Here you will find: My amateur research on (mostly western) dress history | Art history in general | Slightly more professional research on architectural history on an occasion | Thoughts on costuming | Sewing projects even sometimes || Main blog: @karkkidoeswriting | Art blog: @karkkidoesartsandcrafts | Ko-fi | My asks and DMs are open and I'm always happy to talk about dress history! | If I haven't answered to your aks, it's probably because I'm writing an essay to it | Name is Karkki | she/her
Welcome to the corner of the interned where I nerd about (mostly) Western dress history! This is the post I will update with all my more structured and researched articles. I have the same navigation on my blog, but it's only for the browser so I figured it would be useful to have navigation that work for the app too.
Some basics
An Introductory Timeline Of Western Women's Fashion
How I do my research into dress history
Dress History
Lacing in Western Fashion History
Dress Etiquette Thorough Western History
When Did It Become Acceptable For Western Women To Wear Pants?
When Did Skirts Stop Being Acceptable For Western Men To Wear?
Is Lingerie Going Backwards - A Rebuttal
Victorian Era
A summary of different kinds of corsets
Victorian Dress For Every Occasion - 1890s Edition
1890s Day Dresses
American Civil War era (1861-65) ball gown
Regency
Debunking the common narrative about Beau Brummel - The whole modern men's fashion is not the fault of One Guy
Gender non-conforming Regency styles
18th century
The Colonial History of How Cotton Became the Most Important Fabric
Overview of Rococo Fashion (1680-1770)
Working Class Clothing In Late 18th Century France
Early Modern Era
The history of showing your boobs for fashion
Deep Dive into 15th and 16th Century Working Class Fashion in Western Europe
Medieval Era
Late 14th to Early 15th Century Bohemian and German Men's Fashion
Construction of Men's Hose
Codpiece
Construction of the French hood
Iron Age
Viking and Crusader Age Finnish men's dress
Historical Sewing
Sewing Medieval Bathhouse Dress
For Dolls
Sewing mid-16th century Venetian dress in doll scale
Sewing mid-16th century Venetian dress in doll scale - Part 2
Sewing 1890s day dress in doll scale
Historical Costuming
History of the Fantasy Corset
Met Gala 2022 Costume Commentary
Pride and Prejudice 2005 Costume Analysis
Ranking Men's Costumes in Renaissance Period Dramas - Part I: The Bad
Ranking Men's Costumes in Renaissance Period Dramas - Part II: The Good
Redesigns for "Historically Accurate" Disney Princesses
Textiles
Hemp's properties
Sustainability
How to see through the greenwashing propaganda of the fashion industry - Case study 1: Shein
The Real Cost of the Fashion Industry
The Morrisian case against fast fashion
Architectural History
History of Sauna and Steam Baths
Art History
Two Tahitian Women, Paul Gauguin and Colonialism
History
Palestinian History Between Great Powers
European History Is Not White
Queer History
Julie d'Aubigny
Roughly 10 Cool Historical Queer Figures More People Should Know About: From Ancient Era to Early Modern Era
How to see through the greenwashing propaganda of the fashion industry - 1
For some background info I made an overview about the impact of fashion industry.
In the light of the Shein brand trip nonsense, I was thinking about how literally every clothing company now engages in greenwashing, even when it's such obvious lie like with Shein. And while most people are not fooled in such blatant cases like that, most cases are not as blatant. To see through the less obvious propaganda often needs a lot of knowledge of the clothing industry, which the average person doesn't have, yet the average person still needs clothing. So instead of trying to expose every company for their bad practices, I thought it might be more helpful to make a post on how to detect greenwashing. I'm going to use four examples, all in the different levels of honesty and responsibility, Shein, H&M, Burberry and Tentree. First I will go into frankly unnecessary amount of detail on Shein, because I fell into a horrifyingly fascinating research rabbit hole and I think it's excellent example on how companies can get away with blatant crimes (allegedly of course). In this first part we will just look into Shien, it's propaganda and reality behind it.
But before I go deeper into this, I want to stress one thing: this is not to say that you can never buy from any brand engaging in dishonest greenwashing, because then you couldn't buy almost any clothing, and you do need clothing. Though I will say, please don't buy from Shein if you in any way can afford not to. There is levels of how bad business practices can be, and they can't be much worse than Shein's, and even beside that, even when super cheep, it's not worth your money. There are other cheep options too. Though I won't hold it against anyone if they buy individual pieces from Shein from time to time, but I would implore at least to considerate, if they really need it and if it might be possible to get something similar from somewhere else. But my point in this is not necessarily to help you make better consumer decisions, because consumption will not save us, but to see through the corporate propaganda and not become complaisant after hearing comforting lies. The corporations are doing everything they can to make you believe they are already fixing the problems within the industry and there's no need for government intervention pinky promise, just keep consuming. But that's all bullshit and government intervention is exactly what is needed.
Before taking a look at our cases, I'll outline the key things I think are good to look for, when presented with sustainability PR.
TRANSPARENCY - Companies are not required to publish much of the information about their practices, but as it has become clear to everyone that the whole fashion industry is a massive problem, opacity has become rightly seen as suspicious. It has become also a sort of marketing method to disclose any evidence of good practices, so when a company is not doing that, and missing out on well working marketing, it raises the question, what are they hiding. Companies may try to give the appearance of transparency, without actually disclosing information. They might write in an easily accessible page about all their lofty goals, promises and achievements in a very vague language, they might talk about being transparent and publishing their data, but that data might be buried somewhere, where it's not easily accessible. Good sign on the other hand would be for example providing supply chain information for a product in the product description.
RELIABLE INFORMATION - Usually it's safer for a company to be vague or silent than to lie, because that might lead to legal consequences, but by cherry-picking and subtly twisting data, it can be turned to be flattering for them. Small companies might provide raw evidence of their facilities and supply chain, like photos, locations, contractor names etc. to give proof for their word. For bigger companies this is not of course possible as their supply chains might be massive and they might have thousands of facilities. However, there are many different independent and governmental organizations that give different kinds of certifications. The certifications are meant to give some reassurance of quality and/or accurate information. However not all certifications are made equal. Most reliable certifications don't have ties to the industry (aka are actually independent, not just in name), have governmental oversight and are given access to the data, from which they do the research themselves.
SUPPLY CHAIN - Giving the origin country of the final product is nowadays standard information to give, as it's required by law for example in EU. It's a red flag, if it's produced in a country, that has lacking environmental or labour laws, poor oversight and/or little protections for people. However, this does not mean that all production in those countries is unethical or questionable, but the risk for that is higher and the need for evidence of the working conditions is also higher. This is however just one part of the production. Before clothing can be sewn, the raw material for fiber must be made/acquired, that material must be turned into fiber, which must be turned into yarn and then the yarn must be woven into fabric. All of these steps in the process need workers, who deserve good working conditions. And depending on what fabric is in question, there's potential for major environmental issues in the different processes. This is why it's important to know more than just the country where the clothing was sewn. There could be certification for ethical sourcing of the fabric for example. With supply chain it's also better if the materials are sourced as locally as possible, to avoid a lot of extra carbon emissions from transportation. Best case scenario would be if the company manages the supply chain themselves locally, so they can know for sure where their materials come from and also avoid middlemen.
BUSINESS MODEL - The reason why it's often so hard to get information on the supply chain is that many companies, especially the large ones, outsource as much as possible. This might seem unintuitive, as the middlemen make production less efficient and costly as everyone takes a cut. However, they do it to outsource risks and responsibility. They don't have to invest into factories or raw material production and they have plausible deniability, if and when there's issues in their supply chain. The complexity of the supply chain provides opacity that is impossible and unreasonable to monitor, which allows the company to buy materials that are unreasonably cheep, while feigning ignorance of worker exploitation. How much the clothing cost can also give some idea on their business model. If it's super cheep, the only way for it to be that cheep is if workers are not payed enough and everything is poorly made. Cheep is always a red flag, though, if it's fairly cheep and I mean basic clothing is not much more than 100 eur (little more in USDs) but not much less than 50 eur, it can be okay or even good quality and with proper pay for workers, if the company doesn't take massive margins and don't have a ton of middlemen in their supply chain. However, expensive is not insurance of quality or good pay for workers. Many expensive brands take massive margins while their production has little difference to fast fashion and their products are poor quality.
CASE STUDY 1: SHEIN
Let's start with the propaganda. In Shein's About Us page, they say:
"SHEIN is a global fashion and lifestyle e-retailer committed to making the beauty of fashion accessible to all."
You see, their goal is to make fashion accessible to everyone, not just privileged few. They back this up by informing how they work in 150 countries, have very wide variety of clothing, are one of the most popular shopping apps, connect with the customers on where they are - social media - and, of course, have ridiculously low prices. Their team of nearly 10,000 employees (of which 58% are women for your information) loves to serve their many many customers, who are most important for Shein. They use "cutting-edge technology" and digitized agile supply chain to track sales and demand and adjust their manufacturing in real time. When they notice a new trend, they immediately put something trendy on sale, make prototypes and order small batches from factories. This is how they keep their inventory waste low and get products quickly to their customers. In their own words:
"By developing proprietary logistics and ecommerce technology, we are disrupting the fashion space and improving outcomes for manufacturers, suppliers and consumers."
We will see, if the "outcomes" are really "improved".
Shein group's website has very extensive information about their sustainability goals and efforts, giving the impression of transparency. It's pretty clear this is in an effort to combat all the allegations towards them. To make their business sustainable in addition to their reduced inventory waste they are "accelerating their transition" to use recycled polyester, promoting their "peer-to-peer resale platform" for Shein products, "eshtablishing" a recycling program for end-of-life products, tracing the material supply chain through their own material tracking platform and conserving forests by replacing viscose with "next generation fibers".
Most of the information they provide is fully meaningless corporate speak and should be taken with the biggest bucket of salt, so let's ask some questions.
DO THEY PROVIDE SPECIFIC DATA ABOUT THEIR PRODUCTION? Surprisingly Shein is much more transparent than I expected. (Though of course the info is in different website than where the average consumer would go.) Shein hasn't taken the standard route, which is to provide as little information as possible, and keeping it vague too, se they could just keep feigning ignorance. As I said, I think it's pretty clear they are providing this much information because their reputation is so bad. Their lack of transparency has been taken as an admission of guilt, so it's not working anymore, and they have taken a new approach into maintaining their plausible deniability. In their website, they provide a sustainability report from years 2021 and 2022. I took a look at the latest one. In it there's a lot of fluff, but they show actual numbers of how many code of conduct violations have been found in audits to supplier facilities, the carbon emissions of their supply chain and the amounts of different fabrics they have used during 2022. That's not nothing, so we have a relatively good start here.
WHO DID THE RESEARCH? The research is not at all independent, but done in-house. They have all the financial incentives to cherry-pick and frame their research in a way that shows them in the best possible light, even if we assumed they would not tamper with their own evidence, which I don't think we can fully assume either. There's an attempt though to convince us to believe the data they are showing:
"We have reported with reference to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) 2021 standard for certain sections of this report. Selected information in this report was assured, to the limited assurance standard, by an external independent assurer as per ISAE 3000."
Emphasis by me. So even if they did the research themselves, they did get it independently audited to get an assurance that they did follow the GRI standards in their reporting and that it doesn't contain lies. However, the "certain sections" and "selected information" with "limited assurance" does not give me much assurance, in fact, my assurance is very limited. To understand what does this actually mean, I did a bit of googling and delved into the annex of the report.
ISAE 3000 is a standard for auditing financial information issued by International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board, which an independent body that has governmental oversight. Financial information can get either reasonable assurance or limited assurance. Reasonable assurance is the most assurance this standard allows. Limited assurance is given, if the information provided to the assurer, time or extent of the procedure is lacking, but from those limited resources the assurer doesn't find anything that suggests "the subject matter information is materially misstated" aka that the company is lying. GRI is the most used reporting standard for sustainability for businesses and other organizations. I'm a bit suspicious of how effective their standards are, if they are most widely used, since most companies are absolutely terrible about sustainability yet they all claim they are great with it. So I decided to check who is in the board. Unsurprisingly it's mostly representatives of massive corporations, including Coca Cola and DuPond, a professor of accounting, national research director of Australia's Mining and Energy Union and one (1) environmental scientist.
The annex revealed quite interesting details. The only information that was AssuredTM (in a limited manner) for accurate information was the data on Shein's emissions and that of code of conduct violations. Only the report on emissions was AssuredTM (in a limited manner) to follow GRI standards. Shein got to select and prepare the relevant data for the audition, which was according to it, lacking. Crucially the audition report states that they didn't verify the results of supply audits or any potential violations of labor law found in them, rather they just checked that the math on the grading of the audits matched with Shein's stated criteria and that they actually did the audits. So if you really think about it, the (limited) assurance is that they graded themselves like they promised they would, not that their reporting of the amounts of violated labor laws or even just their own code of conduct was accurate. Additionally assurance of the accuracy of the emissions was only of Shein's own facilities, which do not produce any of their products, but not of their supply chain. 99,7% of their emissions come from their supply chain. So keep all this in mind when we look at the data itself.
WHAT ARE THEIR CARBON EMISSIONS AND HOW ARE THEY CALCULATED? Shein's emissions were 9,17 million tonnes of CO2, or 9,22 million tonnes if we don't count them purchasing Renewable Energy Credits. To put it into perspective that would be around 0,27-0,3% of the estimation of the annual emissions of the whole textile industry. Now that would be pretty low. In fact, suspiciously low. The fact that they got their own emissions auditioned, but not the emissions of their supply chain, suggests to me that perhaps, their numbers don't hold up to scrutiny. They also don't disclose their methodology for the numbers of the supply chain, like they do with their own facilities. Of course their response would be to say it's so much easier for them to calculate their own emissions than their suppliers. But I say that's not a bug, that's a feature.
Though looking at the methodology of the emissions from their own operating sites, which includes warehouses and offices, they don't take into account at all any emissions from building anything. They grew massively between 2021 and 2022 and I find it hard to believe they didn't built any of the new offices or warehouses they gained. Certainly they would have bought a lot of new equipment even if they moved to existing buildings. But none of this is taken into account in their calculations. And I must assume, it's not taken into account in their supply chain calculations either.
Even if we took them at their word, by their own admission, their carbon emissions have grown from 2021 to 2022 52%, which is alarming. (Interestingly they use the 2021 numbers in their actual website, which I think is so misleading that it's basically a lie.) They write it off as just side effect of their massive growth in production volume, which had 57% increase during the same time frame.
"We are at the beginning of our mitigation journey and began implementing decarbonization programs at the end of fiscal year 2022."
So they first scale their business as fast as they can, having absolutely no care of the environmental effect, so that when they have massive market share, and they reduce their massive emissions slightly, they can be like "oh look we did something!" They can then moan and wail how hard and time consuming it is to reduce the emissions of an existing supply chain, when they were the ones who decided to not take that into account from the start. Their "science based goal" (which they repeatedly stress in their website) is to reduce their emissions 25% by 2030. It's nothing. Less than nothing. They scaled without care their production in a time, when our ecology is collapsing, and then they claim that it's just science we possibly can't do anything about it. Apparently it's a natural law that they just have to make more and more money, like gravity.
WHAT MATERIALS DO THEY USE? Last year 64% of Shein's clothing (measured in weight) was polyester. Production of polyester is estimated to count for 40% of all carbon emissions of the textile industry. It's also a plastic made out of oil, so we have to take into account the fracking and refinement of oil and the eventual release of the CO2 from the oil that would have been secured in the ground otherwise. This most certainly is not counted into the supply chain emissions. Shein loves to pay lip service to the idea of circular economy, but they don't actually think about it. Because if they did, they would have taken into account the microplastics polyester fabric sheds when it's washed. When microplastics get into the soil and freshwater, they get into the organs of animals, including us, and they don't easily come off. Already it has been shown that they have led to the decrease of small soil fauna, which are very important for the fertility of the soil. Over time microplastics also break down further into nanoplastics. There's already evidence of nanoplastics being small enough to pass through veins into the brain, and that causing behavioral changes in fish. We don't know the long term consequences off this micro and nano plastic pollution yet, and we're just seeing the effects they have on small animals, but as they built up over years and decades inside our organs, we well likely see much larger effects.
Important for the lifecycle thinking is not just focusing on how much burden the production puts on the environment, but also how long it lasts and how can it be reused and eventually the impact of the end of it's lifecycle. If you remember from the beginning, Shein claims to take all this into account by having a resale program, somewhere in the future establishing a recycling program for unusable old clothes and increasing their share of recycled polyester. This is nothing. Again it's less than nothing. Polyester is not only bad fabric because of the things I've already said, but it's also just as a material for clothing very weak. It's not warm or breathable, which makes it at the same time sweaty and cold. It has no anti-bacterial qualities at all (which basically all natural fabrics have at least to small extent), so when you get easily sweaty in it, it starts also smelling very easily, and so needs washing very often. On top of washing releasing microplastics, it also weakens the fabric, because polyester doesn't get stronger when wet unlike plant fibers, like cotton and linen. Other synthetic fibers even get weaker when wet. Polyester is also very hard to dye effectively and has bad color retaining properties, so it needs chemical treatments and strong industrial dyes, all of which adds to it's carbon footprint and toxic pollution. Bad color retaining properties though also mean it looses it's color quite easily when washed. All of this makes it's life span significantly shorter than natural fabrics. I mean with some natural fabrics like wool and silk we are talking about multiple decades, with polyester it's easily in the low one digit years. These are inherent issues with polyester, but Shein clothes have repeatedly got complaints of their poor quality in general. This makes the resale program frankly meaningless.
On the surface the recycling program for polyester sounds good, right? You don't have to use more oil and use as much energy in making of it (according to Shein themselves, which again not a trustworthy source, it saves up to 70% emissions). Shein has promised to increase their share of recycled polyester to 31% of their polyester usage by 2030. Currently less than 1% of their production is recycled polyester. This is however a terrible solution. It still sheds microplastics and it's even worse as a fabric than virgin polyester. It is weaker and stiffer, making it impossible to use on it's own in fabric but when mixed with other fibers in a fabric significantly shortens it's life span. When we take into account the lifecycle of a clothing, the length of it and it's lifetime emissions become much more important than the production emissions. If you have to produce from scratch new clothing three times, in the time you could be using another clothing, it doesn't really matter if the emissions during the production were somewhat lower. (There's little reliable and comparable data available on production emissions of different fabrics, so I don't know how exactly recycled polyester compares to different natural fabrics.) Especially when we take into account the consumer use emissions, which in the case of polyester are 30% of it's lifetime emissions. And wast majority of it comes from washing, which you have to do more with polyester (how much more depends on what fabric you compere it to). Any responsible disposal of polyester at the end of it's lifecycle, especially any attempts at recycling it, cause additional emissions, unlike with natural fibers, which naturally degrade.
WHERE ARE THE SUPPLIERS? Shein boasts having fully integrated digital supply chain and with it they can track the whole supply chain of individual product. However they don't reveal any of that information publicly. Or rather only thing we know is that their factories making the end products are in China. But the question is, where does their fabrics come from? There's no countries listed in their report in any capacity and none of their products have any information of their origins nor the origins of the fabrics. This is very suspicious in my opinion. We can get no indication on how fibers might have been produced and made into fabric from the labor and environmental laws and practices of different countries. However, there is an interesting bit in the report about cotton:
"For cotton products, to further enhance our compliance with US laws, we request that our manufacturing suppliers only source cotton from Australia, Brazil, India, the United States and other approved regions."
This sentence is there pretty obviously because they have been caught selling clothing with cotton grown in Xinjiang in US markets, which US has banned. This is because Xinjiang, the Autonomous Uighur region, where 90% of China's raw cotton is grown, has been accused of genocidal oppression of the Uighur population, including having massive forced labour camps for Uighurs. Because of the police state nature of Xinjiang, there's no reliable numbers on how much of the cotton is produced with forced labour, but presumably most of it. Moreover, China limits the imports of cotton, which is why only 20% of cotton used by the textile industry in China is imported. Shein claims they know exactly where their fabrics come from, but the wording of the sentence above makes it clear they don't even plan on enforcing any policy to use imported cotton by their suppliers. Cotton is just 10% of fabric they used last year, but given their massive production volume, it's still a lot. This gets us to our next question.
IS THERE PROOF OF GOOD WORKING CONDITIONS? Shein reports doing in total 2 812 audits into 1 941 of their 5 400 contract manufacturers. According to them it accounted for 84% of their Shein branded products (so not their other 10 brands). This information, if you remember, was given limited assurance, by the audition into their numbers. However, we are to trust Shein alone that the reports of their auditions are accurate. I'm not really willing to trust them, but let's sustain our disbelief for a moment to look at their findings. From their report:
"A: 90 points and above: minor flaws. Continued improvement is advised.
B: 75 to 90 points: some general risks. Continued improvement is advised.
C: 60 to 75 points: 1-3 major risks. Corrective action is required.
D: below 60 points: >3 major risks. Corrective action is required.
ZTV: Zero Tolerance Violation detetected. Immediate corrective action is required."
Even without knowing what do these things mean in practice, I don't think this paints a pretty picture. Only 4% of their manufacturing facilities had minor flaws and 82% of their facilities have major risks or worse? Does that mean none of their manufacturers fully comply with their Code of Conduct? They try to make it sound like it looks this bad because they have tightened their criteria and still the numbers are better than last year, but even with all of that, this is imo unacceptable. But it gets worse.
The report shows the amount of each ZTV found in the audits. This was explicitly not assured in any way by an independent party, so considering this information is given despite the lack of oversight and the interests of Shein, it's grim. Most of the 11% of ZTVs were gross safety violations. For example 4,2% of the audits, which means 118 facilities, found lacking emergency exits. However, they also found child labour in 6 facilities and forced labour in 3 facilities. So according to their own reporting, their manufacturers have used child labour and forced labour. And just to remind you, this is covering just 36% of their contract manufacturers. What I found interesting (read disturbing), was that violence or sexual misconduct against workers were not among Zero Tolerance Violations. I know it's not a situation, where they don't consider it violation of Code of Conduct, but rather just calls the police and let them handle it, because the violations counted here are based on their CoC, in which there's an item 7 named "No harassment or abuse of employees", which explicitly forbids physical, sexual, mental and verbal abuse. They don't however breakdown the make up of the non-ZTV violations that have occured, nor do their reveal how are they graded the ratings, so there's really no way to know what the 71% of their manufacturers have done to warrant their low (C or D) grading.
Would you at this point be surprised, if I told you it gets worse? Yeah, their so called Zero Tolerance Violations are not very zero tolerance after all. You might think zero tolerance means, that if manufacturers are caught doing it, their contract is immediately terminated and they are reported to authorities? Well, let's look what is the "immediate corrective action" outlined in their Responsible Sourcing Policy. Among the ZTVs they define even more zero tolerance violations, let's say negative tolerance violations. These are 1. forging documents, bribery or refusing to get assessed 2. child labour and 3. forced labour. Surely these lead to immediate contract termination and reporting to authorities?
So if Shein encounters slavery or probable coverup of it in their facilities, they stop placing new orders until the enslaved people and children are taken somewhere else or otherwise their contracts are fixed (at least for now), so there's no more slavery in sight, when someone comes back to assess them again and decides it's all good to continue business as usual. They have 30 days to make everything look like there's no issues, which sounds pretty easy task, and after that they can grab the kids and the slaves back there like nothing happened. Also notice how they didn't say they demand stopping the work entirely in the facility, just that they'll stop placing orders? Yeah, they don't stop production even if they find literal children or enslaved people producing them. Gotta get those dresses to the customer.
If they find any other ZTV, they come back in 30 days, and if the violation continues, they give a warning, come back again in 30 days, and if still the issue is there, then they stop placing orders. After that it continues like with child or forced labour violations. If after another 30 days it's not fixed, the contract is terminated. If a supplier gets two ZTVs within two years, they go straight to the even less than zero tolerance model straight away. If they get three ZTVs in two years, then their contract is immediately terminated. Nothing different happens though, if you get caught doing child or forced labour two times in two years, so you can just get caught once a year as long as you always pretend to stop doing it. But even if you do get caught third time in two years, or fail to pretend you fixed it, it's fine, you'll just have to do other stuff for the next year, and then you can apply again to work with Shien. Also the policy does not at any point require reporting these alleged crimes to authorities. If they at some point stop placing orders for a supplier (for example because of child or forced labour), they have to just sent all the files and documents of the goods that are produced by that supplier during the time they aren't giving them new orders to the relevant tax and customs authorities.
To answer the question I started this section with, sounds like Shein provides more evidence of bad working conditions in their suppliers' facilities, than they provide evidence of good working conditions. They even give evidence that their monitoring of those conditions is just a joke, and they have no mechanisms to actually get rid of suppliers who have inhumane working conditions. Elsewhere they try to give very weak evidence of good working conditions. The influencer brand trip to their facility in China was a PR stunt like that. However, it's easily dismissable, as the facility was not at one of the factories, where their clothing is made, all of which are third parties, but Shien's own facility they call Innovation Center. There they innovate new technologies, train their suppliers to use their new technologies and consult their suppliers on how to make new factories, which I assume means they have factory templates to give to their suppliers.
However, independent sources give much more reliable evidence of terrible working conditions in their factories. Like when undercover operation into one of their factories found employees working 18 hours a day earning 2 cents per item. When asked for comment, they answered: "Any non-compliance with this code is dealt with swiftly, and we will terminate partnerships that do not meet our standards." This is not severe ZTV, so what they mean by "dealt with swiftly" is "told to stop breaking labour laws, given some time, given warning, given more time, stopped giving new orders, given even more time and if after three months they have not stop then they gotta go". Because yes, they do terminate those who don't meet their standards. Their standards are just in the gutter.
HOW IS THE COMPANY STRUCTURED? While falling down this rabbit hole I came to the realization that Shein is the Uber of fashion. It's just the gig economy all over again. Let me explain. Unlike traditional fashion companies, Shein has outsourced even the sewing of the clothing. Shein itself is an app company, like Uber, though they technically do design their own clothes. I say technically because they have been repeatedly accused of copyright infringement to the point where they are now sued for racketeering. Allegation from the lawsuit:
"Shein has grown rich by committing individual infringements over and over again, as part of a long and continuous pattern of racketeering, which shows no sign of abating."
It relates to the other reason why I say their only technically design too, because a huge amount of their designs are also outsourced. In their sustainability report, they boast about how their SHEIN X program is meant to "empower" young designers to get their business off the ground, by taking their designs and using them for their clothing productions. This sounds a lot like SHEIN X designers are gig workers. They are basically just designers for Shein, but oh no they are not workers, labour laws won't apply! Shein specifically targets young designers, even students, so it's clear that they really just want impressionable people desperate for money and work experience. Obviously they won't get much money for their designs, since there's such a massive flood of products and designers, Shein says they have 3 000 designers in SHEIN X, and the products are so, so cheep. It's the exact same thing as with Uber and the like, they put their "workers" into competition with each other. To tie it back to the lawsuit, they use these third party designers as fodder against accusations of copyright infringement. They did not steal the design from the independent artist, they are just the platform provider.
This is also exactly how they operate with their factories. When their massive production is spread across all the 5 400 small separate suppliers, they are forced to compete for scraps. They can't organize together to demand better pay or better working conditions, and Shein can act like they have no part in them. Moreover, due to their extremely low prices, Shein has to offer only really low rates for the production of their clothing. On top of that because of the contractor structure, the actual fanctory owners taken an extra cut from those low rates, leaving extremely little for the actual workers. The prices are so low, they demand inhumane working conditions. It's impossible to sell clothing in the prices Shein does and pay well for the workers, especially with their business structure. All the talk about technological innovation is also bullshit, because this gig economy competition model ensures that most of the gig workers (in this case factories) will stay poor, so they can hardly invest in the new technologies.
This model is also what Shein holds as their most significant sustainability claim, because it allows them to cut most inventory waste. Traditional fashion companies always have a significant overhead, because their supply must always be higher than demand, otherwise, they would loose customers to their competitors. Because Shein orders small batches from large amount of factories, they can change their production in real time, adjusting to the demand much quicker than any competitor. Yes, it means they have minimal inventory loss, but it's not actually efficient. Or rather not efficient in any other way than for maximizing profits. There is a massive amount of overlap of facilities, machinery, organization structures and bureaucracy, if we look at Shein's whole production, because the small factories are all producing same things, but because Shein drives them to compete with each other, they don't have to pay for that overlap. More than that, it's extremely inefficient way to maximize people getting clothed while minimizing materials. And I don't mean producing as much clothes as possible while minimizing materials, because that is what they are doing, but the goal shouldn't be as much clothes as possible, but maximizing everyone having enough clothing, which is much less that what we produce today. And if clothing was made to last instead of making as many of them as possible, even less could be made and still everyone would have enough clothes.
Shein's extremely quick rise to the top of fashion markets was due to how effectively they managed to use the pandemic for their advantage. During the lock-downs around the world, people spend increasingly more time on their phones and social media, which Shein managed turn into their profit. They utilize social media and influencers effectively for marketing. Their platform also uses many of the same psychological tricks social media uses to keep customers scrolling and consuming. This is on itself is not at all new, but because of their business model, they turned attention into sales and sales into more attention. All that combined with their ability to response in real time to new trends and scale production extremely quickly, turned any new trend in social media into hype and micro-fashion cycles, which they would burn through increasingly fast. Their competitors wouldn't even have the time to get into that trend before it would be replaced with a new trend. Then all they needed to do was to contract new small factories, they didn't even have to spend time and money to built them, and they could take over the fast fashion market.
Shein's effect won't stop there though. Their competitors will and are already starting to adapt their methods. It means quality of clothing will keep getting worse, the whole industry will keep increasing their carbon emissions and the working conditions from cotton farmers to designers will get worse as gig economy spreads in the industry. I'll talk more about this in the conclusions of the second part, but to fix this, there needs to be government intervention. It's good that there's a lawsuit over their wider practices, not just a singular act, but it won't be enough. If they don't face significant consequences, every other company will take note that they can profit off of (allegedly) systematic crimes.
IN CONCLUSION Shein as a company is a glorified optimization algorithm which only real function is to drive up consumption and in exchange take all the profits from everyone else's labour. They use the modern classic Uber model to take the neoliberal principle of outsourcing risks and responsibilities to it's logical conclusion. Their extremely exploitative business model only works if their designers and factories and other gig workers break laws. They do the absolute bare minimum to comply with law and (allegedly) not even that when they believe they can get away with it by blaming others, which is fucking bad indictment of those laws, since my god they are terrible. Their greenwashing propaganda is honestly laughable, it's a joke and they must know it. It feels more like gaslighting than propaganda.
God I am so annoyed by that woman on Instagram who makes the historical costume and videos like "well actually corsets WERE just about figure shaping, and they WERE bad, and I'm wearing a corset so you can't tell me I'm biased, and they weren't actually for breast support and you're just shills for the patriarchy"
"some people say figure improving is coded language for breast support, but –" yeah they say that because it is. Not exclusively, but that's part of it. Hope this helps
"Corsets were not Just Bras!" they were in the way that people are actually trying to make this argument, namely they served one of the main comfort related functions of bras and based on non-sensationalized discussion about them from women at the time (of which we unfortunately do not have much) responses to their most common use case seemed to run broadly the same gamut as those to bras in the present day.
The point of saying "corsets were the bras of the Victorian era" is not so much to say that there's absolutely no difference between them, but to shift public perception of their role in society from what the media constantly hammers into us, to something closer to what it actually was. Namely, a garment that did serve practical purposes frequently related to comfort for many women but which was also sometimes controversial and, for some women with sensory issues or different support needs, never going to work comfortably no matter how well it was fitted
Of course there was a silhouette element to it; no one at an academic discussion level above a Youtube comment is saying that there wasn't. but the point, and what you're unknowingly or perhaps knowingly arguing against by making these videos, is that it had a practical purpose and was not just a unilateral torture device forced upon women by the patriarchy
I don't know why dress reformers would consistently mention breast support in their anti-corset discussions or endorsements of corset alternatives if it wasn't a major function of the garment. I don't know why Caresse Crosby, considered by many to be the inventor of the modern bra, would have mentioned breast support as the main issue of going without her corset in an evening gown if it wasn't a major function of the garment. I don't know why "reducing corsets" would have been given a name as a distinct category of the garment if all corsets were primarily meant to reduce the waist
Was figure shaping part of it? Of course it was; no one is saying it wasn't. But to say that breast support wasn't the main function of a corset, or at least a significant function, it's just… I don't even know. The vibe is very "I'm not like other historical costumers; I AGREE that obviously we all know of corsets were horrible and only meant for Shapewear!!!!!"
God I hate being recommended her stuff. I would block her but I want to know what she's saying so I know what I might have to refute or inject nuance into
why your sewing machine is acting up:
- tension is wrong
- wrong needle size
- thread bit stuck somewhere
- tension again
- needs a deep clean and oiling
- you said something and now its offended and refusing to cooperate until you realize your error and beg forgiveness
Le Petit écho de la mode, no. 10, vol. 19, 7 mars 1897, Paris. 9. (1) Costume tailleur en drap "vison" et galon mohair brun. (2) Costume en serge bleu matelot. (3) Devant de la figure 1. (4) Costume en drap mousseline vert russe. (5) Robe de drap gris nickel. (6) Toilette en drap ivoire. (7) Toilette en serge mastic et velours cigare. (8) Costume en serge rouge et drap blanc. Ville de Paris / Bibliothèque Forney
(1) Costume tailleur en drap "vison" et galon mohair brun. Jupe fronde, montée à fronces derrière, garnie au bas de 5 rangs de galon mohair; la même garniture se répète deux fois à mi-jupe en formant la pointe devant et se terminant derrière sous les fronces. Jaquette ajustée devant et derrière sous des plis ronds qui partent de l’encolure, garniture de soutache formant V, col Médicis orné de soutache, manches à deux coutures, peu amples du haut. Chapeau très enlevé derrière orné de plumes noires et violettes de Parme.
(1) Tailored suit in “mink” cloth and brown mohair braid. Sling skirt, gathered with gathers at the back, trimmed at the bottom with 5 rows of mohair braid; the same trim is repeated twice at mid-skirt, forming the point in front and ending behind under the gathers. Fitted jacket front and back under round pleats starting from the neckline, soutache trim forming a V, Medici collar decorated with soutache, two-seam sleeves, not very loose at the top. Hat very removed at the back decorated with black and purple Parma feathers.
Mater.: 7 m. drap, environ 3 pièces dé 25 m. de galon.
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(2) Costume en serge bleu matelot. Jupe ronde, montée à plis derrière, garnie de chaque côté du devant de petites pattes simulées par des galons mohair et ornées de petits boutons. Corsage très ajusté, à basque assez longue et plate, fermé devant par des petites pattes contrariées, col droit, manches découpées en petites pattes au bas, le haut monté à fronces et légèrement bouffant, volant de soie au bas des manches, col droit. Toque de géraniums et velours, ornée d’une aigrette. Gants de suède foncé.
(2) Sailor blue serge suit. Round skirt, fitted with pleats at the back, trimmed on each side of the front with small tabs simulated by mohair braid and decorated with small buttons. Very fitted bodice, with a fairly long and flat peplum, closed in front with small crossed tabs, straight collar, sleeves cut into small tabs at the bottom, the top fitted with gathers and slightly puffed, silk flounce at the bottom of the sleeves, straight collar. Toque of geraniums and velvet, decorated with an egret. Dark suede gloves.
Matér.: 7 m. de serge en 1m20 de large, 10 m. galon mohair, 5 douzaines de boutons.
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(3) Devant de la figure 1.
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(4) Costume en drap mousseline vert russe. Jupe ronde, ornée de fine passementerie noire formant tablier devant, terminée sous les fronces derrière. Corsage court très ajusté, agrafé au milieu du devant sous une chute de mousseline de soie noire plissée. garniture de passementerie comme à la jupe, ceinture de même fermée sur le côté, col droit uni. Toque de velours vert ornée de plumes noires.
(4) Russian green muslin cloth suit. Round skirt, decorated with fine black trimmings forming an apron in front, finished under the gathers at the back. Very fitted short bodice, stapled at the center front under a drop of pleated black silk chiffon. trimmings as on the skirt, belt also closed on the side, plain straight collar. Green velvet hat decorated with black feathers.
—
(5) Robe de drap gris nickel. — Jupe corselet agrafée sur le côté, garnie de biais posés les uns au-dessus des autres, devant ajusté par des pinces et le derrière formant des plis pour donner de l’ampleur à la jupe. Corsage boléro garni de biais rappelant ceux de la jupe, col rabattu en velours vert terminé par deux boutons, ce boléro s’ouvre sur une chemisette lingerie avec petit col rabattu et cravate de satin noir. Chapeau en chenille noire orné de velours vert et plumes noires. Manches recouvertes du haut par trois biais. Chapeau coulissé en tulle orné plumes noires.
(5) Nickel gray cloth dress. — Corselet skirt stapled on the side, trimmed with bias placed one above the other, the front adjusted with darts and the back forming pleats to give fullness to the skirt. Bolero bodice trimmed with bias reminiscent of those of the skirt, green velvet turn-down collar finished with two buttons, this bolero opens onto a lingerie shirt with small turn-down collar and black satin tie. Black chenille hat decorated with green velvet and black feathers. Sleeves covered at the top by three biases. Sliding hat in tulle decorated with black feathers.
Matér.: 10 m. de drap, 0m50 velours.
—
(6) Toilette en drap ivoire. Jupe ronde, garnie de petit galon très fin, or ou argent. Corsage à basque plate fermé par des petites pattes boutonnées, col droit, ruche de mousseline desoie, cascade de même mousseline plissée sur le devant. Toque en velours géranium ornée de mêmes fleurs et aigrette.
(6) Ensemble in ivory cloth. Round skirt, trimmed with very fine little braid, gold or silver. Flat peplum bodice closed with small buttoned tabs, straight collar, ruffle of silk chiffon, cascade of the same pleated muslin on the front. Geranium velvet toque decorated with the same flowers and egret.
Matér.: 7 m. drap, 3 pièces de 25 m. de galon.
—
(7) Toilette en serge mastic et velours cigare. Jupe ronde tout unie, montée à plis derrière, corsage-veste à revers de velours arrondis, la veste est courte devant et s’ouvre sur un gilet de piqué blanc surmonté d’un col droit, même col droit à la veste, doublé de velours. Manches d’une seule pièce avec revers de velours. Toque.de violettes avec choux de velours et aigrette de plumes.
(7) Ensemble in putty twill and cigar velvet. Plain round skirt, fitted with pleats behind, bodice-jacket with rounded velvet lapels, the jacket is short in front and opens onto a white pique vest topped with a straight collar, same straight collar to the jacket, lined with velvet. One-piece sleeves with velvet cuffs. Violet hat with velvet puffs and feather aigrette.
Matér.: 7 m. de serge. 0 m 55 de piqué.
—
(8) Costume en serge rouge et drap blanc. Jupe ronde, ornée au bas de plusieurs rangs de piqûres. Corsage-veste ajusté complètement du dos, les devants doubles forment veste boléro arrondie aux bas et garnie de piqûres, col haut orné piqûres, gilet plat surmonté d’un col droit, bouton retenant le col. Manches ornées piqûres au bas. Chapeau paille rouge orné pouf de plumes noires, aigrette et roses rouge.
(8) Suit in red serge and white cloth. Round skirt, decorated at the bottom with several rows of stitching. Bodice-jacket fitted completely from the back, the double fronts form a bolero jacket rounded at the bottom and trimmed with stitching, high collar decorated with stitching, flat vest topped with a straight collar, button holding the collar. Sleeves decorated with stitching at the bottom. Red straw hat decorated with black feathers, egret and red roses.
Roughly 10 More Cool Historical Queer Figures More People Should Know About
Part 2 - Modern Era
Part 1
Last year I made a post of roughly 10 (emphasis on roughly) earlier historical queer figures, and promised a list of another (roughly) 10 figures. So again in spirit of pride month, I'm delivering you roughly 10 (technically there's 12 or more however you want to count them) more cool historical queer figures.
In the first list I had fucked up the splitting of my list and there were only 8 figures. I had somehow misplaced the first entry here on this list even though time-period-wise it should have been on the first one, but alas it will go here.
The same disclaimers apply here too. This list is centered around western history (but not exclusively) because that's the history I'm most familiar with, though it's definitely not all white, since western history is not all white. I will be avoiding using modern labels, since they are rarely exactly applicable to history, rather I will present whatever we know about these figures' gender, sexuality and relationships. If there's information about what language they used about themselves, I will use that. Often we don't know their own thoughts, so I will need to do some educated guess work, but I will lean towards ambiguity whenever evidence is particularly unclear. If you are the type of person who gets angry with the mere suggestion there's a possibility that a historical gnc person might not have been cis, I encourage you to read my answers to related asks (here and here) first before sending me another identical ask. Try to at least bring some new arguments if you decide to waste my time with your trans erasure.
9. Romaine-la-Prophétesse (c. 1750 - at least 1792)
Romaine-la-Prophétesse, or Romaine the Prophetess, was a Haitian revolutionary and religious leader. It's unclear what pronounce they would have used for themself, so I'll refer to them as they/them. They were assigned male at birth and were born around 1750 in the Spanish controlled Hispaniola as Romaine Rivière to free black parents, possibly of Kongolese origin. By 1772 they had migrated to the French part of the island and become a small coffee plantation owner. By that point they had also met Marie Roze Adam, a creole woman, who was enslaved in another plantation, where they were likely an employer. Between 1772 and 1777 she gave birth to their three children, who were born into slavery. After meeting their future wife, Romaine spent 12 years working to free her and their children from slavery. They purchased Marie Roze and their children and immediately married her, exploiting a law, according to which marrying her master freed her and any of her children owned by the same master. Romaine became very respected in the area's free black community and they and their wife became godparents to multiple children. Still even after freeing their wife and children from bondage they did own at least two slaves, as did many wealthy free black and mixed people.
After the French Revolution many of the free black Haitians were radicalized. The French revolutionaries had promised freedom and equality, but while all whites, even the poor ones, gained citizenship, the citizen status of free people of colour was tenuous and black slaves remained slaves. This led to a lot of tensions and fighting, which in 1791 erupted into several uprisings, an uprising of the free people of colour against their discrimination and a slave rebellion. Romaine joined the slave rebellion after a powerful white plantation owner near their plantation gathered troops threatening them and their community. They called upon free black and poor white people in their community outnumbering the white troops, attacked the plantation, burned it down and freed it's slaves. It's a little unclear when exactly, but at least by the revolution, Romaine started to be known as Romaine the Prophetess. They dressed in women's clothing and spoke about being possessed by a female spirit. They became known as both a healer and a prophet. With a saber in hand they preached that God was black - their religious practice and revolutionary politics were very intertwined. Vodou was not yet a formalized belief system, but this was the time when it was taking form as Catholic and Indigenous African and Caribbean beliefs mingled together among Caribbean people of colour. Romaine's religious beliefs seem to also be a mix of Kongolese Catholicism (Catholicism has been a major religion in Kongo since early 16th century) and indigenous West-African religions. This was quite common among Haitian revolutionaries, but there was still a lot of variety.
After capturing and burning the first plantation, Romaine and their growing army of freed slaves, burned multiple other plantations in the area of Southern Hispaniola and freed thousands of slaves. There were excesses of violence as an inevitable consequence of the extreme brutality the slaves had been subjected to. (How the Caribbean slaves and Maroons were treated by the Europeans is one of the most nauseating things I have ever read and after that it's impossible for me to condemn anything they did afterward to their oppressors.) Eventually most of the wealthy free black people turned against Romaine and the slave revolt and pressured them to go into peace treaty with the French. By that point they had enough of the upper hand that they managed to keep control over large parts of the province. However, the peace would not last and eventually Romaine and their troops were defeated by the French in 1792. Romaine's family was captured, but they apparently managed to escape and was said to have continued preaching, however there's no other record of them after that. Haitian Revolution was eventually after a decade successful and made Haiti the first state to entirely abolish slavery.
10. We'Wha (1849–1896)
We'Wha was a Zuni, Indigenous American Pueblo people from Zuni River Valley, a potter, a weaver and a cultural ambassador. They were a lhamana, a third gender category in Zuni culture. The lhamana are usually amab people, who take both masculine and feminine characteristics and perform both feminine and masculine roles in the community. It's unclear what pronouns We'Wha would have used in the English language, so I will use they/them. At the time of We'Wha's birth the Zuni had managed to stay away from colonizers and continued their traditional livelihoods and religious practices. But the Zunis had their first interactions with the colonizers, who brought smallpox, which killed many of the villagers, including We'Wha's parents, after which they and their brother were adopted by an aunt. US tried to gain control of New Mexico - in 1877 they established Zuni Reservation and begun a policy to assimilate Indigenous People to the industrial American society by converting them to Christianity. Which is why in 1878 missionaries arrive to We'Wha's village. They became the missionaries' domestic servant and learned English. The missionaries left from the village in 1881, without managing to force their culture and morals on the villagers.
During the missionaries' stay at the village, We'Wha befriended Matilda Coxe Stevenson, an ethnologist, who recorded a lot of Zuni culture with the help of We'Wha. Matilda and her husband invited them to visit Washington D.C. with them. We'Wha used the opportunity to meet with president and form good relationship with the US government in order to protect the independence of their tribe. 6 years after their visit to Washington D.C., they were arrested. US soldiers had tried to interfere with the internal community trial of the Zuni and arrest their elders. We'Wha had resisted the soldiers and ended up in jail for a month.
Today Zuni people are surviving centuries of genocide as well as one can. Halona Idiwan’a, or Pueblo of Zuni, the Zuni reservation and homeland, has a sizable Zuni population. There's 9 500 speakers of Zuni language, most of who live in Halona Idiwan’a. The traditional religion is also still practiced by the Zuni. In early 2000s Zuni people successfully opposed a coal mine, which was planned near Zuni Salt Lake, a sacred site in Zuni lands. To this day they are still opposing colonial intervention.
11. Edward Carpenter (1844-1929)
Edward Carpenter was from a wealthy English family. He was a writer, poet, philosopher, socialist, early gay rights activist, prison reformist and animal rights activist. He wrote much about Uranians, term for queer men, which he used as a term for all queer people. He argued for non-medicalized view of queerness, and didn't just argue that it should be tolerated, but that it was a natural human trait beneficial to humanity. He had multiple relationships with men thorough his life, and had a particular preference for gruff working class men. As a 58 years old he met 36 year old George Merrill, a working class man, and the two fell in love. George moved in with Edward and they lived together for almost 40 years, until George died suddenly. Edward was devastated and shortly after suffered a stroke and died as well.
12. May Morris (1862-1938)
May Morris was English Arts and Crafts artist, designer artisan and socialist. Her father was William Morris himself, the father of the Arts and Crafts movement, and her mother was Jane Morris, muse and model of Pre-Raphaelite art. May was a very influential embroiderer. She was active in the movement and founded Women's Guild of Art when Art Workers' Guild did not admit women. She was married to a man, the secretary of the Socialist League, for 8 year, despite her mother's disapproval of him, but eventually divorced him. In 1917 her life long relationship with Mary Lobb begun. Mary cross-dressed but used feminine terms. She loved dogs. She moved into May's countryside Arts and Crafts cottage with the guise of being May's gardener, but eventually they were openly a couple. They traveled together for hiking trips, for example to Iceland many times.
13. Renée Vivien (1877-1909)
Renée Vivien was a mentally ill lesbian poet, Sappho enjoyer (a woman of culture) and a cat lover. She had a profound homoromantic childhood friendship, mommy issues and was melodramatic about women. She would have done numbers on Tumblr dot com. She was English, but lived most of her life in France with the money she inherited from her rich father at a young age. All her relationships were quite dramatic. She left the homoromantic friendship with Violet Shillito for a hot American actress Natalie Barney, after which the friend died of typhoid fever and Renée separated with Natalie because she was sure she had killed Violet with a broken heart. Next year in 1902 she started an affair with a married Jewish Baroness Héléne von Zuylen. They had to keep their relationship discreet because of Héléne's position, but it continued for years and Renée considered them to be married. Still when she got a letter from a secret admirer, wife of a Turkish diplomat, French-educated Muslim woman, Kérimé Turkhan Pasha, she started a secret affair with her too. They had only brief encounters, but exchanged a lot of passionate correspondence. Renée was not willing to leave Héléne, but eventually in 1907 Héléne left her for another woman. Next year Kérimé ended their relationship, as she relocated to St. Petersburg with her husband. Renée took all that as well as the average poet. She abused alcohol and drugs more than she had before and attempted suicide in a way I can only describe as on brand. She overdosed on opium, stretched on her divan and placed a bouquet of violets over her heart. Her commitment to the symbolism was real. In all seriousness she was not well. Her substance abuse and disordered eating had deteriorated her health and tragically complications of her mental illnesses would claim her life only a year later.
14. Lucy Hicks Anderson (1886–1954)
Lucy was Black American born in Kentucky to a working class family and assigned male at birth. From a young age she insisted that she was a girl and wanted to wear dresses. Her mother took her to a physician, who suggested that she should allow Lucy to present as a girl and raise her as such, which she did. Lucy left school at age 15 to support herself by working as a domestic servant. As an adult she would move around and work in the service sector and as a chefs, get married and move to Oxnard, California. After divorcing her husband in 1929 she bought a boarding house with her savings, and used is as a front to operate a brothel and illegal liquor business during the prohibition. She became a local socialite and hostess with a lot of influence in the high society. She was on that grindset. Her influential connections got her out of jail, when her brothel was exposed. After that she married a her second husband in New York in 1944, Reuben Anderson, a soldier. They returned to Oxnard, where she resumed her brothel operation. In 1946 a sailor claimed to have caught a venereal disease from her brothel, so even she was forced to undergo a medical examination, during which her masculine sex characteristics were discovered and she was accused of fraud for "lying" about her sex in her marriage license. In the court she said:
"I defy any doctor in the world to prove that I am not a woman. [...] I have lived, dressed, acted just what I am, a woman."
She and her husband were convicted and both put in men's prison. To add to the cruelty, she was forbidden to wear women's clothing. She survived the ordeal and was freed in 1950, after which she moved with her husband to Los Angeles and they lived quietly together until her death.
15. Amelio Robles Ávila (1889-1984)
Amelio Robles Ávila was a Mexican revolutionary colonel and decorated war hero. He was born to a middle class farmer, who owned 42 hectares of land, in Xochipala, Guerrero, and assigned female at birth. He was sent to girl's Catholic school, but showed interest in masculine pursuits from an early age, becoming very proficient in running of a ranch. Even before adopting a male presentation or becoming a soldier, he was known as an excellent marksman and rider. He joined the revolutionary Zapatista army between 1911 and 1912, still presenting as a woman. The Zapatistas were formed as a response to the military dictatorship under general Porfirio Díaz, who ruled from late 19th to early 20th century. Prior to the Porfiriato there was still significant Indigineus Nahua population in Central Mexico, where people lived largely in Nahua villages and worked communally owned land. During the dictatorship though communal landownership was undermined and land was centralized to haciendas, which were a type of grand estate used widely in Latin America as brutal colonial enterprises. This sparked a revolution, led by the Zapatistas, who sought land reform and fought the military dictatorship with guerilla warfare.
Two years after joining the Zapatistas, Amelio started to present as a man and demanded to be respected as such. And mostly he was, by his family as well. He was militarily accomplished and eventually gained his own command of over 300 men. He fought till the end of revolutionary period in 1920, and returned to put down a counter-revolutionary rebellion in 1923. After his army career he settled down and in 1930s he married Ángela Torres, with whom he adopted a daughter, Regula Robles Torres. He was a widely known to be trans and so when his birth certificate was falsified so he could legally adopt his daughter, it was probably a favour from the government. At some point after the revolution, a group of men tried to do a hate crime on him and "expose" his anatomy, but he killed two of them in self-defense, as he should. In 1948 he received a medical certificate (it was confirmed he had 6 (six) bullet wounds) to officially enter the Confederation of Veterans of the Revolution. Finally in 1970 he was officially recognized by the state as a male veteran (veterano) of the Revolution and received several awards for his distinguished military service. He died as a 95-year-old revolutionary hero and certified chad. There is a story that in his deathbed he asked to be dressed in women's clothing when he was buried to face God's judgement. This is likely a baseless rumor, since he also apparently asked in the same breath honours for his military service (which he had already received) and according to his death certificate he had lost the ability to speak before his death.
16. Alan L. Hart (1890-1962)
Alan L. Hart was an American physician, radiologist and novelist, who made significant advancements to tuberculosis treatment and was the first trans man to medically transition in US. He was afab and was born in 1890, but very early on expressed a strong desire to be a boy. His parents and grandparents were largely accepting and let him present as a boy and referred to him in masculine ways. However, when he attended school he was required to dress as a girl, though outside it he continued to presenting as a boy. In medical collage he was still forced to present as a woman. He was very unhappy that his female name was used in his medical degree when he graduated, since it meant he had to continued presenting as a woman for jobs or be outed as a "sexual invert". Right after his graduation though in 1917 (when he was still presenting on his first job as a woman, but outside it as a man) he sought medical transition. His doctor agreed that "from a sociological and psychological standpoint he is a man" and his surgery was completed during the next year after which he legally changed his name and married his first wife Inez Stark. Later, when hormone therapy became available, he started using testosterone as well. Unfortunately in the same year he was outed by a former classmate and was forced to move with his wife to remote Montana, which was very traumatic for him. Financial troubles and secrecy caused by this outing and relocation put a strain on his marriage and they separated in 1923. Two years later he married his second wife, Edna Ruddick, which would last till his death.
During the same year Alan moved to work in Trudeau School of Tuberculosis in New York to do his postgraduate work, then worked for two years in a sanatorium in Illinois and finally in 1928 received his master's degree in radiology from the University of Pennsylvania. After that he did his career working with and researching tuberculosis, which was the most common cause of death in America still at the time. He developed an x-ray screening method for spotting tuberculosis early on and preventing it from spreading. Using his screening method he led a mass campaign to screen for tuberculosis in Connecticut for 16 years, and similar screening campaigns were then used all over US and the world. This was crucial in ending the tuberculosis epidemics, which had been going on for decades across the world. He's responsible in saving thousands of lives. His method is still the standard used today. During his career he also wrote medical drama fiction and published four novels.
In his will he directed for his personal photographs and letters to be destroyed. It was his last act of controlling the narrative of his own life, which had been briefly stolen from him, when he had been outed. This was carried out, but even then, a decade after his death, he was reclaimed by anti-trans lesbian groups as a historical lesbian figure who again attempted to undermine his final act of self-determination. During 1980s and 1990s though trans people and some lesbians, like the Lesbian Avengers, valiantly defended his legacy, protested these lesbian groups and eventually forced them to back down.
17. Willem Arondeus (1894-1943)
Willem Arondeus was a Dutch artist, writer and poet and an openly gay man. Quickly after Neatherlands was occupied by Nazi Germany in 1940, he joined the Dutch resistance. He used his skills as an artist to become a very successful forger. He forged documents for Dutch Jews so they could avoid Nazi detection and escape the occupation with a lesbian resistant Frieda Belingfante. Their efforts were hindered by Population Registration, where the Nazis could verify the documents to be false. So in 1943 they attacked the record archives and managed to blow up the building and destroy 15% of the identity cards. Later though someone betrayed them and Willem was caught by the Nazis. He refused to identify his companions, but the Nazis found his notebook and were able to catch everyone except Frieda. Willem took all the blame for the attack, which is possibly why two of his comrades were given clemency, but the rest 13 and him were sentenced to death. Before his execution he made sure it was known he and two others in the group were gay and said either to a friend or a lawyer:
"Tell people that homosexuals are not cowards."
18. Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1915-1973)
Rosetta Tharpe was born in Cotton Plantation, Arkansas, USA, to black cotton pickers, who were also gospel musicians. She was a young prodigy and started touring as a gospel singer and player at a young age. She is often called the Godmother of Rock 'n' Roll, because of her immense influence to the genre. She was a pioneer of electric guitar technique that would have a massive influence to the development of electric blues and the sound of rock 'n' roll. Her act was provocative, as she combined spiritual gospel lyrics with embrace of sexuality and appearances in nightclubs. She had relationships with men and women and was married several times. One of her more famous sapphic relationships was with another black artist, Marie Knight. Their relationship lasted for five years during which they made music and performed together. They remained friends for the rest of Rosetta's life, and years after her death at age 82 Marie recorded a tribute album for Rosetta.
19 & 20. Tove Jansson (1914-2001) and Tuulikki Pietilä (1917-2009)
Tove Jansson was the creator of Moomins, an artist and a writer. She was born in Helsinki, Finland, to an upper class Swedish-Finnish artist family. She had relationships with both men and women. Her early serious relationship was with Atos Wirtanen, a socialist politician, who inspired Snufkin's character. Her first relationship with a woman was with a married theater director, Vivica Bandler. Tutsik and Lipsik were based on herself and Vivica. In 1956 she started relationship with her life partner, Tuulikki Pietilä, which lasted till the end of her life. Tuulikki was an influential Finnish graphic artist and sister to Reima Pietilä (one half of Pietilä architect pair, my favorite Finnish architects). Tuutikki was based on her. They traveled all over the world and spend their summers on a small rocky island in Pellinki. In 1992 they attended together the presidential independence day party (a big event every year in Finland) as probably the first sapphic couple.
Thank you so much for your second queer historical figures post! Some I knew but many I didn't, and it was great to read about them all.
I do have a request though - please could you update 'transman' to 'trans man' (and same for transwoman if it's there, though I didn't spot it). It's grammatically incorrect and mostly spread by TERFs and other transphobes as a dogwhistle. (This is just for info, I don't think you're either - dogwhistles by definition are meant to slide past unnoticed!)
If you already have and I'm just seeing the dreaded reblog-with-error, apologies!
Oh damn, yes I'll fix that! Sorry about that! I certainly don't want my writing to sound TERFy. Thank you for letting me know I had a mistake there! I have dyslexia (and grammar around prefixes works very differently in my first language which doesn't help me write them correctly :'D) so while I always try to make sure I haven't made mistakes like that, sometimes I just don't notice it myself. So thank you! :)
And thank you for your kind words! I'm very glad you enjoyed the post! <3
I ought to get photos of my outfits more often. Though most days I don't put this much effort into them.
(Shirt is the one I made in my shirt tutorial video.)
The really fun thing about historical medicine is that a lot of their ideas about how things worked are like, well, that's a pretty reasonable conclusion to draw given the information they had available to them, even if it seems obviously wrong now from a modern perspective. & then a lot of it is also like man what the hell is all of that about
this might be the silliest question you’ll be asked. As someone who enjoys period dramas and studied history (though not fashion) so notices inaccuracies like fasteners and availability of dyes etc, I nonetheless can dive into the world presented.
I notice the wearing of outerwear the most. In a program set in Regency England, in outdoor scenes, a) you rarely see more than a Spencer jacket or a cape, and b) in a group scene the coverage varies wildly from lady to lady. As if I was out walking with friend wearing a tank top while I had on a turtleneck and fleece vest.
I get costumes tell a lot about the characters but wouldn’t a person look daft and either cold or hot and out of place?
This is not silly! This is actually a very good question! Regency media is often very much confused and inconsistent about what was appropriate in the given situation to wear, but to be fair, it was actually very confusing.
I have seen a lot of people, and I have repeated this before as well, perpetuate the idea that Regency Era had the same concept of casual and formal wear - split to morning, day and evening wear, where the earlier in the day it was the more the dress covered. However, the Regency concept of casual/formal wear followed much closer to the previous era of 18th century. Instead of morning, day and evening wear they had undress, half dress and full dress, which had a bit to do with how much was covered but not much. They were much less formalized than the equivalent concepts of the socially rigid Victorian Era. Which also makes it much more confusing. Undress was usually worn at home or during morning walks and it had long sleeves. Usually it was a pelisse or dressing gown, or could be a simple round gown. Though most garments were not inherently undress, half dress of full dress, since it was much more relevant simple or flashy the garment in question was. A simple redingote could also be undress for cold morning walks. Hair was often covered in undress as well, usually with a cap, but this wasn't necessary for young unmarried ladies. Full dress was basically ball gown - so the most formal dress, short sleeves etc. - and there fore easiest to grasp. Though sometimes other occasions besides balls were as formal and then full dress would be used as well, but not all evening occasions were as formal as balls. Half dress is basically everything else and easily the most confusing and unclear category. Half dress could have short sleeves or long sleeves, used outdoors or indoors, used for less formal evening occasions and promenade walks and visiting casually a close friend and picnic and so on. Basically half dress was anything more formal than the casual home wear and less formal than the fancy ball gown. It was a collection of several different types of gowns really, but the reason they were in the same category was that there was no hard rules on how they should be worn.
At some point I'll make a post on the Regency casual/formal wear etiquette where I go deeper into this.
What specifically sort of half dress someone wore had more to do with age, marital status and weather than the specific occasion (though that could still matter as well), since most garments could be styled in multiple different usages especially by combining them with different garments. Married women and older women were expected to use more covering clothing, while younger women and girls could use less coverage even on a more casual occasion. So for example on a summer outing an older married woman might wear a long sleeved round gown or a light pelisse, while their unmarried daughter might wear a short sleeved gown. But these were not hard rules either. It was sort of closer to how etiquette works today, much more vibe based than rule based. Here's couple of examples from art depicting different scenes, where women are wearing quite different sort of half dresses.
The first one here is from 1815-1820. I'm not sure what the setting is for this harp playing, since the women seem to be wearing outdoor clothing (all are wearing bonnets and one of them is wearing a redingote), maybe they are playing outside? Anyway, the two ladies have short sleeved gowns, one of them has open neckline, the other a chemisette covering her neckline, while the third has a covering redingote.
First image here is a painting named "A young person hesitating to play the piano in front of her family" from 1805. Here's a casual gathering among family on a terrace, perhaps after the dinner (the sun seems to be setting), where the young lady is dressed in short sleeved gown, while presumably her mother and grandmother are dressed on gowns with longer sleeves and covered hair. The second image here is painting of three teenagers preparing to play music on a casual musical evening from c. 1810. The girls are roughly the same age, yet one of them is wearing long sleeves and covered neckline, while the other is not, demonstrating how there was no exact rules with half dress.
The first image below is an illustration "In a cafe" from 1810. The ladies are out, two of them are wearing short sleeved and decollete revealing dresses, while their third (likely married) friend is wearing long sleeves and covered hair and decollete. The second image is an illustration from 1814, and depicts a casual gathering where young people are playing party games. Again there's a mix of long and short sleeves.
So it would not be inherently inaccurate to have Regency women in a group wear garments of varying sleeve length, but Regency media very rarely does it in a way that follows the nuances of the Regency social norms, because it very much depended on the situation. For example no lady would wear long sleeves in a ball. I don't remember every scene but what I do remember of the 2020 Emma they do the whole etiquette really well. And of course Pride and Prejudice 1995 nails it. Still after trying to figure out the nuances of Regency etiquette myself and still quite not getting all of them, I'm much more understanding of movies and tv shows for fucking it up. It really is very hard to pin down. Not that it prevents me from getting annoyed by very obvious mistakes.
🔸A collection of Greek jewelry from the Hellenistic period (220–100) reflects the wealth and technical mastery achieved after the conquests of Alexander the Great. NAM, Athens
