How body shaming drives mindless consumption and the importance of self-affirmation in eco-living

Nov 14

How do modern day pressures around body image relate to sustainability? With eco living often focused on the negatives—on what we're not doing enough of and how we're falling short of being perfect—why is it so important to let ourselves feel good about what we do and tell ourselves that we're okay and we're doing enough?

Sharing her wisdom today is Marieke Eyskoot, a sustainable fashion and lifestyle expert, sought-after speaker, consultant, and Co-Founder of the International Fair Fashion Trade Show, MINT. With over 15 years of experience in the field, she was nominated as Amsterdam's Citizen of the Year and more recently authored the comprehensive guide to sustainable living, This is a Good Guide. Let's dive in.

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This is a conversation on Green Dreamer Podcast with Kaméa Chayne, a show exploring environmental and intersectional sustainability from ideas to life. Subscribe to Green Dreamer on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or any podcast app and let’s learn what it takes to thrive in every sense of the word!

Highlights

[2:14] What first inspired Marieke's passion for the environment.

[3:43] What led Marieke to work in sustainability.

[6:36] Kaméa: "Why do you think fashion has become so meaningless today, to where people just go buy things in stores without considering the story behind what they're buying?"

[7:42] Marieke: "So many industries — fashion, beauty, food — focus on making us feel as bad about ourselves as we can, to then offer, of course, the solution, which is buying a product... whether it's clothes, a new "it" bag, a new lipstick, diet products, or anything that will make us feel better. But we didn't feel bad about ourselves in the first place because of our own feelings—they made us. So I think this is a link between sustainability and body image that needs to be focused on a lot more."

[11:42] What motivated Marieke to start the international fair fashion trade show, MINT.

[13:38] Kaméa: "What was one of the most stressful or difficult moments for you as you were working on MINT?"

[15:11] Kaméa: "How do you think we can support the sustainability and ethical fashion space to grow if there are less dollars left to be pumped into the marketing side of things?"

[16:40] Marieke talks about her book, This is a Good Guide.

[18:56] Marieke: "It was really important to me with this book that I didn't want anyone to get the feeling that you needed to become a saint or to become perfect."

[20:03] Kaméa: "How do you think we can get over perfectionism in this space and worrying too much about what other people think, to just focusing on ourselves and what we can do to improve?"

[23:02] Kaméa: "What do you think we can do as individuals to help foster this more welcoming environment for everybody?"

[23:41] Marieke: "When it comes to sustainability issues... we need to make sure we treat each other with an open and welcoming mind."

[25:06] Marieke on her favorite, lesser-known eco-living tip.

[28:47] Kaméa: "What do you think we need most today in order to accelerate toward a more sustainable world?"

[28:53] The relationship between body shaming and sustainability.

References

Clean Clothes Campaign

Keep in Touch

Marieke Eyskoot

Tips

To follow: @i_weigh, @diversity_rules, and@mattzhaig

Words of inspiration: "A lot has changed since I started this 15 years ago and people are much more aware of these issues."

Health tip: "I try to move as much as I can."

Green tip: "I'm an ambassador for Plastic Free Month in the Netherlands."

Element of hope: "The amount of questions I get."

Words of Wisdom: "You are okay. You are great. And you've got so much power to make so much change for yourself and for others. Thank you so much for being you and for making a difference."