John Galliano's Mel Gibson Problem, Ctd

Judith Thurman connects John Galliano's anti-Semitic rant to his profession:

Galliano lives in the bubble of the high fashion world, a club restricted, almost without exception, to the comely, and the magazines that feature his work have been cleansedif not ethnically, then aestheticallyof bodies that are not superhuman. Galliano, an anointed high priest of chic, has been accused of calling a bar patronwho, for the record, is not Jewisha “dirty Jew face,” and, in the video, called a woman “ugly” and deplored her clothes and grooming. Their physical appearance, in other words, inspired his desire for their extermination. We should perhaps stop to consider to what degree, wittingly or not, the fashion world has the same fascination as the Nazis with eugenics.

About three centuries ago, I wrote a cover essay for TNR on the fascistic aesthetic of Bruce Weber, Herb Ritts, et al. It was a little over-the-top, but there's something there. Ask Leni Riefenstahl.

2006-2011 archives for The Daily Dish, featuring Andrew Sullivan