Fashion Industry, Drug Abuse and Bio-Politics of the State

If you grew up in the 2000s, chances are your first exposure to the dark side of the Fashion Industry was Madhur Bhandarkar’s ‘Fashion’ released in 2008 starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Kangana Ranaut. Bhandarkar’s film style is famously considered to be a realistic representation by film critics, that attempts to bridge the gap between the cinematic landscape and bitter reality. The Impact of “Fashion” has been unmatched and undeniable despite not being a box office hit, the movie is one of its kind. The premise of the movie is set in Mumbai where a small-town girl Meghna, played by Priyanka Chopra navigates her way through the fashion industry and soon realises the corrupt environment of the glamorous industry. One of the key elements highlighted in the movie was drug abuse in the Fashion Industry. Any news about celebrity drug usage or involvement in drug distribution is highly likely to go viral on the internet. The tabloids often heavily sensationalise and scandalise the news about these celebrities and it is followed by the public scrutiny of these celebrities. The tabloid celebrity-gossip consumption by the audience can be understood as a way of escapism from the reality or demystification of the glamorous lives of celebrities.

The fashion Industry has been criticised for glamourising unhealthy standards of beauty and lifestyle and one of the prime examples of this is the 90’s photography movement called ‘heroin chic’, in the US.

The Internet’s ‘Pick-Me Girl’

The 90s was a period of recession in the US which lead to youth entering a deflated job market. ( This created a sense of nihilism and pessimism among the youth hence filling the gap and marketing to the youth an art movement which presented the unfiltered reality of daily life.) Many argue that this movement caused the romanticisation of drug abuse. The general aesthetic of this photography movement can also be understood in terms of ‘dirty realism’ which captures the dirtiest parts of reality like poverty, self-harm, drug abuse, violence, banality, morality of the body and many similar themes (Harrold, 1999). The heroin chic is associated with visual characteristics of thinness, dark circles, and pale skin- typical elements associated with heroin abuse. Kate Moss was the poster girl of this heroin-chic aesthetic in the 90s.
Recently, there is seemingly an upsurge in similar beauty and fashion trends of the 90s. This has alarmed a raging comeback of the heroin chic trend as noticed by The Guardian, New York Post, and Injection. The comeback of this fashion trend is concerning because it promotes unhealthy beauty and lifestyle standards. Aliana Demopoulos, writes for The Guardian, urging to stop the usage of this term because of the problematic roots that it holds and its devastating past. Kim Kardashian’s reversal of her BBL procedure (Brazilian Butt Lift) can be considered another nod to “skinny is back and thick is out.” In addition to that, Bella Hadid’s off-duty model looks taking over Pinterest is another sign of this comeback. Having said that, it is also extremely important to note that this trend is extremely dangerous, it promotes toxic diet culture which leads to eating disorders.

However, can this fashion and beauty trend be held solely accountable for drug abuse or unhealthy lifestyles of the younger generation?

Post-Pandemic, countries globally have been facing recession, we have witnessed rampant lay-offs in the corporate sector and there are hardly any jobs for the freshers in the job market. According to CMIE, India’s unemployment rate increased in April 2023 to 8.11 per cent from 7.8 per cent in March 2023. The growing rate of unemployment further pushes young people to channel their energy somewhere. This may lead to a rise in drug abuse among the younger generation due to nihilism and pessimism. Hence, drug abuse is not solely propagated by the Fashion and Beauty Industry but it is a result of a variety of factors and it is the state’s responsibility. Instead of dealing with the drug problem, the state ignores its responsibilities and conveniently dumps all the blame on the fashion and beauty industries by creating cultural anxiety. Former Chief Minister, Tirath Singh Rawat has blamed ripped jeans fashion as a reason for destroying culture stating that “Ripped jeans paves the way for societal breakdown and is a result of the bad example parents set for children, which also leads to substance abuse.” This is a prime example of the state distracting the public from the actual root of problems and running away from accountability.
Hence, the Fashion and Beauty industries become Bio-Political scapegoats for the state. Despite the fact that the state is responsible for issues like drug usage, poverty, and a declining healthcare system (Ledford, 2007).
Naomi Wolf (1991) emphasised that the culture is “designed” in a certain way to oppress women through the radical myth of unrealistic standards for women’s bodies. Historically, the desirability of a woman has been constrained in the beauty of women and these standards of what is considered desirable and beautiful have always been dictated by men from Victorian art to today’s fashion industry. The fashion and beauty industry has created a vicious cycle of developing new kinds of body insecurities and selling the solution to those insecurities and profiting from them. ‘Is beauty and Fashion feminist?’ has been a bone of contention for a very long period. We cannot pick that bone apart today, nevertheless, we can hold the state accountable for the matters that are its responsibility.

References

  1. Harold, C. L. (1999). “Tracking Heroin Chic: The Abject Body Reconfigures the Rational Argument.” Argumentation and Advocacy, 36(2), 65–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/00028533.1999.11951638

  2. Ledford, J. (n.d.). “From Dirty Realism to Heroin Chic: How Fashion Becomes a Scapegoat for Cultural Anxieties.”

  3. Wolf, N. (2002). The beauty myth: How images of beauty are used against women. Perennial.

  4. “Heroin chic is back, and curvy bodies, big butts are out.” New York Post. (2022, November 2). Retrieved from https://nypost.com/2022/11/02/heroin-chic-is-back-and-curvy-bodies-big-butts-are-out/

  5. “From Kate Moss to Bella Hadid: The dangers of reviving heroin chic.” Injection Mag. Retrieved from https://www.injectionmag.com/post/from-kate-moss-to-bella-hadid-the-dangers-of-reviving-heroin-chic

  6. “Heroin chic: Fashion’s skinny worship.” The Guardian. (2022, November 20). Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2022/nov/20/heroin-chic-fashion-skinny-worship

  7. “Ripped jeans destroying culture: Former Uttarakhand CM Tirath Singh Rawat at it again.” The Times of India. Retrieved from https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/dehradun/ripped-jeans-destroying-culture-former-uttarakhand-cm-tirath-singh-rawat-at-it-again/articleshow/91608335.cms

Vindhya has completed her master’s in Gender Studies from Ambedkar University. She has a keen interest in gender, media, and culture. In her free time, she likes to dance, paint, dye her hair, curate playlists or browse the internet for weirdly specific questions.

Vindhya

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