Liberal Hollywood stars and musicians descended upon the Metropolitan Museum of Art one week ago, showing off either too much or too little clothing and revealing the recipients of Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour’s annual Nice List.
What this year lacked in pizzazz — no politicians flaunted their ethics violations in dresses with “Tax the Rich” emblazoned across the derriere — it made up for in a classic bit of liberal hypocrisy.
This year’s theme honored Karl Lagerfeld, the legendary Chanel designer who died several years ago. Lagerfeld was undoubtedly a talent, but he came with his own set of baggage. Known for complaining about liberal darlings such as the #MeToo movement and anti-fat-shaming, the designer was no stranger to controversy.
And yet you didn’t see Lizzo complaining when she got her red-carpet invite.
Famously wrong about many things, actress Jameela Jamil made an insightful point about the entertainment and media’s willingness to put aside their standards for a night of glamour.
“Last night Hollywood and fashion said the quiet part out loud when a lot of famous feminists chose to celebrate at the highest level a man who was so publicly cruel to women, to fat people, to immigrants, and to sexual assault survivors,” she said on Instagram. “And all the women’s publications, and spectators online, chose to gleefully ignore it. Suddenly your appetite to find someone’s tweets from when they were 12 has gone.”
She added in her caption:
“This isn’t about cancel culture. It’s not even about Karl. It’s about showing how selective cancel culture is within liberal politics, in the most blatant way so far. It’s about showing why people don’t trust liberals. Because of slippery tactics and double standards like this. And it’s not just Hollywood here, the general public online participated and were entirely complicit in the erasure of the truth last night. They replaced their pitchforks with spoons last night, to lap that s*** right up. … If we carry on like this, don’t be shocked when we lose the next election.”
When normal people get fired for small mistakes seemingly every day, it’s ridiculous for the rules of cancel culture to apply only to a select few. If you have the misfortune of being conservative, failing to fall into some protected racial or gender identity category, or never having designed dresses for the rich and famous, the rules are clear: Conform, or we’ll turn you into a pariah. But if you merely fit the aesthetic of someone who has all the right opinions, you clearly have nothing to worry about.