WTF IS THIS? I don’t personally know Rae Thread, Kimberly Kane, or Belladonna, (who aren’t even outright credited on the original post). However, I do personally know women who choose to veil themselves.

This picture is part of a seasonal lookbook for mishka. It stands out amongst a collection where literally all of the other pictures are soft-pornography, but it has no words to separate it or suggest that my mind differentiate this picture from the rest. Therefore I see it as a fetishization that’s particularly uncomfortable.

Im thinking: staged colonial post-cards unveiling Arab women sent by men in North Africa back to Europe. (Feeding the image of the veiled harem seductress that we all so graciously know) (See: Alloula)

Im thinking: Are those guns as fake as the flowers in them? why is the promo post on the full collection marketing “more girls and guns”? Ugh yes I am pro strong muslim females, but this picture is not being aligned with any immediate political statement other than “reblog me! I’m artsy!” And since there are real events in the actual non-photo-set world involving guns and Arab women, it’s potentially insensitive to throw a shot like this into a soft-core catalogue and not address it. (OK this is partly tied to my general aversion towards killing machines).

At the end of the day I’m just kind of sad.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to ‘make it’ in popular entertainment, and its about 20 billion times easier to just go hyper-sexual. The dominant market is pretty near the same colonial-white-man-desires of years ago. Too many take the easy way (and don’t get me wrong, it’s hard not to.)

But look at this picture: War? Peace? Race? Religion? It’s all secondary to her eyes, boobs, and hip-lines. I hate half-heartedly political-for-controversy-fashion-shock-value shit. In high-school I even did a parody “Vogue eco-conscious” shoot because of my hatred.

REALLY WAS THIS APPROPRIATION NECESSARY?

fashion for what sake?..