Consumption as political action: plus-size fashion advertisements on foreign shopping sites

Abstract

In contemporaneity, consumption becomes a privileged space for manifestations of an ethical-aesthetic nature, pointing to political actions. We present in this article two recent controversies involving advertisements for plus size fashion pieces on foreign websites, in 2015 on the Aliexpress website, and in 2016 on the Wish website/app. We propose to analyze the two episodes articulated by the effective presence in media networks, seeking to verify their ethical and aesthetic reverberations, through the online engagements/activism of individuals-subjects who have positioned themselves about them. Thus, we intend to problematize about a political dimension, guiding us by the notions of aesthetics, politics and police present in the thought of Ranciére (2005) and the meaning of politicities understood by Rose de Melo Rocha (2009). As results achieved, we can affirm that the episodes, although they do not constitute a political action in the traditional sense, present possibilities of social gaps in daily life through consumption, approaching the notions of police and politicities.