A Feminist's Nightmare - American Apparel

This is terrible! How can American Apparel, one of the few accessible all American-made, sweat-shop free clothing companies and a self-proclaimed environmental and progressive business pioneers be hiding behind such a heinous deed?! Just when I thought the sexual harassment  lawsuits were bad, this just brought American Apparel from my "shop-here-if-you-absolutely-have-to" list to my "BOYCOTT-DUE-TO-EXTREME-MORAL-DIFFERENCES" list. I am sad and infuriated beyond words.

The major box-kicker here is the cruel paradox that American Apparel is both socially conscious and immoral. It allures those who are struggling to find ethical fashion and disappoints big time when the owner and the company's name is consistently paired with headlines that exposes AA's unfair and sexist practices and various sexual scandals. Nothing really hurts more than finding out that a company that pride itself on its open and fair labour practices and offers great benefits, wages and career and educational advancement opportunities is actually being operated by an owner  who is a total sleaze bag. According to several reports from multiple sources, Dov Charney seems to think he's operating some sort of "hipster harlem" in hiring mainly "fresh-faced'  (young) who may or may not be approached by him for a "career advancement" (personal favours for a raise) when he's feeling "managerial" (power tripping)  and "in the mood" (horny or just plain wanting to be an asshole).

After learning about some of the truths of American Apparel, I, both as a feminist and a conscientious consumer am totally discouraged. I thought I had hit the jackpot when I found a source of fashion that not only caters to my style but also don't completely contradict my morals and values. To think I used to want to work there!

I thought I'd parallel the ironic practices of American Apparel by wearing two pieces of my favourite American Apparel items; the dolman sleeve top and the red leggings. At least I can make good use of all of my American Apparel stuff because from now on there will be no new additions to my wardrobe from American Apparel.

When Zombies Attack

Unlike others, I truly believe that If the world was over-taken by zombies, I'd be one of the first to die. You know, like the ones you see in zombie movies who only made a guest appearance, for like, two minuets in the beginning of the movie then suffers from the most brutal maul by a hoard of zombies. Yeah, that's going to be me.

Putting yourself in zombie scenarios are useful sometimes for assessing your level of common sense and the ability to make split-second decisions. One of the most popular hypothetical situations I often contemplate is whether I'd be able to kill someone I love who's been infected. If you ask people that, most of them will probably say "yes" (I know I would), but again these people have probably watched a lot of zombie movies and get super frustrated when some teary-eyed character is reluctant to shoot his zombie brother in the face, consequently dooming himself and the rest of his surviving party members. In this tough dilemma, people often base their judgement on the most utilitarian option (bash in your zombie mother's skull and save yourself and the rest), but what most people don't really take into consideration is that to truly be utilitarian, one oftentimes need to be ruthless. The problem is, people don't want to be cruel, especially not to someone they care(d) about.  I mean, think about it. Would you really, really be able to kill your best friend, in the midst of a zombie frenzy (not to mention, you probably already witnessed a great deal of brutality by this point)? After surviving for so long, having overcome so much, wouldn't you want to fully commit to whatever shred of hope you have left in you that maybe, just maybe the love of your life won't come back from the dead and tear you into pieces? And it's precisely that hope that tears us apart. Reduces us into a rubble of emotional, nonthinking, anti-heros. That's probably what I will be, and for that reason alone, I think it's be best I'm not on your team if you think you're going to salvage whatever little is left of mankind during the zombie apocalypse.