Thomas's Reviews > Strip Tees: A Memoir of Millennial Los Angeles

I found this overall an engaging and well-written memoir. Kate Flannery writes about her time working at American Apparel and how she witnessed the blurring of lines between sexual liberation and outright exploitation. There’s an entertainment factor in this memoir that’s derived from the kind of glitzy glamor LA millennial lifestyle, intersecting with the struggle to make it as a young woman in a corporate world still dominated by men.

I think one theme that this book addresses particularly well is the pressure between adhering to your values or loosening up on your values so you can get money to feed yourself and pay rent. Without a doubt Dov, the CEO of American Apparel, created a misogynist, exploitative work environment. At the same time, Flannery reflects on multiple points throughout the book about her own perceived complicity in the American Apparel system (e.g., recruiting other young women to this hostile environment) – though it’s not like she just had another job that could sustain her at a whim’s notice. Perhaps it’s a testament to how capitalism can intersect with other systems of power such as patriarchy.

I give this four stars instead of five because the writing, while relatively engaging, didn’t wow me at any point. I liked it though and I can see people who came of age in the 2000’s resonating with this one.