Depop - Where the Masses Can Become Market Capitalists.

or if carrie bradshaw read karl marx...

Recently, like the majority of those of my generation who do not support fast fashion, I was haggling on Depop. Mid-haggle, I began to think . . . is this the fierce adrenaline rush of competition that drives market capitalists to overlook the existential dilemmas of our day, get out of bed each morning and continue their exploitation of the masses?

The item for which I was trying to achieve a bargain was titled “vintage y2k japan crossbody bag with pockets streetwear casual shoulder bag.” It was a catchy title, looked cute and I was looking for something to replace my black LL Bean backpack. I felt that my backpack had become too juvenile. As I was begining my masters level internship in counseling psychology I needed something to transport my MacBook, lunchbox, notebook and pens and would also signify to others that I am no longer a college student, but a professional who is still appreciates self expression and chic bags. Would this bag be able to achieve this signification? It all relied upon the size. This is when my haggle-ation began.

As we can see the bag contains a few questionable characteristics. First, the background upon which the vendor photographed this bag. The ground is not even grass, but scraggly looking dirt strewn with small sticks. However its grey color, does highlight a nice contrast between the blue of the bag and the vendor’s arm/hand. Perhaps it is intentional.

My other dilemma with this potential purchase, I could not tell the size of the bag from the mere comparison between the vendor’s hand and the bag. How large is the main compartment? Would it fit my MacBook? How long is the strap? Would it be a “crossbody bag” as the title suggested? Or alternatively a “shoulder bag” as the title also suggested? It was ambiguous. A purchase would be a gamble.

I decided to send in an offer. The original price was 198 Euros—in this economy?? It was discounted 30%, which still left it at 138 Euros. In my opinion, the worst part of the state of modern fashion is that stylized unique pieces like this are no longer mass produced, well made or available at a reasonable price. Only high fashion boutiques or expensive vintage stores in major cities sell pieces like this. Anything sold in the mall either feels like its made out of plastic, is ugly as fuck and/or is wildly expensive for a basic, low quality item. What happened to the diversity of style that used to be available? Is my mind envisioning a utopic fashion past where the masses were able to achieve self expression and not forced to don the uniform of the time?

Part II: The Haggling

I sent in a low ball offer—90 Euros, which was still a lot of money for something that might arrive and be a totally unable to meet any of my needs for a bag. As you can see above, as our interaction continued I began to feel suspicious of this vendor. I saw him as a potential grifter, someone who might be attempting to take advantage of my fashion desire and possible naiveté. He was hungry to make money off this bag. And I was hungry for a new bag, yet wary from previous Depop failures (unreported holes, misreported sizing and bleach stains that were not displayed in the listing photos). I was also suspicious of his readiness to accept my low ball offer. Was he desperate? Why might he be so eager? Could this be an indication that he knew the product he was offering is sub-par? His gramatically incorrect message “Not have measurements” also fueled my suspicion. Xenophobia was appearing in my cursory judgements of this vendor. Do you see how the culture market capitalism is distorting my thoughts? My view of this man started as a blank canvas, my mind had not yet created any associations because we had not yet interacted. Our interaction in this digital marketplace led to my consciousness creating an internal image of this vendor as an untrustworthy individual, fueled by my own feelings of paranoia as well as the spirit of competition, the dog-eat-dog worldview of capitalism.

After the lack of his response to my request for the measurements of the bag I decided not to purchase it. It is possible that my negative judgement of him and the bag were correct, however we can also see from this analysis of the interaction that a large portion of my negative judgements were inspired by the culture of capitalism. I hope that we can use this analysis to critique and understand the state of the world right now, how capitalism seems to create a culture where paranoid-fascism is the dominant ideology. We value the strong individual who is able to exploit others while also not being exploited. We teach each other to hide our weaknesses and to be ashamed of our vulnerability because to be vulnerable in our culture of paranoid-fascism is to be a loser, to be the beta, the outcast, the dominated.

If we as individual humans were to see ourselves as part of a massive group of other humans who are continuously creating the culture that structures our experience of the world, then how might we want to change our creation? What might we want to do differently in order to interact with each other in a way that might feel better? How might we start creating a world that works differently than the one we currently live in?