The protest is boiling in many places.

Under the hashtag #IchbinHanna, scientists complain on Twitter about fixed-term employment contracts, constant insecurity and professional dead ends.

In an open letter to ARD, around 250 radio play authors complain about their precarious situation.

And interns at ZDF write that the 350 euros they receive per month would contribute to social division: Because you can of course only do such an internship if you can afford it.

Alfons Kaiser

Responsible editor for the section “Germany and the World” and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Magazin.

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Those who want to work scientifically or creatively are often poor.

Because the professional goals of author, scientist, artist, architect or designer are still in great demand.

The supply of young talent by far exceeds the demand.

Many students want to do “something with media” or “something with fashion”.

But the brutal law applies: “The more creative you are, the less you earn.” This is what one of the protagonists in Giulia Mensitieri's book about “The Most Beautiful Trade in the World” says - which, you guessed it, can look pretty ugly.

The law of the unattainable

The general public may be surprised that the fashion scene is teeming with low-paid creatives. You can't see the ones in the shadows: when Gigi Hadid is celebrating up front on the catwalk, there is an underpaid intern behind the stage to help her get dressed. When the multibillionaire Bernard Arnault holds court in the first row at Dior, the stylist of a small fashion magazine sits just two rows behind, who has been sublet in a furnished twenty-square-meter room for a decade.

Fashion is an applied art, but it is also breadless, despite the gigantic profits that at least the large corporations generate with it.

The prospect of a career as a model, designer, stylist or photographer is small.

But the small chances seem to fuel the ambition.

Breaking this law of the unattainable - that is the goal of the ethnologist Mensitieri.

Her committed study, with which she received her doctorate in cultural anthropology at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris, aims to uncover the “precariousness behind the glittering facade of capitalism”.

That sounds suspiciously cheesy - and it is indeed striking.

Otherwise nobody would do the job

The higher the goals, the greater the ability to suffer. Mensitieri illustrates this using the example of stylists who stage lavish photo series for fashion magazines, but who can provide food for the eight contributors to the photo shoots for just twenty euros. Or using the example of design assistants who work for well-known fashion houses who only earn 2000 euros gross, but have to keep all evenings and weekends free for work weeks before the fashion shows.

However, this balance sheet does not include the symbolic capital of “coolness” that the creative minds accumulate.

After all, the “glamor” that comes from such a job is also a reward.

To put it tautologically: Otherwise nobody would do the job.

Even more: Mensitieri himself writes that after such an assistant lean period one can hope for well-paid positions at less well-known fashion brands.

She also admits that no one is forced to do such degrading work - unlike, for example, in India or Bangladesh, where poverty forces them to laboriously in textile factories.

With the means of participatory observation

When it comes to criticism of capitalism à la Mensitieri, the cat bites its tail: the author criticizes “the neoliberal cult of personal freedom”, which trivializes power relations and hides inequalities. But isn't it precisely these inequalities that spur productivity? And isn't it precisely this freedom that motivates everyone? And what is the bitter undertone in the word “freedom cult” supposed to mean? Are we so far removed from times of bondage that we can no longer see the blessings of freedom?

One could also discuss “the constant mobilization of one's own subjectivity in the production process”. Of course, the permeable relationship between life and work is a stress factor, especially when the disguised hierarchies of the fashion scene exploit the emotional zeal of the offspring - Mensitieri describes it very clearly with the means of participatory observation based on many cases. But it's worth taking action against. The many complaints about how models are dealt with led to the fact that the two largest luxury companies, LVMH and Kering, signed a charter in 2017 according to which models must not be underweight and not younger than sixteen years of age.

To see through the creative job profiles in good time, Mensitieri helps better than any career advisor at the employment office.

This book should be required reading in fashion schools.

Which is not going to happen for that very reason, and now we are getting critical of capitalism because these training centers also live off the hopes that feed this industry with sometimes horrific tuition fees.

Giulia Mensitieri: "The most beautiful trade in the world".

Behind the scenes of the fashion industry.

Translated from the French by Lena Müller.

Matthes & Seitz Verlag, Berlin 2021, 335 pp., Hardcover, € 28.