Shop for Yourself

Rose Madeline Mula writes: Why do high fashion models always look so angry? Is it because they’re in agony teetering on those ridiculous six-inch stilettoes — or because they’re forced to wear ugly outfits like flouncy dresses with unlaced combat boots and plaid skirts with flowered shirts. One ad featured a model in profile, wearing a nondescript dress, striding purposefully ahead. Her arm hung by her side, and from her hand a smallish pocketbook, which she held by a long strap, dangled almost at street level. Flames were shooting from the pocketbook, which didn’t seem to concern her a bit. more »

"Under the Federal Food, Drugs and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act), a product intended to diagnose, mitigate, treat, or prevent disease, or to affect the structure or function of the body is classified as a drug. If such a product is not generally recognized by qualified experts as safe and effective when used as labeled, it is a “new drug” and requires an approved New Drug Application to be marketed legally in the United States. FDA issued Warning Letters, citing drug claims associated with topical skin care, hair care, and eyelash/eyebrow preparations, noted on both product labeling and Web sites. Some examples of the drug claims cited are acne treatment, cellulite reduction, stretch mark reduction, wrinkle removal, dandruff treatment, hair restoration, and eyelash growth." more »

"Since 2007, when EWG published its first Sunscreen Guide, many sun protection products sold in the US have become safer and federal regulators have cracked down on some of the worst phony marketing claims. Two-thirds of the products we examined offer inferior sun protection or contain worrisome ingredients like oxybenzone, a hormone disruptor, or retinyl palmitate, a form of vitamin A that may harm skin. And despite scant evidence, the government still allows most sunscreens to claim they help prevent skin cancer. Over the course of 12 years, EWG has uncovered mounting evidence that one common sunscreen chemical, oxybenzone, poses a hazard to human health and the environment. It is an allergen and a hormone disruptor that soaks through the skin and is measured in the body of nearly every American." more »

In the early 1900s, when women made up less than 20 percent of the total industrial workforce, one-third of the workers in shoe factories were women. Women became active in trade unions like the Daughters of St. Crispin, named after the patron saint of shoemakers, and the International Boot & Shoe Workers Union, participating in strikes to protest low wages and poor treatment. Considered radical for its time, by 1904 the Boot & Shoe Workers Union constitution called for “uniform wages for the same class of work, regardless of sex.” An intricately beaded shoe (c. 1915), stamped with the union seal, shows off the quality of American shoemaking. more »