Celebrities, Met Gala & the guardians of crimes
'Sleeping Beauties', here's the theme of this year's Met exhibition related to the gala and in all honesty it is the most fitting theme and a good reminder that celebrity culture will not save us
As the Israeli government rejected the latest deal and moved forward on the invasion of Rafah, southern Gaza where 1.4 millions people are sheltering, among them 600,000 children who are nearly all sick, malnourished or injured. Don’t be fooled, the invasion happened on the first Monday of May because the Met Gala was happening, distracting millions of people getting excited about seeing which celebrity will be on theme? Which unethical brand, that is also responsible to the misery of children and people in the global South will they be wearing? What iconic line will they say? And if you haven’t clocked yet but the past 7 months, every time a major entertainment event happens on US soils, Gaza is under intense attack by the colonial entity of Israel, and every time it is complete radio silence from the celebrity world when most of them like to claim of being activists and caring about social issues by becoming world’s organisations ambassadors but speaking out only when convenient to them so it can ramp up their popularity but have you paid attention how when celebrities —especially established or big ones — never truly point the finger at the major source of the issue?
Nina Simone said it best
I refuse to believe that majority of the celebrities have no idea that capitalism is actually causing all the problems in this world. I refuse to believe it because celebrities do benefit from this capitalistic system, so of course you are not blaming the very element allowing you to hoard a lot of money. It is not a joke when we say that the moment someone gets really rich and/or a celebrity, out of touch-ness starts plaguing them, suddenly humility is not something they really know any more, and the entire goal is to keep making as much money as possible and the richer they get, the greedier and nastier they get. We have plenty of example I could list, but the latest Epstein and Diddy highly exposed debacles are enough to illustrate my case. Don’t get me wrong, filthy rich people getting away with crimes because they can buy out the justice is not new, just super frustrating because what is really the point of justice if you can buy your way out of it?
But what frustrates even more is that capitalism has had such a chokehold and grip in the celebrity world, so many of them have literally sold their souls to the most depraved corporations for a quick buck whilst at the same time praising to be all for equality and change for a better world. But let me be nuanced a bit here, because celebrities can also have their hands tied because of those corporations and that’s something we have been witnessing the past 7 months, many celebrities have not spoken up about the ongoing genocide happening, the most some of them have done was join a picket line and then have gigs scrapped because they decided to support a cause that is not aligning with the entertaining industry because humanising Palestinians is a little too much for them. Some even risked being dropped by their management for sharing a link for UNRWA on their bio on Instagram (mind you, Melissa Barrera has been very vocal since day 1 and never backed down through the pressure, bless her, and she deserves support so go watch her latest film Abigail). Some have straight up admitted that they were told not to express anything about Palestine, or they might be fired from their current project and jeopardise future opportunities. As you can see, the entertainment industry is keeping its people very tight-lipped on serious matters, and it has been very disappointing to say the least, especially from celebrities who made a name being pretty vocal on social issues. But this has shed a light on how performative activism is within the entertainment realm, and it is not new, this very industry has been designed to be a distraction so we, the people stay busy stanning people who would certainly never know we exist, but we are keeping them afloat and allowing them to live off their dreams because without our support and investments in everything they put out, they wouldn’t be able to live the lavish lives we all drool over.
All that raised a series of questions that I won’t cite here because this article would be a whole academic dissertation and that is not the goal. I want, nonetheless, note how celebrities actually don’t really represent the time we actually live in, rather than give a more polish and sanitised look to it. Miss Nina Simone stated: “An artist’s duty, as far, as I am concerned, is to reflect the times.” And we can very much agree that this duty is fulfilled by a very daring few. This tiny bunch of artists who do the work to shine light on important issues that are plaguing our world and are calling out the very source of that plague will be vindicated by history just like Nina Simone has been and other radical peers who are today celebrated for standing up for what is right.
2024 Met Gala, a real life “Hunger Games”
Monday, May 6th 2024 took place the most famous fashion night of the year. Every year, on the very first Monday of May, The Met Gala gathers a star-studded crowd under a theme to raise money for the Met Museum. And a decent amount of money is raised that night as fashion houses bring in celebrity guests on a booked table for the event. As an everyday person, you can too be part of that soirée if you have some spare $75,000 for a ticket (and that is the starting price!). Not only is this dinner very exclusive because the majority of us don’t have that kind of money but this year in particular with the genocide going on in Gaza, it felt very bleak and out of touch! Someone on X (formerly twitter) had pointed out how a Met Gala ticket would have evacuated 15 Gazans trapped to their death camp in Rafah. Many were comparing how dystopian the whole situation was: as western media were all eyes in New York celebrating millionaires and billionaires flaunting their wealth attending this event, Gazans were being maimed, unalived and scooped up in pieces from the bombing. I mentioned it in the introduction of this article that every time there has been a major event on US soils, Israel chose that specific moment where eyes were distracted to commit the most heinous crimes we could have imagined.
Suzanne Collins, the author of the trilogy book The Hunger Games, explained she drew inspirations after a night channel-surfing on the TV and seeing entertainment happening juxtaposed to footage of the Iraq war. It was so unsettling to watch, it inspired her to come up with a similar story taking place in a dystopian and post-apocalyptic society where there is a wealthy, technology-driven Capitol city and 12 impoverished districts. Every year, 2 kids of those 12 districts are selected to take part in a televised game called The Hunger Games. They have to fight each other until death just to entertain the rich and wealthy of Capitol city. If it reminds you of gladiator like entertainment they had in the Roman times, well, Collins also got inspired by that era!
Fun fact, Effie Trinket’s dress she wore on The Catching Fire film (above GIF) is at this year’s Met exhibition, further establishing how this event is truly our real life Hunger Games, and it’s not the first time that this comparison has been made, every time there is a massive societal event that leads to massive protest, comparisons with the Hunger Games, and it never fails, after all Collins did take inspiration from real life events.
On X, people did not miss to point out how hundreds of protesters who came down to call out the gala were met with police with barricades for a few blocks leading to the event. This highlighted not only how the police has been called over to protect the bourgeois class and rid them of the inconvenience to see the horrid events they are letting happen.
Condé Nast is more nasty than condé
A condé is a diamond, hence the pun of this subtitle, lol.
On a similar vein, Condé Nast, owner of magazines like Vogue, has been dealing with the rightful anger of their unionised workers demanding better working conditions. The demands have been on going for years now, and they invited the higher ups to join them around the table or being met by a picket line the day of the Met Gala. Dreading having their prestigious guests walk the picket and feeling uncomfort, the union managed to secure a tentative agreement on their first contract, demanding fair wedges and a halt to constant lay-offs because Condé Nast does not want to pay its employee fairly and just want to make sure that those employees make the higher ups the most profits. Just like the slogan says: “Anna wears Prada, workers get nada” because apparently, the people making the magazine stay afloat are not really worth it…
Celebrity culture needs to die
It is time we admit that celebrities are not truly our friends, but they are not interested in seeing true change. As long as they will benefit from neoliberal capitalism, change will not come from them. Celebrities represent the bourgeois class, they need us more than we need them. If we don’t buy tickets to see them live or at the theatre or buy their merch or whatever new endeavours they embark on, they are not able to be making all they are making to live comfortably. The celebrity class wants to cosy up with the billionaires class and do business with them in hope to join them, they do not care about us, they pretend to do so because, again, they need us more than we need them so they can keep their status and wealth to get wealthier. Celebrities do not want to be in community with us, and it is time we do the same. They are willing to keep it shut or turn a blind eye to a genocide to protect their capital, even though it means looking completely heartless. After all, when you think of it, you have to have no heart to be OK to hoard a huge amount of wealth and believe you deserve it all, just like in “The Hunger Games” actually.