Moral Shame Talks 1: Disconnecting Clothes

Radio ArtEZ

Moral Shame Talks is a podcast series of three episodes that explores the complexities of consumers’ moral shame in the context of the sustainability debate within the fashion industry. By tackling moral shame –a form of shame that consumers experience in their consumer behaviour while knowing they are not making sustainable choices – stories can be told about the complexity and systemics of the fashion industry and the sustainability debate in it. In the podcast series Lindy Boerman, finals student of the ArtEZ Master Fashion Strategy, collects different ideas, critical perspectives and personal thoughts. By including personal stories consumers have about moral shame and reflecting on this together with people from various professional background and with various perspectives she gives meaning to, and places moral shame in the contemporary context.

In this episode, Chloe (Chen, (BA psychology National Cheng Kung University Taiwan and first-year student ArtEZ MA Fashion Strategy)) and Lindy explore the disconnection between the wearers of fashion and their physical clothes and try to find out where it comes from, as well as the disconnection we experience as consumers with the things that surround us.

Sources mentioned in the podcast by Chloe

Article on the brain’s reward system is triggered by novelty, please visit: Duhaime, A.C. (2017). Our Brains Love New Stuff, and It’s Killing the Planet. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2017/03/our-brains-love-new-stuff-and-its-killing-the-planet

Want to read some more on regeneration in the sustainability debate? Please see: Reed, B. (2007). Shifting from ‘sustainability’ to regeneration. Building Research & Information, 35(6), 674–680. https://doi.org/10.1080/09613210701475753

Want to read some more about what shame can evoke besides self-reflection and self-evaluation, please read: Tangney, J. P., Stuewig, J., & Mashek, D. J. (2007). Moral emotions and moral behavior. Annu. Rev. Psychol., 58, 345-372.

Want to read more on how shame makes sure we don’t want to break with norms formed by a community? Please read this article: https://qz.com/1420754/these-psychologists-studied-shame-around-the-world-and-now-think-its-an-essential-part-of-human-evolution/

Want to know more about the history between animals and human? Please see this source: Cerini, M. (2020). From Pharaohs to Beyoncé: Why do we still love leopard print? CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/the-history-of-leopard-print/index.html

The quote of Bruno Latour can be found in: Latour, B. (2018). Down to Earth, Politics in the New Climatic Regime. Polity

If you’re interested in this material, you can also read: Latour, B., & Porter, C. (2004). Politics of Nature: How to Bring the Sciences into Democracy. Harvard University Press.

More information about Clean Clothes Campaign: https://cleanclothes.org/

Sources mentioned in the podcast by Lindy

For sustainability definition of mud jeans see: https://mudjeans.nl/pages/over-ons-onze-missie

For more information on loose definitions of sustainability and greenwashing in the fashion industry, see: http://dailyorange.com/2020/03/fashion-companies-use-greenwashing-lie-consumers/

Article that dives into the relationship between humans and animals, please see this book: Fudge, E. (2002). Animal. Amsterdam: Adfo Books.

Image of the H&M shirt with a bear portrayed: https://www2.hm.com/nl_nl/productpage.0967482002.html

Radio ArtEZ is produced by Ondercast for Studium Generale ArtEZ. Studium Generale curator for this series: Catelijne de Muijnck