Ruby Blue's Red Flags: The Met Gala
May has rolled round again, and all eyes are on the dystopian display of wealth that we are expected to tune into, admire, and hope maybe one day this will be us on the stairs of theMet. A way to subdue and forget that Israel are not only still committing a genocide within Palestine, they are attempting to colonise Lebanon, both Israel and the USA are still trying to treat Iran as something that they can intimidate for their own benefit, the Epstein files are yet to be fully released and within these files Epstein and Jes Staley (the Barclays CEO) discuss the use of celebrity culture to keep us working class quiet and distracted. A job well done to them.
The Met Gala has always been a hot topic of conversation, especially within the past few years because it is intentionally tone deaf. This year, the conversation feels hotter than ever before; the world is crumbling around us and the man who paid $10million to be the co-chair this year is none other than tech billionaire Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sanchez-Bezos.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise; for the past few years, we have seen them trying to push themselves into cultural relevance and as the purveyors of culture, the Vogue cover being a small glimmer of what was to come. This comes at a time where Amazon are brokering deals with ICE and the Israeli government, making billions of the dollars in the process. All the while his employees are being forced to pee in bottles instead of bathroom breaks; we all know this is the tip of the iceberg.
Outside the Met Gala we had protestors leaving bottles of urine around the museum and projecting a message from 72-year-old Amazon warehouse worker Mary Hill for the rich to face what they are complicit in, with Amazon Union leader Chris Smalls reportedly arrested. Someone who due to his own history with Amazon and Bezos decided to stand up for the better treatment of his (now former) colleagues.
I am not going to praise the celebrities for skipping the Met Gala, but the faces missing were those who had become staples within fashion world and were cultural reference points, and a source inspiration for any aspiring designer.
However, they are the ones that have a semblance of a backbone, and we need to take more notice of who was happy to be in the presence of a man who is actively destroying the planet, treats his employees with such disregard, even when there is a death on the warehouse floor that you, the employee, are expected to work around the body of a colleague.
Culture is about creation; culture is about the appreciation of art and beauty. To paraphrase Matt Bernstein (@mattxiv) if culture about those things, how can a man who is so hellbent on destruction also be the purveyor of what he is destroying and colonising?