In the midst of yet another chaotic news cycle, Olivia Munn has written a short essay on one of the most important issues currently plaguing civilization: fashion critics calling out bad outfits. The actress denounced Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan of the tongue-in-cheek blog, Go Fug Yourself, for their reviews of celebrity red carpet looks. But the essay that was meant to take a powerful stand quickly turned into a problematic take.
Olivia Munn✔@oliviamunn
A short essay on the ugly behaviors of the @fuggirls
In her piece, Munn references the Fug Girls’ criticism of her outfit—a Peter Pilotto pantsuit—at the Apex for Youth awards, which they described as “like she got roped into making a sequel to American Hustle that ended up going straight to on-demand.” Munn condemns Cocks and Morgan for “snarkiness” and “hypocrisy,” claiming their work is “playing a part in the suppression of women.” It should be noted that being snarky and actively suppressing women are two very different things.
Criticizing an outfit is not the same as criticizing the person wearing it. Making a joke about a woman’s outfit is not an attack on her character, ideas, or her work. You can be a good person and still wear a bad dress. It is not sexist (Go Fug Yourself also reviews men’s fashion) and truthfully, it is not that serious. We’re talking about clothing that costs thousands of dollars here! It’s just fashun, it’s okay to laugh.
Still, mostly thanks to the 2016 presidential election, the media has undergone a reckoning of sorts around the toxic and often sexist rhetoric used to describe women. Since then, small steps of progress have been made. Using the words “plus-size” to describe a woman’s body is no longer acceptable, and attacking women based on their looks is not a valid form of criticism, whether you’re talking about a politician, a celebrity, or a model. But the concept of railing against criticism of one’s fashion choices is, however, arguably quite Trumpian.
