Using fashion as a lens for what's next
Clothing items that tell us something about the US election
Some clothing items I have been thinking about since the US election - and what they tell us about getting through this.
Followed by five recommendations.
A yellow t-shirt
In 2020 I bought a t-shirt to celebrate Trump's electoral defeat. The t-shirt mocks the moment when, in November 2020, members of Trump's legal team held a press conference in the car park outside Four Seasons Total Landscaping a small business in Pennsylvania - leading to speculation that the team had meant to book the Four Seasons Hotel but made a bizarre mistake.
My relationship with this t-shirt changed when the humiliating absurdity of the car park turned to violent insurrection a few months later, and it has changed again now that Trump has been re-elected.
Nevertheless I am holding onto this t-shirt. It reminds me of the danger of not capitalising on the defeat of fascism the first time round and the need to offer a real and radical political alternative to neoliberalism, not least because like a caged beast fascism is vicious in defeat.
It serves as a reminder of a longer view of history - that tyrants are not the heroes they suppose themselves to be. The far right tyrants who have come before Trump and wreaked havoc on our planet - you know who they are – are reviled by the world as the very worst of our species and they met ugly, ignoble ends.
I will keep this t-shirt, customised and slightly faded, because it reminds me of the pathetic way Trump crumbled and that this is possible again. It tells me of the need to mock tyrants to know that they are neither infallible nor eternal. It reminds me of how crucial it is to imagine a bright future so that we have something to fight for. You can write a thousand stories about the world you want to live in and you can start by imagining how this new world begins somewhere as random as a Landscaper's car park.
Ivanka Inc
In the last Trump presidency the Washington Post ran an investigation into Ivanka Trump's clothing brand that was so successful that it shut down her company. While her despicable father was telling the country to 'buy American, hire American' it was relatively simple for journalists to conclusively prove that 'first daughter' Ivanka was manufacturing overseas in terrible conditions.
I offer it up as a reminder to poke holes in every aspect of the next Trump presidency. Ivanka said she was running an all-American brand 'by women, for women' but it was all overseas sweatshops. In the same way, Trump says he'll fix the economy but experts are already saying his promises will do more harm than good.
I'm not saying it will be easy - Trump's camp have learned a lot (the official red hats are allegedly manufactured in the US now, though lots of the unofficial merch is not), and the ire being directed at the press is already horrifying. But everything Trump does should be investigated and discredited.
This was in part an election about the economy - as well as sexism and racism - and Trump has no plan. If you're not a journalist, join in with the people who are posting photos of lists they have written of today's price of gas, milk, rent etc, so that they can themselves monitor and share just how wrong Trump is. We can all do things - we can all refuse to accept or normalise their narrative and we can work incredibly hard in solidarity with the communities that are going to be hit hardest.
Khaki coats and pink hats
There's an old adage - never ignore a fascist when they tell you what they are going to do. This goes for the Melanias as well as the Trumps. Trump has been very clear about his intentions - his speeches might be rambling (he calls it 'weaving', which is an insult to weavers everywhere) but those of us who oppose him got his message, and so did those who voted for him. People voted for Trump because they liked the sound of what he was going to do and how it would make them feel.
This includes women. Specifically white women. This was an election handed to Trump by white men (59% of whom voted for Trump) and white women (52% of whom voted for Trump). For clarity only 20% of Black men and 7% of Black women voted for Trump.
Just 43% of white voters voted for Kamala Harris, as opposed to 83% of Black voters, and 55% of Latino voters. Any reckoning, any chance of seismic change has to start with an acceptance of the fact that America is such a racist country that white Americans will make the kind of catastrophically stupid decisions that threaten not just America but the entire planet.
As a small start let's fix some issues in protest culture. Firstly, every anti-Trump demo last time round had 'free Melania' placards but here's the thing, as Mekka Okereke on Mastodon said: You're trying to free Melania, but she doesn't want to be saved.
Secondly, beware things like the 'pink pussy' hats that came to be a symbol of feminist politics in America. I am a fan of protest fashion, but those hats were cringe and problematic:
The vagina, especially a pink vagina, should not and cannot serve as a universal symbol of womanhood across racial and gender lines. To put it simply: Not all women have vaginas, not all men have penises, and not all vaginas are pink. Taylyn Washington-Harmon
There's now a trend for wearing blue bracelets as 'proof' of having voted for Kamala and I can see why people are already annoyed with it. Yes, there is a motivating desire to see and be seen at this alarming time and maybe some new connections will be forged, but in the face of everything Trump stands for bracelets are just not going to cut it. They cannot become a performative substitute for community and political organising.
Instead we can build a protest culture that is widespread and inclusive, that welcomes and supports people and builds the alliances that will sustain people through difficult times.
And now Five Recommendations
1) Keep making art. Keep writing, drawing, doing comedy, making music, sewing, DJ'ing, dancing and everything in between. I have found it hard to write my new book this past week but I keep coming back to the idea that 'while art won't change the world, it makes it worth living in.' Make art even if it is escapism - people (myself included) need fantastical novels to read, strange paintings and photographs to look at, music and audiobooks to listen to and comedy sets to make us laugh in the face of darkness. Keep going.
2) Find your people. You are not alone in this and you need to feel that. You must find people to talk to about everything that is happening. They might be online or they might be in a union or local Lefty political or environmental group. Take steps to find them if you don't have them yet. Avoid the ones who are just relentlessly pessimistic to sound clever.
3) Keep the faith. I stayed in my pyjamas for most of Saturday and watched a 2003 film called Under the Tuscan Sun. At one point the main character is very sad and her friend tells her the story of the Semmering Railway - a railway line which was built before there existed a train capable of crossing the incredibly steep Alps. The story goes (and I fact checked it on Wikipedia):
Signora...They built a train track over these Alps to connect Vienna and Venice. They built these tracks even before there was a train in existence that could make the trip. They built it because they knew some day, the train would come.
I am telling you this because faith is stronger than fear - whether that's a spiritual faith, or a faith in humanity, in the goodness of community, of light overcoming the dark, or of the principles of Communism, Socialism or Anarchism, now is the time to keep hold of your faith. I'm also mentioning the Semmering Railway because:
4) Build alternatives. We HAVE to make the alternative better than the sh*t that Trump and the billionaires are spewing. We have to build it locally as well as nationally and internationally. We must be FOR things as well as against things. We may not have the train right now but we can lay down the tracks and construct what we want to see.
This includes building online alternatives - you deserve better than Elon/Trump's surveillance capitalism, adverts, algorithms and the far right. Come and join Mastodon. Here are some hand-picked servers to explore:
https://mstdn.social/explore https://social.coop/explore https://mastodon.me.uk https://toot.bike/about https://cyberpunk.lol/about https://beige.party/explore https://blackqueer.life/about https://blacktwitter.io/explore https://mindly.social/about
And finally:
5) Watch this video from Kate Smurthwaite, about Women On Web taking the decision to start providing abortion pills (sent in plain packaging) and medical advice to people in the USA. These pills can be ordered and saved.
Wishing you courage and good people to stand with.
This newsletter is free - please post it on your socials and forward to a friend or two.
See you sometime soon for the next edition of Patched - there's been a flurry of fantastic questions which I am looking forward to answering.
In solidarity, Tansy.
p.s. Thank you to everyone who has ordered books and stickers from my new shop. It really helps me keep this newsletter going if people support my work, so a double thank you. Please check these out if you're starting to think about Christmas shopping.
