Consumed: The need for collective change; colonialism, climate change & consumerism

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i think this is an super informative & wide-reaching foundational book to understanding the relationship between consumerism, colonialism, climate change, & other forms of oppression (primarily racism & classism). the author’s voice is super conversational (think: millennial blogger), making the content incredibly accessible & engaging. Barber skilfully links this consumption to racism, colonialism and exploitation of non-white populations. The book explains colonialism as “when a country with power and resources dominates another country and extracts resources (both material and labour) while imposing new cultural norms,” while sharing a mindset with racism and the slave trade. She posits that, although officially colonialism like the British Empire ended before most consumers of fast fashion were born – the current global set-up of design and marketing in the rich countries of the north, and production in the global south at cut-throat prices – mirrors that of the historical definition and is just as harmful.

The thing is, I don’t want to do this for the rest of my life. Because if I’m still doing this, it means that we haven’t fixed the problem. I want to inspire people to collectively fix the problems facing the fashion industry; I want to get money into the hands of people who deserve it—namely, garment workers—and then I want to dip out and write fiction books. I love what I do, but I don’t want to be the warning bell to people for the rest of my life. Barber, Aja (19 December 2019). "Conscious, ethical and cruelty-free: a guide to the language of sustainable fashion". The Guardian. Capitalism requires a certain amount of exploitation to be feasible and it's done this by tapping into existing structures of colonialism. Exploiting poorer countries with high populations of colour. These corporations spend more on advertising and marketing than they do on the wages of the people that make their exorbitant amount of clothing. They target countries with lax labour laws, with poor safety and where they can save as much money as possible to inflate their profit margins. It's disgusting. Fast fashion is deeply rooted in racism. And that's not to say what happens to the environment around these production centres, it is horrific exploitation on every level. The people. The community. The environment. The resources. This is a genuinely bad book, and I don’t say that lightly, but for a non fiction title covering such broad and significant topics, this is an awful attempt.A critique on what we buy, how it's made and the systems behind it that make an unfair and broken cycle' - New York Times Wells, Kaitlyn (18 July 2022). "Purging Old Clothes? Here's How to Responsibly Donate and Repurpose Your Castoffs". The New York Times. Aja Barber's debut book "Consumed" challenges you to change the fast fashion system as we know it". The Tempest. Another red flag was “learning about the history of how our clothing is made, and seeing every clothing tag with ‘made in’ countries where non-white people live.” Firstly, not a single source throughout the whole book? The only time a source is referenced, it’s jus the occasional in line citation to a recent internet article. It’s a pretty poor effort and I have no idea how this got published WITHOUT A SINGLE REFERENCE?

We live in a world of stuff. We dispose of most of it in as little as six months after we receive it. The byproducts of our quest to consume are creating an environmental crisis. Aja Barber wants to change this–and you can, too. Barber’s debut book Consumed: The Need for Collective Change: Colonialism, Climate Change and Consumerism was published in 2021 and was received positively by Vogue. [5] From influencers of colour and even Andre Leon Talley at US Vogue receiving less pay than their white counterparts, down to the fact climate change disproportionately affects those living in non-white countries, the genius of the book is to link these varied injustices.Consumed: On Colonialism, Climate Change, Consumerism, and the Need for Collective Change is a mouthful and a must-read for the current political and ecological crisis. If you’re reading this article, then you can benefit from reading this book. Barber continues to highlight the human as well as environmental impact of the fashion industry. It is the BIPOC community that continues to be exploited by the fashion industry through worker exploitation and cultural appropriation. It is the BIPOC community that are forced to confront the worst consequences of climate change. Barber explores the concept of racial capitalism, which is where brands benefit monetarily from non-whiteness. Diversity is commodified, and all about money rather than genuine social change. In a direct and non-patronising style, Barber emphasises that feminism, colonialism and racism are inextricably linked, and we must do what we can from our intersection.

In July 2022 Barber was named a Contributing Editor to Elle (magazine) UK following the appointment of Kenya Hunt as Editor-In-Chief. [17] She has written articles for The Guardian, [11] CNN, [3] and Selfridges [12] and featured in interviews conducted by The New York Times, [13] Refinery 29 [14] and BBC Radio 4's Women's Hour. [15] She also appeared in Al Jazeera’s TV show Studio B: Unscripted alongside Asad Rehman, Executive Director of The War on Want, where they discussed the fashion industry, green washing and colonialism. [16] Change your habits and how you hang out with your friends, and adjust your social media. There’s a lot of peer pressure that happens surrounding this topic, but one thing we can do is adjust the temptation which leads us towards buying things we may not need. Normalising rewearing clothes a lot is one of the first things we have to do, and all of us can do it. If you enjoy shopping and care about the environment, I think this book will change how you think about shopping--both why we do it and how it impacts the world. Even if you're not a huge shopper, this book will probably make you rethink where you shop and how you rewear and reuse stuff. Zhou, Maggie (21 September 2021). "Colonialism & Fast Fashion Are Inextricably Linked — Aja Barber Explains How". Refinery 29.

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Consumed takes us through the hideously complex topic of fashion and sustainability, from its knotty colonial roots to what everyday people can do to uproot those systems, today.’ – Yassmin Abdel-Magied Elizabeth, Marielle (October 5, 2021). "How to Quit Fast Fashion, According to Aja Barber". Vogue . Retrieved June 18, 2022. I read this as part of a book club discussion about the horrible sprawling impacts the fast fashion industry has had on the world, and because I was really interested in Aja Barber's work and perspectives. Maybe it was just me already being familiar with many of the topics discussed and how they relate to one another (as a lefty environmental studies grad student), but I felt like I didn't learn much from this book. It was very surface-level, repetitive, and scattered, which made it extremely difficult to actually process the information. Maybe it's a reflection of how much target audiences' attention spans have disintegrated over the past decade. Or maybe whoever was assigned to edit this "book" (extended rant) didn't actually do their job. Economist Impact: Do you think that girls and women are disproportionately targeted by (and then end up enabling) fast-fashion brands and trends? Hands down the best nonfiction book I've read since Wordslut!! (Wordslut is my nonfiction gold standard FYI.)

I think this is a great book for people like me — those who have used consumption to fill a void, who used to pride themselves in not wearing the same thing twice, who was led to believe that the more you have, the better you are. As someone who works in the social media / fashion world, it definitely was a wake up call to the ways I perpetuate consumerism. Stop buying so much. That is the one thing that we can do to disrupt the system, because as long as we say, “There’s nothing I could do about it, might as well go and buy 20 new dresses,” nothing’s going to change. So even if you take it all in and you find it very overwhelming, decreasing your consumption is a very conscious decision you can make in a system that feels like it has run amok. the second half of the book focuses on action, which i was hype for. it’s easy (& true!!!) to say that the onus should be on corporations & the government to fix the problem of overconsumption & climate change, but that’s not an excuse to be finding small actions we can all take individually too. as someone who’s been plant-based for nearly 6 years for sustainability reasons, i am a strong believer in the combination of individual choices + collective action!! there are a ton of super accessible actions shared (& some that seem a little out-of-touch to anyone who’s not an influencer). for me, the main takeaway (& the one i have been prioritizing for the last 2-3 years) is that to be more sustainable, we just need to buy less shit. it’s easier said than done, but honestly, it’s really not that hard!! a little impulse control & some hobbies to turn your attention away from online shopping, voila. i swear i have felt so much happier with more free time (& money!!) & fewer clothing items that will ultimately end up in a landfill. This powerful, speaking-truth-to-power book is an essential read for everybody who wants to stop feeling clueless and helpless about the impacts of cosumerism, and start doing their part to help create a more sustainable world’– Layla Saad A call to action for consumers everywhere, Consumedasks us to look at how and why we buy what we buy, how it's created, who it benefits, and how we can solve the problems created by a wasteful system.On the other hand, for those with the financial means to over-consume clothing, how do we begin to undo that impulse to shop? That dopamine hit, that craving to feel better by owning something new? Now she’s collected her considerable knowledge into her first book, Consumed: The need for collective change; colonialism, climate change & consumerism – a blistering polemic against our collective shopping addiction and its consequences. Rather than judging her readers, Barber begins the book by saying, “It isn’t your fault that over-consumption has become a part of our culture. The likelihood is that you do it, just like I did, because you’ve been taught to.”