Well hey there, Piers Morgan.
The Met Gala has come and gone, taking with it the most controversial theme yet and people are still talking about it. The theme for the night was Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination named after the Met’s newest exhibition and stars rocked up in their best takes, from Rihanna’s literal pope hat to Katy Perry’s feathered angel wings. Unsurprisingly, the event was met with backlash from critics despite the fact the Vatican actually had a hand in the proceedings.
Most notably, Piers Morgan penned an opinion piece for the MailOnline where he said the event went out of its way to ‘lampoon an entire religion at a celebrity gala’ and was ‘openly, brazenly disrespectful’. In his piece, he took the time to police the women of the night’s outfit choices and their bodies. Some choice phrases from the piece include:
‘Seeing [religious artefacts] stuck on some flesh-flaunting celebrity’s head at a party’
‘Kim Kardashian wore a Versace gold gown with large crosses emblazoned on her hips and torso (The same hips and torso she’s spent the past two weeks flashing naked online). She had two more necklace crosses perched above her bulging cleavage.’
‘Ruby Rose wore a red tunic showing off her vulgar tattoos and a cross.’
Men such as Jared Leto, who literally came as a Christ-like figure complete with a crown, and Chadwick Boseman’s all white look emblazoned with crosses were absent from the piece. Morgan, who admits in his piece he is ‘not the most devout [Catholic] you’ll ever meet’, bemoaned the lack of outrage and accused the Met Gala of knowing that they would be ‘closed down within hours of [the Ball] finishing’ if they held a Jewish or Islam-themed ball.
The Catholic church however was very much present at the Met Gala, with many members of the congregation such as New York Archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan in attendance. The Vatican loaned 42 items from the Sistine Chapel’s collection to the Met Institute for their exhibition, which they approved, and the chapel’s world-renowned choir even performed at the Met Gala.
On Twitter, one user’s post quickly garnered attention racketing up over 7.5 thousand likes and 2.2 thousand responses over just one day. In it, user @irmahinojosa_ attached a screenshot of declared ‘My religion is not your f*cking #MetGala dress.’
It directly co-opted language used in the recent qipao prom dress controversy, in which a white American school girl wore a traditional Chinese dress to her prom. A user named Jeremy Lam retweeted her prom photographs with the caption, ‘My culture is NOT your goddamn prom dress.’
As with Jeremy Lam’s tweet, Irma’s tweet quickly garnered speed and ignited debate from across the platform.
Beyond the outrage regarding the Catholic theme, other controversies included Scarlett Johansson’s decision to wear Marchesa (a fashion brand previously linked to Harvey Weinstein) as well as the absence of high profile figures like Beyonce and Kanye West.
However, one controversy we’re totally here for?
Actress, producer and screenwriter Lena Waithe showed up in a Caroline Herrera rainbow cape to the event and she told Vogue that she ‘felt like a gay goddess’.
It was a bold dig at the Catholic church’s difficult history with the LGBT community and one of the only political statements of the night.
