Daughters and generals in the politics of the globalized sneaker.
In the global industry of sporting merchandise (sneaker), the author gives an example of how universities in the US are connected to Asian factory women who had made said sneakers. She argues that women have shaped globalization, in basically all industries. Cheap labour hides politics. Because of cultural views and the way women saw themselves, it made it easy for companies to manipulate these Korean women to work for cheap even though they knew they were underpaid. This is because they had to help contribute to the family. The author argues that we need to think about women factory worker’s strategies seriously when thinking about globalization because we need to craft a new analytical curiosity that unravels the Gordian knot tying together sneaker design, sneaker company calculations, local regime’s ideologies of femininity, working-class men’s martial expectations, middle-class pro-democracy alliance building efforts and factory women’s complex and evolving strategies. Ultimately, while sneaker companies may celebrate the globalized girl athlete in their own advertisements, they simultaneously rely on regimes to undermine the legitimacy of local feminists challenging critiques with claims that those women activists are mere dupes of western neo-imperialism.
Analysis
This was an interesting read. I think many people can learn from this article. As a global leader, my views on cheap labour and women in sweatshops have truly broadened. The idea of women in sweatshops is not foreign to me, but the idea that women shaped globalization because of their contribution to cheap labour really opened my eyes. I had not put two and two together before this read. I think I gained a new perspective at globalization, which has made me rethink and question the knowledge I had known. As global leaders, we