fashion no no??in the usual procrastination routine this evening, while perusing google news, i came across this article about dunkin donuts pulling an advertisement of rachael ray, because folks were protesting her choice to wear a scarf affiliated with "terrorism."
i already thought, man this is stupid -- do right wing folks reeeeeaaally think that if the girl-next-door-turned-food-network-star-turned-entrepreneur dons a scarf that [doesn't really] resemble arab attire, that's gonna send a message that dunkin donuts (and therefore mainstream america) is pro-terrorist? it went from dissing obama for not wearing a flag pin, and now this...
and THEN, i realized one of the folks behind this protest is the one and only michelle malkin -- filipina known for backing japanese internment camps, anti-immigration, and just plain wiggity wack wack. here's some classic quotes from her conservative blog about the ad:
the keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad. Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant (and not so ignorant) fashion designers, celebrities and left-wing icons.
ok, so i realize that urban outfitters has helped in this fashion trend. and that there are folks who could care less about where their fashion trends come from nor do many folks have the desire to understand the culture these stylistic choices represent -- i.e. asian tattoos, hip hop, gwen stefani's harajuku girls, etc. that i will give to malkin. but the rhetoric of "murderous palestinian jihad" and "beheading and hostage-taking" -- hmmmm, really?? it's one thing to understand where fashion trends come from, and how culture is commodified for consumers; it's another thing to censor stylistic choices in the name of patriotism, fear, and racism.
malkin goes ahead to reference various celebrities, including kanye west, who have sported the "hate couture." (YOU'RE talkin about hate, malkin?) she then clenches the moment to put in a plug for her favored presidential candidate:
So has Meghan McCain [worn a scarf], daughter of the GOP presidential candidate, who really ought to know better given that her dad positions himself as the candidate best equipped to "confront the transcendent challenge of our time: the threat of radical Islamic terrorism.
and then there's my favorite part of her commentary, where she responds to what she considers left-wing criticism of dunkin donuts yanking the ad:
It's just a scarf, the clueless keffiyeh-wearers scoff. Would they say the same of fashion designers who marketed modified Klan-style hoods in Burberry plaid as the next big thing?
Fashion statements may seem insignificant, but when they lead to the mainstreaming of violence -- unintentionally or not -- they matter. Ignorance is no longer an excuse. In post-9/11 America, vigilance must never go out of style.
since when are right wing folks like malkin concerned with fighting racism or any symbolic representation of it? how is malkin going to back japanese interment camps -- a systematic and public demonstration of racism, and then decry the ku klux clan as harmful? and how about we start to think about how many people have died because of violence in war across the world, as opposed to the "mainstreaming of violence" supposedly symbolized by a flippin scarf?
i seriously need to read up on michelle malkin and figure out how this pinay (do i call her that?) came to think the way she does.............
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addition:
from epicurian.com, some good commentary on the keffiyeh:
of course, malkin glosses over the fact that the kaffiyeh is a staple of arab wardrobes all over the middle east (jordanians prefer red-and-white ones, kuwaitis all-white ones, etc.), not simply among those using violent means to create a palestinian state. simply saying that anyone who wears a kaffiyeh is demonstrating solidarity with islamic terrorists is like saying anyone who wears a beret believes in cuban-style communism as espoused by che guevara. true, arafat made it his trademark, but it's critical to remember that to a vast number of arabs, the kaffiyeh's basically just another kind of hat, and that to equate kaffiyeh-wearers with terrorists sets a dangerous precedent in a country that should have learned by now the pitfalls of underestimating the complexities of arab (and muslim) cultures.
unless, of course, malkin actually is saying that all kaffiyeh-wearing arabs are jihadists and terrorists, which is certainly something she'd conceivably say.
WORD.
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