Political Consequences.

Photo by Erik Madigan Heck for THE NEW YORKER. Found here. 

BEFORE READING: The purpose of this post is not to offend anyone. If any of the information is in correct please feel free to post a comment and I will correct it right away.

As a freshmen in college I was asked to write a research paper. This is typical of the college experience, of course, but while my classmates were writing about abortion or illegal immigration (all very hot topics) I chose to write about the political consequences of Marie Antoinette's dress. I found this marvelous book, written by Caroline Weber and was so enchanted with it that I decided to write an entire 12 page paper on it.

I return to this topic now as it is relevant more than ever. If you're unfamiliar with the image below you can read about it here. 

"[The] response from a number of our Jewish followers was truly alarming. Although we understand the visceral reaction, we were shocked to see women immediately pit themselves against us, accusing us of being insensitive, putting our business above morals and threatening to 'unfollow' and need purchase from us again-effectively 'copying' the way of Israel/Jewish haters by boycotting a beautiful, holy Jewish business!"

Essentially this young woman, Summer Albarcha  (click her name to get a sneak peak of her Instagram account, it's totally worth it!) is of a different religion than the shop owners and the majority of the customers at Mimu-Maxi. So why the big fuss? 

For decades the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been raging. The newest conflict is between Israel and Hamas. The woman in the photograph above is Islamic. The Hamas are a Palestinian Sunni Islamic organization that has been marked as a terrorist organization by Israel and a number of Western states, including the United States. The mot popular customers to Mimu-Maxi are orthodox Jews. Israel is a nation mostly comprised of orthodox Jews. Thus the controversy. 

While this young woman is not wearing this skirt, as far as I am aware, to make some sort of political statement, I write about it because of the backlash the company and her have endured for simply putting on an article of clothing. We live in a world where every bit of our lives can be monitored by people from around the world. We share our lives on Instagram, Tumblr, blogs, Facebook, etc. We then have to read the positive or hateful messages that our photos incite. 

When can we stop the hate?