Ladydrawers: Out of the Factories Part Two

Part of the Series

Ladydrawers

Also See Part One: Ladydrawers: Thin Line Between Garment and Sex “Trades”

Last month in “Our Fashion Year,” we tracked garment production all the way to an anti-human trafficking NGO in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This strip takes place in the same NGO – which Anne Elizabeth Moore visited in January – one of the expanding field of organizations that offers sex workers alternative employment opportunities. Yet when viewed economically, these “alternatives” just don’t compare.

It’s only the latest in our year-long investigation into gender, labor and cultural production. (You can read our previous three years of strips here.) We’ve so far followed the threads of the international garment trade from your local fast fashion emporium all the way back to their source, in the factories of developing countries, in “Fast Fashion,” “Let’s Go Shopping” and “The Business of Thrift” (with Julia Gfrörer); and “Zoned,” “Red Tape” and “Outta Sight (Out of Mind)” (with Melissa Mendes). Ellen Lindner’s “It’s the Money, Honey” and “Out of the Factories Part 1” (also with Melissa Gira Grant) brought us from the garment trade into the sex trade abroad. Next month, with a new top-secret artist, we’ll start looking at who’s funding anti-trafficking NGOs – and why.

(Click here to enlarge)

Briefly, we wanted to update you on where Truthout stands this month.

To be brutally honest, Truthout is behind on our fundraising goals for the year. There are a lot of reasons why. We’re dealing with broad trends in our industry, trends that have led publications like Vice, BuzzFeed, and National Geographic to make painful cuts. Everyone is feeling the squeeze of inflation. And despite its lasting importance, news readership is declining.

To ensure we stay out of the red by the end of the year, we have a long way to go. Our future is threatened.

We’ve stayed online over two decades thanks to the support of our readers. Because you believe in the power of our work, share our transformative stories, and give to keep us going strong, we know we can make it through this tough moment.

At this moment, we have 72 hours left in our important fundraising campaign, and we still must raise $31,000. Please consider making a donation today.

Anne Elizabeth Moore

Anne Elizabeth Moore is a cultural critic and author of several award-winning, best-selling nonfiction books including Unmarketable (The New Press) and Cambodian Grrrl (Cantankerous Titles). She is a Fulbright scholar, a USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Fellow, and is the recipient of a 2016 Write A House Fellowship in Detroit. Her work has appeared in The Baffler, Al Jazeera, Salon, The Onion, Talking Points Memo, Wilson Quarterly, Tin House, and in international art exhibitions, including the Whitney Biennial and a solo show at the MCA Chicago. She has appeared on CNN, NPR, Voice of America, and in The New York Times, among others. Her most recent book, from Curbside Splendor, is Body Horror: Capitalism, Fear, Misogyny, Jokes.

Melissa Gira Grant

Melissa Gira Grant is a writer who tells true stories about the value of sex. She has contributed to The Nation, Wired, the Guardian, Jacobin, Reason, Glamour, Slate, Jezebel, Rhizome, AlterNet, Truthout and $pread, among others. Her first book, Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work, is out now from Verso.

Ellen Lindner

A member of Brooklyn’s Hypothetical Island cartooning studio, Ellen Lindner has created stories for a wide range of anthologies, agencies and publications. Her current web series, ‘The Black Feather Falls,’ a mystery set in 1920s London, appears weekly on Act-i-Vate. The first two print collections are available now from Soaring Penguin Press. Ellen is also the editor of The Strumpet, a transatlantic collection of cartooning by ladies. For more of her work, check out littlewhitebird.com or her Etsy.