One-dimensional Man, Surveillance Capitalism and Fast Fashion
The mass production of clothes, following the highly profitable and exploitative business model of fast fashion, is not merely a dominant concept in commerce, but also in society. In particular, it has heightened the negative effects of the “one-dimensional man” that Herbert Marcuse, a German-American political philosopher, critiques. Marcuse introduces the central concept of the “one-dimensional man” as someone who is subjected to a new kind of totalitarianism in the form of consumerist and technological capitalism. Nowadays, we see this form of social control, all thanks to fast fashion.
Fast fashion replicates catwalk trends and high-fashion designs, now ever so quickly through the tool of social media, merging both fast fashion with surveillance capitalism. On one hand, we have social media influencers who provide instant material for fast fashion companies to copy and replicate the designs of the trendiest, highly sought after high-end designers.
Combining this with surveillance capitalism—an economic system whereby data companies use the commodification of personal data in order to boost profits—we find ourselves the one-dimensional man. Later in this article, we can also see how Marcuse’s concept of alienation, which is a continuation of Marx’s alienation theory, has become even more alarmingly present in the fast fashion industry as well as in this age of surveillance capitalism.
The Tragedy of Fast Fashion – Alienation of Labour
To keep up with the ever-changing and time-sensitive pace of fast fashion trends, fashion brands result in inhumane and unacceptable modes of production – sweatshops.
On the production side, increasing demands for cheap, trendy articles of clothing have seen the prevalence of garment sweatshops, operated by millions of workers who are forced to work (child labor is especially common) under brutal and unfair working conditions. Wages are unacceptably low, working hours are long and working conditions are terrible.
In 2013, the collapse of a factory building due to the manufacturers pushing the boundaries of the engineering limit of the Rana Plaza Factory Building in Bangladesh caused the death of more than 1,100 workers, with 2,500 others injured.
As Marcuse argues, we see how capital (capitalism through the fast fashion industry) dominates social and political life, as workers are subjugated to poor living standards and submitted into subservience due to their economic position in society. Inspired by Marx’s theory of alienation, Marcuse points out that the workers are indeed devoid of any meaning in production; what they produce doesn’t mean anything to them, and hence, we have the alienation of labor.
Social Media Fuels Fast Fashion
On the consumption side, social media fuels fast fashion. The very nature of social media has shifted from a platform of reconnecting (MySpace in the earlier days) to a materialistic platform where people promote their material wealth and lifestyles.
This very nature of social media has allowed for the rapidity of trends coming and going – through massive clothing hauls on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. Surveillance capitalism only worsens this. Through data mining, social media has become a massively important tool for corporations to make financial gains by using it as a marketplace whereby users’ data are collected, allowing tech companies to personalize marketing strategies.
Corporations have been tailoring ads and content according to user engagement, making it easy for fashion brands to use social media as fuel to promote massive sales of the garments they force workers to produce in sweatshops.
Drawing in on a Marcusian analysis of the one-dimensional man, consumers too are fed into this feedback loop whereby their reliance on screen time encapsulates them into this culture of finding euphoria in unhappiness – that is, in buying unnecessary material clothes.
These trendy fashion pieces don’t offer any real satisfaction, and this is all a result of corporations imposing false needs onto consumers through the powerful tool that is social media. The age of surveillance capitalism, through the use of social media, in the fast fashion industry consistently exemplifies the alienation of man in the Marcusian context.
Declutter and Prioritise Basic Fashion
If you find yourself being trapped in this never-ending consumer culture, a general point of advice is to first, take a breather.
Realising how this cycle perpetuates materialist tendencies is a good first step. Marie Kondo-esque methods of decluttering and prioritising basic fashion pieces is not only beneficial to the environment, but helps declutter the mind as well.
There are a bunch of ways to live sustainably, either through secondhand clothing platforms (Carousell, Depop, Vinted, or thrifting) if you need, or simply by learning how to style the items already sitting in our closets! That being said, any small step helps, and we all start somewhere!