The first Monday in May is here, and the Hollywood and fashion elite are gearing up for one of the biggest nights in entertainment: the Met Gala. But, like every year, the backlash to the world’s rich and famous flaunting their wealth while the world is on fire has been swift and passionate. Protestors have been making their dissent known throughout New York City since February, when Amazon founder and noted evil billionaire, Jeff Bezos, and his wife, Lauren Sanchez Bezos, were announced as the event’s honorary co-chairs and lead sponsors of the fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute.
But the calls to boycott the annual, invitation-only gala are nothing new. There’s a long history of organizers and activists pushing against the event, which sees tables going for upwards of $100,000. When people can barely afford to buy eggs or basic healthcare, and gas prices are astronomical, it’s understandable why this egregious display of excess is off-putting. Critics of Bezos’ involvement with the gala cite a long list of concerns, as per The New York Times, which includes major layoffs and editorial decisions at The Washington Post, which he owns; Amazon’s donations to President Donald Trump’s inauguration fund; and Amazon’s backing of a $40 million documentary about the first lady Melania Trump.
Bezos reportedly contributed $10 million dollars to the Met Gala, which does ultimately serve to fund the Costume Institute, but aside from a general surge in anti-billionaire sentiment (imagine supporting billionaires in this economy?!), people are upset because of Amazon’s treatment of its workers and its ties to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Amazon workers have said they’ve had to skip bathroom breaks and urinate in bottles. To shed light on these horrific workplace conditions, a guerrilla activist group called Everyone Hates Elon (yes, as in Musk) has been leading boycott calls by plastering posters on New York subway cars and bus stops and projecting slogans on buildings. On Friday, the group placed 300 bottles of fake urine inside the Museum.
Say what you will about the fake pee stunt, but it was an effective way to get everyone talking. This is part of why protesting is so important. The Met Gala is one of the biggest platforms in the world, with millions of eyeballs focused on what Beyoncé (also a co-chair of the event) and other celebrities will be wearing. What so many of these causes — like workers’ rights, the war in Iran, genocides in Gaza and Sudan, the affordability crisis — need is more attention. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani knows this. Despite some of his predecessors attending the Met Gala, Mamdani is opting to skip the event, citing that he’s focused on “making the most expensive city in the United States affordable.”
And this morning, while stylists have been steaming, makeup artists have been primping, and hairspray has been spraying, Mamdani made a point to highlight the people behind the scenes — six local industry garment workers are featured in a new portrait series by Kara McCurdy, including former Amazon delivery employees. (This morning, a group of organizations, including the Service Employees International Union, the Strategic Organizing Center, and the Amazon Labor Union staged a Ball Without Billionaires in which workers for Amazon, Uber, and Starbucks served as models).
A red carpet with this much global attention could be used to challenge power… If the night is going to center excess and spectacle, it might as well also reflect the realities people are protesting outside those museum steps.
kathleen newman-bremang
“The fashion industry is made possible by the thousands of workers behind the scenes — seamstresses, tailors, retail workers, delivery drivers — whose immense talent and dedication deserves to be celebrated,” Mamdani told i-D. This is a great point, and it’s also why I can’t do away with the Met Gala completely. There may be better ways to highlight the workers behind the scenes, but this event is one of the ways, and at its core, the Met Gala is a fundraising event for a museum that needs money to survive (although, it may be financially independent soon). Plus, this night employs hundreds of artists, stylists, fashion workers, and working-class people in New York.
As for the celebrities, Zendaya is also reportedly skipping the Met Gala and Meryl Streep, who has actually never been, is also likely not attending. It is not confirmed if any celebs skipping the night are doing so in solidarity with the protestors, but if they are, it would be nice to actually hear that stance from them. I know there was backlash when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez showed up to the Met wearing a “Tax the Rich” dress, but I do think this is a perfect platform for celebrities to use fashion as messaging. The Met Gala is literally about the intersection of art and culture, so why not lean into that? Clothes have always been political, whether people want them to be or not, and a red carpet with this much global attention could be used to challenge power, spark conversation, and make a statement that goes beyond aesthetics. If the night is going to center excess and spectacle, it might as well also reflect the realities people are protesting outside those museum steps.
In the words of Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada 2, the Bezoses are not visionaries, they are vendors — and the fact that they are two of the faces of an event that is supposed to be a celebration of art makes very little sense. On the surface, The Devil Wears Prada 2 is an entertaining sequel, full of glossy fashion moments and sharp one-liners, but underneath all that, it’s poking at something deeper: who actually gets to shape fashion and culture, and at what cost? When money becomes the loudest voice in the room, creativity risks becoming just another commodity (see: Emily).
The satire hits a little too close to home when you look at what’s happening around the Met Gala right now. Billionaires underwriting culture isn’t new, but the growing discomfort with that reality is. The movie frames it as absurd — editors bending to sponsors, art bending to capital — but outside the theater, it’s playing out in real time. What’s being protested isn’t just one event, but a broader system where wealth doesn’t just fund art, it influences it. And increasingly, people are asking whether that influence is something we should keep accepting as the price of admission. I don’t think we should.
“The Met Gala is now giving Bezos exactly the kind of reputation laundering and cultural rocket fuel he needs to keep destroying America,” Cynthia Nixon, Gilded Age actress and activist who ran for New York governor in 2018, said to The New York Times. She’s not wrong, and it’s through these protests (and notable people refusing to show up), that public pressure starts to chip away at the gloss. It shifts the narrative from spectacle to scrutiny, forcing a closer look at who benefits from these cultural moments. And if that attention keeps building, it could push institutions to rethink who they align with — and why.
What’s being protested isn’t just one event, but a broader system where wealth doesn’t just fund art, it influences it. And increasingly, people are asking whether that influence is something we should keep accepting as the price of admission. I don’t think we should.
kathleen newman-bremang
Potentially one day, The Costume Institute won’t need Vogue or billionaires to continue their important work. Until then, I think it’s important to be having these conversations. The activists doing the work of protesting and organizing to send a message to Bezos and the world about class inequality and ICE terrorizing U.S. neighborhoods is necessary. The spectacle that is the Met Gala will go on, but pressure being applied outside its iconic steps is what will force a broader reckoning about who gets to fund culture, who it serves, and whose voices are too often not given seats at $100,000 tables.
Ultimately, it’s up to us, the consumers, if we want to engage in any of it. I completely understand the decision to opt out. For us here at Refinery29, we have jobs to do. We cover Amazon in our shopping stories, because many working-class people depend on its low prices, but that’s what makes their practices even more egregious. We follow culture. We cover fashion, entertainment, and pop culture, and this — for better and for worse — is a massive cultural event. Personally, I’ll be looking out for celebs who use their Met Gala look to prove that art is political and who aren’t afraid to say it with their full chests, in a room with the man responsible for so much oppression and, increasingly, attacks on press freedom. I want to see them demonstrate that fashion can speak louder than hollow donations and that art can never be bought.
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