Certainly High Culture and Fashion are not my areas of expertise but there area few observations I want to make about the controversy surrounding this year’s Met Gala. At the fund raiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art a number of celebrities wore fashion that was inspired Catholic Regalia. This took place in hand with the exhibition Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.

There have been voices raised protesting that their religion is not an excuse for someone else’s fancy dress. I can understand that viewpoint, though not a member of the Catholic faith, nor of any organized religion, those of the faith feel quite strongly, passionately, and deeply about their beliefs. I can see how it would appear as trivializing one of the core aspects of their identity.

But I also wonder how many of those people protesting the eroticism of these alter regalia gave any thought to cultures beyond their own?

When people think of American Indians one of the most comment images is of the elaborate feathered headdress, or of the tribal dances, but these are part of their religious practices. It is their regalia and that iconography is used for selling products and sports franchises. Do these same people hurt and insulted by the Met Gala speak up in support of the tribes who feel the same way about their culture?

Naturally I do not think that there should be a law on this. The people at the Met Gala have a right of expression, just as those who protest what was expressed. One thing I do believe is that if you are making an argument from principle and then you need to make is fairly otherwise you are simply placing your comfort and your outcomes above those of others.