Someone call the fashion police?
May 28, 2008 at 5:40 pm by Joe Bardi
I get daily e-mails from something called GOPUSA. Depending on your point of view, GOPUSA is a collection of morons on the lunatic fringe or a brave group of conservatives keeping the liberal media in check. GOPUSA’s mantra is “Bringing the conservative message to America,” which leaves me wondering where they’re importing it from. (I’ve got my cash on outer space.) Today’s nutblast landed in my inbox with the headline, “Rachael Ray, Dunkin’ Donuts And The Keffiyeh Kerfuffle.”
I was intrigued. Was this an announcement for a new breakfast item? A word-association game? A spelling test?
Sadly, no. It seems that Ms. Ray has run afoul of conservatives, including Michelle Malkin, who filed today’s GOPUSA screed. Some quotes:
I’ve been a fan of Dunkin’ Donuts for years. Their Munchkins are heaven. Their coffee is better and cheaper than Starbucks. And the company’s management has taken a brave and lonely stand in support of immigration enforcement — refusing to hire illegal aliens and blowing the whistle on applicants with bogus Social Security numbers.
So it was with some dismay that I learned last week that Dunkin’ Donuts spokeswoman Rachael Ray, the ubiquitous TV hostess, posed for one of the company’s ads in what appeared to be a black-and-white keffiyeh.
Malkin wants you to know that she loves Dunkin Donuts, especially since they’re one of the few employers in the country willing to root out illegals and send them packing. This isn’t all about the donuts, however. This is about Rachel Ray and her choice to wear an “offensive” clothing item in an ad. That item: a “black-and-white keffiyeh.” A what?
The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad. Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant (and not so ignorant) fashion designers, celebrities and left-wing icons.
Thanks for filling in us “clueless,” uneducated Rubes, Michelle. I note, however, that you are choosing your words carefully. According to Wikipedia, “In the 1960s, the keffiyeh became a symbol of Palestinian nationalism as a result of its association with rural areas.” Pinko lefties have clearly edited this entry and changed the reference from “murderous Palestinian jihad” to “Palestinian nationalism” to soften the meaning. After all, President Bush supports the formation of a Palestinian state (he’s the first U.S. president to do so), and there’s no way Bush would line up with the terrorists and their headgear. Incidentally, note the scarf’s “association with rural areas.” The city-dwellers wear the Fez. I eagerly await Malkin’s angry rant against the Shriners.
Malkin then lists other folks caught red-headed in the keffiyeh:
Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, Spain’s Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, Hollywood darlings Colin Farrell, Sienna Miller and Kirsten Dunst, and rapper Kanye West have all been photographed in endless variations on the distinctive hate couture.
A little something for everyone to hate in that list, no? After all, am I lining up behind the sartorial choices of Colin Farrell? No way! Unfortunately, Malkin and GOPUSA provide no pictures, but I’ll take them at their word. Now, if only I could find that Hamas-front-group boutique that Kanye and Howard Dean are both frequenting.
But, come on Michelle; it’s just a scarf, right?
The scarves are staples at anti-Israel rallies in San Francisco and Berkeley. Balenciaga made them chic on the runway. British retailer Topshop sold them stamped with skull prints. Urban Outfitters turned the keffiyehs into a youth trend a few years ago and marketed them as “anti-war scarves.”
Oh my God! San Francisco is involved! Quick, let’s find someone to burn in effigy.
Which brings us to Rachael Ray.
Whew!
Ray hawked Urban Outfitters scarves on her website before appearing in the Dunkin’ Donuts ad. If she (or whichever stylist is dressing her) wasn’t aware of the jihad scarf controversy before she posed for the Dunkin’ campaign, she should have been. Urban Outfitters initially pulled the keffiyeh merchandise and apologized when Jewish customers protested, but reintroduced them with different names and colors in several global markets.
That bitch! The Jerusalem Post details Urban Outfitter’s original pulling of the scarf as follows:
Complaints from at least one Jewish organization may have played a part in Urban Outfitters’ decision to pull the scarves from their stores. On Monday, Stand With Us, a pro-Israel advocacy organization, sent letters of complaint to members of the board of directors of Urban Outfitters as well as to company stockholders, with photos of Hamas wearing the keffiyeh and performing a Nazi salute.
So, it wasn’t “Jewish customers” protesting, but a specific organization. Who is Stand With Us? From their website:
StandWithUs is an international education organization that ensures that Israel’s side of the story is told in communities, campuses, libraries, the media and churches through brochures, speakers, conferences, missions to Israel, and thousands of pages of Internet resources. Founded in 2001 in response to the Palestinian second Intifada and the misinformation that often surrounds the Middle East conflict as well as concern for inappropriate and sometimes anti-Semitic language being used as it relates to Israel and/or the Jewish people worldwide, SWU now has offices and chapters in Los Angeles, New York City, Buffalo, Israel, Michigan, Chicago, Seattle, Davis, Orange County, San Francisco, the UK, Australia, and we are opening in Toronto.
As anyone who was around in the 1990s will recall, “Israel’s side of the story” was hardly reported in the press before 2001. Or I’m being sarcastic, the press has always reported the Israeli side of things and I suspect Stand With Us is right-wing organization meant to perpetuate a focused, pro-Israel, anti-Muslim point of view. I find references to Stand With Us in stories about the stifling of free speech on campus, but I invite you to form your own opinion about the organization.
Regardless, the Jerusalem Post story certainly makes it seem like Stand With Us complained and got Urban Outfitters to pull the scarves rather than face a PR nightmare. Being the complete sell-out, uncool, exploitative, low-rent bunch of schlock peddlers that they are, Urban Outfitters immediately complied and pulled the scarves. That Post story makes two other key points:
The keffiyeh has bounced in and out of American and European fashion trends since roughly the 80s, when women draped them from their necks. But in the last few years the headdress, mostly associated by Americans with the Palestinians and especially the late Yasser Arafat, has reached a height of popularity. An article in the Los Angeles Times titled “‘Terrorist Chic’ and Beyond,” published in April, 2006, featured the keffiyeh as the ultimate in fashionable military gear seen as chic in hip circles across America and Europe.
Many young Americans and Europeans, especially on college campuses, wear the headdress around their necks as a symbol of solidarity with the Palestinians. Increasingly, too, it has become a symbol of resistance in general, invariably featuring at anti-war rallies. It is also widely worn in many cities.
And the second point:
“I just found it amusing that the keffiyeh as a fashion item has become so ubiquitous that it is being sold at a store known for producing the trendiest items,” said Daniel ‘Mobius’ Sieradski, a contributor to Jewschool, a popular Jewish blog. “It’s amusing because on one level the Palestinian cause has become very popular, but as it gains popularity it gets watered down.”
Jews and Muslims alike had been quick to respond to the Urban Outfitters “anti-war scarves” through their respective blogs with skepticism, anger and amusement.
Earlier this week, Sieradski posted an entry on Jewschool entitled “Strangely familiar ‘Anti-War Scarves’ now at URBN near you!” where he mocks the selling of keffiyehs as a fashion accessory: “Well, the keffiyeh just got 10 times more passe and 10 times more trivialized, thanks to Urban Outfitters … who are now selling a variety of different colored keffiyehs as – get this – anti-war scarves.”
Last week, Kabobfest, an online forum for Arab-Americans, posted this entry about the UO keffiyehs: “With a great deal of discomfort and a tad bit of pissed-off-ness, I regret to (re)inform the KABOB-o-sphere that Palestine has officially become a trend … That’s right folks, for a mere $20.00 (or 75.0127 Saudi Riyal) you too can jump on the socially stupid hipster-doofus bandwagon by rocking your very own “Anti-War Woven Scarf!” (available only at Urban Outfitters… or..err..uh… the Middle East).”
To sum up, the keffiyeh has become a trendy fashion item that indicates an anti-war stance to some, the Palestinian cause to others, and violence and death to uber-conservatives like Michelle Malkin. This very trendiness has made it an inauthentic symbol to those who care about peace and social justice. (Kind of like how flashing the peace sign at someone means jack squat these days.) Rachel Ray, an amazingly uncool media whore if there ever was one, takes a stab at being cool by sporting something a stylist found at Urban Outfitters, and ends up on the wrong side of the Conservatives.
Malkin rambles more about how Dunkin’ Donuts didn’t know where the scarf came from, meant nothing by it and has pulled the ad. She then says:
It’s refreshing to see an American company show sensitivity to the concerns of Americans opposed to Islamic jihad and its apologists. Too many of them bend over backward in the direction of anti-American political correctness. Naturally, liberal commentators on the Internet are now up in arms over Dunkin’ Donuts’ decision to yank the ad and mock anyone who expresses concern over the keffiyeh’s symbolism.
Let me be clear: I’m not mocking anyone who expresses concern over the keffiyeh’s symbolism. I am specifically mocking Dunkin’ Donuts, Rachel Ray, Michelle Malkin and her fascist ideology. The idea that pulling the scarf ad is indicative of Urban Outfitters not bending to “political correctness” is a complete joke. That’s exactly what Urban Outfitters did. And Malkin helped lead the political-correctness charge. (Incidentally Michelle, you should look up “psychological projection” and then do some soul-searching).
And just in case you noticed that neither I nor Malkin had mentioned 9/11, she saves it for the conclusion:
It’s just a scarf, the clueless keffiyeh-wearers scoff. Would they say the same of fashion designers who marketed modified Klan-style hoods in Burberry plaid as the next big thing?
Fashion statements may seem insignificant, but when they lead to the mainstreaming of violence — unintentionally or not — they matter. Ignorance is no longer an excuse. In post-9/11 America, vigilance must never go out of style.
If that last graph isn’t an argument for banning the flag pin, I don’t know what is.
