Welham Girls' School

Feminist T-shirts, how many of those have you seen around lately? How many times have you spent money on a statement article of clothing just because it supports feminism? I have done it too, but there is something else I have come to realize these statement clothes sell out fast leading to high economic gain for the companies making them. Many people will buy these t-shirts just because they want to be a part of something bigger than them. But what happens when this innate need to be a part of something becomes a tool in the hands of the capitalists?

 Many people may argue that if I am wearing a T-shirt that stands for something then it must be important or make some kind of impact on the system but let’s face it these clothes probably don’t make a big difference to how our system works. You may have picked up a statement T-shirt thinking that it looked good or maybe you picked it up thinking that the T-shirt you are wearing was part of an onward march for a movement you support. But how much difference have these clothes made towards improving the condition of gender equality in our patriarchal system? How many of your co-workers have harassed a woman and yet gone on with life facing no consequence whatsoever? How many of your female workers don’t want to work till late at night because they are terrified to go home alone? Yet, here we are, living a lie, thinking that these companies care if their products make an impact. Most of these companies don’t care if their clothes make a difference as long as they see their gain in it. Therefore, I believe that capitalist feminism is not feminism at all. Many T-shirts just say woman on them and that is like handing us a gender tag and saying that is who you are, just remember your place in society.

Yes sure, these clothes do bring cultural recognition to our movement, they show that feminism is a movement that people are ready to stand for and that’s why these clothes sell fast. But when Nike creates viral marketing campaigns advocating women’s equality while discriminating against their pregnant athletes' cultural recognition veils oppression. Many corporate companies use feminism as an agenda for their CSR departments (corporate social responsibility) by making women -sometimes by force- the face of their projects and yet their male counterparts are paid more. This social responsibility has turned into an agenda for fame from an agenda to achieve gender equality.

This is how feminism has become a tool for economic gain, a mere pawn. Most companies tend not to have a conscience, only an agenda: to make as much money as possible, and sell as many products as they can, by using any movement they think is a rage at the moment. That increasingly means portraying themselves as the face of responsible, feeling capitalism: something that many would argue is an oxymoron in itself.

-by Jitya Bagga

H-586, Pre SC C