Happy Met Gala Think Piece Day to All Who Celebrate

I had another topic in mind for this newsletter, but in the interest of timing relevancy, we're writing off the cuff today. I also think that I personally need to practice taking things less seriously, so thank you all for leaving space for me to push myself. I do not take your being here for granted. ❤️

I spent yesterday morning grabbing coffee with a friend instead of letting the responsibilities of Monday take over immediately (if you're my work reading this: I worked my regular hours). It played out the usual way that coffee with friends often plays out, we catch up on our last X amount of time since we saw each other, we lamented about having to go to work afterwards. Though somewhere in the middle, she jokingly said, "happy Met Gala Monday, if you celebrate", positive that I didn't.

I always think it's kind of funny that my friends always assume I'm uninterested in the Met Gala. Some of them are even shocked when I tell them. It's probably because I'm uninterested in celebrity in general or maybe because it's hard to hold one conversation with me in which I don't hate on the rich at least once. But the truth is actually, perhaps shockingly (maybe not after this newsletter): I love the Met Gala.

My love comes from the fact that there are few other days of the year that people are talking about art as much as they do on Met Gala Monday. Of course, there are other times when people talk widely about art, like when a movie like Sinners sweeps the culture or when an album rocks the industry.

But there's something that I love about the Met Gala, where everyone knows that each piece is custom made (Tailored for You, even), where many designers and stylists are showcased at once, all creating something to a set theme. The discussions of the visions, the critiques, the excitement, the protests outside, the fundraiser, the fight for preservation of history, the hatred, the inordinate display of wealth against the backdrop of our loss of social safety nets. It all swirls together in this big mess of a conversation within the culture to the point that the event itself becomes an art installation in our museum of culture.

Good art is art that asks questions, and art is important because it starts those conversations. Because there is a deeper truth that can be communicated through metaphor. Indeed that's why progressive art and radical art is so much better than what conservatives & AI will ever be able to create. It speaks to each of us on a deeper level than what words alone can communicate (a note to my beloved book people: stories are also deeper than the words alone, you're not being excluded here, I swear). And boy does the Met Gala start conversations.

When one of my group chats figured out that I was also excited about the Met Gala, everyone reacted like they were holding their breath. "Amanda? Engaging in pop culture? An event that spotlights the rich celebrity? Even though people protest it every year?" And I've been laughing about it all day even today because I am eternally grateful to have friends who are so confident in my moral compass. I hope to never take that for granted. There are many, many incredibly valid criticisms of the Met Gala and it is precisely because of these criticisms that I love it.

The spaces in which we exist are infinitely more gray than social media will make it seem. We only get so many characters to get attention on Threads, TikTok videos can only be 10 minutes, but who watches a 10 minute video anyway? If you don't have a hook, you're out of luck for engagement. A hot take or "breaking news" will always garner more views than, say, a newsletter like this one. Plus, It's far easier and catchier to say, "stop paying attention to the rich" without paying any mind to the many diametrically opposed truths that make up the Gala that I think are far more fascinating to talk about.

Sometimes I think that we're so eager to have a right answer as quickly as possible that we miss out on entire conversations. If we shut down the conversation before it's even able to exist, what growth could we be missing out on? I love the Met Gala because it exists in such a satisfying amount of grey with such a big amount of attention that it has me Thinking for days. These types of conversations, where multiple incongruent truths exist side by side, is where we expand our understanding of the world the most. Sometimes madness like this is the best place to understand our world. You could say that's good art. Let's spiral.

The Met Gala is a fundraising event that raises money for The Costume Institute of the Met, the museum's only self-funded department. It's technically called The Costume Institute Benefit, fun fact. But why is it self funded when all other departments are funded? Great question. People will often attribute it to the fact that most people don't really consider fashion to be art or worth the conservation efforts that The Costume Institute meticulously puts into their work. As is often the case with things that are attributed to anyone besides cis men. This conservation work is where fashion, science, and history meet. Top experts study materials and develop new methods to preserve pieces of our past, a very museum thing to do, and yet it remains unfunded by the MET.

And so, The Costume Institute must raise money on their own and so here we are. But is the gala fundraising model even still relevant in today's day and age? How much money must be spent on frivolities that will go to waste after the event is over to raise money for this event? Probably way too much. One thing about the gala fundraising model is that it very obviously favors large donations rather than individual ones, therefore favoring people who have the means to donate such large amounts. But also, would we the people be able to crowd fund for this amount of money? Who knows. Is it better that they get the money from people who have money to spare rather than asking us? Again, it's a great question.

When you make all of your money off of special events, there's this urge to do it bigger and better every time. We need to make sure that the big hit donors will continue returning. I mean, would the Met Gala be the Met Gala if all of these people stopped showing up? But do we really need to be pandering the a room full of zionists who are wearing designs from companies owned by families who used to affiliate themselves with nazis? Before it was bad to affiliate that way, of course (scream). Or companies who have their wealth because of exploited labor? Or do we really need to be put on in the same city where people are actively struggling to put enough food on the table and/or stay housed? But of course, that's every city in America.

But by setting a theme to the dress code that compliments the theme of the exhibition, all attendees are encouraged to wear their own costumes. Costumes that pay tribute to fashion and history. And with a stage as large as the Met Gala, the pieces get political, as art tends to do intrinsically. In the Gilded Glamor, celebrities of color paid tribute to the working class workers that their families would have worked in. For The Garden of Time, we saw notes of our current climate crisis in the attire.

This year, the entire theme pays tribute to Black Dandyism, centering Black contributions to art, culture, and fashion. Janelle Monae literally broke free from the confines of the box that she has been placed in on the carpet. Stunning. But are these art pieces somehow more valuable than the street graffiti that says "never trust a politician"? Definitely not. But are more people talking about it? Absolutely, but is that enough? Another great question. I don't know but I'll say one thing, I sure did learn a lot about Black fashion the last few days.

But isn't any discussion on art good discussion on art? Especially when we've been defunding arts for generations and more recently attacking the Department of Education as a whole? Even if it has to be at the expense of paying attention to the rich people? But it's likely they gain more than us from this discussion. So maybe not?

And yet, I continue to be inspired. Inspired enough to write a newsletter and send it out in a single day (fingers crossed for me still at this point, but as you read this it will be true). Inspired enough to finish my latest YouTube video so I could go watch the stream to see how other people manifested their interpretations of the theme (ps. if you click, you can be one of the lucky 31 people to watch that video). Inspired enough to create that I can make jokes about how few views that is and genuinely not care at all, because I was able to be creative and I love being creative.

And that's the thing, isn't it. Creativity is an enemy of conservative values, because conservative values are about conforming over expressing. Because critical thinking takes a lot of creativity actually. And I guess we're back to my whole schtick. Encouraging each other's creativity will help get us out of this. And I think you likely hear me here, but just to make sure, I don't mean the creativity of the A-list celebrities at the Met Gala. I mean the creativity of those of us who watched who feel a spark of their own creativity from watching how other people's visions manifest into clothing.

I'm starting to fear that in my time constraint I don't have enough time to finish this newsletter. Let me try to find an end to this spiral.

I have a list of key idea bullet points that I wanted to get to that I haven't even gotten to. Like how fashion is always political. Likely it's one of the most political choices you make each day. Or how in recent years the most political thing about fashion is that we're flooding our planet with fast fashion made of plastic put together by slave labor. Or that there's a real discussion to be had with the way that we hold our history and knowledge within the towers of privately held institutions. But again, in the interest of trying to allow myself to write these off the cuff, I'll spare you.

I guess the question is, where is the line where the damage done by these institutions cannot even be bothered with these conversations? Where all that we're doing is continuing to uphold so many of these institutions that have spent their existence oppressing us? Where it is so bad there's no conversation to be had? I'm not sure. I don't know if there's an answer to that. Perhaps this newsletter is my way of justifying to myself that I know there are many things wrong with the event, so it's okay to like it, in a "guilty pleasure" type of way. I'm not sure, but I do know that the act of writing is freeing, and this newsletter is, for better or worse, inspired by the Met Gala.

By the way, my second favorite holiday is Superbowl Halftime Think Piece Day, the day after the Superbowl. I hope you'll celebrate that one with me next year.