Anita Roddick died. I feel quite sad today. The Body Shop was a huge and unusually powerful thing when I was growing up in the greedy, finance-driven 80's. The very presence of a woman-owned big business that had some heart and was focused on ethical trading and ecological awareness was a strong influence on my developing radical feminism. I gloss over what happened next: all the accusations of selling out and secret exploitation. I forgive her pushing of the "beauty" message that I now find so loathsome.
Anita Roddick was, for a long time, a strong and generous woman whom I very much admired. And so, today I shall mourn her passing.
2 comments:
I felt just the same when I heard she's died. Probably because it was so sudden and unexpected. I still really admired her, despite all the accusations etc, she was a great woman.
Yep, that's about what I feel. i note that many of the critics are mentioning the downsides of the company buy out. But that's not what i'm going to remember her for. Cheers!
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