YOU GUISE, THIS IS SRS
I admit it. I love the Esty blog.
Oh, probably not for the same reason that most people love it, but for my money, there is no better resource for clueless wankery. It is a paen to myopia.
These are the people who brought you the yummy charm of the poverty wedding, and recently told you how to make fake Native American sacred objects using old doilies.
Etsy in general is pretty far up its own ass, but the Etsy blog is a celebration of obliviousness. And while I love this blog for these kinds of blissfully unaware features, I am never more entranced than when they try to tackle the serious issues.
So I think you can imagine my delight when I saw this post today:
Where to start? There is so much to love here that I’m drunk with snark.
First of all, I love that the slavery issue is “noted.” That just killed me right out of the gate. I could just see Alison in her ironic Boy George hat, holding a glitter clipboard and jotting little notes about slave labor on a Hello Kitty notepad.
Noted!
And how about that byline? You know it’s going to be hard hitting journalism when the reporter calls herself “Teenangster.” Not many people know this, but Jimmy Breslin often wrote under the name of “Writerboi1930.”
The post is great, but it’s the second part of this exercise that I really enjoy: the instant, fawning approval vomited up by the Etsy glitterdrones.
Is Alison courageous or what? Super Courage Girl, is what I’d call her. In fact, the only thing braver than putting up a blog post is going to a seminar where you do a lot of “roll” playing. Those are the real heroes.
Still, as much as I was enjoying the circle jerk, I couldn’t help but wonder when someone would say it: Etsy is crawling with resellers who sell factory produced garbage made in third world sweat shops. Which means that while Alison here is posting her heart out about the yucky slavery thingy, the Etsy corporation is raking in millions of dollars in fees from the people who keep slave labor profitable.
It’s like the left fingerless glove doesn’t know what the right one is doing!
And then… it happened.
WHOOMP THERE IT IS
You know, when the smackdown happens in an Etsy thread, it’s just about the best thing ever. When someone refuses to buy the upcycled bullshit and talks back, I just sit here and whack my thighs together in delight. Could it get any better?
Yes. Yes it could.
I’ll be in my bunk.
September 28, 2011 at 10:39 am
I just want to point out that Glitter Crying Eagle Tears are 100% Made In The U.S.A.
These things are important. Priorities, people! Get your butthurt locally sourced!
September 28, 2011 at 11:10 am
I love this commenters priorities, did she even bother to read the article?
The cluesless one shop says:
thank you for your tips about pricing our artwork. It is so difficult for me to price my work and it is so true to underestimate the value of it! Thanks! Ariane
September 28, 2011 at 12:26 pm
Sounds like a bot to me.
September 28, 2011 at 12:55 pm
Sounds like a chocolate-cupcake-frosting-licker to me.
September 28, 2011 at 1:52 pm
Hey now! I’m cool with calling clueless Etsyians “cupcakes,” but let’s not go disparaging chocolate. Or frosting. Or licking.
September 28, 2011 at 3:50 pm
September 28, 2011 at 4:55 pm
an ass licker by any other name…
September 28, 2011 at 1:28 pm
I’m so glad someone screencapped the spammer ad as it’s now gone and my comment looks out of place now
September 28, 2011 at 1:45 pm
You like, you enjoy, you know welcome.
September 28, 2011 at 6:50 pm
I can’t help but hear this:
You like? You enjoy? YOU NO WELCOME! No sweat for you!
September 28, 2011 at 11:12 am
FACT: Dennis Waldron employed 15 AMERICAN slaves in the making of his TM’d glitter-tear-eagle-WTC Gif
September 28, 2011 at 11:24 am
ALLEGEDLY
September 28, 2011 at 12:01 pm
Remember how Dennis said he put together the image and his associate did some touchup work? Thanks to spumler’s Nancy-Drewing, we now know Dennis wasn’t even the one who added the tear.
So maybe we could see some documentation of the working conditions of your eagle-tear-affixer, Dennis? Hmm?
And while I’m on the subject, it seems to me that the tear is about the only thing that makes anybody care about that picture. So why is Dennis getting his panties in a twist if he wasn’t even the one who added it? Maybe he thinks he owns the idea of putting a bird near a building?
AND NOW BACK TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED SLAVERY.
September 28, 2011 at 12:57 pm
So, in addition to what you are saying, we also now know that the slave labor in question was made up of urban street pigeons.
WILL SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE POOR
FLYING RATSPIGEONS?September 28, 2011 at 5:12 pm
Lemonbombs– No one cries over the dead bird. No one.
September 30, 2011 at 11:38 pm
It’s worse than that. Not only did the urban pigeons have to affix fake glitter tears to the picture they were unable to get an actual eagle to pose for the picture and had to outsource to chinese slave chickens. THEN they had to hire more slaves to retouch the picture to make it look like an eagle.
September 28, 2011 at 11:32 am
Really loving the asshole who claims it is ‘only’ human exploitation… like they have a choice?? Sure, starve, or work. Fuckwad.
September 28, 2011 at 12:37 pm
#trollingstoned … or is it?
September 28, 2011 at 1:20 pm
Only white slaves though. You know how he feels about FOREIGNERS…
September 28, 2011 at 3:06 pm
exactly, totally Mayflower-Arriving-CocaCola loving-White-Bread-Eating-AMERICAN Slaves.
But everyone knows that Americas are lazy, even the slaves, which is why he needed 15. In China he would have only needed .0003 to make the same gif
September 28, 2011 at 11:26 am
Ugh, you’re so naive. Have you ever been to a eagle glitter tear farm? It’s disgusting. The eagles are kept in squalor, fed nothing but rotting kitten carcasses. The workers are completely desensitized to their practice of taking the eagles out of the cage, strapping their wings to their sides and jabbing them in the eye with Lisa Frank sparkle pens. You just see the fancy gifs and don’t even THINK of the suffering behind them.
September 28, 2011 at 11:57 am
I only get my glitter tears from free range eagles. I don’t buy sad eagle tears, that’s barbaric. If you have a conscience you only buy 100% pure laughter eagle glitter tears.
September 28, 2011 at 12:11 pm
Everyone knows that the only legit eagle glitter comes from eagles eating unicorn meat, or in the case of farmed eagles, cheaper unicorn meat/poop slurry. The poop has as much if not more glitter in it, so that’s how the farmed eagles get the extra glittery tears. Yes, sadly, the kitten carcasses are just for show. The truth is even more dsisturbing. And who do you think feeds them, ties their wings back, jabs them? Slaves. So think TWICE before slamming Alison. The hat is to hide her sensitivity to light and anything more harmful than the breath of angels, and her clipboard is to hide her not-so-sparkly tears…for SLAVES.
September 28, 2011 at 1:03 pm
EAGLE GLITTER TEARS: MADE OF THE BEST STUFF ON EARTH.
September 28, 2011 at 7:07 pm
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
September 28, 2011 at 10:39 am
Yup. As usual, Etsy is a fighter for the people. The people who resell & generally sell stuff made by slave labor. Well done asshats.
September 28, 2011 at 10:47 am
Just a reminder, pointing out etsy’s hypocrisy in the forums is not allowed. We’re going to have to table this discussion for now.
September 28, 2011 at 10:49 am
Wonder how long that’ll take?
September 28, 2011 at 11:06 am
Forum shut downs are my favorite form of pointless censorship.
September 28, 2011 at 2:17 pm
From the dozens of comments I read compaining about resellers I’d say pretty soon.
September 28, 2011 at 10:51 am
But like OMG you guies, those people aren’t like, for reals slaves. There’s no chains on that guy. He could get up and leave, like if he wanted to!
amirite?
September 28, 2011 at 11:25 am
OMG, abolition!
September 28, 2011 at 11:32 am
I’m a big fan of abalone or whatever it is.
September 28, 2011 at 1:50 pm
September 28, 2011 at 12:45 pm
Yeah, I loved her abolition comment. The abolition she is talking about occurred in the US and the US is not a part of China, yet. What a shame she really does not know what she is talking about.
September 28, 2011 at 1:32 pm
… yet.
September 29, 2011 at 5:25 am
Although if we’re honest it should be pointed out that there’s still a rather significant amount of slavery in the US with kidnapped individuals being forced into sexual servitude, both foreigners (I guess Waldron would say they deserve it) and homeless kids being particularly exploited this way (perhaps Waldron would say the kids deserve it too for not being rich).
I’m not sure where I’m going with this, but if any of you fat ugly jealous losers ARE actually looking into helping with slavery, consider looking into this too perhaps. There’s legislation that needs support being considered, for example, to make it easier for those brought here illegally to get help without being deported, and to help protect young homeless persons from exploitation.
September 28, 2011 at 1:49 pm
I found an extra special little flower who started to post in defense of Etsy “Resellers are a problem here on Etsy, but really, they’re only a major problem to ME if they sell the kind of stuff made in sweatshops.”
wat
September 28, 2011 at 2:02 pm
oh I am still laughing about that one. just a leetle sense of entitlement, Ms. sweetie-pie.
thank god I have another job so I don’t get caught up in the butthurt that is the Etsy forums. I almost never post there, and this folks is exhibit A
September 28, 2011 at 1:24 pm
Hey, she posted about a Serious Issue ™ thus raising Awareness ™. So she’s done her part to fight icky slavery! Time to get back to the ironic mustache glitter cupcakes!
September 28, 2011 at 4:13 pm
True fact: The more Awareness™ you raise, the less of an issue the problem becomes. That’s how we cured cancer and AIDS.
September 28, 2011 at 9:44 pm
I may just copy and paste this on every “Please post this for one hour! Or you’re a horrible person who tortures puppies and ducks!” I see on Facebook from now on.
September 28, 2011 at 10:39 am
Etsy is the definition of clueless, really.
September 28, 2011 at 11:08 am
September 28, 2011 at 9:08 pm
Holy shit, I used to have that car!
September 28, 2011 at 11:40 am
Reading Etsy threads makes me feel like I’m drinking sugary, bubble-gum pink syrup that’s making me stupider.
September 28, 2011 at 12:21 pm
Don’t drink the Etsy kool-aid!!!
September 28, 2011 at 1:05 pm
True story: When I was 7 I bought and drank Hubba Bubba pop. I am pretty sure that is what the Etsy kool-aid is.
September 28, 2011 at 4:39 pm
September 28, 2011 at 5:07 pm
I’m glad to see you’re feeling better Lemon. Orange never was your colour…
September 28, 2011 at 5:38 pm
Thank you!
And now, a shirtless dude.
September 28, 2011 at 7:09 pm
Thank gawd it’s not Elmo!
September 28, 2011 at 10:40 am
Etsy is my one stop shop for all human rights advice and menstrual murals.
September 28, 2011 at 2:20 pm
Don’t forget to check out their large selection of righteous artist indignation.
September 28, 2011 at 10:41 am
Italics are offensive.
September 28, 2011 at 11:03 am
That’s RACIS– …oh, wait … you said “Italics”.
September 28, 2011 at 11:28 am
I’m one-sixteenth Italic on my mother’s side.
September 28, 2011 at 11:33 am
I’m 1/8 Comic Sans… but my therapist helps me through all the taunting….
September 28, 2011 at 12:08 pm
Try being bold. Everyone calls you fat.
September 28, 2011 at 2:58 pm
And loud. At least you aren’t part CAPS.
Then you’d be a dAyWaLkEr…
September 28, 2011 at 1:26 pm
When I was a teenager I was Century Gothic, but now I’m just Baskerville Old Face.
September 28, 2011 at 1:29 pm
All you sans-serif people need to go back to your own country. We don’t take kindly to your type around here!
September 28, 2011 at 1:47 pm
Some of those very people fought and died for you in the Helvetica war of 1957!
September 28, 2011 at 1:52 pm
They were stationed at the font!
September 28, 2011 at 2:34 pm
In unrelated news, Nancy Graces Arial-o slipped out of her dress on DWTS.
September 28, 2011 at 3:38 pm
At times, I’m a New Roman. Sometimes I’m just Italicized.
September 28, 2011 at 10:42 am
Thank you, Helen Killer, thank you! I mean that, not ironically. Now I don’t have to feel like a shithead when I occasionally happen on that blog and just wonder why… and then usually regret it because it involves thinking about what is generally some pretty whimsical and wishful uninformed shit.
Oh, but I’ve said too much.
September 28, 2011 at 10:43 am
Just because I buy pocketwatches for $.10 on AliBaba, slap a mustache on them, and list them for $100 each DOES NOT MEAN THAT I SUPPORT SLAVERY. I *worked* on that watch, dammit. One might even say that I *slaved* over it. Who are you supporting now, huh? HUH?
September 28, 2011 at 12:08 pm
Awright, do what you will to me with your thumbs, betches.
I imagine it is hard for Etsy to draw a line with assembled jewelry. I am a fat, jealous loser that doesn’t make her own jump rings etc and, since I outsource them, does that make me a reseller of sorts? Is it just the percentage of outsourced parts in your piece? Oh fuck. I don’t make my chains EITHER.
When I first started shopping on Etsy I was amazed at how many watch makers there were as I’m clearly not the brightest. When I started coming here and realized that all of those sellers were just adding chains etc I was dumbstruck.
I know that most people that come to this blog look down on jewelry assemblers as opposed to real jewelers. I understand that. I guess what I am asking is how is Etsy to decide the difference between an assembled watch used in a jewelry piece and my bullshit made from antique liquor labels, bought chain etc?
There is no snark in this. I am honestly curious what y’all think.
September 28, 2011 at 12:13 pm
I personally would liken purchasing pre-made materials like jump rings and chains to a knitter buying yarn that is already spun and dyed, or a quilter using store-bought fabric.
For me, the line of jewelry designer is crossed into jewelry assembler when the item of greatest design is purchased preassembled. So, if you are doing beading or metalworking an original pendant, you are a designer. If you are buying a factory-produced pendant and stringing it on a factory-produced chain, you are an assembler.
Just my barely humble opinion.
September 28, 2011 at 12:31 pm
Oh fucking yay. I am not an assembler. I have wanted to submit to April’s Army since it began. The distinction between designer and assembler has stopped me.
September 28, 2011 at 12:59 pm
My opinion is worth about as much as a Shaman Robe made of dryer lint and dyed with placenta, remember!
September 28, 2011 at 7:13 pm
I would consider the maker of that robe a craftsman, and not a reseller, FWIW.
October 3, 2011 at 11:38 am
Well, is it her own placenta or did she buy that too?
September 28, 2011 at 1:23 pm
I agree.
In addition to more handmade beaded necklaces, I sell several different pendants in my eBay store and occasionally on Etsy.
Some of them are Italian-made glass pendants that I purchase from a wholesale importer and add a chain to. Those I will NOT sell on Etsy, because adding a chain doesn’t constitute any significant work or unique design.
However, I also have some that I make by buying glass cabochons, setting them myself in purchased settings, and adding a chain. Those I WILL sell on Etsy, because even though I didn’t make the glass or settings, I did go through a design process plus some work in putting them together, and they are unique.
Sometimes it’s a bit of a fine line, but I don’t really think the complaints are as much against assemblers as they are against the ones who brazenly resell without doing any alterations at all or even taking their own pics.
September 28, 2011 at 1:36 pm
Must a baker grow and grind her own wheat into flour? she asked.
September 28, 2011 at 1:52 pm
well that’s a good way to look at it though… and an interesting way to pose the question, Honkytonk,
How raw do your raw ingredients have to be at the start of your crafting process?
I don’t mill my own paint (although I am a giant art geek and if I had the space and equipment, no lie, I probably would cause I think it sounds fascinating…lol)
So how raw is needed for handmade? where does the paint end and the painting begin?
September 28, 2011 at 4:45 pm
This may be absolutely random, but it reminds me of a TED talk from last year called How Ideas Have Sex, whose main idea is basically: Everything we have today at some point relies on someone else’s invention to build upon… It’s a great talk if you’re a geek, have no life, and have about 20 minutes to waste.
September 28, 2011 at 7:53 pm
There was a woman I knew, back in the SCA, who raised her own sheep; sheared the wool; carded and spun the wool; wove that into cloth; and made a dress from the cloth.
It was an impressive accomplishment. Intense, mind you. But impressive.
September 29, 2011 at 12:22 pm
I actually DO grind my own wheat into flour when I bake. I also make my own cheese. But I only do it because I am intensely paranoid and want to have these skills for the inevitable collapse of society.
September 28, 2011 at 1:41 pm
A lot of jewelry designers do not design and fabricate their own beads and other components (that’s what people like me are for). They are still jewelry designers. Purchasing components does not make one a reseller. Now, if you used a mass produced kit to make, say, earrings then I would consider you a jewelry assembler, like you mention, but purchasing beads, components and other supplies and making a jewelry design with them makes you a jewelry designer. IMHO.
September 28, 2011 at 2:33 pm
Art is like porn. I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it.
I don’t believe there is a clearly defined line between assembled and designed. Think of it like the color spectrum, or more specifically, like the spectrum of colors between Yellow and Green. There’s tons of hues between the two extremes, but it’s difficult to pin down the exact place where one turns into the other.
If the whole of your jewelry piece is greater than the sum of it’s parts, then it’s a design. If it’s just an octopus on a chain, then it’s the worst kind of assembled.
September 28, 2011 at 2:33 pm
Let’s get rid of the blatant resellers – the ones who don’t even make any pretense of making the items themselves. Then we can discuss the fine points of “hand made” vs. “assembled”.
Well, okay, since you asked for opinions: I guess for me the difference between “assemblers” and “artists” lies in whether the person brings their own unique ideas or personality to the table. Like…I paint my art on storebought canvases using storebought paint and brushes, but what I come up with is my own.
I could give the exact supplies I use to someone else and they wouldn’t or couldn’t produce the product I do. Give a person a bag of cabochons, a bag of blank adjustable rings, and a glue gun, however…
September 29, 2011 at 4:16 pm
oh you me like the glue gunners and the felt heads
September 28, 2011 at 4:13 pm
I am a mandala artist. I draw my own stuff. But I just checked, and my compass set was made in China. My Wacom tablet and pen are made in Taiwan.
*facepalms*
September 28, 2011 at 7:19 pm
I’m a computer graphic artist, and my computer is a Dell, half the programmers of Photoshop are Indian, and ditto on the Wacom.
FML.
September 29, 2011 at 1:45 pm
When I was selling at an all handmade market in Austin, they set down rules for jewelry. If I recall correctly, the rules were:
- Central design pieces, such as pendants, must be handmade by the artist.
- No manufactured piece can constitute more than 15% of the item’s total value. (So a fancy clasp would be acceptable.)
In a way, these are arbitrary rules of thumb, but they worked for keeping resellers out. I still use them when I personally evaluate whether something is “handmade,” although there are always exceptions.
September 28, 2011 at 3:30 pm
This has already provoked more thoughtful, conscientious discussion than any of the tripe in that article. THIS is the shit that gets us making honest-to-God changes. Fucking God bless Regretsy!
September 28, 2011 at 10:44 am
And knowing is half the battle.
September 28, 2011 at 11:04 am
Dammit, I thought they were saying that knowing was half the bottle.
September 28, 2011 at 11:16 am
And forgetting is the other half.
September 28, 2011 at 11:31 am
Wow. Where can I sign up for my “Knowing is half the bottle… Forgetting is the other half” cross stitch?
September 28, 2011 at 12:27 pm
Watch. Next month’s AA shop will just be cross stitch samplers. Not that I’m complaining.
September 28, 2011 at 1:58 pm
Sign up in the new “I Want” section of the forums!
http://forums.regretsy.com/forum.php?id=10
October 2, 2011 at 7:48 am
You should learn cross stitch! It’s tedious, but fun.
… Well, I like it…
September 28, 2011 at 10:44 am
I love the positioning of Alison’s photo in relation to the text. She’s rolling her eyes at the drivel she wrote and giggling. “Hee hee hee hee hee! Slaves!”
September 28, 2011 at 11:11 am
Every publication has a tone to their author photos. Scientific American or Utne Reader look professional. Cracked or College Humor look goofy. These tones match the content of the publication.
Etsy author photos look like they’re high on glitter. They don’t even strike the goofy irreverence of Cracked or College Humor. They just look mentally constipated.
September 28, 2011 at 2:08 pm
Etsy author photos look like they’re high on glitter.
- this makes me SO happy.
September 28, 2011 at 9:51 pm
Don’t laugh. Glitter addiction is srs bizness.
*snort* Hee! *snort*
September 28, 2011 at 4:04 pm
They look like they’re laughing all the way to the bank.
September 28, 2011 at 11:23 am
I need to find the “article” this ridiculous woman “wrote” from a few weeks ago about the historical controversies surrounding margarine.
http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2011/noted-the-politics-of-margarine/
My liberal use of the quotes stems from the fact that she practically stole the entire New York Times. I was just itching to submit the ridicularity of it to Helen.
Plagiarism and reselling are pretty much two expressions of the same Etsy-immorality. By any other name, it still stinks!
September 28, 2011 at 11:24 am
*the entire NYT article
(Derp!)
September 28, 2011 at 12:09 pm
It would be way more scandalous and hilarious if she stole the entire NYT.
September 28, 2011 at 12:34 pm
So true, RosieB! I considered leaving it, but that would be giving her too much credit.
September 28, 2011 at 12:50 pm
Stealing ideas from one person is plagiarism. Stealing from many is RESEARCH.
September 28, 2011 at 2:05 pm
I just wanted you to know that that thumbs up was partly for your comment and partly because I love your name.
September 28, 2011 at 3:47 pm
This is the quote going on the back of my school’s speech and debate team shirts this year
September 28, 2011 at 5:27 pm
Just made a t-shirt on Zazzle with it.
Thanks, I love this name, too, been using it forever. I wanted to set up a Twitter acct with it but someone else got there first, so I am BitchesOfKarma over there.
Kind of appropriate considering I bitch a lot.
September 28, 2011 at 10:44 am
On a side note. Allison’s grin scares me. I’ll be having nightmares about that for a while now…
But absolutely love the thick-cupcake-sugar-coated-(adorned with steampunk mustachioed owls) irony of all this. Brilliant.
September 28, 2011 at 10:45 am
Well, tiny children’s hands get that stitching done so nicely…
September 28, 2011 at 10:49 am
(horrible) jokes aside, if you’re interested in working toward an end to slavery, check out the Polaris Project and The Wayne Foundation.
Kiva doesn’t prevent slavery directly but it is a microloan program that helps entrepreneurs around the world start businesses. Regretsy even has its own Kiva team (that I didn’t start – won’t take credit for that amazing idea)
September 28, 2011 at 8:40 pm
Long as we’re adding links about fighting child slavery, do also consider Love146 and Stop Child Trafficking Now.
September 28, 2011 at 11:23 am
Those foreign sweatshop workers do some really good work.
September 28, 2011 at 1:56 pm
That’s why they get the big bucks. Oh, wait…
September 30, 2011 at 7:17 pm
I work retail as a career, and whenever a customer tries to put away the things she’s tried on, I offer to look after them. I usually also quip “that’s why they pay me the big bucks,” because I think it’s clever. Most people smile along with ther joke, but some people I swear to God look like I just told them an astro-physics joke and I’m intentionally trying to confuse or belittle them. It gets me every time.
September 28, 2011 at 4:26 pm
I work retail for now, and it drives me crazy thinking of the little kids/overworked women in other countries making our super-cheap tshirts.
September 28, 2011 at 10:45 am
“You guys, put down the glue guns. There is a human rights crisis going on right now. Certainly we can spare a few moments to be surface-level concerned about this and do absolutely nothing helpful by posting a vague and uninformative blog post. Then we can high five each other and compare mustache finger tattoos!”
September 28, 2011 at 11:04 am
What do you mean nothing helpful! There was a SURVEY. Some people WROTE LETTERS!
September 28, 2011 at 12:40 pm
This is the online article version of when I am volunteering at dog adoptions and someone walks up, looks around, sighs, says “I wish I could take them all home,” then goes into the Office Depot to buy paper clips.
September 28, 2011 at 2:55 pm
hey, some of us really do wish we could take them all home, but already have a dog and two cats in a one bedroom apartment and are stretching the paychecks to cover bills.
I don’t buy paper clips though. That’s what my job’s supply closet is for.
September 28, 2011 at 3:09 pm
Agreed. I don’t have the room for more than three cats (according to my boyfriend. I say we have more room, but he’s trying really hard to make sure I don’t end up as a “cat lady”). I do wish I could take all 15-20 adoptees home, but who has that kind of space? And there’s so many more that need help. I donate what money I can. And dammit, I need those paperclips to temporarily attach shit to other shit.
September 28, 2011 at 5:17 pm
Yep. That’s why it’s good to at least volunteer at the local SPCA/Human Society shelter. It’s win-win: They get some much-needed help out of you, you get to play with all the cats and/or dogs you want without having to take them home.
Only downside is the bittersweet feeling when your friends get adopted… It’s like: “YAY! YOU HAS A FOREVER HOME NOW! But… That means I won’t see you anymore T_T”
September 28, 2011 at 4:03 pm
I do adoption events too. I’m thinking, Hey lady, after spending 45 minutes getting us to let your crotchfruit hold and cuddle each and every one of the kittens we brought, while we hover terrified that one might get loose in the Petco, and then telling us it’s too bad you can’t adopt because your husband is allergic, how about tucking a few bucks into our donation jar on your way out the door, huh?
September 28, 2011 at 4:33 pm
Thanks for my spit-take on “crotchfruit”!
December 29, 2011 at 1:02 am
I logged in to say I love you.
Please email your comment to Etsy a thousand times.
September 28, 2011 at 10:45 am
The server at Slavery Footprint has already crashed.
September 28, 2011 at 10:58 am
No doubt thanks to all you (and me) jealous losers spamming it.
September 28, 2011 at 11:13 am
That server has been stopped up and crashing since the first day they launched it. I had finally found that I have 44 slaves working for my loser self.
September 28, 2011 at 3:11 pm
I wish they’d clean up after themselves once in a while. I’m sick of vacuuming.
September 28, 2011 at 10:45 am
Roll playing? No thanks. I was taught not to play with my food.
September 28, 2011 at 2:00 pm
Yes. I do make an exception for Johnny Depp in “Benny & Joon” with the dancing rolls.
September 28, 2011 at 2:02 pm
Butt sometimes I just can’t keep my hands off my buns!
September 28, 2011 at 9:56 pm
I want to throw a biscuit at her. Does that count?
September 29, 2011 at 12:16 am
If they are Namaste Biscuits!
September 28, 2011 at 10:48 am
Does this etsy post still qualify as irony, or is it so over-the-top stupid that we need to invent a new word? Oh wait, hypocrits. Is that a good one?
September 28, 2011 at 10:49 am
And did I spell it right? I’m still giggling about all the fart stories from earlier. CF4L
September 28, 2011 at 10:54 am
I’m still dying inside from confessing my fart story in that thread, like a sweatshop pocketwatch assembler working a 20 hour shift, wondering if my honor will be restored when the sweet pall of death wipes the legacy of my sleep fart from the earth.
September 28, 2011 at 11:06 am
Perhaps you could have a shirtless guy sing or do pullups at you to aid in your recovery.
September 28, 2011 at 11:14 am
It sure couldn’t hurt.
September 28, 2011 at 2:16 pm
can we just have a shirtless guy do pullups for the hell of it?
give him some manfur for those of us enjoy such things.
September 28, 2011 at 3:47 pm
Not e’en Death can still a bubbling fart…
CF4L, bitches.
September 28, 2011 at 7:47 pm
Rev., don’t sweat it. That sleep fart story made me feel closer to you. From really far away, but closer.
September 28, 2011 at 11:24 am
How about “hypocritster”?
September 28, 2011 at 11:35 am
Hipstercrites?
September 28, 2011 at 12:09 pm
That works.
September 28, 2011 at 1:27 pm
Brilliant!
September 28, 2011 at 1:49 pm
Make it so!
September 28, 2011 at 4:18 pm
Hipstercrite is going on my list of best words ever.
September 28, 2011 at 6:56 pm
Brilliant!
September 28, 2011 at 10:49 am
Slavery is doubleplusungood!
September 28, 2011 at 10:49 am
For this level of insight, I think I’ll just go watch episodes of Arthur with my friend’s grandson.
And, out of curiosity, exactly what kind of “roll” did these people play? Somehow “croissant” seems like the only acceptable choice, but there may be a better option when slavery is involved.
September 28, 2011 at 11:16 am
Surely there are other flaky rolls besides croissant.
The muse of puns weeps that cupcake is not a bread.
September 28, 2011 at 2:06 pm
Psoriasis on a spare tire could qualify as a flaky roll.
September 28, 2011 at 10:50 am
The Only Sane Person in the World is my absolute favorite. Always.
September 28, 2011 at 3:41 pm
HKapril, please put that on a tee?
September 28, 2011 at 7:30 pm
I would totally switch teams for this fictional woman.
September 28, 2011 at 9:11 pm
I am curious if the avatars and usernames of the “cupcakes” were modified this time. Usually there’s one from “better Mom than you” which is of an obviously surgically-enhanced breast with a oh-so-happily breastfed baby. And other whimsicle photos/names.
September 28, 2011 at 10:50 am
Regretsy needs an inside man (or womyn)… anyone willing?
http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2011/help-wanted-intern-for-etsys-blog/
September 28, 2011 at 10:54 am
I’d totally do it, but they’d kick me to the curb before lunch on the first day. I’d make a terrible spy.
September 28, 2011 at 5:39 pm
Same here. They make such easy targets.
September 28, 2011 at 11:18 am
When are men going to complain that they’re tired of simply being part of women? We should call ourselves min. And, in the singular, mon.
September 28, 2011 at 11:39 am
I agree, mon.
September 28, 2011 at 11:41 am
Good idea. You could append your first names to the word to further personalize and distinguish yourselves. Robertmon, Jasonmon, Caedmonmon. I’m sure it makes it just as likely that a wommon will choose you.
September 28, 2011 at 5:50 pm
Digimon?
September 28, 2011 at 6:42 pm
They had a guy on the radio yesterday talking about how he hates the word “guy.” You should team up with him.
September 28, 2011 at 4:42 pm
Has anyone gone through that list of “Appreciated Traits”?
“Ability to work in a fast-paced environment that includes a ping pong table”
“A desk decor vision to make your space shine”
“Must enjoy the attentions of Dottie the dog”
WHAT KIND OF OFFICE IS THIS???
September 28, 2011 at 5:22 pm
The kind designed by cracked-out 10-year-olds with ADHD. This is why you never let your children write job descriptions for your work.
September 28, 2011 at 5:42 pm
Sorry. I only work with foosball and cockatiels.
September 28, 2011 at 6:58 pm
I thought that said “foosball and cocktails,” which is something I could work with. As it stands, no deal.
September 28, 2011 at 10:51 am
Best post ever. Rolling On Floor Laughing. SRSLY.
September 28, 2011 at 10:51 am
As ridiculous and out-of-touch as the Etsy blog is, there is a silver lining here:
Etsy’s cornball hipster theatrics link to a genuine do-some-good website, and you linking to the blog because of their cornball hipster theatrics means that a TON more people (sane people, who will do more than send cupcake wishes and mustache dreams) will actually find the Slavery Footprint website.
So well-done HK!
Fat jealous losers FTW!
September 28, 2011 at 11:09 am
If only cupcake wishes and mustache dreams could solve all the world’s problems…
September 28, 2011 at 6:41 pm
Actual cupcakes and mustache rides might go further. I can see the world being saved by that.
September 28, 2011 at 10:52 am
You had me at thigh slapping.
September 28, 2011 at 2:51 pm
I had to make it. Everyone’s been thigh slapping without a gif.
September 28, 2011 at 5:09 pm
John Waters for the Win!
September 28, 2011 at 10:52 am
We need to report Etsy to Slavery Footprint….
http://www.slaveryfootprint.org/
September 28, 2011 at 11:12 am
I just wonder though, isn’t there more to slavery, or are we just focused on it’s footprint?
When you talk about a “footprint” you’re talking about the effects after you’ve been/done. It doesn’t feel like it’s dealing with the issue at hand, just how it affects us, and really.. how does it affect US? Being bombarded by craptastic work made from products produced overseas and in sweatshops? We’re a callous nation as a whole to the wrongs of the world.
Isn’t that like saying “Well we know you’re getting ass raped like hell, be we just want to focus on how we can keep your hair from shedding all over us.”
Wow, I need some coffee. I’m not even making myself laugh.
Though I chuckled at “thigh slapping” because I envisioned the ripples that it would make in my skin.
September 28, 2011 at 11:23 am
Sonic BOOM!
September 28, 2011 at 3:44 pm
I wonder who posted this? *cough*
http://www.facebook.com/madeinafreeworld?sk=wall#!/madeinafreeworld/posts/285062871521341
You know what to do, you fat jealous losers. To the Facebook!
September 28, 2011 at 10:53 am
To be fair, a lot of people DON’T know about modern slavery or the abhorrent conditions of sweat shops used to make cheap goods in Asia.
I’m going to be nice to her–at least she’s blogging about something of substance on Etsy rather than fingerless gloves or bedazzled tube tops..
September 28, 2011 at 11:09 am
I’d say that most people do know of it. People either don’t know the extent of it, don’t think about it, or they don’t care. A lot of big companies (Nike, Walmart) have been publicly called out for using child and slave labor in some of their overseas factories or suppliers. Pop culture/comedy regularly references child labor and modern slave labor.
September 28, 2011 at 11:11 am
its also mentioned repeatedly on etsy forums and then silenced and all reference to it and the offending party are flushed down the memory hole.
September 28, 2011 at 11:26 am
word. I think Alison might be out of a blogging position soon if she doesn’t stuff that ironic hat into her whistle-blowing pie-hole
September 28, 2011 at 6:10 pm
Now there’s a story I’d like to read about.
September 28, 2011 at 12:47 pm
I’m reading 1984 for the first time right now. I just wanted to let you know that I’m liking your references.
September 28, 2011 at 2:11 pm
i think its the etsy mod manual
September 28, 2011 at 6:25 pm
An awesome book – I read it as a teen, in the year 1984. I still remember “Under the spreading chestnut tree, I sold you & you sold me.” Haunting.
September 28, 2011 at 11:19 am
Hell, Walmart’s own employees are practically slaves.
September 28, 2011 at 11:21 am
if you count my hours of labor per item made, I am definately a slave…
September 28, 2011 at 1:52 pm
yep.
September 28, 2011 at 10:05 pm
Retail in general is, nowadays. A few months ago, I was upset because I had asked for a few days off because of my wedding anniversary, and been promised those days. Schedule came out, and of course, I was scheduled to work those days. I was upset over that, and a couple other things — including a horrible eval I didn’t deserve but meant no raise for me — and the store manager basically told me to shut up or get out. I stayed because it’s a job, and we can’t make ends meet as it is . . . but the passion I used to have is GONE.
I hate retail.
September 28, 2011 at 3:50 pm
People know about it, but still want the low prices and conveniences that come from slave labor and sweatshops (yeah, remember that word?). So they cover their eyes and ears and go “lalala I can’t see it” because slavery and suffering are not really their problem if it’s not happening to them or in their back yard.
It falls along the same lines as this. Just getting these words out in the public is monumental: this is the callout of callouts.
But I wonder: if resellers were not a problem on Etsy, would anyone care beyond reading a NYT article? part of the reason I make things by hand is to try to help solve the problem.
Etsy, you are not helping. You are making the problem WORSE.
September 28, 2011 at 11:19 am
Yeah, FWIW, it does look like a promising link, if they can ever recover from being slashdotted. I do wanna try it out.
September 28, 2011 at 5:19 pm
It’s also possible to know and care, but be powerless to change it. I would love to be able to buy local, handmade, or free trade goods, but I flat-out can’t afford it–largely due to the insane US healthcare system. I buy second-hand and make stuff because I *have* to; for stuff like underwear, I have to buy as cheaply as possible. I strive not to fall into the overconsumer mentality, but a big part of that for me is avoiding debt, which means stretching every dollar. It’s a vicious cycle and much bigger than just “OMG you don’t care about slaves?!”, but that rarely goes acknowledged in this kind of article. Assuming that everyone can afford to spend in an ideal manner smacks of overprivileged smugness to me.
And like someone pointed out in the comments, ‘handmade’ idoesn’t mean ‘slave-free’. Sew your own clothes, yes, but you better make sure the fabric and notions come from slavery-free sources too.
September 28, 2011 at 8:05 pm
My sewing machine is over 20 years old but made in Taiwan.
FML
September 29, 2011 at 11:47 am
All the sewing patterns my wife uses are designed by starved children in asbestos-filled dungeons being beaten by overseers with whips screaming ‘Di di mao!’
September 28, 2011 at 10:54 am
I’d like to acknowledge how courageous April is for bringing this to our attention. Thank you for being a light
in the darknessfor the fuckery!September 28, 2011 at 6:08 pm
Loved that part. As if the rest of us are this darkness supporting slavery.
September 28, 2011 at 8:34 pm
I’ll admit that about five minutes into making this (about halfway), I thought: “What the hell am I trying to say here?” I never got an answer.
September 29, 2011 at 9:22 am
Maybe you’re trying to say that goatse is heavenly….or that goatse is cosmic….nay, goatse is universal!
In other news, this image, with its dusky blues and blacks, reminds me of a 10 Little Indians story book I had as a child. Strangely, it doesn’t rape my memory.
September 29, 2011 at 10:05 am
Quick Robin! To the Goatsemobile!
…
Why is the Goatsemobile always sticky?
September 28, 2011 at 10:56 am
Please tell me this is one of the members here and this is in no way an actual, serious comment that someone genuinely wrote?
“As much as we all can, we should minimize purchasing items made in countries with poor labor and environmental standards. As I sit here in my Ralph Lauren shorts, I wonder if, even though they are a product of a reputable company, whether they are made in satisfactory conditions? We should also all strive to minimize our interaction with peoples that will not honor our rights as artists to maintain control of our original works. Those who allow our designs to be stolen with no consequences sure are not honorable in other matters. Lastly, as responsible business owners, we need to source our supplies, not as cheaply, but as ethically as possible.”
This just seemed way too contrived. Then again, I guess it all is. My bad.
September 28, 2011 at 11:05 am
As I sit here in my Lamborghini underpants, I applaud you.
September 28, 2011 at 11:19 am
As I lounge here with Guillermo, the young man I “rescued” from Cuba, gently massaging my taint, I worry about if the children in Vietnam get American Spirits on their cigarette breaks, or if they have to intake tobacco treated with all kinds of disgusting chemicals. It’s heartbreaking if you think about it. But I don’t like to be sad, so I don’t think about it.
September 28, 2011 at 11:44 am
I, had to read that first section of the first sentence twice.
Then I fell out of my chair.
September 28, 2011 at 11:44 am
Please delete the comma from the above. I don’t even have the excuse that I was drunk.
September 28, 2011 at 8:38 pm
It’s OK. It helps to read your post in William Shatner’s voice.
September 28, 2011 at 12:01 pm
does anyone watch archer? because tiny giraffe’s post reminded me a lot of ray gillette’s slave boy situation last thursday.
September 28, 2011 at 12:52 pm
*applause*
September 28, 2011 at 11:21 am
I just bought a pair of bedroom slippers made in England. I was going to get the same kind I’d been buying, but the two-hundred-year-old company I used to buy them from moved production to China.
September 28, 2011 at 6:33 pm
As I sit here with my Cappuccino Vente, I wonder if, even though they use beans from a fair trade commune in Ethiopia, whether the coffee at the corner mom-and-pop coffee shop would me look as self-important as this Starbucks drink and oversized cupcake?
September 28, 2011 at 10:56 am
The only thing I know for sure is that I really need a glitter clipboard and a Hello Kitty notepad.
September 28, 2011 at 11:36 am
You want Hello Kitty notepads? Sure, I’ve got twenty!
September 28, 2011 at 10:58 am
“Fawning approval”? Hardly. Check out this edgy qritique:
“However, I just want to make one small criticism about the intro. At one point it says, “It’s the supply chain, stupid.” That completely threw me off. If they’re trying to educate people in hopes of promoting change in the world, it might not be wise to talk to people that way. Just a thought
”
See? Etsy glitterdrones are perfectly capable of thoughtful, hard-nosed criticism…of the language used in an anti-slavery website’s intro.
September 28, 2011 at 1:01 pm
And it’s not even an isolated incident.
Paperpoesy says:
And by referring to the public as “stupid” (refer to the site) is a little condescending. I’m sorry.
57 minutes ago
September 28, 2011 at 3:19 pm
Paperpoesy was probably homescholed.
September 28, 2011 at 4:17 pm
Ahem…
I think you mean home scholared.
September 28, 2011 at 10:58 am
Just when I thought April could not flick my geek bug any harder – sha-BLAM! “I’ll be in my bunk”
September 28, 2011 at 1:00 pm
Same here! I totally made a “squee” sound when I read that!!
I would put on my Jayne hat in honor of this great occasion, but the folks at work already look at me funny.
“Time for some thrilling heroics.”
October 10, 2011 at 11:37 pm
Oh thank god. I can’t believe I had to scroll this far to find someone acknowledge the reference.
September 28, 2011 at 10:58 am
What kind of sociopath needs to go through a role-playing seminar to understand that slavery is bad? Was it followed by a game of genocide Mad Libs?
September 28, 2011 at 11:06 am
Sexual assault Scrabble!
September 28, 2011 at 11:08 am
I would play the fuck out of that game.
… so to speak.
September 28, 2011 at 11:16 am
World trade center Jenga!
Pin the tail on the starving child!
Where in the World is Stacy Peterson?
September 28, 2011 at 11:38 am
WOwwww! WTC Jenga! You, my dear, are a courageous soul for sharing such an idea with the rest of us! And I humbly thank you.
September 28, 2011 at 11:44 am
I can’t take credit for it. It’s sadly an older meme.
September 28, 2011 at 11:24 am
Prisoner Pictonary
September 28, 2011 at 11:42 am
Dissociative Identity Disorder Guess Who?
September 28, 2011 at 12:20 pm
Operation: Black Market Edition
September 28, 2011 at 12:20 pm
Housing Crises Monopoly? Oh wait, that’s not a game, it reality. *sob*
September 28, 2011 at 12:21 pm
- it’s reality. *sob of shame*
September 28, 2011 at 1:12 pm
Sweatshop Sorry
Anti-abolition Life
September 28, 2011 at 10:59 am
Etsy dot com is the Sasquatch of slavery footprints.
KEEP CALM AND RESELL ON
September 28, 2011 at 11:35 am
September 28, 2011 at 12:39 pm
Dammit. I keep reading that as “Russel on” and can’t help but wonder who Russel is and why he’s become a verb.
September 28, 2011 at 12:48 pm
Thanks. Now I’m doing that too.
September 28, 2011 at 12:57 pm
Sorry! I didn’t know mild dyslexia was contagious.
September 28, 2011 at 6:38 pm
Regretsylexia is contagious.
September 28, 2011 at 8:44 pm
Every day I’m Russellin’ Russellin’?
September 29, 2011 at 7:17 am
Dammit, and now I have that song stuck in my head!
September 28, 2011 at 10:59 am
The Only Sane Person in the World who called Etsy on their douchery is my hero. She should totally run for President or something.
September 28, 2011 at 11:01 am
I’m surprised they didn’t ban Alison herself for her pointing out the ugliness behind Etsy’s business model.
September 28, 2011 at 11:03 am
Last week they posted about some idiot hipster that traveled to China to see where many crafting supplies came from, and how “exhausting” the day was looking at all of the vender’s. All I could think was, is this a non-enslaved area of China busting out crap? I’m sure that lady she mentioned in her story who makes thousand of handmade bows a day get paid 50 cents a week. And did she even mention the horrible working conditions, lame pay, or inhumane work hours for the people made that lead-laced crap? Oh hell no.
http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2011/the-story-of-supplies/
September 28, 2011 at 11:13 am
oops,just reposted that below – didn’t read this thread through…
Oddly enough, Etsy showed me that thread while I was looking at the doily dream catcher.
September 28, 2011 at 11:45 am
Luckily some people called it out for what it is in the comments, hooray for sane people!
September 28, 2011 at 11:47 am
Notice how none of the “featured” comments are the ones that are actually thoughtfully critical. Take this one for example:
“mazedasastoat says:
This makes it sound as if these articles are produced by people getting together for a little social time… instead of in cramped, unhealthy conditions where you have to get permission for a toilet break! It’s not right to tell Etsians it’s OK to use sweatshop produced craft supplies because they’re “hand made” when the hand that makes them does so for 18 hours a day for money that wouldn’t buy a burger & fries. Stop trying to make it sound cosy, if you must address the issue at least tell it like it is.”
Wouldn’t want to feature that, now would we?
September 28, 2011 at 1:45 pm
Or this one:
cwickerbasket says:
“I believe this article is just another attempt for Etsy to package Chinese suppliers and resellers as purveyors of ‘handmade’ goods. It also completely ignores the probable use of child labor and unsafe working conditions utilized by many of these ‘suppliers’. Etsy is no longer a handmade marketplace, but rather just another venue by which to obtain unethically made Chinese wares.”
September 28, 2011 at 4:23 pm
any problem you have with chinese resellers is purely your xenophobia showing
September 28, 2011 at 5:01 pm
gee someones sarcasm meter is broke today
September 28, 2011 at 5:30 pm
Shit, my Xenaphilia’s showing?
September 28, 2011 at 11:49 am
Oh, the fuckery! The mystical land of craft plenty! At least the first comment has it right, “just because you touched it doesn’t mean its handmade”
September 28, 2011 at 11:04 am
You should check out the article they posted on the FP just before this: it was a love letter to Chinese resellers. The irony of that was so overwhelming I totally blew past the irony of this one.
September 28, 2011 at 11:07 am
Related to this issue, here’s another thread about Chinese imports.
Comment of the day there: “I like how they used “workshop” instead of “sweatshop”.”
September 28, 2011 at 11:13 am
Yep, that’s the one. Even better? That’s the second time they posted it: the first time they did, they had to take it down because so many people pointed out that they cupcaked the very people who were taking over Etsy.
September 28, 2011 at 11:10 am
How exactly was that courageous? Typing up a sprinkle laden cupcake of a puff piece in unicorn infested office building is now courageous?
September 28, 2011 at 11:20 am
i guess it was courageous in the way it took balls the size of vintage brick bookends to type and post that article with a straight face
September 28, 2011 at 11:48 am
You honestly think she wasn’t laughing her ass off the whole time?
September 28, 2011 at 11:11 am
I hope that the good folks at Etsy band together to bring child labor overseas to a complete and total halt. Those kids and their families can find another way to eat with nary a hiccup.
Gotta love well meaning people with painfully short sight.
September 28, 2011 at 11:13 am
One of the first comments I saw on the Etsy blog was this:
gracevictoriapoetry says:
This is why we need to rid ourselves of the income tax and bring back tarrifs. It will encourage businesses to produce their products in the US, where slavery is illegal and workers’ rights are protected, rather than outsourcing their production to places like China and Taiwan where people live in deplorable conditions because they have no rights whatsoever. America is going under and China is on the rise, and WE are making it happen.
2 hours ago
BUTTTTTTTTTTTT, now I’m just gonna make some popcorn and keep refreshing this page and that page and the lolz shall be well worth the calories.
September 28, 2011 at 11:18 am
Ok, gracevictoriapoetry needs to run for President.
September 28, 2011 at 6:40 pm
Certainly has the waffling down pat.
September 28, 2011 at 11:25 am
Manufacturing anything in large quantities is dirty dangerous work. Companies move not just to where the labor force is cheapest, but where the labor force will put up with the most dirt and danger.
September 28, 2011 at 12:01 pm
If only the government would abolish unions and stifling regulations, we could return to utopia.
September 28, 2011 at 3:27 pm
Which is why I support the Tea Party, and their policy of deregulation. It’s time America returned to the golden age of pre-1930′s industrialism!
September 28, 2011 at 10:17 pm
YES! By God, we don’t need no stikin’ minimum wage! Corporations are honorable, and common people are lazy. If you’re poor, by gum, you just don’t have any of this here gumption like what I got!
September 28, 2011 at 11:28 am
I only posted this comment because I like how the commenter artfully piggybacked Tea Party taxation wank onto a slavery issue.
September 28, 2011 at 3:31 pm
curse my not-scrolling-down-to-see-all-the-commentsedness!
September 28, 2011 at 11:30 am
If China is having its version of the Industrial Revolution, I’ma break out the popcorn once the factory workers discover that they can unionize. It’ll happen, eventually.
September 28, 2011 at 12:37 pm
That’s the thing that bothers me most about this article. They keep talking about cottage-industry with people producing things in their homes, but the whole point of the Industrial Revolution was that cottage industry ceased as entrepreneurs with machinery made cottage-industry completely unprofitable. So either they don’t understand what the Industrial Revolution actually did, or they are disingenuously presenting a picture of cottage-industry because it looks a lot nicer than sweatshops. Both of those things piss me off.
September 28, 2011 at 11:37 am
What do you want to bet this person supports eliminating unions and regulations on businesses (environmental, safety, minimum wage etc) too?
September 28, 2011 at 12:55 pm
If we impose tariffs on products from other countries, what’s to stop them from imposing tariffs on our products? Nothing and then the prices on each side go up and nothing is solved.
September 28, 2011 at 5:34 pm
Sure, it’s not being solved. But it’s not-being-solved my way, which makes it better.
September 28, 2011 at 5:36 pm
Ok, I said she should run for President because I like the ideas of AMERICAN companies having to pay EXTRA if they are shipping their goods back to America to sell to the people they refuse to hire.
Perhaps I am misunderstanding what a tariff is. I thought the concept was to make it MORE EXPENSIVE for them to have the items made overseas and maybe they’d RE-open some factories in THIS country.
I have the flu so maybe this doesn’t make sense.
September 28, 2011 at 9:08 pm
I’d just like to see the US government stop subsidizing American companies that outsource overseas. That’s all. Just that.
September 28, 2011 at 11:16 am
The whole irony of sweatshops: People in America can’t afford to buy the products that American companies try to sell them because they can’t get a good paying job, because all the factory jobs are now overseas.
The overseas sweatshop workers can’t afford to buy them either because they aren’t paid enough.
Now I’m depressed.
September 28, 2011 at 11:25 am
Hahaha-
ohh, I made myself sad. D:
September 28, 2011 at 11:25 am
I’ll be in my bunk……like…..Jayne?
September 28, 2011 at 11:27 am
I read that pile of malarkey (aka Esty Blog) last night. Alison had me right at “Maybe you’re thinking, “Slavery doesn’t exist anymore. Abolition! …Right?” I typed and deleted about three times before gave on commenting, seeing as how The Only Sane Person in the World had said the gist of what I wanted to say and I was too tired at 1AM to give a crap.
September 28, 2011 at 11:27 am
A Firefly reference! I couldn’t love you any more, April Winchell.
September 28, 2011 at 12:42 pm
I can’t love her any more either. Restraining order =(
September 28, 2011 at 11:29 am
I really hope this guy is joking:
Thanks for introducing Slavery Footprint to us. I know for one slave working for me, my wife who helps me with sewing of my leather works.
Not that it’s really funny to be like “hey guys, my wife does unpaid labour for me” since that’s sort of the status quo. Most people don’t brag about it though (or punctuate it with smiley faces and refer to it as slavery). I mean, when’s the last time you heard some guy going “My wife does my laundry for me, it’s like slavery, but not really ’cause she signed up for it by marrying me”?
I would hope that if his wife is doing much of the work, she’s getting a cut of the profits. Referring to her as a slave is kinda douchey though.
September 28, 2011 at 11:32 am
Yeah, that was kind of creepy.
September 28, 2011 at 11:52 am
he makes leather goods, who says she isnt in some sort of bondage situation, literally
September 28, 2011 at 12:00 pm
At least he didn’t say he had two slaves working for him: his wives.
September 28, 2011 at 7:39 pm
I read it as sarcasm/joking. It honestly didn’t occur to me to think he might be serious. If there was any seriousness to it at all, I would think it comes from trying to find humor in something many hand-crafters experience- the long hours and relatively low per-hour profit made.
October 2, 2011 at 12:36 pm
…unless you’re into that sort of thing.
Not that I really know anthing about that.
September 28, 2011 at 11:31 am
I haven’t posted anything to my shop in a long time, haven’t shopped there myself in even longer. I just can’t stomach it anymore. The ignorance, the cultural appropriation, the lack of respect for users and sellers, I just can’t do it anymore. I don’t want to give those hipster assholes one more red cent.
If I want slave made goods or to profit a company profiting from slave made goods, I’ll shop at walmart.
September 28, 2011 at 11:38 am
SO I guess this means you’re not giddy over the new “Ads on Etsy” which are “an affordable way to promote your items”? Probably not as giddy as Etsy Corp though…. ::cha ching!:: <— sound of millions hitting Etsy's bank account
September 28, 2011 at 11:53 am
yeah, you have to pay extra now to have you stuff show up better in searches, simply awesome
September 28, 2011 at 2:42 pm
Angrierthanyou, I give you a high five~!
September 28, 2011 at 7:42 pm
Too many hours on Regretsy. I read the last bit as, “I don’t want to give those hipster assholes one more red tent.”
I need more booze, I guess.
September 28, 2011 at 11:40 am
in honor of this post,, I’m sharing this gif that I snagged from someone on the forum, unfortunately I forget who.
September 28, 2011 at 11:48 am
I have that clipboard AND that HK notepad, which of course I put in the pink glitter clipboard because duh. And hands off my slaves, because how the fuck else am I going to get my fake Coach bags? Also, no offense to that blooming idiot, but she is one old-ass-looking “TeenAngster”.
September 28, 2011 at 12:05 pm
Probably the same kind of teen that shows up in a certain genre of direct to video films.
September 28, 2011 at 3:42 pm
Or “Glee.”
September 28, 2011 at 12:20 pm
Some people become adults. Others remain teenagers for life.
September 28, 2011 at 4:34 pm
i would say mid thirties,
September 28, 2011 at 11:53 am
This is the first time in my life when a spammer is my hero.
September 28, 2011 at 11:57 am
Please keep your readers up to date when this featured Etsy favorite sends her reaction, because if she doesn’t, someone she knows will. I’m too busy trying to figure out how much cash Etsy has scarfed up with their new ads gimmick. Enough to cover payroll twice?
September 28, 2011 at 11:57 am
*rolls over and lights a cigarette*
I came. Can’t resell that.
September 28, 2011 at 11:57 am
Once again, The Only Sane Person in the World bravely posts the truth.
September 28, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Heh. I posted this comment on that blog :”Maybe if Etsy were really concerned about slavery and sweatshops they would do more to prevent resellers from selling these very items on Etsy. Just a thought. /alibaba FTW”
I’m sure hoping that kills the thread. It’s quite reasonable, but it’s not covered in sparkles and sunshine so who knows.
September 28, 2011 at 12:50 pm
I think they are afraid to kill the thread. The only entity being called out is Etsy itself, and people are being civil. so, on what basis would they be shutting it down? Right on their blog, not just the forums? That would start a shit-storm of mass proportions.
I am hoping they do shut the thread down based on “Everyone is being mean to me!” When they do, we can Digg and StumblUpon and Tweet and FB the link all over the fucking place, so everyone knows.
Fresh hell, coming right up.
September 28, 2011 at 12:00 pm
And… the thread is closed for calling out. That was pretty much perfect.
September 28, 2011 at 12:02 pm
Or not. I mistook someone for a mod.
September 28, 2011 at 12:16 pm
I saw that, it was a beautiful double-smack at both resellers and “Mmmmmokay, I’m going to close this down now…” with the added frisson of a reference to the Lethal Powers of Communism. Yeay, Regretsian!
September 28, 2011 at 12:18 pm
Oops, it was someone else who mentioned that Communism Kills. Sorry.
September 28, 2011 at 12:04 pm
Also: I am favorite-ing the shop of every seller who posts a comment on that blog post as speaking out against Etsy resellers. When I do treasuries, I will choose their work first over others with similar handmade items. They need the support!
September 28, 2011 at 12:30 pm
Imma take you up on that.
“One way I keep down on how much slave labor affects my everyday life is by not supporting the rampant resellers on etsy.”
September 28, 2011 at 12:36 pm
I so love you for that!
September 28, 2011 at 12:45 pm
(Oh crap, I’ve crossed the streams)
September 28, 2011 at 1:32 pm
The day Regretsy shows up on Fark the skies will rip open and the clouds will rain blood. Cats will chase dogs. Hot snow will fall up! Armageddon and such! (and it will be AWESOME!)
September 28, 2011 at 3:58 pm
I’ll get right on that.
September 28, 2011 at 6:57 pm
Seriously, if more than one person submitted the story it might help.
September 28, 2011 at 7:05 pm
I’d help, but I have terrible luck with coming up catchy Fark headlines. I’m like 1 for 60 at this point.
September 28, 2011 at 1:02 pm
This is the comment that I’ve tried to post several times in the last few minutes and it’s not showing up. I think Etsy might have closed comments -
“This is why I don’t buy anything on Etsy that ships from Asia. Yes, there are many legit artisans in that part of the world, but they are not the ones selling $5 hand beaded bracelets here.”
I’m a vintage reseller…
September 28, 2011 at 1:23 pm
also, the beads that come out of China, in bulk packaging, dirt cheap. If you do beadwork, it’s tough to avoid. Being an “assembler”/crafter in the US doesn’t mean that the beads are not made with slave labor. Kudos to you/those folks who are making their own beads or buying American for fair pricing and making it work!
September 28, 2011 at 12:17 pm
Oh and where else exactly am I supposed to get upcycled cotton pants and cheap dishes to make my menstrual mosaics?
September 28, 2011 at 12:39 pm
I must admit after the hobo-wedding lynching as soon as I saw another etsy blog post I immediately thought of this
that and the flounce cats of the apocalypse.
September 28, 2011 at 1:05 pm
Flounce Dalek?
September 28, 2011 at 1:22 pm
Flounce Cats of the Apocalypse would be a really bitching street gang name!
September 28, 2011 at 5:15 pm
SLAVERY IS NOT HUMOROUS. YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED.
September 28, 2011 at 12:41 pm
Gonna need some salve for that burn!!
I love this for so many reasons: depressed at shit about my life, flabbergasted at the Etsy derp, a grateful reminder that I can do my slave wage in the comfort of my own home.
Sorry-none of what I wrote is funny in any way, but HK…somehow you find a way to pull a goatse on my face to make me smile at how excited you were.
September 28, 2011 at 12:59 pm
Did anyone else notice this response?
Paperpoesy says:
What an eye opening cause; however, I have to say that their site is down and so I proceeded to “like” them on FB. I see that they have just joined and people are a little upset about not having the site up since they wanted to participate. I kindly left a few words of support on their FB page and let them know that it might be courteous if they would respond to people who are commenting about the site since they have not responded in over 5 days and a lot of people support them. They deleted my comment and that put a bad taste in my mouth. What a wonderful cause and what an awful way to respond to my comment.
58 minutes ago
Yes. Because it is all about you.
September 28, 2011 at 1:31 pm
And maybe they’re (I assume the They refers to Slavery Footprint) too busy dealing with their actual website being down to even try to respond to FB trolls.
September 28, 2011 at 1:07 pm
I have to say resellers are a terrible problem. In my mind so are the crafters who use all sweatshop components to make their little shinies. Some of Etys’s harshest critics on this one are the crafters using the cheap, imported, crappy components. Rather hypocritical. To me not much better than a reseller even if allowd on Etsy.
September 28, 2011 at 1:10 pm
I’m just waiting for the comment closing…
“You guys, this is a lot of negativity up in here. I’m gonna shut this down now. Thanks!”
September 28, 2011 at 1:14 pm
September 28, 2011 at 1:26 pm
ironically, there is much evidence these days that the laborforce for the pyramids was mostly paid workers who were treated fairly well, and not so many slaves as previously believed!
…and then Dr. Havass gets canned
September 28, 2011 at 3:45 pm
I’m glad someone else said it first! I didn’t want to be the dorky one.
September 28, 2011 at 4:06 pm
I got my “Dork Badge” early in life. It has served me well. Not always in here, but, well, can’t have everything
September 28, 2011 at 4:17 pm
A dork badge AND a parrot? Swoon…
Oh, wait- I already have one of you. He’s out in the garage playing with cars.
September 28, 2011 at 8:21 pm
There’s another one??
I thought I killed all the other mes…
um…I mean…
Oh, cool! Must be a great guy!
September 28, 2011 at 5:18 pm
My reaction to your comment: “Zowie!”
September 28, 2011 at 9:57 pm
They weren’t just treated well, they were given free beer…and spending the day drinking was considered a legitimate excuse to miss work.
September 29, 2011 at 7:47 am
Holy shit. I was born 4500 years too late.
September 28, 2011 at 1:17 pm
I went to add a comment and couldn’t…do you think they “wrapped it up” but sneakily didn’t say anything? I do.
September 28, 2011 at 1:30 pm
I believe you are very much correct.
September 28, 2011 at 1:33 pm
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
September 28, 2011 at 9:59 pm
Posting links to resellers isn’t a bad thing. This is one of the few threads where etsy might be forced to listen.
September 28, 2011 at 2:10 pm
There was a 25 minute gap between the latest comment and the one before it. I think they’re shutting it down or filtering the comments.
September 28, 2011 at 7:29 pm
Turns out they wanted me to reconfirm my existence. Which I did.
And then, I proceeded to start yapping. The words “unicorn” “sparkle” and “blowhole” might have come out. I blame the scotch.
September 28, 2011 at 1:40 pm
September 28, 2011 at 2:28 pm
Oh my, what is going to happen with that glue gun?
September 28, 2011 at 2:28 pm
September 28, 2011 at 3:18 pm
September 28, 2011 at 4:19 pm
I don’t get it.
September 28, 2011 at 4:20 pm
NOW I get it.
September 28, 2011 at 1:50 pm
Glitterdrones…the NEW cupcake brigadiers! Yes!!
September 28, 2011 at 1:50 pm
I love Regretsy for it’s smart, accurate calling-out. But days like this, the shit just writes itself! It’s like taking a poo and when you wipe there’s nothing on the paper – ethereal yet satisfying.
September 28, 2011 at 2:46 pm
BEAUTIFULLY said.
September 28, 2011 at 7:19 pm
I love those poos!
September 28, 2011 at 7:19 pm
They’re like the anti-shart.
September 28, 2011 at 1:59 pm
Sadly, many things that ARE made in the US (clothing, for instance) are made in prison, so that’s slave labor too. It kind of makes my head explode to think about it all.
September 28, 2011 at 3:08 pm
Nah – they get housed and healthcare n’ stuff. They can either work in prison, or work not in prison. Either way they’d have to work. Or steal from old ladies again. Nope – just keep’em in prison ^^
September 28, 2011 at 9:26 pm
Inmates get paid a regular wage. It’s not much, but when combined with free housing, food, clothing, etc., they do all right for being criminals.
My 30 year old law-abiding son, on the other hand, can’t find work. So I don’t get all bent out of shape for American prisoners.
September 29, 2011 at 4:47 pm
well that sucks and makes me wonder what kind of priorities we have in this country.
September 28, 2011 at 9:44 pm
Boing Boing just featured a piece on American Prisons from Stephen Fry. One moment as my geek search kicks in:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPZed8af9RI&feature=player_embedded
TL;DW: 100% of all military helmets/vests, 93% of all US made paints, 36% of home appliances, 21% of office furniture is made by US prisoners making pennies per day.
September 28, 2011 at 2:02 pm
There are some really dang stupid comments to the post, but this one takes the cake:
“This is why we need to rid ourselves of the income tax and bring back tarrifs. It will encourage businesses to produce their products in the US, where slavery is illegal and workers’ rights are protected, rather than outsourcing their production to places like China and Taiwan where people live in deplorable conditions because they have no rights whatsoever. America is going under and China is on the rise, and WE are making it happen.”
Are you fookin kidding me? What eighth grader wrote this?
OMG slaves! But OMG China!
Idiots.
September 28, 2011 at 2:35 pm
I’ll tell you who wrote it. Some spoiled little shit who is fresh out of college and hasn’t had to work or live in the real world AT ALL! She spends her days looking for things to get her panties in a twist about while she sips her $7 coffee from Slavebucks and surfs the internet on her Macbook Air while streaming the latest hipster bullshit music on her itunes account wearing her giant $200 headphones.
September 28, 2011 at 3:10 pm
Wait – you went to UT Austin, too?
December 29, 2011 at 2:04 am
Oh my goddess, I love you now, too.
I was in Austin for less than a day, and IMMEDIATELY got this.
September 28, 2011 at 3:42 pm
She reminds me of one of these closet teabaggers who poses as hip and compassionate even though she clearly hates Jesus & all the starving children in China. I’ve sussed them out on FB. They list their political views as “thoughtfully moderate”–that way no one will know that they secretly hate gay babies! But everyone can hate on China, because they are stealing our jobs!
Dumb. As. Shit. She thinks China is taking over because of outsourcing? China is taking over because there are 1.35 billion Chinese people working in refrigerated closets for rice krispies until their noses bleed. You are right: she hasn’t worked a day in her life.
September 28, 2011 at 4:09 pm
also, someone who hasn’t been (or read much about) Taiwan
September 28, 2011 at 4:10 pm
I worked at a company where one guy had a cupckae assistant with an entitlement problem. Said assistant came from money on Park Avenue and hated having to start her little cupcake butt at the bottom, even though she’d graduated from an Ivy League school.
When she left for a loftier title somewhere, her boss (who didn’t miss her) summed her up in 12 words: “Her problem was that she’s never washed a dish in her life.”
I’m sure she would agree wholeheartedly with the cupcakey assessment of China taking over because of outsourcing.
September 28, 2011 at 2:08 pm
I’m gonna get muted there. But look what I found!
http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/483566813/Fashion_Bronze_Cute_Owl_With_Big.html
This one is made in a ugly old sweatshop by slaves.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/79375184/antique-bronze-owl-pendant-necklace?confirm_reported=1
This one, on the first page of search results for “bronze owl,” is hand made with love by a wonderful artisan in Yiwu, Zhejiang, China.
September 28, 2011 at 4:46 pm
is this a screen cap of you reporting, or is this one i actually reported already? as it says i did
September 28, 2011 at 2:11 pm
More stupid from Etsy:
ruthlessrocks says: If you get paid you’re not a slave even if it’s shitty money. China has BILLIONS of people living there-factory jobs are sought after by young people leaving rural areas to support themselves and family. No one’s forcing them to work there they are fighting for it. So hawkers of cheap shit bought on Alibaba aren’t necessarily slavers. But the irony of cheap mass produced stuff being resold on Etsy still burns like the heat of a thousand suns.
No one’s forcing them to have no other options, guys!!!
September 28, 2011 at 3:38 pm
Also, the definition of slavery is not unpaid work, it is forced work.
September 28, 2011 at 3:44 pm
Also, there are billions of people in China.
September 28, 2011 at 2:28 pm
Dollars to donuts if you turned Alison’s hat upside down you’d find a sticker that says “Made in China” on the inside.
September 28, 2011 at 3:46 pm
What happens if you turn Alison upside down?
September 28, 2011 at 4:02 pm
Something like these:
http://www.freakingnews.com/Celebrities-Upside-Down-Pictures–2433.asp
September 29, 2011 at 9:49 am
I suppose if you turned her upside down her fake hipster glasses would fall off and break. Then she’d go to Urban Outfittes to buy a replacement pair, but as she’s standing in line she notices the “Made in China” sticker. She thinks, “Well holy unicorn balls, I can’t buy these!” So she hops on her vintage Schwinn and heads over to the thrift store where she finds the exact same pair of fake glasses she found at Urban Outfitters. She buys them and can justify the purchase because these are secondhand glasses and even though they were still made in China in a facotry where the worker received one piss break a day and 20 cents a week, buying secondhand cancels out the icky slavery part.
September 28, 2011 at 2:31 pm
Here I was assuming that the active Etsy community that would read and comment on the blog posts were Etsy sellers.
So I’m not sure why that girl didn’t just skip to the point and say: if you want to help end this problem source your materials from countries who don’t do this shit. I mean, that’s the logical progression of the subject right?
If all the sellers on Etsy are handmaking their products in their own basements that means Etsy buyers are already fighting slavery (yay!), so who the hell is she addressing here? It’s a valid issue but she completely missed the opportunity to make a valid point!
And why the hell am I sitting here trying to follow an Etsy blogger’s logic. Time for a beer.
September 28, 2011 at 2:32 pm
I was having a pretty crappy day up until I came to Regretsy and saw that HKpril shared my comment! That was pretty much the coolest thing that could happen to me in the whole damn world today
I couldn’t take the test at the website since their servers were bogged down, and I didn’t have the opportunity to post this in the thread for that article, but: I know I have AT LEAST 15 slaves working for me, because that’s how many Philippino children I have making my shop’s products in my basement for the price of one Mountain Dew a day.
I couldn’t help but notice that no one bothered to take the test and mention their slave number in the comments over in Circlejerklandia…
September 28, 2011 at 2:46 pm
As a lover of Asian men, I couldn’t get past the photo. The guy in the front is pretty hot from the side.
Sorry, Alison. Couldn’t be bothered reading your blog entry, but thanks for the eye candy.
September 28, 2011 at 3:39 pm
Lol!
September 28, 2011 at 4:41 pm
Oh silly me, forgot myself and left a comment appropriate for sites with more cats (or at least more cats with neither glitter nor aprons). >(
September 28, 2011 at 4:52 pm
I enjoyed your insightful reply!
September 29, 2011 at 8:58 am
I thought I was the only one who got all bothered by Asian men; I teach classes full of them and they make my heart race.
September 29, 2011 at 11:09 am
@Honkytonkgirl: *high five*
You’re definitely not alone. I’ve always been a panting hoochie for Asian men.
September 29, 2011 at 5:19 am
Holy schnike, it’s a whole row of hotness!
The guy mentioned in my original message was hot until I saw his shoes. Those were the deal breaker.
September 28, 2011 at 2:47 pm
Wow, Etsy makes me feel like I have contributed more to the disparity in working wages and conditions in various countries by watching “Blood, Sweat and Takeaways” :/
September 28, 2011 at 2:51 pm
Does anyone else suspect that she only promoted the slaveryfootprint site because it has such a yummy design?
September 28, 2011 at 2:59 pm
Yes, completely. I can’t take it seriously with its cutesy design.
September 28, 2011 at 7:11 pm
I suspect she also interns there.
September 28, 2011 at 3:02 pm
Disclaimer: part of my family is South Asian, and I have to admit that even the shittiest sweatshop probably beats begging/prostitution (a cousin is a human rights worker over there). But for all that it’s an improvement over that degradation, exploitation and abuse remains widespread and unchecked. That Etsy gives itself ass-pats for ~acknowledging the issue~ while encouraging perpetuation of the problem makes me want to chain some hipsters to industrial sewing machines. Burning down the factory for insurance money is optional.
September 28, 2011 at 3:48 pm
You are helpful to clarify that this is not a black and white issue.
IMO, the problem with the Etsy blog is the hypocrisy. And what makes me sick about it is how many people are OMG so surprised to find out that their consumptive lifestyles are supported by the poor in other countries. No excuse, not in a community that purports to be about providing an alternative to that very thing.
September 28, 2011 at 6:22 pm
Just imagine what alternatives make a grueling, dangerous factory job with long hours, poor treatment and little pay look so good that people will line up to compete for them. But hey, on that happy note — please consider India and Nepal for your vacation destinations! Seriously; they’re lovely and have a lot to offer from architecture to art to hiking to retail goods to some of the most incredible foods you’ve ever eaten. Cities with a strong tourist trade tend to offer more diverse jobs, frequently with better pay and conditions, and encourage better environmental standards, even if part of the motivation is just to make things pretty for the tourists. Cleaning a hotel room can suck, too, but it beats getting your hand caught in a factory machine or working the street.
September 29, 2011 at 4:50 pm
so its is kinda like asking very hot inferno or just inferno in hell ?
September 28, 2011 at 3:35 pm
I just read through the blog and I got some screencaps of the wonderful comments people have been leaving….
September 28, 2011 at 3:36 pm
September 28, 2011 at 3:37 pm
September 28, 2011 at 3:37 pm
September 28, 2011 at 3:38 pm
September 28, 2011 at 3:42 pm
The last one is smart. But in general these comments wouldn’t make me too optimistic about the average etsy seller, they probably came from regretsians.
September 28, 2011 at 7:12 pm
If they did, that would count as “calling out” and then Etsy would have a ready reason to shit the comments down.
September 28, 2011 at 4:59 pm
i hope at least some of these dong get weeded out.
ps. i dont do it much but i’ve learned the way to comment critically w/o getting yr thoughts pulled on an etsy board is to couch yr dissension between the cushions of a compliment.
September 28, 2011 at 5:00 pm
*dont, not dong.
the virtual mechanical mind of the internet & its jokes.
September 28, 2011 at 3:46 pm
Doesn’t matter who it came from, as long as someone is saying it.
September 28, 2011 at 3:54 pm
I’d say it does matter, because if these are coming from Regretsians or other non-Etsy religious groups, Etsians will be super butthurt and believe we’re just being meanies.
September 28, 2011 at 4:03 pm
How do they know which commenter are Regretsy thugs? Not all of us use the same usernames as our shops, and not all of us are affiliated with April’s Army. they just don’t know. From my POV, there are people out there who have been simmering with anger over resellers, and for them, this was the last straw.
Apparently, this is how many licks it takes to make an angry Etsy artist delurk.
September 28, 2011 at 4:10 pm
I get the impression that if someone doesn’t agree with every bit of their rainbow unicorn glitter candy-ass bullshit, they automatically assume you’re an evil Regretsian.
September 28, 2011 at 6:42 pm
i’ve gotten on etsy’s front page, but not since i started commenting here.
September 29, 2011 at 9:14 am
Regretsians should subvert Page One and create treasuries of only items from Regretsians’ shops. I’d love to do it, but I’m at work and they insist I do things for them if I want my paycheck. Bastards! At least I’m not literally chained to my desk, but I get such a headache when I wander too far and my ankle cuffs start whining.
September 29, 2011 at 10:30 am
Oh, we make them all the time!
1,335 results for teamapril:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/search/?search_query=teamapril&search_submit=&search_type=treasury
79 results for regretsy:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/search/?search_query=regretsy&search_submit=&search_type=treasury
26 results for cf4l:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/search/?search_query=cf4l&search_submit=&search_type=treasury
September 28, 2011 at 4:25 pm
I think the average Etsian would be just as frustrated with the reseller issue as any Regretsian. Resellers take business from everyone, not just us fat jealous losers.
September 28, 2011 at 3:53 pm
HOBOS ARE DYING OF COMMUNIST SLAVE LABOR!!!
September 28, 2011 at 4:00 pm
Also, the title of this thread makes me think of The Wonder Pets. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwxwUiDbRCk&feature=related
September 28, 2011 at 4:55 pm
the first thing that struck me is that may not be a photo from a sweatshop. i think etsyette, there, had her intern worm his or her way around a bunch of stock photo sites to find the first available sewing asian to accompany the article. sorry: “article.”
ie: here you got yr gloved adult males sewing in a not terribly crowded well-lit room, all photographed by a professional photographer. how many pro photographers+bulky equipment are given tours of sweatshops?
then again, it could be a propaganda photo. but, then again, again, i cant see TeenAngst, there, working that thread, if you will, all that way through. or to its even more distant end, ie: you dont use a sweatshop-owner staged photo to illustrate an “article” condemning sweatshops.
unless, of course, you call that photo out for being staged. but, of course, theres no calling out on etsy.
then again, again, again, the etsy blog tends toward pure ourouboral solipsism, & i, again, am tired.
September 28, 2011 at 5:05 pm
Agreed! The guy we get a clear view of looks fairly well dressed, he and his clothes don’t look dirty, and he was smiling. And I second that a professional must have taken the photos.
September 28, 2011 at 5:06 pm
damn you for making us think
September 28, 2011 at 5:16 pm
I am just glad that TeenAngster is OUTED as being the stupid boob she is. Get MaryMary next time, her blog posts are just as poorly written and un-researched as her buddy’s.
And they have been employed by Etsy for quite some time, and have been called out before on this shit. Of course, the people who do (even politely)on Etsy are on the black-out list or at least permanently muted from making any further comments, ever.
September 28, 2011 at 5:22 pm
This ‘article’ screams ’8 year old’s current events report in school’.
September 28, 2011 at 5:22 pm
Regarding the link to fake sacred objects
September 28, 2011 at 5:34 pm
Drink deeply from the grail of snark… and spew forth it’s fuckery!
September 28, 2011 at 6:01 pm
September 28, 2011 at 6:59 pm
Alison may call herself “TeenAngster,” but the woman in her picture is at least 21. Therefore, it is completely OK that I want to punch her in the head for being such a fucking moron.
Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I will read everyone else’s comments.
September 29, 2011 at 8:59 am
You want I should keep an eye out for the Etsy cops or hold her arms so she doesn’t flail around? Maybe just be an alibi? Whatever, I’m here for you.
September 28, 2011 at 8:59 pm
There’s an indie film called “China Blue” that everyone in the world should see. It’s about a girl who works in a factory, making Levis.
I couldn’t find a “legit” link to the film on PBS (where I first watched it), but it’s in six parts on YouTube.
China Blue, Part 1:
http://youtu.be/1YGQGfDbtcA
September 29, 2011 at 9:06 am
Excellent recommendation; and after that watch Last Train Home.
I also recommmend an interesting book, Factory Girls, by Leslie T. Chang. Eye opening.
September 29, 2011 at 3:41 pm
Good film. My only question is why did they hire that ass hat dickweed Terence Howard to narrate it? The guy wears ascots and thinks he’s God’s gift to acting for crying out loud!
September 29, 2011 at 12:27 am
i’ve been reading your blog for a couple of years now and finally, yes, finally i have joined the league of heartless bastards – this particular post had me grinning at 3 am and, i must say, i thought the image of alison making insipid notes on a hello kitty pad on a glitter clipboard was hilarious, but what really caught my eye (damn detail-oriented eye – oops, sorry, did i say “oriented?” – damn you, alison, “you know welcome”) was your nod to a “Firefly” episode with a line uttered by Adam Baldwin who played Jayne Cobb: “I’ll be in my bunk” – that cracked me up! and, so, now, here i am… thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU for writing this blog! laughter is good for my soul, even when my soul should be sleeping – okay, now back to more regretsy!
September 29, 2011 at 9:07 am
Yet another example of detention labor making your stuff for you:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/29/world/asia/getting-tough-on-immigrants-to-turn-a-profit.html?_r=1
Let’s remember that they can stamp “Made In USA” on their products while paying pennies on the dollar for labor and receiving federal subsidies for keeping these people.
Other manufacturers have to compete against these corporations.
PS I’m short and need a bigger soap box.
September 29, 2011 at 9:29 am
When I read the last cupcakey comment that April screen captured, about SeasonsoftheValley going to a seminar, I read it as “I went to some seminars on modern day slave labor” and thought, “They’re freed at night?!?!”
September 29, 2011 at 11:14 am
Sure. They get night-time and weekend furloughs.
September 29, 2011 at 12:22 pm
“WOW.” I appreciate your sarcasm, slaveryfootprint.org
September 29, 2011 at 12:30 pm
Oh fucockery…where have you been all my life?
September 29, 2011 at 3:37 pm
Right here behind this desk doing anything but work Tadow. <3
September 29, 2011 at 9:16 pm
I bet you’d love Louis C.K. – you are a fucking comic genius, as is he.
September 29, 2011 at 9:53 pm
Is it sad that my favorite part of this post was the Firefly homage at the end?
September 30, 2011 at 1:07 am
You guys crack me up
September 30, 2011 at 1:25 am
I have been under the weather with a really sore ankle, and I checked my Etsy sites ( I make my living on Etsy ) and was dreading having to go into the PO today.
So all I had on my mind was another Vicodin, but just before shutting the puter down, I thought I’d check out the latest Regretsy.
And this one really cracked me up, and the more I glanced back at TeenAngster’s picture, the more that glitter note pad seemed like such a perfect fit.
October 3, 2011 at 6:16 pm
Your Firefly reference cracked me up.
October 5, 2011 at 9:38 am
That blog came off to me like a 16 year old girl writing a paper on animal testing and skinny models. I hurt myself rolling my eyes.
October 31, 2011 at 11:15 pm
Holy fuck Batman………
I would need to up my meds to stomach the etsy shit making machine if I hadn’t found this sane oasis of people thinking the same things as I am.. WHAT THE FUCK ARE THEY FUCKING DOING. FUCKING CRAZY ETSY PEOPLE.
I’m sorry that my profanity isn’t more colorful, or more artfully arranged. The dichotomy of etsy and their fuckery is putting my system on overload. The only good thing I could see was that the thread was still going and many people wrote in descriptive length about etsy being an encourager of the slave shops by not pulling the re-sellers. I added my 2 cents also which bumped the thread.
October 31, 2011 at 11:17 pm
PART II
I am wondering what esties charter of incorporation says. Many, many moons ago I incorporated a NPO, and I know that our purpose had to be stated. I am seriously wondering if etsy is in violation of their incorporation charter. I do believe that if they incorporated with the purpose of selling hand-made and changed their original purpose..with the obvious inclusion of re-sellers they would be in violation of said incorporation.
Anyone conversant on business law?