#2) Just go to a fucking thrift store and buy a donated art piece

[moongothic]

I wish AI image creators (and pro-AI image people in general) understood was that there is, in fact, a fundamental difference between artists referencing each others work and a computer (re)generating an image

And that’s respecting the time and dedication that went into creating the piece being referenced to begin with

If an artist uses someone else’s work as inspiration for their own, they have to recreate it from scratch. You can use the composition of a piece, but you still have to draw the whole thing all over again. You can color pick a palette but the shading you have to do on your own. You can study the way someone draws immaculate, fine details, but you still draw every single line with your own hand. And doing all that work makes the person look at what the original artist had done, understand how they made their art, what it took to make it, and learn to respect their effort and dedication even more.

Hell, even if someone traces over another person’s work, without consent and refuses to admit to it (which generally speaking is a dick fucking move), even then the tracer will deep down know the limit of their skills and see what the original artist can do but they can’t (yet).

And these are all things that neither a computer or the person feeding a prompt into the computer will ever do.

AI image creators will never put in the same work and effort to “create” something, and thus they will never understand what it takes for an artist to draw or paint something from scratch.

You told a machine to make a dish, the machine makes a dish based on approximations of what goes into it based on what chefs put into their dishes, and you claim to be the chef that cooked it.

AI images and their creators are inherently disrespectful.

[alcatraz-means-pelican]

Fuck Shein. I hate everything about this company.

1. They are fast fashion, which means they use sweatshops. Now, this is not a Shein problem. Most brands use sweatshops, so unless you are making all of your clothing yourself or getting it handmade from transparent businesses, you are likely wearing a garment made in a sweatshop. What makes Shein particularly awful is the sheer amount of products they carry. Earlier fast fashion companies like Forever 21 were adding 1000 products to their website per week. Shein is adding 1000 products per day. That volume increase is only going to lead to more exploited workers.

2. They steal from artists and designers. There are several examples of this. While it is technically legal, it’s awful that a million dollar fast fashion company could absolutely hire these artists and designers, and are choosing not to.

3. The rise of the micro trend cycle was heavily influenced by Shein and their marketing. Mina Le’s video expands on this. TikTok hauls and try ons create an environment where you can buy an outfit, wear it once for a video, and then either throw it away or donate it to a thrift store. Donating to a thrift store may sound like a good idea, but it’s actually creating more waste, and leaving the people who actually need thrift stores as a low priced option with subpar clothing that is too trend specific to wear in most cases (I can’t wear a corset top to work). Salem Tovar expands on this a little more in her video.

4. Does no one remember the swaztika necklace? Or the Muslim prayer rug? Or the anti-black police violence phone case (which managed to combine offensive product with stolen art)? They have a history of making offensive products and then acting like they had no idea.

5. The thing that kills me the most about Shein is watching people talk about it like it’s a savior for plus size people. It’s trendy, and cheap, and they have plus sizes! But do they? Their largest size, a 4X, is listed as a 22. Even if that is. Cut like true plus 22, that is no where close to the range of a typical plus size brand. Plus size brands go to at least a 26, often extending to 30. So they may have shifted the goalpost slightly, but they are still keeping their sizing limited, with the implication that they don’t want people who are that fat to wear their clothes.

Look, I get it. Poor people need clothes too. But it’s not actual poor people who are keeping Shein afloat. The person who genuinely needs to get a t shirt for $4 is not the same person getting a $500 haul every month. And I understand that not shopping at Shein is not going to end all the ethical issues with fast fashion in general. There’s always Forever 21, and H&M, and Zara, and probably at least a hundred more I don’t know the name of. But Shein is the flagship of the culture of fast fashion, the need to have a monthly haul of super trendy pieces that you can wear for a video and then get rid of as soon as a new hot item comes out.

I just hate that this is the option people have, a truly shitty company on so many levels. Typically we would boycott a shitty company (Chik-fil-a, Hobby Lobby), but because there aren’t as many options in that price range many people can’t. It’s easier to find a different chicken sandwich at the same price than it is to find another $4 tshirt. So fuck Shein. Fuck the people who routinely spend thousands of dollars there. But not the people who have been priced out of everything else. (But also learn the difference between those two people).