The glitzy and frightfully expensive Met Gala scheduled for the first Monday of May every year was on the receiving end of a thrashing hours before it kicked off with one critic labeling it as a "vainglorious display of self-congratulatory decadence" despite its charity trappings.
In a harsh column for the Daily Beast, critic Kali Hollway lambasted not only the self-promoting attendees but a press corp that flocks to cover an event emblematic of "late-stage capitalism run amok."
As Holloway pointed out, this year's invite-only event comes at a cost of $75,000 a ticket with tables starting at a cool $350,000. She then hit the breathless coverage it gets as being beyond the pale.
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To bolster her case, Hollway cited the media's over-the-top — and apparently serious — obsession with actress Zendaya's appearance.
"Over the past few days, no fewer than 10 articles fretting about Met Gala co-chair Zendaya’s as-yet unfinished dress have been posted, the most distressed of which notes that 'this news has sent ripples through the fashion community, leaving everyone wondering why and how this could happen,'" she wrote.
Noting we live in a world of "bipartisan support for genocide; rolling back of reproductive, civil, and voting rights; a threadbare social safety net; decades of wage stagnation; tax cuts for the rich; the crushing of unions and labor rights; expansion of the militarized police surveillance state; creeping techno-authoritarianism; untested, unregulated, and unchecked A.I.; entrenched racial inequality and injustice; right-wing and white supremacist extremist violence; and Boeing jet parts falling from the sky like so many dead whistleblowers," she trashed "the frivolous urgency" and "tone-deaf extravagance" that will be on display.
Holloway then concluded, "The headlines, for the night, will crowd out the somber images for just a few hours — offering instead thoughts on who ate and left no crumbs and who is just… crummy. I suppose we should, though only fleetingly, all sit back and take in the Marie Antoinette of it all."
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