We Need To Talk About This Year's Met Gala

I've been a bit torn about whether or not to even make this video. So, what I thought I'm going to do is I'm going to approach this with less of a "Oh my god, look at all these cool dresses. Here is the best dress list." and instead, we're going to focus on the fact that this is a cultural event that happened and we're just going to do some commentary on it. So, year after year, the Met Gala is slowly turning from a wholesome charity event to a dystopian opulent Hunger Games show off. No wonder we are less and less invested in what rich people are doing. Why would we care? And it's a bit sad because the Met Gala used to be a celebration of fashion and creativity and it still is, but is it ethical to celebrate fashion when your country is actively at war that it started? Is it ethical when the event is sponsored by the fourth richest man in the world? But then, if the answer is to boycott, what happens in the future? If billionaires buy all the museums, do we just stop going? What happens when art is overtaken by the rich? There is also a lot of voices being raised about whether or not events like these are even appropriate given how many horrible things are going on in the world. I feel like this is an old argument and this is a dangerous argument in a way because whenever a new building is planned in my city, a museum, a culture institution, whatever, everyone is always like, "Okay, but given this and then this, should we be spending money on such frivolous things? " And the answer I genuinely don't know. Like, I know that people need to eat. People deserve to live in dignified living conditions. And there is always something more pressing than art. But then, if we always wait for the right moment to give money to art, this moment might never came. Art, and especially fashion, is usually seen as something frivolous, as something a a bit silly compared to other things we consume culturally like let's say sports. I don't think anyone was trying to cancel the Winter Olympics just because people can't afford groceries. The cost of hosting the Met Gala is apparently around $10 million and the newest Spider-Man movie coming out this year cost $275 million, but I don't see anyone complaining about it as being something too frivolous to produce in the current climate. Of course, as I said, with the Met Gala there are other dilemmas involved, but it is no secret that when it comes to this particular criticism of spending money extravagantly, fashion often gets much worse treatment than other forms of entertainment. At the same time, there's probably no other event that is so opulent and vain as the Met Gala.