By Shaia Culligan
This year was the 78th Met Gala which took place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York. The Met Gala is always on the first Monday of May and this year people seemed to lack interest in the Met.
Every year the Met Gala has a new theme so influencers, celebrities, billionaires, etc can show up in their coolest outfits. This year, the theme was “Costume Art” which means trying to capture a piece of art in an outfit. For example, Sabrina Carpenter’s outfit was inspired by the film “Sabrina” which came out in 1955.
But why did so many people lack interest this year? A journalist from NPR says that since the Met Gala had its own sponsors like Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon and his wife, the whole event felt really out of touch.
Other billionaires made their debut on the red carpet like Mark Zuckerberg and Sergery Bin which makes people think, “what is this event and art really for?”
Many people protested outside Jeff Bezos “pre-Met” party because of two main reasons.
One, being the unfair treatment of Amazon workers. According to the U.S Department of Labor, it states that, “The U.S. Department of Labor today announced that its Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued citations at three more Amazon warehouses – in Aurora, Colorado; Nampa, Idaho; and Castleton, New York – for failing to keep workers safe and delivered hazard alert letters for exposing workers to ergonomic hazards.”
The website also states that workers must lift heavy objects all by themselves, there are long hours required to do their tasks, and employees are awkwardly twisting and bending to lift items.
The other main reason for people showing a lack of interest in this Met is because of the ties to ICE. The National Immigration Law Center explains that, “ICE wants to stash people in Amazon-style warehouses.” This means that the Department of Homeland Security is trying to put people in cages in warehouses across the country.
So, is the Met Gala even about art anymore? This year it seemed to be about the billionaires and the people who don’t really care about the terrible treatment of workers who pack and ship their Amazon packages all the time? Or the innocent people who are being put into cages and being treated like an animal.
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