(update 6/20/2014: The recent ouster of American Apparel CEO Dov Charney amidst allegations of poor conduct with women has sparked renewed interest in this controversy from March of this year. The story as it originally appeared on March 19, 2014 is below).
Los Angeles activist Tanzila “Taz” Ahmed is calling on American Apparel to sit down with South Asian women activists and donate to the labor movement in Bangladesh (Graphic by 18 Million Rising)
Earlier this month, American Apparel sparked controversy with an ad that showed a topless American Apparel employee with the words “made in Bangladesh” across her chest.
In blogs on both 18 Million Rising and Aerogram, Ahmed wrote “this messaging exoticizes and objectifies Maks (the model), and goes further to sexualize this industry that is riddled with death traps.”
Ahmed accused American Apparel of trivializing the recent deaths of 1,100 mostly garment workers in a building collapse there.
In her open letter to Maks she said,
“Don’t you see, Appu? That by having “Made In Bangladesh” splayed across your breasts, American Apparel is commodifying a recent tragedy that has killed thousands of people. They are taking the death of thousands of people in Bangladesh as a marketing opportunity to sell their clothes in America. Don’t you see how morbid that is? Don’t you see how your image has been exploited and how you’ve been manipulated?”
So far there’s been no comment from American Apparel directly about Ahmed’s demands.
But in a March 13 article in the Canadian publication StyleList Canada, the ads creative director Iris Alonzo commented on the criticism.
“The labor issue is something we’ve spoken out about for a long time. Just one year ago the Rana Plaza factory collapse took the lives of 1,140 garment workers. We find this to be devastating and inexcusable. In addition to physically unsafe conditions, Bangladesh has some of the lowest paid garment workers in the world. The recently increased monthly wage is still only $68 USD per month. American Apparel’s nearly 5,000 industrial workers in Los Angeles are earning from $10- $25 per hour. It is important for consumers to think about the people that we don’t see when looking at fashion photography. And it is absolutely critical for brands that are engaging in any sort of manufacturing to be ethically responsible. Garment manufacture is a difficult and skilled profession and American Apparel’s mission for the last 15 years has been to prove that it can be done without exploiting or endangering the people behind the machines. Because the point is not where a factory is, but how the people inside of it are being treated.”
But Ahmed cautions buying only American made products is not the solution. Boycotting Bangladeshi products, she said, will only hurt the women working in those factories.
What do you think? Would a boycott help the women get fair wages or hurt their prospects for employment?
RE: Call for American Apparel to meet with South Asian activists after ad controversy: Stop shaming the human body smh