The world’s a scary place right now: Tyrannical leaders throwing their weight, climate change, inequality, genocide. But don’t worry about that, focus on the celeb fashion parade instead, writes Tom Cameron.
In The Hunger Games, a key aspect of the series is the disconnect between the wealthy Capital and the impoverished districts. The workers in the districts struggle for the bare essentials, but those in the Capital live extravagant lifestyles. They’re more pre-occupied by vanity and the latest fashion trends rather than the basic needs the rest of the country struggle for.
The films did a remarkable job showing this. Capital citizens rock bright dyed hair, big loud clothing, and all sorts of cosmetic enhancements. It acts as a clear critique, exaggerating the lifestyles of the real-world elites. But over time, it’s felt like less of a hyperbole. Look at a Met Gala outfit, then a Capital citizen from those films. Can you tell the difference?
The Met Gala takes place every year in New York, and all the big names in entertainment come together to show off how unique and avant-garde they look. It also functions as a fund-raiser… for a museum. There are also absurd amounts of money involved.
The main sponsor for this year’s event? Jeff Bezos. The event’s lead chairperson? Fashion legend, Anna Wintour. All this money and extravagance is for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. Not the homeless, the victims of war or genocide, the millions in poverty worldwide. Nope. It’s all for a museum.
The worst part about this all? People eat it up. Every. Single. Year.
There’s always instant discourse and discussion around who shone and who flopped on the red carpet. Not just what they wear, but WHO they wear. Who stuck to the theme? “Oh my god, didn’t _____ look incredible/awful?” It’s bread and circus at its most disturbing.
And of course, it can’t be a celebrity gathering without virtue signalling. Every time I see such things, the Ricky Gervais quote comes to mind, “You’re in no position to lecture the public about anything, you know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg.”
The most infuriating offender this time was actress Sarah Paulson, who has a net-worth of $12 million. She rocked a Matières Fécales gown titled, get this, “The One Percent”, with a dollar bill blindfold across her eyes. Absolute piss-take. You’re attending a $100,000 per-ticket gala, sponsored by one of the wealthiest people on the planet. This level of irony and hypocrisy is on a whole new level, absolutely baffling.
Thankfully though, people are starting to see through it. When it got out that Bezos was involved, there were calls for boycotts, backed by New York’s very own mayor, Zohran Mamdani.
Mamdani is known for his democratic socialist stances and isn’t exactly a fan of billionaires existing. But still, given his platform and how loved he is, it’s cool to see. A man in the mainstream spotlight, a US politician standing on principle? Not sucking up to billionaire-funded vanity parades? Hats off to him.
The whole spectacle just feels disturbing. These celebs can frolic around in fancy (weird) looking outfits, while the ordinary man on the street struggles to pay his bills. It feels like a perfect way of distracting the masses from actual important things happening in the world.
Just remember, the next time you see the never-ending stream that is celebrity culture, that while Jeff and friends party the night away, one of his workers dropped dead on the job last month. The rest were told to look away, carry on as normal, while the body remained there for over an hour.
Sounds like something that’d happen in the Hunger Games…