Is Buying Second-Hand a Form of Resistance to the Culture Industry?

 As part of my MA in Journalism, Media and Communications, I wrote this essay examining second-hand fashion culture through the lens of Horkheimer and Adorno’s critical theory. I’m sharing it here because it taps into a question I keep coming back to: can consumer choices like buying from charity shops or Vinted truly challenge capitalist systems, or are they just rebranded products of the same culture industry? The essay considers how autonomy, resistance, and ideology play out in the everyday act of shopping sustainably.

Title: Do you think that Adorno and Horkheimer’s ideas about the cultural industry are still applicable in the contemporary cultural landscape?

Introduction:

Horkheimer and Adorno’s ideas of the cultural industry were developed in the landscape of authoritarian ideologies in Germany during the 1930s, and later in their exile to the United States. Their association with the Frankfurt School influenced their critical theory in the study of mass communication and culture, particularly in the context of growing consumerism in America and the ‘American Dream’ after the Second World War (Durham and Kellner 2006). Their ideas concerning the cultural industry were also heavily influenced by Karl Marx’s theory of capitalism and how he and Engels noted, “the ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e., the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force” (Durham and Kellner 2006, pp. xiii). In this essay, I will critically engage with Horkheimer and Adorno’s chapter on The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception and compare and contrast their ideas of the culture industry to the contemporary cultural landscape, specifically the example of second-hand fashion and the culture of online thrifting in the 21^st Century. I will argue that, too a certain extent, their ideas about the cultural industry are not applicable to contemporary culture because buying second-hand clothing is a subculture which chal
lenges the power of capitalism, fractures the homogenisation of the fashion industry, and represents creativity and imagination (Babe 2012). However, I will then analyse the commercialisation and glamourisation of buying second-hand clothing and its similarities to Horkheimer and Adorno’s claims.

Horkheimer and Adorno’s cultural industry argument:

Horkheimer and Adorno argue that the culture industry is commercialised and transformed into a commodity which ensures standardisation and homogeneity (2006) because in a culture of mass production and mass consumerism, ‘sameness’ in a capitalist society drives profits and is masqueraded as ‘progress’ (Babe 2012, pp. 104). Moreover, the predictability of cultural products provides little risk for the producers whilst also perpetuating the status quo and making consumers conform to social norms comfortably (Babe 2012). For Horkheimer and Adorno, this commodification of culture disrupts the autonomy of consumers and creates a false sense of choice which results in passive consumerism where audiences fail to engage critically or creatively with cultural products; Marcuse notes that consumers become “indoctrinated and manipulated” through a false consciousness (2003, pp. 13). Consequently, the scholars of the Frankfurt School argue that the mass production of cultural products is used as a tool of social control which desensitizes the masses (Marcuse 2003, pp. 8).

Horkheimer and Adorno’s cultural industry through the lens of fast fashion:

In the contemporary cultural landscape, there is some evidence of homogeneity within the culture of fashion trends, particularly evident with the creation of “high volumes of lower quality garments at low price levels” through the globalization of fast-fashion (Roberts-Islam in Forbes 2023). As Ek Styven and Mariani note in a research article, the mass production of fashion items has “doubled between 2000 and 2015, the number of times each item was worn decreased by 36% during the same period” and subsequently fashion products end up in landfills or incinerators (2020, pp. 725). These unsustainable products promote the ‘sameness’ (Babe 2012) of fashion which is readily available and often repeats the same culture of fashion trends in a continuous cycle of 20-year intervals (Forbes 2023); the fashion industry in this sense is an example of cultural commodification through mass production and passive consumerism for cheap clothing products which fit the status quo (Horkheimer and Adorno 2006). This is further exemplified through Barthes argument that “everything in everyday life is dependent on the representation which the bourgeoise has and makes us have of the relations between men and the world” (Hebdige 2006, pp. 146). This illustrates how, unlike Adorno’s view that ‘high art’ is culture (2006), Barthes view of culture goes beyond the classical forms of art, and “encompasses everyday life” with codes and rules which are implemented in society from those in power, such as the large Chinese retailer Shein which ships to 150 different countries (Thomas et al, 2024), means that the culture of buying from fast fashion companies is a consistent ideology which is thriving “beneath consciousness” (Hebdige 2006, pp. 148). Consequently, in capitalist societies culture is the product of powerful groups and their ideological ideas which are consumed predictably through quick buying and throwing away methods of online shopping.

Argument against Horkheimer and Adorno’s cultural industry:

When examining the subcultures of second-hand clothing consumers there is evidence of creativity and individualisation which is neglected in mainstream fashion retailers. Similar to the UKs punk fashion movement of the 1970s, the subculture of shopping for second-hand clothing in person or online through platforms like eBay or Vinted, has become a “symbolic violation of the social order” (Hebdige 2006, pp. 152); in the context of the UK, thrifting online became a revolt to the fast fashion industry particularly during the global Covid-19 pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis. Prior to this, a report by ThredUp notes that “67% of millennials in the UK shop second-hand” (Wicker 2024). On the one hand, consumers sought the comfortability of shopping online affordably through large retailers; on the other hand, platforms like eBay and Vinted offered consumers a symbolic challenge to the unsustainable globalisation of the fashion industry, as well as an attempt to break away from the “natural ideology of the dominant class” (Hebdige 2006, pp. 151). By resisting mainstream fashion, the subculture of thrifting is ‘interrupting the process of ‘normalization’’ (Hebdige 2006, pp. 152), because the shoppers are not conforming to the capitalist cycle of passive consumerism whereby, they perpetuate the status quo through buying a homogenised clothing style that’s profitable to the big manufacturers (Ek Styven and Mariani 2020). This highlights how, unlike Horkheimer and Adorno’s passive consumers in the cultural industry, the contemporary cultural landscape witness’s active consumerism which has political potential to deny the mass production in capitalist commercialisation of the culture industry (Horkheimer and Adorno 2006).

Moreover, the individualism and creativity emphasised in buying second-hand clothing is like what Adorno noted as the ‘authentic art’ of the bourgeois because the clothing is sustainably being reused rather than being bought directly from mass production retailers, and requires individual creation when outfits aren’t displayed aesthetically on mannequins with other mass-produced items (Freeman 2017). Buying on second-hand platforms or even shopping in charity shops, there isn’t a code or categorisation of fashion trends, rather items are displayed arbitrarily for the purpose of customers to actively create outfits that do not conform to the ideology of big retail producers. In summary, consumers of second-hand fashion find a creative individualism in shopping reused items and satisfy their ‘need for uniqueness’ (Ek Styven and Mariani 2020, pp, 725); however, in the next section I will discuss whether this individualism has been capitalised by the cultural industry and rather generates a ‘pseudo-individuality’ (Babe 2012, pp. 103).

Support for Horkheimer and Adorno’s argument:

Despite this argument against Horkheimer and Adorno’s ideas of the cultural industry, there is also evidence that suggests the subculture of consumers buying second-hand clothing has been commodified and therefore their ideas of the cultural industry could be applicable in the contemporary landscape; As Adorno noted, there is a “diversion of interest” for the masses and the culture industry has “little avenue to escape” (Babe 2012, pp. 105). For example, as the counterculture of punk was commercialised and “incorporated back into mainstream culture” (Durham and Kellner 2006, pp. 96), the buying of second-hand clothes has also been commodified in popular culture by celebrities glamorising the sale of pre-owned designer clothing, or reality shows like ITV Love Island abandoning fast-fashion sponsors for eBay (Wicker 2024). Therefore, like Adorno and Horkheimer, I would argue, the consumers of second-hand clothing were once ‘creative artists’, but now have become ‘specialized industrial workers’ with ‘pseudo-individuality’ (Babe 2012, pp. 103). Despite motivations for consuming second-hand clothing being ‘distance from the consumption system’, ‘perceived sustainability’ and economic benefits (Ek Styven and Mariani 2020, pp. 725), its clear that the authenticity of second-hand shopping as a culture is being devalued through commodification and is reinforcing the social hierarchy by profiting the powerful and dominant class which impose value on culture (Horkheimer and Adorno 2006). Support for this argument is evident in the UK where digital platforms like eBay and Vinted are required to report seller’s incomes to HMRC if they earn more than £1,735 a year (Johnson 2024). Consequently, governments are capitalising on the success of the second-hand clothing industry and exerting ‘total social authority’ (Hebdige 2006, pp. 150); thus, as a subculture which resists mainstream culture, second-hand consumers and sellers are coerced back into the cultural ideologies of the hegemonic (Hebdige 2006). This further illustrates how it is transforming into a “standardized cultural commodity” that Horkheimer and Adorno would argue is “selected from above and imposed on the masses” (Babe 2012, pp. 104).

Conclusion:

In conclusion, the subculture of buying second-hand clothes is an example of consumers expressing active consumerism and an attempt to avoid the commercialisation of the culture industry through reusing clothes and breaking away from the unsustainable mass production fashion culture (Ek Styven and Mariani 2020). To a certain extent, there is evidence of contemporary culture being creative and individual through fashion, however this is being gradually fed back into mainstream culture and subsequently commodified for hegemonic profit (Hebdige 2006). Moreover, the artists, or consumers of second-hand clothing, are conforming to avoid being ‘rendered powerless’ in an industry which is being glamourised and commercialised (Babe 2012, pp. 103). Thus, I would argue that Horkheimer and Adorno’s ideas on the culture industry are somewhat applicable to the contemporary cultural landscape because culture, and therefore subcultures like second-hand fashion, are ‘instruments of power’ within an industry constructed around political economics (Babe 2012, pp. 105).

References:

 

·       Babe, E. R. 2012. Theodor Adorno and Dallas Smythe: Culture Industry/Consciousness Industry and the Political Economy of Media and Communication. In: Berry, D. eds. Revisiting the Frankfurt School: Essays on Culture, Media and Theory. Taylor & Francis Group, 2012, pp. 91-106.

 

·       Durham, G. M. and Kellner, D. M. 2006. Media and Cultural Studies: Keyworks. Rev. ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, pp. xiii-xiv

 

·       Ek Styven, M. and Marcello, M. M. Understanding the intention to buy secondhand clothing on sharing economy platforms: The influence of sustainability, distance from the consumption system, and economic motivations. Psychology & Marketing, pp. 724-726. doi: 10.1002/mar.21334

 

 

·       Freeman, J. 2017. Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory. In: Thompson, M. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Theory. Political Philosophy and Public Purpose. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, pp. 297-289. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55801-5_13

 

·       Hebdige, D. 2006. (i) From Culture to Hegemony; (ii) Subculture: The Unnatural Break. Durham, M. G. and Kellner, D. M. Media and Cultural Studies: Keyworks. Rev. ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 146-152

 

 

·       Horkheimer, M. and Adorno, T. W. 2006. The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception. Durham, M. G. and Kellner, D. M. Media and Cultural Studies: Keyworks. Rev. ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 41-71

 

·       Johnson, H. 2024. Do you have to pay tax for selling secondhand on Vinted or eBay?. Channel 4 News: FactCheck. 4 January. Available at: https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-do-you-have-to-pay-tax-for-selling-secondhand-on-vinted-or-ebay [Accessed: 20 November 2024]

 

·       Marcuse, H. 2003. One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society. London: Routledge, pp. 8-13. doi: https://doi-org.abc.cardiff.ac.uk/10.4324/9780203995211

 

·       Roberts-Islam, B. 2023. Fast Fashion Is The Industry’s Sustainability Scapegoat. Here’s Why That’s Wrong, And What Should Happen. Forbes. 12 October. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brookerobertsislam/2023/10/12/fast-fashion-is-the-industrys-sustainability-scapegoat-heres-why-its-dangerous-and-what-should-happen/ [Accessed: 20 November 2024]

 

 

·       Thomas, D. Jones, L. and Hooker, L. 2024. The rise and rise of fashion giant Shein. BBC: News. 7 June. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp991n2v0m2o [Accessed: 20 November 2024]

 

·       Wicker, A. 2024. The trendy second-hand clothing market is huge and still growing - yet nobody is turning a profit. BBC: Worklife. 4 March. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20240301-international-second-hand-clothing-market-profitable [Accessed: 2 November 2024]