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  • Writer's pictureAngry Lump

Pride made in China

Updated: Mar 28, 2023

I was tempted to get a Pride kitty like these until I saw the price and looked in vain for a statement that at least some of the proceeds go to charity. A made-to-order, customized, 6 inch toy consisting of more than average sown-together pieces of fabric, costs $30 and takes 4 days to be ready for shipping. Doesn't sound like an ethical business. This got me thinking.



What is the point of Pride merch and support/awareness trinkets, if this demonstration of support for one minority comes at the exploitation of another? The company doesn't disclose anything about manufacture or factory wages. It doesn't mention donating part of the proceeds to LGBTQ+ related charities.


I know: pretty much half of our worldly possessions are made by modern slavery, but it feels extra weird when this slavery is behind items we buy to make statements against any kind of injustice or in support of any minority. Should a kid in China or India really be kept out of school and get cancer from working under bad conditions just so we can get an affordable Pride trinket? Is the oppression of demiromantics, yes, they're asking for their own kitty, really worse than the exploitation of sweatshop workers? At some point, are we going to acknowledge that Western, commodified Pride and white feminism have coloured our lives at the expense of people any social justice movement should include: the poorest, often children, in countries where Pride isn't even a (legal) thing, or people who are so busy surviving that they have no energy left to fight for equality or live their achievements. We can fight for and achieve social justice in our own country all we want; what good is that if it is achieved by keeping people in foreign countries poor, hopeless, and oppressed so that we, as individuals and as national economies, can enjoy our social justice and equality on their backs?



Yes, I've bought Pride trinkets. But after seeing these kitties, their price, and the comment section full of people mindlessly clamouring for the production of an "included in Pride but not really marginalized because nobody actually comes for you over being sapiosexual" flag toy, I'm left with a weird feeling about the commodification of social justice and the privilege we have in the West to even wear Pride merch outside, let alone afford it after bills, food, and rent.

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