accessible dialogue. With writers like Katebi in the world, none of us can close our eyes to the facts.

Reflecting on Veganuary: When ethics clash with disordered eating

So here we are, already one whole mammoth-month deep into 2019. I’ve been thinking about the topic of this post almost constantly throughout January, and even in the months leading up to it. As a vegetarian with an extremely complicated and relationship with food, I always knew that transitioning to a vegan diet would be equally complicated. So I didn’t do it. Didn’t even try, in fact – and I have no regrets.

That intro probably seems like I’m about to start vegan-bashing, which is absolutely not true. The ethics of a vegan lifestyle is, quite frankly, goals. I’d love for that to be my lifestyle. I follow lots of vegan accounts across social media because I find the whole movement, and the strength that it is galvanising, very inspiring. Seeing stats on the increasing number of vegetarians and vegans in the world warms my heart with the tiniest shred of hope that we might actually be able to slow down the cataclysmic ecosystem failure that our planet is facing. I watched the documentary Land of Hope and Glory last year and obstinately decided that I would complete – not even just attempt – Veganuary, and continue the lifestyle thereafter. Honourable intentions, sure, but I was forgetting the most important agent in this whole agenda – my own body and mind.

Having established that I am absolutely an advocate of plant-based living and depending as little as personally viable on animal products, I want to discuss the restriction it inhabits. Veganism, like vegetarianism, is a restrictive diet. It is restrictive for ethical reasons, but that doesn’t prevent the fact that it is inherently restrictive. Restriction is the entire point – you are cutting out entire food groups, labelling them as ‘bad’ and ‘no-go’ foods, attributing a sense of shame to the consumption of those foods. This is absolutely my attitude towards meat, and it aligns with my ethics. At the time I decided to become vegetarian, I didn’t even think about the impact that this restriction might have on my relationship with food.

When I remember the amount of time, pain, stress and anxiety that was consumed by my over-restrictive diet, I wonder why on earth I didn’t seriously take this into account when transitioning to vegetarianism. Truth is, the nutrients I was losing didn’t relate all that much to my past fears of food. I made this change whilst in the depths of exploring weight-training and trying to make #gainz – a lifestyle which was naturally (in my mind) impacted by cutting out 90% of my protein intake. In my obsessions with macronutrients, I saw meat as purely protein, and cutting it out meant only that I’d have to source protein from elsewhere to fuel my #fitnessgoals. Perhaps I was just in a good place with my eating, but I really believe that the nutritional make up of this food group was largely responsible for why giving it up didn’t affect me mentally. However, I want to press on the fact that this may not be the case for all people. Restriction is restriction, and whether or not I was able to cope with it, that may not be the story for many others.

So here I am having made a huge deal of the restriction involved in giving up meat. Good lord, imagine now giving up everything that contains any trace of animal produce. That’s a lot of food off your plate. And, if you think of the products that you automatically associate with dairy – cheese, butter, cakes, ice cream – there’s a trend to be seen. When I watched Land of Hope and Glory and declared my future veganism, I thought about what I’d have to cut out and how I would navigate this new lifestyle. When I realised I would no longer eat cookies, biscuits, cakes, and basically every other delicious snack (except for vegan options), I got a pang of excitement for the amount of fat and sugar I’d be cutting out. I envisioned a 2019 where I was at optimum health, practiced clean eating and lost a few pounds in the process. This honestly sounded like a dream.

Truth is, it was a dream. When I decided to be as vegan as possible to prepare myself for Veganuary, I tested myself by resisting cookies whenever they were in the house. When I ultimately ate a cookie, I was so angry at myself. Filled with guilt, shame and self-resentment, I couldn’t stop thinking about the impact this would have on my calories in/out balance, how the added fat to my daily food would automatically make me gain weight. Hold up. What?

I didn’t think at all about the milk and butter that had gone into those cookies that had come from the animals I was supposedly fighting for. Truth be told, in that moment I didn’t care – I’d eaten a goddam cookie and my body was about to pay the price. It was after this incident that I realised I was using veganism not as an ethical lifestyle, but as a diet tool masqueraded as being ‘good for me’. In my mind, the logic of supporting animals, the planet, and myself with all the natural whole foods I’d be eating, meant it was a no-lose situation. That would potentially be the case, if it weren’t for the fact that diet culture is so ingrained within me that I subconsciously manipulated an ethical decision into a desperate plan to lose weight.

‘It’s almost like an eating disorder, but they’re calling it veganism’
Kim-Julie Hansen, Talking Tastebuds ‘VEGANUARY SPECIAL’

Now, I’m fortunate in recognising this. I honestly think a year ago this realisation wouldn’t have occurred to me and I’d be full-steam ahead on the vegan train. Maybe it would have been fine, improved my skin, made me more energised, cleared my conscience – but maybe that would have come at the cost of my relationship with food and my body, not to say all of the progress I’d made in recovery. I am fortunate in the voices I listen to and the influences I take in. In the ‘Veganuary Special’ episode of Talking Tastebuds, vegan author Kim-Julie Hansen discusses the prevalence of vegan influencers who use veganism as way of encouraging orthorexia as a healthy lifestyle choice. After expressing her love of vegan junk food (finally, someone has done it), she criticises the culture of veganism adopted by many that focuses on juice cleanses, detoxes and intermittent fasting. One more time for those in the back please.

More recently, I began reading Laura Thomas’ new book Just Eat It. The cover boasts the slogan, ‘how intuitive eating can help you get your shit together around food’. Um, yes please, sign me up. I bought it immediately and this thing is pure gold. Seriously, like, how is it that every damn sentence is stating exactly how I’ve felt around food for years? – Anyway, circling back; Laura Thomas gives a modern take on diet culture and the many ways it embeds itself in how we eat.

‘In a world where ‘diet’ has become such a dirty word that even Weight Watchers have dropped it, pursuit of weight loss has become passé and people have ditched diets in favour of the more rarefied and esoteric ‘lifestyle’ movements like clean eating, wellness and even veganism. In an attempt to distance ourselves from overt dieting, we have developed new, creative ways to engage in disordered eating behaviours.’
Laura Thomas, Just Eat It, p. 28.

My god. If that’s not a word for word account of my attitude towards food in the past year, I don’t know what is. To be clear – Laura Thomas is not denouncing veganism as an ethical choice whatsoever. She simply criticises its appropriation as a diet technique, and I’m all here for it.

It seems that a lot of people are finally on board with shutting down diet culture and criticising the impact it has on our relationship with our bodies, yet we’re reluctant to admit that it has seeped into other avenues of our eating choices. While many fitness influencers are chugging the spirulina and goji berries, there’s very little conversation on the impacts this can have on our mental health. This absence of discussion is what leads many people (like myself) to feel guilty for not being ‘good’ enough – in regards to either health or ethics – unaware that this is the same guilt that feeds a desire to make ourselves thin.

So, while I header this post with a picture of my vegan, healthy looking breakfast, know that this was my breakfast of choice because it gives me energy and stamina (and porridge with peanut butter is life). After that, I was immediately excited about the strawberry custard creams I have in my cupboard, because who the hell doesn’t need strawberry custard creams in their life? I even dared to make the decision to dunk some in my tea. Maybe you’re not a dunker – if so, don’t hate – but those are the only kind of food choices I want to be making.

Climate change, knowing the facts and making a difference

‘Environment’ has become somewhat of a buzzword since the whole 12-years exposure, and rightly so. Climate change is both increasingly endangering the planet and increasingly fought with improved strategies from individuals and larger groups. It’s a big issue necessitating a big response, and that can be pretty overwhelming.

Now that a lot of people are listening to these planetary issues, it’s the perfect time to help each other help our world. In 2018 I learned ridiculous amounts about both the small and big things I could do to reduce my environmental harm, and changing those habits had such a tiny impact on my life that I couldn’t believe I hadn’t done it years ago. This was the kind of change I was happy to do, because for many (myself included) it can be very overwhelming and guilt-inducing to demand drastic change. Yes, we should be helping the planet, but not in a way that makes people feel guilty that they’re not doing ‘enough’. If you’re doing anything at all within the capacities and resources you possess, you’re doing enough.

Boycotting palm oil? Do your research

I’m sure you remember the Iceland Christmas advert that went viral just a month ago. An adorable and heartbreaking cartoon depicting a young girl and the orang-utan whose habitat has been destroyed due to deforestation for harvesting palm oil. The message, backed by Iceland’s pledge to remove palm oil in all of their own brand products, was to boycott palm oil. Essentially, it was ‘don’t buy palm oil or else these orang-utans will die’, and my heart couldn’t cope. I was ready to ditch every trace of palm oil in my diet, until I decided to do some research.

Our culture of receiving most of our information from media headlines plays the dangerous game of simplifying huge issues. What was depicted as a problem caused my palm oil is in fact a problem caused by the increasing demand for cheap products. Palm oil is an ingredient in approximately half of supermarket products (according to Green People), so it’d be pretty hard to boycott it entirely. Yes, the cultivation of palm oil has the consequence of destroying habitats, killing animals and abusing workers’ human rights, and that is a heartbreaking and inhumane fact. Nonetheless, successfully boycotting it would only result in industry leaders choosing another vegetable oil to replace it, and so the cycle returns.

While it’s often said that palm oil is the problem, it isn’t really. The real problem is the huge demand for vegetable oils and the lack of free agricultural land. Consumers want lots of cheap products and to produce those, a lot of land is needed.
Green People (website) https://www.greenpeople.co.uk/beauty-hub/blog/cleansing-wipes-why-we-should-avoid-them

There’s a massive cognitive dissonance when it comes to environmental issues that makes leading a sustainable life more complicated. We outrageously denounce the cultivation of palm oil, whilst filling our cupboards with all the bits and bobs we probably don’t need. It can be hard to see the connection between a cartoon orang-utan and our shopping lists, but we are ultimately part of a supply and demand structure. It is up to us how much palm oil is produced. Now, this is where feelings of guilt towards eco-friendly habits becomes relevant. When I saw this advert, I felt heartbroken – a feeling that doesn’t help the environment in any practical sense. It was only when I researched the issue that I felt less guilty and a little more in control. In the following weeks, I bought slightly less products that I didn’t actually need, and planned my shopping in advance. This tiny action is much more eco-friendly than allowing headlines and videos to drown you in guilt.

In the idea of buying less, I’m not suggesting we go total minimalist – but palm oil cultivation is currently increasing by 8% per year, so clearly we’re demanding even more as time goes on. So don’t stress about boycotting all palm oil products – it’s near impossible, won’t really help and will just stress you out. Quite simply, the best way to fight this issue is to buy less of what you don’t need, and most importantly – take headlines with a pinch (truckload) of salt.

Small swaps against single-use plastic

Firstly, I’m not going to talk about plastic bottles and takeaway cups. Those are the top culprits of single-use plastic that are denounced at every turn (rightly so), and I’d like to think we’re all pretty knowledgable about their impact – although I would like to quickly recommend Chilly’s bottles (if you know me, you know mine is like my child). If you’re going to be eco-friendly, you may as well do it in style.

Speaking of style, and seemingly contradicting my last post, my top recommendation for reducing your single-use plastic consumption is to buy yourself a cute tote bag. Plastic bags are one of the biggest contributors to single-use plastic, with the average plastic bag being used for just 12 minutes, before taking over 500 years to degrade in landfill. Since the 5p carrier bag charge began, consumers have become more devoted to ‘bags for life’ rather than stacking a mountain of bags in the cupboard which avalanche every time you open it. It’s great, but realistically, these reusable bags aren’t used at every opportunity, and often even the slightly stronger plastic bags are still discarded far too soon.

Now, you may have a big chunky Aldi bag which you use for your weekly shop (fab), but do you carry that bag round when you go clothes shopping? Probably not. It seems that the reusable bag trend has been largely limited to the supermarket industry, and whilst you technically could carry your big Aldi bag around Topshop, you probably wouldn’t want to. Enter, cute (non-plastic) tote bag.

I own two fabric tote bags and I absolutely always have one in my car and one in my flat, ready for use. They’re cute enough to style through a day of shopping and sturdy enough to survive the weekly shop. I actually love using them like I’d love using any other bag, and they’re a lot less loud and crunchy when you stuff them away in a small handbag. It’s a win for the planet and a win for your #look. So instead of thinking that buying a 10p bag instead of a 5p one makes it more sustainable, remember that they’re both plastic, both probably prone to ripping and neither are likely to be used for shopping outside of the supermarket.

The second single-use culprit which I’d been struggling with until very recently is face wipes. Face wipes can be a staple asset for make-up removal and, for me, getting sweat off my face after the gym. The thought of leaving sweat on my face for my entire drive home and probably waking up with 12 new spots was torturous for me, so ditching the wet wipes was difficult – until I realised how harmful they are. Wet wipes are a big killer of marine life, entering the ocean when they’re flushed down toilets, and residing their or washed up on beaches for years. They are incredibly dangerous to animals, and might not be too good for our skin either, with their millions of chemical filled microfibres. Nonetheless, I continued to use them until a recent trip to Primark where I found a 3 pack of gorgeously soft facial cloths. There, I immediately bought these cloths, along with a bottle of micellar water (which I’d never heard of before).

Good lord. This stuff is glorious. Forgetting the environment for a second, these uber-soft cloths blotted with micellar water feel wonderful on skin, and is highly effective for removing make up and general cleansing. I honestly can’t believe I stood for years of using face wipes that dried out my sensitive skin and left it blotchy, because this simple regime leaves me feeling like I don’t need need moisturiser – a true miracle. And if you buy a three pack of cloths, you can use a different parts of each cloth once before washing them all with your clothes at the end of the week.

Eat less meat and know its impact

I almost didn’t include this section because I often feel that discussing dietary choices can be controversial. Having had a terrible relationship with food and my body in the past, I’m also wary of encouraging restrictive food choices – because whilst I don’t find my diet at all restrictive, non-meat diets inherently involve restricting certain food groups. Nonetheless, it’s an issue too prominent to ignore. Eating less meat and animal products quite simply is the greatest way to reduce your environmental impact.

I didn’t know the impact that animal agriculture has on the planet until last year, and from my research there seems to be a reason for that. After deciding to become vegetarian, I watched Cowspiracy and was utterly shocked by what I saw. The documentary discusses animal agriculture primarily in regards to environmental issues, stating that it is the single most biggest contributor to climate change, posing greater threat than every single mode of transport combined. What was even more shocking was its exposure of the lack of information on this impact from many environmental organisations. As the documentary shows, and as I also found from trying to research the issue, animal agriculture is rarely listed as a contributor to climate change – or it is disguised under its secondary impacts of deforestation, water consumption, greenhouse gases, etc. As Cowspiracy points out, this comes as the result of meat being one of the biggest industries on earth, so why would companies want to crash this market? However, the UN makes it clear that meat is ‘the world’s most urgent problem’. The Guardian also published an informative article on the issue, claiming that ‘avoiding meat and dairy is ‘single biggest way’ to reduce your impact on Earth’.

I’m going to resist the urge to divulge endless facts and stats about the environmental impact of animal agriculture, because each person’s views and choices are solely their own. I’m not here telling you to quit meat or animal products. That’s not a helpful message, and for many may not be appropriate. Instead, I want to remind you of what I said when discussing palm oil, and the importance of conducting your own research. Not everything is handed to us, and not everything is portrayed in an accurate way. In discussing the impact of animal agriculture on the planet, I aim not to convert you to a tree-hugging cult (although that sounds pretty fun), but simply to make you more aware. Recognise the impact of meat consumption, and maybe try to have one less meat product each week. Or do the same with other animal products. Or, if you love meat too much to eat any less of it, try to invest in higher-quality meats in order to reduce the ethical impacts. Much like with the palm oil issue, our demand for cheap meat is highly problematic for the planet and its animals.

In this way, all of these issues can be used to emphasise the value of consuming a little less and learning a little more. The planet is a damaged entity, but if 7.7 billion people all made the tiniest change to reduce their environment footprint, we’d see magnificent change.