As a graphic novel, it is very easy to read. Anti-sex trafficking NGOs, to get women out of the sex trade, will put them in front of a sewing machine for many hours a day, putting them right back where they started.This is a very eye-opening book. It certainly has its own set of disadvantages, but the pay is a lot better than in the garment business. In desperation to leave the garment factories, many women will join the sex industry. American-created free trade agreements, like NAFTA, are a major reason for the disappearance of the American textile industry. Health and worker safety laws that American workers rely on are non-existent in these factories. Workers can be fired for practically any reason. The pay is low, and the conditions are terrible. The workers are, metaphorically, chained to their sewing machines all day. Americans donated about 12 pounds of clothes per capita to charity, but, in 2012, about 70 pounds of clothes per person went in the trash.The Asian factories where these clothes are made are literally sweatshops. An increasing amount of unsold clothes goes right to the local landfill. They recycle some of the clothes into insulation, for instance, while a large amount gets shipped overseas to be sold (not to the country where they were made). Others will go to specialized companies that buy the clothes for pennies per pound. What happens to the unsold clothes? Some of them may end up at a place like Goodwill. These days, if a shopper sees something they like, they should buy it today, because it may not be there next week. The number of such stores is rapidly shrinking, as chain after chain goes out of business because they are not fast enough in satisfying the public's fashion needs.In the past, there were several different fashion lines per year, so clothes might be in a mall store for up to several weeks. In graphic novel form, this book shows the connection between the people who sew the clothes, the models who wear the clothes and the mall stores that sell the clothes.
With thoughtful illustrations of women's stories across the sex and garment supply chain, this book offers a practical guide to a growing problem few truly understand.Featuring the work of Leela Corman, Julia Gfrörer, Simon Häussle, Delia Jean, Ellen Lindner, and Melissa Mendes. Moore's reporting, illustrated by members of the Ladydrawers Comics Collective, takes the reader from the sweatshops of Cambodia to the traditional ateliers of Vienna, from the life of a globetrotting supermodel to the warehouses of large clothing retailers, from the secondhand clothing industry to the politics of the sex trade. Anne Elizabeth Moore, in reports illustrated by top-notch comics creators, pulls at the threads of gender, labor, and cultural production to paint a concerning picture of a human rights in a globalized world. Ever wondered who makes your clothes? Who sells them? How much they get paid? How the fashion and sex industries are intertwined?Threadbare draws the connections between the international sex and garment trades and human trafficking in a beautifully illustrated comics series.