Revolution, One Snark At A time
December 19, 2005
Random Fug IIThis dress is somewhat unflattering, rather see-through, and wholly hideous — I mean, lady, I GET IT, you have breasts, and that’s great, but if you’re so determined to show them off then just call Lil’ Kim in prison and ask if you can borrow something — but there is another reason I wish that this Lina person hadn’t worn it.
Quite frankly, her navel scares the life out of me.
[…]
I’m a little behind the curve on this one, but there’s an interesting thread about Go Fug Yourself at Majikthise. Lindsay made a strong defence of FGY after Feminist blogger and law professor Ann Bartow posted about her incomprehension of the site’s humour. Much bashing of feminism and feminist law professors and stout defence of FGY ensued, including from me.
I admit to being a serial Fugger. FGY is hilarious. It has the wit of Private Eye allied with the fashion sense of Diana Vreeland. That mordant humour is brought wickedly to bear on the many, many faux pas of overexposed ( in so many ways) celebrities, celebrity wannabes and has-beens. I’m reproducing my comment from the thread as I’d only write something very similar again in this post ( and waste not, want not) :
…Having a socialist viewpoint doesn’t make me blind to the semiotics of clothing or suddenly turn me into someone with zero aesthetic judgement, despite the caricatures of us Euro-pinkos as soulless, communistic robots who dress all in black and wear weird glasses.
Yes, clothes are ephemeral but they’re not trivial at all. They say everything about us and our cultures and outlooks.
That said, I find reading FGY is like sitting on the top of the bus with your best girlfriends and critiquing everyone walking down the street. We all do it – FGY just enable us to have all of the lovely internets for our unwitting subjects.
If the subjects don’t like it – tough. They wanted to be in the public eye and this is the public eye, take it or leave it. They can’t pick and choose, though they might try.
And besides, there’s nothing more satisfying to a socialist than the game of epater les bourgeouis – ie, taking the piss out of the rich. They rub their excesses in our faces – are we just supposed to sit back and let them?
Not on your nelly.
I enjoy GFY the same way I enjoy reading Wodehouse or Trollope, Nancy Mitford or EF Benson – it’s the current-day version of those authors’ surgical skewerings of social snobbery and arrive-ism. Lighten up, people and professors. Any and all criticism of the privileged only serves the cause of the protelariat. Or something. And if you think GFY is anti-woman and disempowering, then you haven’t seen the comments at The Superficial yet.
Lefties unite, for trivial bitchery and beyond!
Tags: Blogs Media Celebrities
