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Clothing Is a Virus (dkl9.net)
3 points by aebtebeten on March 4, 2024 | hide | past | favorite | 2 comments


I'm going to write my own thoughts here.

1. "Clothing does nothing interesting on its own" - Sure, clothing is not sentient, but this statement is false. Clothing provides shelter. It warms. It protects us from the sun, from rain. It expresses personality. It expresses culture, status, values. It does a lot.

2. As the author states. For any X that is "an artificial product[1]" the statement "X is a virus" could be applied. So why associate clothing with a virus? "It's more accurate in the case of clothing when you distinguish different species." isn't an argument. There are varieties of many objects.

So why relate clothing with a virus? In a further example from the article, shoes? Why equate something often associated with women/femininity as something associated with sickness?

Interesting arguments about the "fast fashion" industry are missing in favor of dime a dozen misogyny.

[1] Never mind that clothing is not an artificial object. It's a necessity to protect our bodies from the elements.


Clothing keeps me warm, dry, protected from insects or pokey plants. I don’t wear clothing to propagate clothing, I wear it to protect myself. You might be conflating clothing with fashion.




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