My Religion is Not A Fashion Statement

As I'm sure many of you know, the annual Met Gala is happening tonight. It's a fundraising event for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Basically, a bunch of celebrities and rich people get together to parade around in ridiculous, fancy clothes and raise money for the museum. This year's theme is Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination. 

Yes, the Catholic Church has contributed a lot in the way of art. However, some of the outfits seen on the carpet tonight are just plain sacrilegious, especially considering most of these people are not practicing Catholics. Rihanna was seen dressed as the pope, wearing a short, jeweled dress and a papal mitre (tall hat that the pope wears). Chadwick Boseman and Jared Leto were wearing some priest-like attire. Many others appeared wearing dresses, suits, and accessories showing various crosses and Catholic imagery. 

Here's what really gets me about this whole thing, if any white person wears anything of a non-white culture (i.e. that one girl's Chinese prom dress and various Halloween costumes that get "banned" every year) it is considered cultural appropriation and everyone loses their minds over it. Yet, here we have a bunch of non-Catholic people wearing a bunch of Catholic outfits and images, some of which are very sacrilegious and not okay, and they're being praised for it. It doesn't make sense. How much more hypocritical can Hollywood and the media get? 

We need to make a choice. Is "cultural appropriation" okay or isn't it? It can't be okay for some people and not for others. That's not how this works. If you're going to tell a teenager she can't wear a dress she finds beautiful to prom because she's not Chinese, or tell little girls they can't dress as Moana or Pocahontas for Halloween because they're not Polynesian or Native American, you shouldn't praise celebrities for turning the Catholic faith into a fashion statement. 

Your culture can't be my Halloween costume, so my religion can't be your fashion statement. Simple as that.

Joy Villa's Pro-Life Dress

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At Sunday night's Grammy Awards, singer Joy Villa walked the red carpet wearing a white dress with what appears to be an unborn baby in a rainbow-colored womb while carrying a purse with the words "Choose Life" painted on it. Many people were shocked by this display, not just because it's rare to see in Hollywood, but because Villa is a Scientologist.

According to Scientology.org, this so-called "church" leaves matters of family planning up to individuals and doesn't advocate abortion. However, one former member said in Leah Remini's documentary on the cult that she, and other women, were forced to have abortions and "were met with grave consequences if they refused" because "leaders feared pregnancies meant women were trying to leave the church (source)."
For all we know, Villa herself may actually be pro-life. Unless you know her personally, you really can't judge, not that anyone should be judging anyone anyway. Let's just appreciate the fact that someone in Hollywood stood up and made a bold pro-life statement. Who knows? Maybe someone considering abortion saw that dress and changed her mind. Even the smallest of signs can change a heart.

Dress Codes

Ladies, listen up.
It's that time of year again where it's getting warm and more girls are or will be getting in trouble at school for their dress code violations. I've already seen the posts circulating around the internet about how sexist dress codes are.
When a girl gets sent home, or has to have someone bring her a change of clothes, she rants about how it's so sexist that she has to do this in order to "not be a distraction to the boys." Yes, many school dress codes are in place to avoid distractions, but this doesn't just apply to girls and their booty shorts and tank tops. Some schools also have rules preventing everyone, boys and girls, from wearing extremely baggy clothes, which can become a safety concern due to how easily weapons can be concealed, shirts that promote illegal/dangerous activity, or even dying your hair an unnatural color (i.e., pink, purple, blue, etc.). The only way this is sexist is if the rules about girls not showing too much skin are the only rules that are enforced, which I'll admit does happen more often than it should. If all dress code guidelines are equally enforced, I see no problem here.
The real issue I have with this topic is when girls say that instead of teaching girls to cover up, we should teach boys not to sexualize/objectify girls, or that school dress codes are teaching girls to be ashamed of their bodies. I'll agree that boys should be taught to not objectify girls, but it's a two-way street. You have to do your part to help them. Also, by dressing modestly, you present yourself in a much more respectable manner. There are a lot of girls who dress inappropriately with the purpose of getting the attention of guys. It's hard to tell the difference between a girl doing this and one who is simply dressing for the weather. Dressing in a modest, respectable manner will also make it harder for other girls to say catty things about you.
Dress codes are also not about shaming you or your body. It's about all the things I've already discussed. There's nothing wrong with your body. Stop using this argument.
All I'm saying here is, we need to get rid of this "women can do what they want and men just have to deal with it" mentality. It's incredibly selfish. Stop playing the victim and blaming the men for everything.