Who stops the sweatshops? Our neglect of the injustice of maldistribution

Researchers have attempted to hold fashion, beauty and toy industries’ promotion of narrow beauty ideals responsible for the injustice of body dissatisfaction. We advocate for reform by calling upon the industries to represent plus-sized and older models (e.g., on catwalks) as antidotes to narrow beauty ideals; citing evidence that the use of such models are no less profitable. This attempts to address what Fraser (1995) calls the injustice of misrecognition. This advocacy however not only masks another injustice these industries perpetuate: maldistribution (Fraser, 1995), but it can actively worsen it. This is most poignantly exemplified by the 250 million sweatshop workers in the Global South working in these industries. Those of us advocating against these industries’ injustices, are encouraged to join People and Planet in their campaign to use universities’ vast purchasing power for sweatshop reform. This is one small way to advocate against maldistribution, redressing the imbalance.