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The Kerr Effect: Inclusivity's Uneasy Tango with Commerce




There's a peculiar shimmer in the air these days, a kind of social distortion field. It's the Kerr Effect, but not as physicists know it. This one's about inclusivity, and how its once-radical light is being bent, refracted, by the immense gravity of commerce.


Remember when seeing a face like yours – whatever that face may be – in a magazine ad felt revolutionary? I do. It felt like being let in on a secret, like the world was finally catching up to the kaleidoscopic reality we actually live in. But somewhere along the way, that thrill morphed into something else. A kind of weariness.


Because now, inclusivity is a selling point. A marketing strategy. It's woven into brand identities with the same careful calculation as thread counts and color palettes. And while part of me wants to applaud – progress is progress, right? – another part feels deeply uneasy.


Take the recent crop of beauty campaigns, for instance. A glorious spectrum of skin tones, ages, body types. It's beautiful, yes, but it's also become the baseline. The bare minimum. And the danger is, it creates this illusion of radical change while the power structures, the very systems that benefit from exclusion in the first place, remain largely untouched.


It's like putting lipstick on a pig, as my grandmother used to say. You can dress it up, but it's still a pig. And the fashion industry, let's be honest, has a long and storied history of being, well, porcine.


I think about the countless times I've seen a brand lauded for featuring a single plus-size model, only to find their clothes stop at a size 12. Or the way "diversity" often translates to a token sprinkling of non-white faces, while the design teams, the boardrooms, remain stubbornly homogenous.


It's a performance, you see. A carefully curated illusion of progress designed to appease our better angels while the bottom line remains the ultimate priority.


And this isn't just about fashion. It's about everything. From the movies we watch to the books we read, the algorithms that shape our online lives – inclusivity has become a commodity, something to be bought and sold, packaged and marketed to us like any other product.


So, what's the solution? How do we navigate this uneasy tango between inclusivity and commerce? Honestly, I don't have all the answers. But I do know this:


We need to be more discerning. More critical. We need to look beyond the surface, the glossy images and carefully crafted narratives, and ask ourselves: who benefits from this representation? Is it genuine, or is it just good business?


We need to support brands and creators who are walking the walk, not just talking the talk. Those who understand that true inclusivity isn't a trend, it's a responsibility. It's about dismantling systems of oppression, not just slapping a diverse face on the cover.


And most importantly, we need to keep talking about it. To challenge the status quo, to demand better. Because the Kerr Effect might be distorting the light, but it's also amplifying it. And that amplified light, that collective awareness, is our best hope for real, lasting change.

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