TIKTOK ADVENTURES UPDATE: ON DUPES, GREY MARKET, CLASSISM, CYBERBULLYING AND (CULTURAL?) COMPULSIVE CONSUMERISM
Here we go: first troll on TikTok and couln't be any twisted. While what follows is a comic take on what happened, most of the issues introduced in the article can't be taken as lightly
It happened.
Apparently you're not doing it right if you don't get at least one troll to comment on your page (just joking).
Reggie was always against opening a TikTok and decided to completely stay away from it, but I tried to navigate through it both as a social antrophologist and consumer.
I have seen so many people on that app feeling happy and confident of their bodies, creators discovering new pathways of perfume reviewing in such a personal, political and also artistic way.
But I have also seen massive accounts reproducing the same and traditional system of reviewing by perpetuating dangerous compulsive consumerism, sexism, gender stereotypes, and also constantly changing product opinions simply depending on their business relations to a brand.
Let me share a bedtime story on what happened to my TikTok account and try to develop further some of the themes my beloved troll accused me of, while not wanting to engage on any honestly exhaustive elaboration. But first, some disclaimers.
THIS POST'S STRUCTURE:
1. Disclaimer
2. ACT I: Cyberbullying in the name of equity (what is classism? what is classism in perfumery?)
3. ACT II: The "Ancient Regime" of Social Medias and "bullying prevention code" fails
4. ACT III: An ode to my "disregarded" hands & conclusions
5. External Resources
DISCLAIMER:
I've always been clear on what the TikTok account (just like the blog and Instagram page- please note we are currently writing our blog's code of ethics) accepts and what does not tolerate:
-The main thing, as reported in the biography, is that we support niche and artistic perfumery. Our blog's original idea was about creating a virtual encyclopedia of niche brands and perfumes. We soon understood it was too much for us since we both study and work, but decided to show mostly niche and artistic in order to highlight some brands and products not everyone is familiar with and might enjoy. Does it state "exclusively supporting"? No. Since many other accounts are showing designer fragrances, I wanted to highlight mostly niche and artistic perfumery. But I did and will continue showing and reviewing also designer fragrance. Remember: niche is not synonym of exclusivity or luxury, just like designer does not equal garbage.
-The last sentence of the biography on TikTok states:"no dupes, counterfeits or unofficial retailers." Why? Because we do not engage with such content, and if someone might be interested in these type of products (which are highly requested on any virtual platform) or ask about some dupe/grey market recommendations, they will not find out surprisingly that we are not able to help them. The issue with grey market and dupes was treated (probably naively, surely naively due to the limited time on disposition on the app but also because I am not a good orator) often in different tiktoks I made, providing external resources etc (also available at the end on this post, under external resources). I also went back to my former job company (a raw material/essential oils distributor/manufacturer for the fragrance industry) in order to introduce a "behind the scene" labour process on perfumery and what it takes to make a fragrance. I also highlight affordable brands in order for the followers to learn about such options and considering trying those brands out.
On this argument, I also want to remember that the TikTok page in question has a code of ethics I provided in a video. All my positions were clearly explained previously but apparently for trolls that doesn't matter.
If the sentence "no dupes, fakes or unofficial retailers" offends people, I am happy to change it. Weirdly, no one asked before and instead, I received DMs encouraging to continue this type of engagement, as a lot of fashion enthusiasts do with highlighting the dark side of the industry. But I am working to make the bio more clear and inclusive; even if just one troll told me to so, it might be worth reflecting on the bio's perception from the outside.
-While clearly not everyone agrees with my position on dupes etc, and it is more than acceptable, I have never commented on other accounts about their ethics. I have seen genuine engage with this art on TikTok, and I do understand the socio-cultural pressures and desire of owning luxury goods (we've all been through dupes!). Also, when I talk about those content creators, I mean geninune ones. Clearly not the one hosting a nose and then cloning the nose's creations pretending they're better. There are categories of content creators, and especially the small/medium ones deserve to be protected, highlighted and supported.
Since most of the virtual fragrance community is made of amateurs (and this is lovely), it also needs to be understood that due to the nature of the community, few people have an insight understanding of perfumery as an industry and of all its professionals and processes. There is nothing wrong in not having an education on these themes, since they're hopefully not necessary to survive for most of us.
The risk at the same time is recurring to figures that claim certain statements about specific arguments, and while they might be entirely false, if they find the audience it no longer matters.
There is an entire thread from different creators on the app about how fragrances cost pennies to make, for example. While this can be partially true (especially for products with high demands always available), it is not something to be proud of- instead, if such statement is believed from the creator, it should discourage them first from continuing buying fragrances:
but what about materials? human labour? machinaries?
Are we pretending all those professionals are not trained for providing a safe product? And even worse that they're not paid?
And what about the scarcisity of most raw materials? About the climate impact perfumery has on the planet?
Are we sure all those issues can fit always in 3$ per bottle?
- Also, there is a difference in claiming accessibility in fashion and perfumery. While both hold a political and social significance in collective imaginary, fashion is not only a necessity in our society norms and morals, but it's additionally exclusionary as it deals with something more concrete than perfumery: sizes and body shapes/measurements (but does this make perfumery better when both have radicated history within racism and exploitation?).
An example of fast fashions (drawing abstractively on brands like SHEIN, extremely popular on TikTok): most brands have ridicolous sizes options, and the so called "curvy" section offer a fifth of the product range. Instead, SHEIN (due to its winning digital strategies) understood that the clientele would have been wider (and raising more profits) with "vintage", "curvy" sections. To mantain the discourse in a ditigal-influencer world, I recommend checking out the Youtube essay of Mina Le on Shein and its dangerous impact on TikTok. An interesting topic raised by Le interrogates Who is excused to buy from such brands, and I do agree with her position on not shaming people with low income and body sizes which normally are not accomodated (or let's keep it real, they're not accepted) by most of the fashion industry.
The same applies to fragrance, partially. A point the troll raised against me is:"poor people deserve to smell good too." I was really confused with this point. As claimed at the beginning of the disclaimer, I do have contents on affordable brands (often cheaper than clone companies' dupes) or tips on how to avoid blind buying. And weirdly enough, the assumption of me being rich or just wealthy enough to buy tons of fragrances could just come from someone experimenting a post-cartesian hallucination. If there is one thing Gen-ziers are bringing up to older generations is to stop assuming. But apparently this troll is either A) my job boss B) an obsessed bank employee that knows how much I earn and spend.
The point is: the ads we will mostly get from such fast fashion companies are created by influencers with "socially privileged" bodies (by this term I refer to bodies not socially shamed or demonized). Could such influencers engage with different content and promote alternatives to fast fashion? Yes. Do they proceed to engage more consciously with their work? Mostly not, and simply because they also make profit from this type of compulsive consumerism.
-Surprisinly enough, I am now a mature and fully vaccinated adult and work (& still study!) in academia. I deal with different opinions from mine on a daily basis. What my Tiktok, just as this blog, does not tollerate is trolling and bullying, using verbally aggresive language and perpetuating any forms of racism, sexism, homophobic, transphobic, fat-phobic and yes, classist, comments or statements. What we do want is to engage with our readers and have constructive debates. Deliberately offending in order to support personal beliefs only proves the intents of bullying and harming.
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| photo courtesy of HiSoUR |
ACT I: CYBERBULLYING (ANONYMOUSLY) IN THE NAME OF EQUITY (What is classism? What is classism in perfumery?)
But let's get into the main body of this post: the accusation of classism and the following cyberbullism I received (and funnily enough, the troll ended up making classist and sexist comments on my aspect and lifestyle).
On the evening of 21st July, a private account with 0 followers pops up in the comments accusing me of classism and elitism.
I can't of course decontextualize the situation: the comment follows an ironic tiktok on how brands pay and gift certain influencers that will follow to provide clones or discount market sites (part of the grey market) of such brands' products.
Personally, I cannot understand what is going on with this type of marketing strategies and who works in PR for such brands. Isn't that counter-productive?
But was I accusing a brand, or someone specifically? No. Was it meant as a hateful comment on this issue within social medias? No. Egoistically enough, I am not influenced on buying products from those creators so good for them, it probably shows that they're a step ahed of the brands.
Of all the people I know in this industry, no one is happy about the market regulations regarding clone companies and grey market resellers. No brand owner, especially if indipedent or with a small clientele (compared to the giants of the industry of course), wishes to find their products one day on those websites.
And what most of all strikes me is that hardly an influencer will not have an economic affiliation to those resellers. There is a point in every influencer's journey when any request of recommendations must be backed with a sponsored item (well, it's a work and so it should be retributed, but how authentic the content can remain?).
But once again, apologies for the constant interruptions; I will try now to conclude the backup story of this article.
So, for this tiktok I have been accused from a private (suspisciously private) account of classism.
Friends told me to not reply and block the comment immediately, but since the topic is quite discussed in the community, I tried to share again calmly my point of view.
Of course I wasn't pleased being accused of classism.
But what is classism in the perfume community? According to this account, a classist perfume enthusiast is someone that doesn't promote dupe/grey market alternatives and only consumes niche/artistic fragrances, proceeding to shame or exclude other perfume geeks.
Am I one, I proceeded to interrogate myself? According to their definition, I probably am in the first point raised by the troll (which, by the way, the readers of this blog are familiar with the fact I used to buy dupes because I tremendously wanted that Miss Dior and Dior Poison). But if sharing your opinion with providing external resources, knowing in fist person the issues of perfumery industry and also promoting alternative options to dupe consumerism etc I don't think I am one, especially considering the part I dedicated in the disclaimer on this topic. But surely I am partially a classist perfume enthusiast: I don't like certain perfumes, while a lot of fragrance consumers do. I also do not like certain notes, but I am trying to open my mind and admitting certain sweet fragrances are not bad at all.
I was surprised and saddened with this situation. If the troll was more careful, they would have noticed that I own and show mostly samples, discovery sets, travel sizes (none of which costs more than 40 euros), have designer fragrances, but I also do provide when I have time affordable brands or perfume options. In my code of ethics, published in a tiktok and always available to watch, I additionally state that I prefer showing singular products on tiktok than showcasing the entire collection for avoiding an additional exclusionary imaginary. I also had some content on fragrance vocabulary on some perfumery tips and how test the fragrances.
I really had to understand what was classist and exclusionary for the troll.
One thing I have noticed is that most of the trends of showcasing massive perfume collections actually come and are reproduced by western/caucasian people. As I am white myself, and I cannot exclude myself either from this problem, I went back to some of my university BA readings and read about the issue with consumerism in our Western culture and society.
Oxford Languages, the first result on Google, suggests:"prejudice against people belonging to a particular social class."
In social sciences I learnt a wider, more complicated, and actually not definitive definition of such discriminative system. Bourdieu's person of value, Skeggs, Marx's concept of class, Weber's status, Lacant: a universal agreement on what is classism is mostly impossible.
" It is not just a matter of the powerful claiming marginality. Rather, it is about the powerful
showing how well they understand power by playing with it-a matter of having your
authority and eating it. "(Skeggs, Beverly)
I will try to write my own understanding of classism: classism is a political tool used to reinforce and reproduce class discrimation. It's a system based on hierarchies and self-proclaimed "authorities". In order to preserve classism, we need to engage with sociological concepts like demobilization, hierarchical institutions and Bourdieu's collective habitus. A classist fights for preserving their own class "purity" and mantaining the other classes unable to act in a social mobility scheme that partially capitalist system pretends to offer.
Ironically enough, the fairytale told by influencers on the merytocratic system of social medias and my beloved troll's alienation on cancel culture and their conception of equity end up being way more Macchiavellian than my decontextualized approach to grey market or clones, but I will get in details about this Ancien Regime of influencers covered in "reliable" clothing and "achievable" lifestyles in the rext paragraph.
And this point the question is, who forms then the Ancien Regime on social medias and how does it operate? Am I part of that system, as my beloved troll wants me to believe?
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| Kate Moss&Matt Lucas' interpretation of "Chavs"- an example of classism hidden behind TV comedy? |
ACT II: SOCIAL MEDIA'S "ANCIEN REGIME" AND BULLYING PREVENTION CODE'S FAILS
Let's quickly recap the virtual and anonymous encounter with the troll. I am accused of classism by this weirdly anonymous, private, with 0 followers account, known to the community to boost and comment only on bigger accounts, of being a sort of Marie Antoinette of perfumery probably having as a motto in their mind something like the following: ''If they shouldn't use Baccarat Rouge540 dupes, let them buy the original one by MFK at 300$."
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| photo courtesy of Flickr |
By proceding to offer a peaceful dialogue, I received nothing back but assumptions/accusations. The troll is extremely active and energized by being replied to. We end up with 30-40 comments as it was a tennis match but the opponent did not even care of what was going on. They had clearly an assumption on me, and couldn't be discussed. They also decided to end up the conversation with a lovely recommendation for me on stop buying niche perfumes and instead use those money for a manicure (among other recommendations like having a home makeover), as if this wasn't classist, because we all know a manicure is something totally necessary or sticking on a classism note, not at all symbol of a certain class hegemonies and status.
I replied to them in a TikTok separately, and immediately the other keyboard decides they are not being sexist in regards to manicure (when they even assumed I was a woman because I wore a dress and had a "feminine" voice, all characteristics that in 2021, someone woke like them should know are not enough to assume someone's gender) and that I am switching the argument, when I tried in the previous comments to reply.
One of the thing that striked me was how they were so defensive of influencers. Clearly, someone that only hypes those types of accounts, knows their importance on the market. They stated that influencers show dupes because they are asked from their followers. The alienation in such statement really made me think more of an IGTV I listened to about the Social Media's Ancien Regime by sociologist and university professor Giuseppe Tipaldo.
Italy has its own social media house of royals, the so-called "Ferragnez", as US does with The Damelio's etc. and I suppose it's currently a system used and self-proclaimed by the masses on social medias everywhere.
Not knowing well the reality of US, but being familiar with Italian and English Instagram/TikTok "monarchies", the essay elaborated by Professor Tipaldo was extremely premonitory and sociologically accurate.
If at first impact those influencers-social aristocracies appear familiar and relatable, we than get A) alienated and sucked in their politics or B)critical and distant. The myth of meritocracy on social medias is not only boosted in a extremely dangerous way, but funnily enough, carried by what Tipaldo defines the ''Ancien Regime of Social Medias". If we have a look at most of the influencers' background, we learn that even the proclaimed self-made ones actually come from privilege, but interestingly enough, we are raised to believe that the fairytale of meritocracy is something attainable because they tell us that working hard will always brings its results, while omitting their personal story.
The "Ancien Regime of Social Medias" does not make mistakes. And if they do, they will have an army ready to bully you for pointing it out. No matter if you had a racist playlist on Spotify, waisted food of an entire market for a private birthday or wrote transphobic songs- if you will be smart enough to engage with hot topics like perfomative LGBTQIA+ rights allyship or climat change and it doesn't matter how honestly you do it, you will be able to sharpen you army's bullying tactics as soon as someone disagrees (yes, this was based on the Ferragnez).
Social medias are the closest form of anarchy we have, interestingly enough. You don't even need an education or training to talk about any topics. Another interesting case of classism and performative wokeness is what happened to Imen Jane, an italian journalist and founder of a news platform who claimed to have a degree in economics and politics- which, she didn't have. And it doesn't matter if trained journalist or university lecturers use this case as an example of influencer's self-entitlement, because any discordant opinion is not accepted.
I refer to anarchy regarding social medias because the lack of regulations and guidelines is literally killing.
The phenomenon of cyberbullism is growing, and especially teenagers are in a dangerous situation. From crazy Tiktok challenges to cyberbullism attacks, social medias not acting enough to prevent this chain of cowardly violence only provokes the raise of self-harm and suicides due to such uncontrolled guidelines.
No social media platform is doing enough to prevent such tragic episodes.
If my friends suggested to block the troll, I knew it wasn't enough because as soon as Tiktok takes down the comments- and I need to say thank you to my friends for acting when I was naive enough to don't-, a new troll comes out. This time the profile draws on the image a middle class guy in formal clothes, and from the comments, it's clearly a liberal-capitalist fan, invoking the free market as an answer to the satirical tiktok. They also elaborated the previous fail of being immediately noticed as a troll- this time it has two videos uploaded in the last hours (all fragments of movies), two followers and a beautifully pixelled, avarage banker guy photo.
Now, it wasn't as funny as it sounds. The previous troll forced me coming out because of misgendering and assuming my gender identity based just on a dress and my voice. When this happened, I felt once again at the same point I was with my identity in my high school years: not feminine enough, not masculine enough. Couldn't wear a gown and be a man, couldn't have a feminine voice and not be a woman. It felt like going back to school and being bullied for not comforming to gender roles. Because even if virtually, even if social medias make you believe they have your back, it was bullying.
Yet, I was classist according to the troll, but this bullying wasn't anyway close to what classism perpetuates, like sexism or gender stereotypes etc. Or paradoxically making fun of my cultural capital and recurring to verbal violence to teach me how to spend my extra money saved for perfumery- not classist at all, right? There is a fine line between suggesting and aggressively imposing, but again, the troll woul say I am changing argument, I guess.
ACT III: AN ODE TO MY "DISREGARDED" HANDS& CONCLUSIONS
It was a chaotic epopee this post, I am aware of this and I do apologies to anyone that has read to this point- I am truly sorry about this, I hope you had at least fun reading this bizarre report.
I can't pretend what happened didn't force me to doubt about how I am using my Tiktok page and if, in fact, I am not perpetuating myself, consciously or not, classist language.
I will clearly consider changing the bio and make it more inclusive, and definetely will avoid the argument of dupes or gray market (of which you can find external resources at the end of the post) since only trolls engage with it publicly.
What I will definitely stop is answering trolls and anyone that only comments in order to insult or raise toxic behaviors, of which we did agree cancel culture is the main symbol in our contemporary society.
Finally, I want to dedicate few words to my crappy, neglected hands: I am happy that my hands have seen a manicure 4 or 5 times in their existence. I am also happy for my friends that regularely have their nails done and respect me for not doing so.
I am happy that for them manicure is part of self-care just as they understand for me it's not something enjoyable or easy to do.
My hands remind me of when I used to work with soil, plants, and essential oils. And I will forever love them for their chubby and short fingers.
They also leak about my Rheumatoid Arthritis and PTSD to anyone who meets me, and altought I am now able to live well with myself and the rest of the world, those disorders keep remind myself of when I wasn't living with them so easily as a teenager.
I know what bullying is, and most of us do. And more than ever, with the advent of social medias and cyberbullying, we have the responsability to ask social medias to be more strict in their tolleration guidelines.
Everyday teenagers harm themselves or die because of a coward account that bullies them.
And most of the time, social media regulations are not enough- and please keep in mind we are considering the option when these platforms acknowledges the report.
What is social media classism at this point?
Social media classism is mostly dictated by powerful channels and individuals that switch their nature according to trends. Influencers becoming "green" for a premiere while being the first to perpetuate fast fashion industry, when they clearly could do so much to raise awareness and more consciousness on such issues.
Social media classism is influencers pretending to be your friends when they are actually using you and making fun (&profit) of you: in Italy we've seen this recently, with Ferragnez (white, cisgender&hetero and extremely privileged) self-electing themselves improvisely as the faces of the LGBTQIA+ community (weren't they also the same to use transphobic language? have offensive racist playlists on Spotify? They didn't change any of their opinions- they just officially had to switch in order to survive on social medias).
Social media classism is also violently telling you to have a manicure, while accusing you of perpetuating classism.
Social media classism is accusing without contextualizing and being aware of its own content.
But that's already way too long, and I do apologize again for this unnecessary, visceral post. Thanks to each of our readers for being kind and when not understanding our opinions, writing respectfully asking for a clarification.
I am also glad, I guess, to introduce my correct pronouns: they/them. Please don't feel bad if you used to write to us referring to me with she/her pronouns, it wasn't your fault and I wasn't forced until now to clarify my gender identity in order to avoid being abused. We have proudly built an exceptional community that engages in group chats, emails, swaps, letters and meetings. I love each one of you for being the most kind and open human beings the fragrance community could have. I will soon change my pronouns in the website infos.
And please check on your friends and make sure they are safe on any internet platform.
EXTERNAL RESOURCES:
Perfume brands' content against grey market, dupes/counterfeits:
-check out Nasomatto Instagram page, or specifically their videos about their implement trackable system on each perfume bottle, their stances on grey market discount sites, or the problem of unofficial resellers and counterfeits of their products.
Additional tip: always remember, when in doubt about the originality of a product or website, you can contact directly the original brand! For Nasomatto for example, right to: contact@snotbv.com or check out their website page dedicated to this issue.
Articles on grey market:
-China’s Grey & Fake Market: An Insider’s View, by ESSENCIONAL (January 2021)
-The unauthorized flow of designer perfumes across digital marketplaces, by SWATI THAKUR (January 2021)
-HOW and WHY the grey market is harming the luxury fragrance industry, by SCENTCITY (April 2019)
-Neither Black Nor White. It's Grey! How Luxury Brands Can Combat The Grey Market?, by SWATI THAKUR (January 2020)
-Grey market: what is it and what are the solutions for brand protection? — Part I, by DENTSU TRACKING (July 2020)
-The Dirty Secrets of the Grey Market & Fakes, by PERFUME SHRINE (Feb. 2008)
Books& academic articles on Classism:
-Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, by Pierre Bourdieu
-Disgusted subjects: the making of middle-class identities, by Stephanie Lawler
-Heaping blame on shame: ‘Weaponising stigma’ for neoliberal times, by Graham Scambler
-What Makes a Social Class? On The Theoretical and Practical Existence Of Groups, by Pierre Bourdieu (1987)
-Thinking Class, Making Class, by Diane Reay (2005)
-Class, Self and Culture by Beverley Skeggs
-Imagining personhood differently: person value and autonomist working- class value practices, by Beverley Skeggs
-Learning to Labour: How working class kids get working class jobs, by Paul Willis
On Social Medias and their failing policies regarding cyberbullying:
-Social media companies ‘failing young people’ on cyberbullying, on YoungMinds
- Social media firms failing to protect young people, survey finds, on Guardian (2019)
- Social Media Companies' Cyberbullying Policies, (academic article) by Tijana Milosevic (2016)
- Cyberbullying: Bullying in the Digital Age, (book) by Robin M. Kowalski, Susan P. Limber, Patricia W. Agatston
-Social media firms 'failing' to tackle cyber-bullying, on BBC (February 2018)
-Instagram, Facebook and Twitter struggle to contain the epidemic in online bullying, on MarketWatch (2019)
Additional resources mentioned in the post:
-Giuseppe Tipaldo's IGTV on the "Ancient Regime" of Social medias pt.1
