Fashion, Cosmetics, and Other Frivolities

Today, rather than writing about current events, books or even history, I want to write about a more general subject that I also have some opinions on. The truth is, I am fairly opinionated about a wide range of subjects, though I do my best to be as fair and objective as I can in what I say about them. Nevertheless, I still may sometimes get carried away and make my point a little more strongly than I intended. I try to justify this by the fact that in such cases I'm usually attacking the more popular or mainstream position - I'm "punching up", as it were, and I am exaggerating my point in order to give it greater weight. That said, I may accidentally step on a few toes here and there, and if so, I express my apologies to anyone might reasonably take offense.

All this is a rambling preamble to my rant on fashion and cosmetics, the topic I want to tackle today. Both of these industries are enormous ones that bring in billions of dollars each year (okay, I'll admit I haven't bothered to look up the actual numbers, but I'd be very surprised if the annual spending globally on either is less than nine figures). In Taiwan, the first floors of all the major department stores are given over entirely to cosmetics, and clothing and accessories occupy most of the other floors. The shopping mall at the bottom of Taipei 101, the tallest building in Taiwan and one of the tallest in the world, is nearly entirely given over to high end fashion shops selling Louis Vitton, Bvlgari, Chanel, and other such brands. Stores selling slightly less fancy fashion brands are found all over, as are ads for cosmetics . But to be blunt, I find the vast majority of this to be a complete waste of resources and human energy, and I can only wonder what the world would be like if most of the money that is spent on such things went to something useful or at least more forward-looking (say, an international effort to colonize space). Granted, a fair amount of this is my admittedly subjective opinion, but there is some real reasoning behind it, and I'll get into both aspects below.

First, I must acknowledge that naturists notwithstanding, people need clothing, and it's not unreasonable to want those clothes to look nice, though again what looks good is a matter of opinion. I can even understand how some people could get into designing their own original clothing styles, and how those creations might appeal to others. So I'm not saying that there's anything inherently wrong with fashion designers, much less clothing stores. But when people spend huge sums of money on a clothing item or accessory like a hand bag simply because it's a famous brand, I have to say I find that ridiculous. For that matter, if you really care about what clothing you wear, why would you want to just wear exactly what a bunch of other people are wearing rather than coming up with your own original combinations, perhaps put together out of some cheaper or even recycled clothing (see the song "Thrift Shop" by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis for some similar sentiments)? Of course not everyone has the imagination to think of something original, and not everyone cares enough to bother. But in the later case, my own opinion is that you are better off wearing clothes that are relatively plain. After all, the more extreme fashions generally end up dating rather quickly, whereas plainer clothes, while maybe not ever being exactly "in style", at least won't ever look silly. But in any case I think the world would better off if people spent a lot less money and energy pursuing the latest fashion, not only because that money would be better spent elsewhere, but because the tendency of people to discard perfectly wearable clothing because they want something new and "fashionable" wastes resources and exacerbates the exploitation of workers in developing nations, though it should be said that cheap clothing is just as likely - or even more likely - to be made by exploited workers, which is why durable fair trade clothing with clear supply chains should be encouraged or even required. While I haven't figured out where to get such clothing in Taiwan, I do my bit by wearing clothing until holes, serious fading of the colors, or my wife force me to stop, and even then I'll still wear it around the house.

Then there are cosmetics. Again, I have to acknowlege that cosmetics have a very long history, dating back to prehistoric times and maybe even to archaic humans (i.e. close relatives of our species like the Neanderthals). I can also see how some people might enjoy experimenting with different cosmetic combinations. But again, people take it to ridiculous extremes. Objectively speaking, putting lots of cosmetics on your face on a regular basis is not going to be good for your skin in the long run, especially since not all of the chemicals in them have been tested as well as they be, and of course money not spent on cosmetics could be spent elsewhere. In my subjective opinion (one that I know a fair number of other people share), cosmetics don't generally do much for the appearance either. On my long commutes into the center of the city, I have more than once seen women spend their commuting time putting on make-up, and almost invariably they looked better when they started than when they finished. Again, this is my opinion, but I've mentioned this to a number of other people, and most of them said they felt the same. I won't deny that a judicious use of cosmetics can sometimes be effective, but my observation is that the effect is better if they are only used on special occasions, and in moderation. In fact, they generally work best if at a casual glance the person doesn't look like they are using them at all.

One thing I, as a straight male, have always liked about Taiwan is that many women don't use cosmetics or at least don't use them much. Of course there are plenty of women in Taiwan who do use them, sometimes to excess. But it isn't as universal as in many countries. In South Korea, for example, it seems like the vast majority of women use a great deal of cosmetics, and they all use them in the same way. Coupled with their excessive use of cosmetic surgery (another topic I have strong opinions about, particularly the questionable ethics of actually advertising such "services"), they end up all looking rather similar to each other. Once more, this is my opinion, but I know many people who say they get the same impression.

In any event, when I walk down a street filled with shop after shop of clothes, or when I walk into the first floor of a department store filled with endless stalls of cosmetics, or when I walk through the mall at Taipei 101 (which I used to actually like to go to, as it had a good bookstore - since closed down with its former space taken over by some fashion brand's store), filled with shops selling ridiculously overpriced fashion brands, I have to think that our society and the entire system of global capitalism is seriously messed up, with huge amounts of money and energy dedicated to things of little substance. Here I must acknowledge another issue. It happens that both fashion and cosmetics, the latter in particular, are more popular among women than men. Lest it be thought that my disdain for these things is largely rooted in sexism, I should note that I have a similar opinion of the typically male fascination with automobiles and sports (I was a sports fan as a child, but I gradually lost interest in my college years, which is also when I got over the fascination with fast driving that started in my high school years). Again, I don't think that sports are bad, but making them into a multi-billion dollar industry with all the TV deals, merchandising, fantasy leagues and so forth is taking things way too far. Of course I can't say that my gender doesn't play any role in my lack of interest in fashion and cosmetics, but I really don't think that is the main driver for the opinions expressed there. I would be prepared to admit to there perhaps being an element of intellectual elitism involved, however. Of course I don't expect everyone in the world to devote their energy to highbrow intellectual pursuits all the time; indeed fashion and sports are in their way as worthwhile as literature and science. But when your average shopping district or shopping mall has fifty times as many shops selling clothing, accessories or cosmetics as it does bookstores (if it has any bookstores at all) or when a society spends many times as much money on fashion, cosmetics, or sports as it does on scientific research and education, I think things are a little bit out of balance.