Fashion compares to that of the porn industry
While earning my Master’s degree in business with a focus on sustainability and environmental protection, I chose the clothing industry as the focus of much of my work. I have diligently analyzed dozens of retailers and the decisions we make as consumers about where and how often we buy our clothes.
I learned that the fast fashion enterprise is responsible for approximately 10% of international CO2 emissions, an assessed 5 billion lots yearly. Each year, more than 90 million tons of textiles are dumped into landfills, about 60% of which are actually made of plastic. These figures are shocking, especially considering how expensive it is to continually buy from “ethical” brands, which may not be affordable for the average consumer. I was eight months pregnant and facing a complete wardrobe overhaul, armed with this horrifying knowledge. I felt I had no choice but to contribute to these harmful sex porn statistics. Even if I donated my clothes hoping to find a “new loving home”, it wasn’t a 100% solution as many of these textiles still end up in landfills, incinerated, or shipped overseas. And what about the things I can’t donate, like used panties, bras, and socks? Two years later, after multiple visits to the women’s shelter in my city and multiple failed attempts to use old socks and panties as rags (trust me, it’s not real), I found myself at “All Things Worn”. Suddenly, the used lingerie that I didn’t want to throw away and that had stuck entirely in my dresser drawers and wouldn’t close gave me a wealth of options. At first, I was a little perplexed. Could I get paid to send my old panties directly to a “new loving home” where they could have a perfect second life? Could my bra serve a whole new purpose and bring someone joy just by wearing it? Are my garbage-filled, holey socks someone’s treasure?
Why not take your perverse environmental commitment a step further? Sellers: Use recycled packaging, ship in the most miniature boxes/envelopes possible without compromising the quality of your goods, and ask buyers if they agree to economical shipping options if necessary.Buyers: Demand the above from sellers, or at least agree to them.Everyone: Encourage your (adult) friends and relatives to sell their used underwear instead of throwing it away.
Digital Content
I remember there were a few times when I wondered how the CO2 footprint of fast fashion compares to that of the porn industry (note that when talking about porn in this blog, we focus on legal activity related to the monetization of sexual content; the impact of the climate crisis on women’s socio-economic status and career choices is a whole other topic). Unfortunately, the accusations against sex porn made me too nervous to use it as a topic for my thesis, but I decided to ask myself about it anyway and get to the bottom of it.
I can’t cite any studies on this next point, but I’d bet big on it. Presumably, people who don’t pay for personalized sex porn but instead visit free sex porn websites and scroll endlessly through millions of videos will consistently want more content available to them than people who buy personalized videos and images. By creating content (sellers) with a customized touch and paying for content (buyers), we reject the idea that we, as humans, should always have access to a giant hub of sexual content that casts millions of lots of carbon dioxide every daylight. Make us angry. We refuse to perpetuate the idea that porn is neither art nor science nor worth money. We will consume ethically. Bonus environmental tip for merchants: Upload and share all your content in one place to reduce the amount of uploading, downloading, sharing, and storage required.
Conclusion
The next time you pack and ship a pair of panties, shoot a custom order or buy any of the above, compliment yourself. Your panties, your fetish, you are contributing to the health of our shared planet.
