Does it Matter?

Kenny Saechao

Entry # 1

So this weeks reading was Melissa A. Deckers, “”Knockouts of Knockoffs:” the Global Implication of Fashion Piracy”. This was talking about how knock off designer bags are not only a disgrace to the hard work of the name brand but also financially straining (Decker). This reminded me of my childhood when my mom and her friends use to get together and talk about what they wanted when they finally had money. Okay, that doesn’t do my mother much justice but essentially that is what they did. 

I heard my mother talking about name brands and eventually it led to sweatshop workers/how they know sweatshop workers back in Thailand. Among that talk arose knock off bags and how they knew people who had them and could get them. From there started the good ole debate between whether or not buying hand bags were a good thing or not. 

Some of them argued that it was a cheap thing to do. Others argued that its what you have to do to look nice on a workers salary. Some say that you’re hurting the companies and others argued that the companies make so much money that it wouldn’t matter.

Through all this chatter was me, a confused adolescent who really didn’t understand why they wanted handbags at all. Why pay $50-$250 for a handbag you know you don’t want to wear in our neighborhood? I was a kid who couldn’t grasp the concept of a dollar. There’s lots of argument against counterfeiting bags as seen in Deckers article “Knockouts of Knockoffs”. There is argument for counterfeit bags from poor mien woman who want a taste of the finer things in life.  The radical thing about this project is that it dares us to imagine outside of that binary- what if designer bags and other such  luxuries  just didn’t matter?