@BeyBaseHQ I’m lowkey not mad Renaissance and cowboy carter were so back to back she can rest, plus the biggest stain to her image at the moment was Jay and this like him rehabilitating his image so by the time she comes back we will be good
Interesting to me that the Met Gala gets compared to the Hunger Games more than the Oscars red carpet or the Super Bowl halftime show. All of these involve spectacle, celebrities, and extreme displays of wealth. Notably, only one of them is a charity for a public institution (the Met Gala, which is a fundraiser for The Met Museum).
The difference, I think, is that the Met Gala leans more into unusual outfits. That's natural, given that it's a fundraiser for a costume institute. But to me, the perpetual criticism — which comes up year after year — speaks to how people see fashion as frivolous and not as "serious" as other corners of culture, such as sports or movies. The more extreme the outfit, the more offends the public, even if such work is an expression of artisanship and craft, no different from an artist creating a painting.
I've said it before, but Western culture has a long history of seeing clothes as frivolous, even if everyone engages in self-fashioning. And it's notable that "serious" areas of culture are often masculine-coded (e.g., architecture), while feminine-coded interests, such as fashion, are considered frivolous.
One can reasonably question whether the Bezos are trying to whitewash their reputation through the fashion industry (although I would note that we are all participating on Elon Musk's platform, so I see some hypocrisy among some who criticize the Met Gala but won't deactivate their accounts). But I also think we can tax the rich and encourage them to donate to public causes, including institutions like the Met. Given my interests, I also think we should take fashion and clothing more seriously. Thankfully, some real researchers and academics are making headway in that regard.