Radicalized by the Met Gala

Typically occurring on the first Monday in May, the 2021 Met Gala took place on September 13th, 2021; It had been delayed for nearly a year and a half, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Apparently, this highly contagious and deadly virus did not affect wealthy and famous invitees walking the through the arrivals tent — just the staff and crew working onsite. Known as “fashion’s biggest night out,” the Met Gala is a fundraising event for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. So yes, it is a costume party for the costume section of the museum.

In the shadow of the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and a botched Afghanistan exit, somewhere in between Delta and Omicron, kids and parents faced frustrations with new in-person learning protocols, NYC continued to see thousands of COVID hospitalizations per week, and the masks at the the Met Gala came off, as did my own rose-colored glasses.

But this isn’t just about COVID hypocrisy–I think the “rules for thee, but not for me,” theme has been very well established by elected officials and celebrities alike over the past two years. In contrast, the 2021 Met Gala theme, “In America: a Lexicon of Fashion” invited guests to explore “American Independence,” and this proved much more challenging for the privileged class to interpret. In fact, it looked a lot more like a Hunger Games Capitol party than any recognizable tribute to something as uniquely notable as American Independence.

Amidst this night of nonsense and failed interpretations of the evening’s supposed theme, three looks really stood out as special–especially hypocritical. Genuinely insulting, tone-deaf, and beyond parody. All three of these looks have something in common; they feature fabulously witty three-word slogans that can be turned into hashtags to change the world. “Activism,” as I think the laptop class likes to call it. Cara, Carolyn, and Alexandria’s fearless activism brought them all the way up the steps of the Met on this much anticipated evening. If only we could all be so humble and brave as to boldly bear the burden of attracting attention at the Met Gala in the midst of a global pandemic. For what cause? Feminism? Equality? “Stick it to the man?” “The working class”?

One might say that model Cara Delevigne’s career, from Victoria’s Secret angel to Hollywood actress, has been fueled by the patriarchy. The phrase "Peg the Patriarchy" itself was trademarked by Luna Matatas in Canada in 2017. This look for Cara Delevinge was designed by Dior for the 2021 Met Gala. Neither the House of Dior nor Cara credited Luna, the original artist and trademark holder.

U.S. representative for New York’s 12th congressional district, 76-year-old Carolyn Maloney’s "Equal Rights for Women" look was designed by Antonios Couture. This elderly woman defied her city’s own mask mandate to attend this event unmasked; visibly smiling for press and photos was seemingly worth the risk of contracting COVID-19. Meanwhile, children in her district and across all five boroughs would continue to mask 8 hours a day at school and eat lunch socially distanced, outside, well into November. Children documented here were eating lunch outside on the ground in Park Slope on a 34* day.

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez's “Tax the Rich” ensemble was created by Aurora James, designer and girlfriend of billionaire Benjamin Bronfman. An immigrant from Canada, Aurora grew her business, Brother Vellies, with help from passionate and overworked unpaid interns. of the 2021 Met Gala, despite receiving $41,666 in pandemic relief aid, she owed $62,722 in fines for not carrying workers comp insurance, $103,220 to the IRS, $30,000 in unpaid retail space rents, and $2,504 in property taxes on her recently purchased $1.6 million dollar LA residence.

In the aftermath of the arrivals coverage, I scrutinized these images, searching for a cryptic message, a sign–surely these women could not really be serious about the cheap and cheeky slogans emblazoned on their vests, their capes, or their trains carried up the stairs by faceless staffers. Surely, they must be in on the joke. But no, I realized the joke was on me. The elites were mocking me, mocking millions of everyday Americans as we struggled to get back on our feet after 18 months of death counts, job losses, and pandemic protocol whiplash. Mocking us as we tuned into this event as some sort of beacon of hope, some majestic symbol of a return to normalcy–a normalcy which still has not returned–as children face an explosion of mental health crises and delayed development, crime in every major US city escalates–all the way down to the NYC subway, and as thousands of small businesses continue to be forced out of existence due to COVID, corporate greed, and the rising costs of rent and raw materials.

I took a six-month-long hiatus from social media during the first half of 2021. I thought that might have cured me of my youthful fangirl instinct to hold up celebrities, influencers, and high-profile media figures as something to aspire to or take social cues from. However, the magical cultural moment I still sought as I tuned into the 2021 Met Gala coverage proved I had not yet been cured of this sad sickness. Whatever I was looking for on that Monday night–a thread of hope for the fashion industry, compassion or empathy for all that had been lost over the previous 16 months, or any sense of conceptual or aesthetic adherence to the evening’s theme, was not found. Instead, I finally saw the Met Gala for what it was: a clown show costume party enshrouded by a sea of hypocrisy–trolling the plebs while we look on and applaud, like, and comment.

The 2022 Met Gala theme and forthcoming exhibit is entitled, “In America: An Anthology of Fashion.” Guests have been directed to embody the grandeur, and perhaps the dichotomy, of Gilded Age New York. Not familiar with the Gilded Age? This term for the post-Civil War American industrialization period of 1870–1890 was coined by Mark Twain. A show by the same name, written by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes, was released on HBO this year, and it is a charming and splendid show to behold. Might I suggest streaming this fabulous historical fiction series instead of the Met Gala arrivals? Or perhaps reading Mark Twain’s own novel on the subject, “The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today,” which satirizes the greed and political corruption in post-Civil War America. I for one will not be streaming any live Met Gala coverage or taking any more talking points, moral guidance, or social cues from wealthy, costumed, corporate shills breaking their own rules while telling me how to live my life.