Accessories: The King James Version
Tragic, but true: in my search for affordable fashion pieces I committed a socialist sin. Last weekend I bought a headband at Forever 21, that bastion of teenybopper trendiness. How could I help it? Krista was in town and needed to tour downtown shops, and our twinhood demanded velvet bows!
And yes, I am aware that the reason my headband was $2.80 was because someone somewhere was sorely underpaid. Barbara Ehrenreich in Nickel and Dimed talks about how her co-workers at Target were hard pressed to even afford a $5 shirt on sale, and when trolling through the obscene mounds of dresses at Forever 21 I think about that loveliest of shopping epiphanies, class struggle.
I’m there buying the cheapest thing I can find for my penny-filled wallet, and those to whom this adolescent bargain basement is a steal troll the most expensive thing they can afford, and so on and so forth, creating the layer cake of bank accounts, the, ah, SAVE WATER DRINK BEER flocked ringer at the store, if you will. For teenagers, no doubt, who needn’t worry about being forever 21 as they haven’t yet been it.
And then there was the bottom of the shiny yellow plastic schoolbus of a bag the headband came in. JOHN 3:16. Oh, dear Jesus. I had to consult the King James online to find out that the passage reads as follows: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Now, I find it mighty ironic that the very company which makes clothes built to last as long as one’s first menstrual cycle is concerned with everlasting life. Are cheaply made garments a marker of time, a signpost declaring “only eternity more to go”? I’d look awfully silly in my headband in less than 35 years, if it lasts more than three months, that is. And even if I wanted to return my purchase I couldn’t. The store doesn’t offer refunds. Forever mine.
Dear reader, I ask you this most of all: does anyone honestly want to believe in God so that one can not only live forever, but be forever 21?
I guess quality products and eternal life don’t have much in common. I feel the same way when I see fish symbols in the phone book with business names – are they really a good company or will I get ripped off?
I find I often wrestle with buying cheap, foreign and decidely not fair trade stuff. I do my best to leave the least footprint possible and try not to support child labor/industry- but you can’t always be certain of what your impacts will be.
I try to bear in mind that the biggest revolution and impact I will have on the earth is the success of my family. This eases some of my trepidation, for what its worth- but doesn’t relinquish any of the responsibility of the impact my choices make.