I’ve been hanging onto this all weekend, because it’s a real Monday morning bit of hilarity. It’s also a good indicator of how the concept of the boycott, wielding so powerfully when used strategically by the civil rights movement, has really devolved into a temper tantrum that’s less about effecting change and more about the boycotter preening over her moral superiority. Observe Rachel Ray’s outfit in a new ad for Dunkin Donuts:
To ordinary people, this is an example of someone wearing the confusing combination of a lightweight summer shirt and a scarf. There are two major possibilities here. One is that this is yet another example of the fashion trend fascists trying to push a stupid idea on the public to see who buys into it. Considering that said fascists have successfully convinced a handful of women to dress like this:
That theory is not completely out of the question. The other possibility is that Ray showed up to the shoot with a hickey on her neck they couldn’t cover with make-up. It wouldn’t be more tasteless than some of her recipes.
Or, if you believe that there’s a Communist under every rock, you come to the conclusion Michelle Malkin came up with: That Ray and Dunkin Donuts are sending secret brain signals supporting Palestine’s independence to everyday Americans who patriotically consume donuts, unaware of the danger.
I had to double check the URL to make sure this isn’t a Malkin parody site, because this is hard to swallow as written by a sincere human being. The paranoid wingnuttery is too pitch perfect.
Sigh. You all know I’ve been a fan of Dunkin Donuts for quite some time–and have touted their strong position in favor of immigration enforcement.
You can taste the racism in every bite. No really, you know how corny ads will say that food made with love tastes better? Not true, but if you make a donut under the banner of immigration hysteria, that makes the sweet just a little sweeter and the grease just a little greasier. Krispy Kreme has nothing on that.
Charles Johnson notes, and many readers have e-mailed about, Dunkin Donuts’ spokeswoman Rachel Ray’s clueless sporting of a jihadi chic keffiyeh in a recent DD ad campaign. I’m hoping her hate couture choice was spurred more by ignorance than ideology.
There are so many weird assumptions here. One is that Palestinians just hate Israel for irrational reasons, for the reason that you might like the color red over blue in your sweater selection. Of course, Malkin hates Mexican immigrants as a fashion choice, so that line of thinking probably makes sense to her.
But I think what made me most amused was the concept of a “jihad chic keffiyeh”. There’s so much to unpack there. I’m sure the idea of “jihad chic” makes perfect sense to Malkin’s audience, which is largely comprised of middle aged white men who wear camouflage while not actually trying to camouflage themselves from enemy fire or even deer, but to send the signal to other people in society that: a) Yes, we are the assholes who aggressively wear camouflage and b) The only reason you think it’s funny to dress like a complete dork with masculinity issues is because you’re a liberal elitist who just doesn’t understand the pain of being mediocre and always questioning your manhood. From there, it’s a quick jump to assuming that the terrorists and elitists are in a scarf-bearing conspiracy against you to make you look even more like a mental midget who spends all his time war blogging to beef up his sense of patriotic manliness, because to actually enlist and fight the war in Iraq would mean more time running and jumping and less time eating Dunkin Donuts.
You gotta love what passes for a brilliant observation in Malkin Land.
Commenter John Ansell writes: “DD should just bring the one fat guy back to do their ads.”
To you or I, this sounds like a weak-minded retort, but there’s actually a reason it sends shockwaves of “Hell yes!” through the wingnut community. Back in those days, Americans were not pantywaists. We didn’t accept our sales pitches from mere females. Nowadays the whole tube is clogged up with hot bitches that you’ll never be nor fuck, and they aren’t just draped over merchandise in bikinis. They’re actually doing stuff in a professional capacity (like being a famous chef) while fully dressed. Nowadays you only have to do one stint in Maxim magazine while half-dressed to alert everyone that you have, um, a sense of humor and then you can go on with your life, pitching donuts and taking work from the fat guys of old.
Malkin does decide against the boycott, but they did, it turns out, manage to get the ad pulled by complaining.
76 Responses to “The neckties of the apocalypse”
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As someone far wiser than I said, “People wonder why I drink. I wonder why people don’t.”
Make it stop. Please.
WF
There should be a documentary on Wingnuts because they’re such fascinating and amusing creatures.
Michelle Malkin: Still putting the “dumb” in “dumbass.”
Still putting the “ass” in there too.
Well, just a minute. I do think Ray’s fashion choice is a bit conspicuous. She is wearing a keffiyeh. That’s what it is; that’s what it’s called. Its primary association in American culture is with Palestine, and to a lesser extent with the Palestinian independence movement.
That doesn’t mean that Ray is signaling support for Palestinian independence; I consider it just as likely that she isn’t aware of the semiotics of the item, or that her understanding of its significance is rather blurry. But it’s odd, in much the same way that it would be odd if she did the spot wearing a Che t-shirt.
Frankly, I’m a little put off by what I take to be a dilution of the signification of the scarf, just as I am put off when I see people sporting Hindu iconography, or crucifixes, or the aforementioned Che t-shirts as a fashion statement without having considered whether they endorse the ideology with which the symbol is traditionally associated. It’s cultural appropriation, and while I think people should be free to do it, I think it’s often in bad taste.
Palestinians who see their cultural markers turned into fasion accessories for white Americans who fund the maintenance of the concentration camps Israel maintains for the Palestinians have every right to be pissed off about this kind of thing.
As has been pointed out, they can be purchased in surplus stores and other places selling militaria because they’ve become popular with troops (or many different nations) in Afghanistan and Iraq, who’ve discovered there are very practical reasons why it is a traditional piece of clothing for the region and have adopted it themselves.
There’s nothing about symbolism or cultural appropriation. People wearing it are simply doing what people have been doing for as long as people have had culture: adopting something that’s used by others in other locations and making it into a fashion accessory.
And you know what? There’s nothing bad about it either.
My conspiracy theory:
(1) It’s a f—ing scarf.
(2) Rachel Ray was completely unaware of its significance as a symbol of the oppressed people of Palestine.
(3) Malkin: “ME WANT ATTENTION NOW. WAH WAH WAH.”
That is not a keffiyeh.
Well, actually, it’s difficult to tell exactly from the photo, but I’m guessing that it’s either just one of the many black and white houndstoothy black and white scarves that is out there “this season” as the latest summer fashion trend, or it’s a “keffiyeh” as designed by someone who doesn’t actually know what a real keffiyeh looks like, on sale for $8.99 at Hot Topic or wherever such fake “multiculti” fashion trends are purchased these days. But it’s definitely not a real honest to Allah keffiyeh.
The keffiyeh, faux-keffiyeh, and “totally not a keffiyeh but kind has a vague resemblance being black and white and having a sorta houndstoothy pattern to it” have all been huge fashion trends over the last year or two. When I got mine a couple years ago when they were first becoming popular, I was kind of afraid to wear it because I was worried it would offend the Israelis in my life. Now it’s so ubiquitous it’s almost lost all meaning.
Ray has obviously been styled wearing that because it’s “trendy” — my favorite part of this whole thing is that the choice of scarf and the way she’s wearing it make it very clear that she’s like the 5th tier of the trend and neither her nor the obviously clueless stylist know how Teh Kool Kids are wearing them.
And yeah, the non-warm scarf with light sweater and jeans look was OK for the super-long transitional winter/spring/blah period we’re finally coming out of here in the north. But it looks STUPID with a tanktop and shorts.
“She is wearing a keffiyeh.”
Bullshit. It’s a scarf. Labeling a scarf a “keffiyeh” to score some kind of wingnut points doesn’t make it true.
***
How many legs does a horse have if you call its tail a leg?
Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it one.
…
Also, btw, I’ve heard that the keffiyeh-as-American-fashion-trend started in solidarity with soldiers in Afghanistan, who have adopted the look as KeithM says. Or, alternately, that they’re a popular souvenir sent home by said soldiers and from there it just took off.
Neither of which I entirely buy, because the first people I saw wearing them were fancy-pants New York City hipsters, who are unlikely to have much patriotic fervor and who probably don’t have family fighting in Afghanistan.
I’m pretty sure it’s just a fashion trend.
“Also, btw, I’ve heard that the keffiyeh-as-American-fashion-trend started in solidarity with soldiers in Afghanistan, who have adopted the look as KeithM says. Or, alternately, that they’re a popular souvenir sent home by said soldiers and from there it just took off.”
…so what we need to do is imprison all soldiers returning from the Middle East because they’ve been brainwashed and turned into IslamoBots bent on destroying America through the use of patterned cloth.
And then I read that the keffiyeh can be all white - with NO PATTERN! That means ANY piece of cloth could secretly be a keffiyeh, infiltrating our fine country to Undermine American Freedom!!!
Those sneaky brown bastards!!!…
You can buy scarves like that (in five or six colors) on the street all down broadway and canal street in new york, at the same sidewalk stands where you get “pashmina” and i heart NY t-shirts. any marginal visual association that they may have once had with the palestinian cause (or with arafat) i think has been rendered totally meaningless by their ubiquity here.
but, you know, it’s always safest to assume that dunkin donuts is sending out subliminal messages about international politics.
it’s a paisley scarf with fringe; get the fu/ck over it.
and also, ive not liked her for awhile,but now the bandwagoneers who make it a point to sneer at her are making her sympathetic to me again. good work, assh0les.
So we’re to believe that Dunkin’ Brands, part of The Carlyle Group for God’s sake, is… doing whatever Malkin thinks this is because…?
Am I the only one here old enough to remember the last time keffieyh, or keffieyh-like scarves were popular? (This would be the mid to late 80s?)((along with the utterly stupid wear a scarf with a light tee and shorts trend? which can die already - again?))
All the cool kids sported something along those lines when they came back from various trips abroad - and no, not only to the middle east. For reasons I couldn’t begin to parse, in memory the people returning from Germany were especially likely to have them.
Were we all aware that the true Keffieyh was the scarf of choice for the PLO, and many other folks from the Arab peninsula? Yes. Was it worn in solidarity? Depended on who was wearing - maybe.
Exactly why would Dunkin Donuts want to promote Palestinian independence? Do Jews not buy enough donuts, so they figure a two-state solution would lead to higher sales? Does Islamic jihad lead to lower prices for donut-making ingredients?
Help me out, here.
It’s a silk scarf, with paisley. If that’s a keffiyeh, then so is the bandana I put over my face when I hold up trains.
Help me out, here.
It’s Malkin. Using logic is a handicap in trying to understand her.
God help us, if she’d also been sporting a beret. This is insanity: it it the mainstreaming of John Birch Society paranoia to suggest that any article of clothing which could signify some attribute which could reference the PLO immediately condemns the wearer as a proponent of violent islamic jaihad, or a dupe of those forces. Putting aside the completely irrational, uninformed, paranoid conflation of ideologies in Middle East, this story, and many many other, have only a single goal, which is to put for the idea that our country has been infiltrated by terrorist sympathizers and fifth column elements who are ready to implement sharia law at any moment. The fact that DD capitulated to these fear mongers suggests that, in our times, paranoia trumps reason.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this kind of fear mongering. When I was young, it was still illegal in our city to wear a red shirt within 100 yds of city hall, and people’s lives were ruined by accusations of communist sympathy. Everything old is new again.
I think I recall something about it all having to do with “communism”.
No, I’m actually not joking.
Though I’ll admit I could be confusing this boycott with her boycott of Subway because they held some sort of promotion for students that did not include homeschoolers because the grand prize was sports equipment for the community, NOT individual families.
It’s a scarf.
You can buy “keffiyehs” on St Mark’s place in all different colors.
It’s the height of hipster chic.
It actually bugs me because of the associations connected to it, but eh, so I don’t wear one.
A little surprising that RR would wear one on a national commercial, though.
So I had the bf stare at the pic, without any priming, cause I figured if there was a Middle East-slash-political connotation here, he’d catch it–besides having spent over a year there via the military, he’s a political history nut.
I felt kinda bad after a minute because he was clearly straining to make some sort of relevant comment and couldn’t think of a damn thing to say. So I gave him a hint: “It has to do with her CLOTHES!”
He stared some more, then said, “Well, a short-sleeved shirt looks kinda stupid with that scarf thing. Who IS Rachel Ray, anyway..?”
I wonder why they didn’t go after Urban Outfitters for selling keffiyahs all this time (as well as the other shit they sell). But then, the owner of UO was also a big Santorum supporter. What to do, what to do.
Who is Rachel Ray and how exactly is she supposed to make me crave donuts? She certainly doesn’t make me want to buy a scarf.
Ah yes. If there’s one thing that makes me think, “functional cloth for helping middle easterners protect themselves from the sun and sand,” it’s that flimsy silk scarf being worn around rachael ray’s neck!
You know, whether you’re a liberal or a conservative, there’s a lot of stuff going on in the world to piss you off, but I don’t think that scouring the Dunkin’ Donuts ads for sources of emotional outrage is particularly helpful or useful.
Sweet mother of christ, it’s a scarf! She’s selling donuts! While wearing a scarf!
Just because I sometimes wear a tie at work, it doesn’t mean I’m a Croatian Mercenary fighting in the 30 years’ war.
It’s kind of shocking that the broader culture of the US is so anti-Palestinian that even an aspect of Palestinian culture (which has NOTHING to do with the Intifada, any more than the yarmulke has anything to do with the Israeli army, or a crucifix pendant has anything to do with the Inquisition) is considered shocking when adopted as a fashion trend.
Nobody is shocked when Americans adopt any other culture’s sartorial aesthetic. Nobody assumes that everyone who wears a Guyabara must be a Castro sympathizer.
Even people I know who (long before this was a trend) wore actual honest to god keffiyeh as a political statement were making a statement of support for the Palestinian people, not a support for terrorism.
One more comment about paranoia and cultural appropriation of sartorial flourishes —
You know, pants were invented by the ancient Persians.
I think that, when/if we really do end up making a notch on the bedpost of the War On Terror for Iran, we should raise an outcry about everyone who wears pants. I mean, what are you, some kind of apologist for the Ayatollah?
I think she’s just showing solidarity with the workforce - it would be easy to estimate that the entire population of muslim women in the Boston area are employed at dunkin donuts, given that there are about 70,000 DD outlets in a 5 square mile arear, and the person handing you coffee at any given one will likely be named “Squaad” or “Niaz”.
Anybody who lives in NY, or has been a regular reader of Gawker’s Blue States Lose column, has been seeing these on party-hearty hipster douchebags for years.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure the reason for Dunkin’s stance on immigration is that most of their franchises are held by very much LEGAL immigrants who feel like they worked their asses off to America and thus don’t cotton to others who “cheated” by leapfrogging over the entire process.
Which, of course, I’m not saying I entirely agree with myself, but it’s not like Dunkin’ Donuts is anti-immigration due to the knee-jerk racism that facilitates Mouth Breathing Cracker Murkkka’s anti-immigrant stance.
If RR weren’t so brown, I wonder if Malkintent would have noticed?
Yeah, I’m pretty sure the reason for Dunkin’s stance on immigration is that most of their franchises are held by very much LEGAL immigrants who feel like they worked their asses off to America and thus don’t cotton to others who “cheated” by leapfrogging over the entire process.
I figured that the reason for DD corporate’s stance on the issue was because their franchises were known for being the sorts of places that you could get a cash-under-the-table job, and the corporate parent wanted to put an end to this reputation.
It’s a scarf. That’s it, just a scarf with a fringe. Not a keffiyeh. There is no statement being made here, other than the unfashionable. There is nothing for RR or DD to apologize for, no innocent mistake made. It is just a random scarf, nothing more to see here, drive to the next window please.
Anybody who lives in NY, or has been a regular reader of Gawker’s Blue States Lose column, has been seeing these on party-hearty hipster douchebags for years.
Having worked at the retail level for a mega-corporation, it’s unlikely that you could hire anyone under the table in that kind of situation. I think the franchise-ownership setup might make it a teensy bit easier, but I still doubt that it would be possible to the extent that DD had a “reputation” for it.
Unless what it really had was a “reputation” for local mouthbreathers freaking out because the local Dunkin’ Donuts was full of brown people, and thus obvious “illegals”, and corporate wanted to make some sort of gesture to placate those sorts of assholes.
No, it is a black-and-white paisley scarf.
That rounded thing is a paisley, not part of the chain-link-style pattern typically found on keffiyehs.
And somebody should tell Malkin’s readers that Fred the Baker has been dead for a few years now.
Er, apparently the picture I included isn’t allowed or I fail at HTML, so I should say, that rounded thing just to the right of the straw is a paisley.
Who the hell decided all keffiyehs signify support of Palestine? It’s just a traditional headdress for men.
Which reminds me. If any of the Americans sporting the trendy keffiyeh really were trying to express sympathy with militant Islam, wouldn’t they need to be wearing it on their heads? The keffiyeh is not customarily worn on the neck or shoulders in its traditional context — it’s a fucking headscarf.
Also of note, the style of keffiyeh which has become popular in the US is NOT the keffiyeh of the Fatah party or the PLO, which is either a more webbed or netted looking black pattern, for Fatah, or a red check pattern for the PLO.
the opoponax May 26, 2008 at 11:27 am
Having worked at the retail level for a mega-corporation,
It’s all in the computer. if a manager would create a fake, outside the book computer account. a worker worker wouldn’t know if his employment is legit or not.
what ya gonna do? audit the computer?
Well, just a minute. I do think Ray’s fashion choice is a bit conspicuous. She is wearing a keffiyeh.
Only someone stupid enough to think a black-and-white fringed scarf is a keffiyeh no matter what the pattern is would be able to say this.
Keffiyehs don’t have flowers on them, dumbshit.
You probably know this already, but for the crowd which is up in arms over this thing, support for the Palestinian people and support for terrorism are identical. There is no distinction to be made.
This reminds me about how Malkin had a condescending post about how liberals, as opposed to enlightened conservatives like herself, ruined things by making every single damn thing into something about politics.
It’s paisley. And even if it were a pattern like houndstooth, that’s been around for ages and doesn’t equate to keffiyeh. Gah.
(Also, I haven’t seen this “jihadi chic” in motion at all, and I’ve lived in San Francisco and Boston the last few years. I think I’d notice if it were a huge trend.)
Still, it’s hard to get upset by Malkin labelling something as akin to treasonous behaviour, since that category also includes criticising Dear Leader and OMGs! opening dialogue with various factions. You can’t play with her goalposts ANYWAY as they’re way down the field.
a worker worker wouldn’t know if his employment is legit or not.
what ya gonna do? audit the computer?
1. Your check usually comes from the company itself, or some sort of official looking payroll service. People who get paid cash under the table get paid cash, or failing that, maybe a personal check from the owner. It’s VERY easy to tell whether you’re being paid legitimately or not.
2. Big corporations with hundreds of retail branches do audits a lot; it’s the only way the company can stay in control of all those retail branches. I would guess, actually, that franchise-oriented companies probably audit even more because you’re giving a hell of a lot of freedom to the franchise owners. You don’t want a couple bad apples ruining your brand (which is what you’re really in the business of selling, if you’re a franchising company).
What?!
no, really, What?!
In what universe does this make sense?
Obviously Malkin doesn’t read stuffwhitepeoplelike.
They recently had a post about scarves that would have explained everything…
“it’s not a rare occurance to see a white person in a t-shirt, jeans, and a scarf”
Wacky kids these days do weird things with keffiyeh by wearing them around their wrists and necks and such, but at some point I think that all dilutes the definition of keffiyeh to meaninglessness.
Anyhoo, Malkin = nutbar.
“it’s not a rare occurance to see a white person in a t-shirt, jeans, and a scarf”
Exhibit A
I wore one of those all through my childhood in NYC. I grew up Hispanic and Catholic. Before Sept 11, it was a scarf. Now that the 80’s are back and we have a little distance from 2001, I am seeing it again.
Michelle Malkin: fashionista?
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/07/0714_bloggers/image/michelle_malkin.jpg
A 15-year-old student of mine was wearing a t-shirt, jeans, ballet flats, and a scarf to a meeting we had a few nights ago. I thought she looked like a stylish teenager. I sincerely doubt she knows what a keffiyeh is, let alone is in support of Palestine. She was drinking something from Starbucks, though, so who knows. Or that could just be because in this part of the country there’s a Starbucks on every corner and not a Dunkies. You have to go a bit further north for that, though Dunkies has definitely been making inroads.
I really want that Jonathan Papelbon poster. I wonder if I can get my sister to go get one of those breakfast sandwiches that it comes with. I was in Boston a couple of days before that promotion started and just missed out.
For anyone who thinks that Rachel Ray is not wearing an actual keffiyeh in that ad, try the following: Take a big ol’ slug of Malkinade;Spin around really fast until you’re so dizzy you can barely stand up (but stop before you throw up, or you’ll need to drink some more Malkinade);Put on a pair of glasses that are not your own, smearing them with a thin layer of vasoline if your vision isn’t suitably “improved”;Squint your eyes;Cock your head, optionally shoving it as far up your ass as you can manage. After all that, I challenge you to not see the spitting image of Yassar Arafat. If by some inexplicable reason you still see Rachel Ray wearing a scarf, I’m afraid you’re just not eligible for citizenship in Wingnuttia.
BTW, dunkin Donuts is owned by Carlyle group! (yeah, the military Industrial complex)
www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/articles/061126/4equity.b.htm
Dan D’Aniello was all ears in 2005 when Jon Luther, CEO of Dunkin’ Brands, called and said he was looking for somebody to buy his company. The parent company of Dunkin’ Donuts had long been part of the British conglomerate Allied Domecq, which had just been purchased by French spirits company Pernod Ricard. The new beverage titan planned to focus strictly on its core business, and coffee and doughnuts didn’t fit.
..
Raising the bar. Once the deal was finalized in March, Luther and his new partners began pouring a fresh strategy for Dunkin’. A new 11-person board was formed, with three slots going to each of the private-equity owners. Luther and Chief Operating Officer Will Kussell, who each invested some of their own money in the deal, took the other two seats. Luther began to raise standards for franchisees, hunting for business people capable of handling a network of three to five stores, not just one or two. The team raised growth targets, too. Instead of adding 500 to 600 new stores per year-Allied Domecq’s goal-Dunkin’ now aims for 800 to 1,000. And Luther has decided to put the Togo’s sandwich-shop chain on the block and focus squarely on coffee and doughnuts, along with ice cream sold by the company’s other brand, Baskin-Robbins.
Luther is also challenging some cherished traditions. To boost efficiency, the company may outsource doughnut making at some stores. And it’s exploring ways to draw more diners for lunch, without souring them on breakfast.
Not only is that not a keffiyeh, keffiyehs have been worn by non-Palestinians who have no idea of their alleged political significance for at *least* twenty years. They were popular as fall/early winter scarves when I was an undergrad in the late 1970’s/early 1980’s. They were cheap, “ethnic,” and sold in local head shops, and meant as much politically as those “Indian print tapestry” bed spreads one sees on college campuses everywhere.
*rolls eyes*
Shorter Malkin: “Let us disappear their clothing until we can come up with some more Final Solution to the Palestinian problem.”
Two of my co-workers, who are a bit younger than I and not white, wear those durn scarves and other sorts of scarves with everything all the time.
Our building is pretty random when it comes to HVAC, so they wrap up when they feel cold and shed when they are warm.
Am I the only one that noticed the frozen coffee drink in her hand? Could the scarf have been chosen by wardrobe because it humorously indicates that the drink is soooo cooling that you need to wear a scarf even in summer? Years of working in theatre have obviously spoiled me to the greater political significance of a scarf that is most certainly NOT a keffiyeh.
I had a keffiyeh when I was in college in the early 80’s. It was red, just like Arafat’s. Why did I have it? Because it cost $8 at a street vendor, I was cold, it matched my red coat and it was machine washable. But I’m sure there was some other deep-seated, anti-American motivation for buying it cuz we all know how culturally aware someone is when they’re a college sophomore. Yeah, and owning a daishiki in the early 70s made me black. Or, you know, not.
Glad someone else pointed out that Fred the Baker is dead. If wingnuts can’t even do their basic research, I can’t be bothered to listen. Guess that makes me an elitist, huh?
Two c:
1. Nothing wrong with support for the Palestinians, and I’m part Jewish. There is something seriously wrong with people who think all the Palestinians should fuck off and die already (also known as “unconditional support for Israel”).
2. There is also nothing wrong with wearing whatever clothes one wants. I wear a scarf with tank tops, often, because my neck gets cold even when the rest of me doesn’t. Hating on a prominent (spokesperson) woman for her fashion choices on a feminist blog = not cool. It also encourages the “who is this woman, she is so insignificant, I don’t care about her, I don’t like how she looks” comments. This is not the point, the point is that rightwingers are crazy, dangerous, insecure, and control our discourse. The discussion should be about how it’s really, really okay to support Palestinians in their struggle for human rights and survival.
Keffiyeh?
Whatever. I’m a US citizen living in Germany right now. Regardless of what associations with political factions this garment MAY have, the simple truth is that since late summer 2007 this scarf and variations on it in other colors have popped up in the cheap-crap fashion discounters all over Germany, if not elsewhere in western Europe (can’t say since I’ve only observed what the folks are wearing here). Personally I find it really tacky and trashy looking, but I can assure you that it’s being worn by innumerous youth who are often just as clueless as their American counterparts with respect to world politics and issues.
It’s nothing more than an abominably ugly fashion trend imported from Europe. The reactionaries, as well as being such, are simply worlds away from seeing it in its actual context.
That wins the thread for me.
To ordinary people, this is an example of someone wearing the confusing combination of a lightweight summer shirt and a scarf.
Heh. I’ve been walking around dressed like that most of last weak. Great weather, light breeze, and having to hit a high a every evening.
An assignment for Michelle Malkintent - or, shall we say, an opportunity to do some actual journalism?
On a mild spring day, take a walk by NYU or Boston University. Note the number of crapffeyah scarves both for sale and on actual people. Then interview one of the many wearers about their scarf, where they got it, why they are wearing it, and their nominal religious affiliation.
My bet is that most of the young women wearing this “look” in the vicinity of these universties will actually be Jewish.
Oh, but that means that MM might actually come in contact with actual living, breathing Jews. Too risky.
mnemosyne:
Keffiyehs don’t have flowers on them, dumbshit.
That seems a bit uncalled for, mnemosyne.
Perhaps I’ve failed the Fashion Challenge this week on Pandagon, but my post was made in good faith, and I think the distinction you’re making is pretty subjective. Next I suppose you’ll tell me that REAL New York pizzas don’t have spinach on them, or that REAL hummus doesn’t have red pepper in it, and I’m a dumbshit for making those mistakes as well.
Yes, it’s true that a keffiyeh and a scarf and a bandanna and a pashmina and a wrap and a poncho and a serape and a hat and hoodie and a coat and a cloak and a cape and a shawl all inhabit a rather nebulous sartorial space, and that different people might call the same item by more than one of those names. My point was simply that, in the world I’m from, the accessory the woman is sporting in the ad looks quite distinctly like an accessory that is often associated with vaguely leftist white people trying to show solidarity with various Middle Eastern peoples, and specifically in recent years with the Palestinians. Perhaps in your world, the item looks like something else or has a different connotation. That’s fine; it does not make you a bad person.
It’s also true that the accessory in question has been, for some time, worn by many people who seem not to be signalling any particular political affiliation. But, as I said in my original post, the same is true of Che t-shirts. I find this a little off-putting, but in the end (as I also said in my post), I don’t really give a fuck, because fashion is actually a pretty trivial matter and if people want to wear Jesus symbols and Che symbols and Communist Party symbols and Nation of Islam symbols and Hindu symbols and Straight Edge symbols and Skinhead symbols, it’s really no skin off my nose, and besides, we live in a culture where all signifiers very quickly lose their signification and are turned into trademarks used to sell sugar water and SUVs.
I think it’s a bit funny that Rachel Ray is wearing what appears to me, in my subjective personal evaluation, to be what was once a marker of Palestinian solidarity in a Dunkin Donuts commercial, but you, mnemosyne, are not obliged to find it funny, and I will not call you a dumbshit for disagreeing with me.
I don’t know how ANYONE could mistake that scarf for a keffiyah, actually.
Not. Even. A. Keffiyeh. Malkin once again tops her own previously dizzying heights of Too-Stupid-To-Breathe-Without-Aid.
I think the distinction you’re making is pretty subjective
Actually, it’s not. Keffiyeh don’t have flowers or paisley patterns on them. They just don’t. I’m not sure “dumbshit” was necessarily called for, but this is not subjective, like the difference between a “scarf” and a “wrap” would be.
Words have meanings. They just do. You can’t take a specific term, divorce it from its actual meaning, then get pissed off about the perceived social “message” sent. You can’t have it both ways. Either Rachel Ray is wearing an actual keffiyeh, with all the cultural associations that may or may not carry, or she is not wearing a keffiyeh and thus cannot possibly mean to convey whatever nefarious message you have ascribed to her clothing.
Exactly what I was going to say. She’s drinking a cold drink, so they put a scarf on her. “Oooh, so chilly, especially in short sleeves!” Needing a scarf, they chose one that is currently fashionable. That’s the end of the thinking that went into that choice.
Although everyone posting seems to be aficionados of the keffiyeh, I’m going to have to say that at first glance (and I have spent a significant period of time in the Middle East) the scarf does look like a Palestinian kaffiyah, and a Palestinian keffiyeh does invoke a particular political viewpoint. I think the real issue here is that politics shouldn’t have a place in a commercial for donuts. Thinking that people wouldn’t respond to the scarf is just plain dumb.
Is it worth mentioning to that clueless commenter on Malkin’s thread that “the fat guy” died several years ago, or would digging him up and propping him up like Weekend at Bernie’s be preferable to him?
Although everyone posting seems to be aficionados of the keffiyeh, I’m going to have to say that at first glance (and I have spent a significant period of time in the Middle East) the scarf does look like a Palestinian kaffiyah, and a Palestinian keffiyeh does invoke a particular political viewpoint.
At first glance, the man-in-the-moon logo that Procter & Gamble puts on all of their packaging looks like a Satanic image, but it’s not.
If we’re going to go solely by what something looks like at first glance and not what it actually IS, we’re in really big trouble. If you take a second glance, you can see that the pattern on it is clearly not that of a kaffiyeh. Look at the pattern just above the drink. That’s a flower. If you can show me a picture from the Middle East of a kaffiyeh with a flower, you would have a point.
But that’s the thing — “keffiyeh” is not just another word for “scarf.” It’s a very specific item. You’re trying to argue that a chihuahua and a cat are the same thing because they’re the same color and the same size and they both have fur, so they’re the same thing, right?
Either that, or support for the Palestinian people is so high that Burberry can get people to pay $370 so they can show their support. Or maybe, y’know, it’s just a black-and-white scarf with fringe that isn’t showing a message except to Michelle Malkin’s paranoid brain.
When you start seeing support for terrorists in Dunkin Donuts commercials, it may be time to talk to your doctor about some anti-psychotic medication, don’t you think?
Mnemosyne, can we drop the right wing talking points and the conflation of “Palestinians=terrorists” on a fucking progressive blog already? Who cares if it’s a keffiyeh or not, YOU are helping Malkin’s point by supporting the “all arab and their fashion accessories people are out to get us”. Not cool.
Huh? By pointing out that she’s not even wearing a keffiyeh, I’m somehow supporting the notion that the people who do wear keffiyehs are terrorist supporters? How does that follow?
The language you use: one paragraph has “Palestinian people”, the next “terrorists”, in basically the same construction and the same use. That’s conflation.
The language you use: one paragraph has “Palestinian people”, the next “terrorists”, in basically the same construction and the same use. That’s conflation.
So pointing out that only a paranoid would assume that Dunkin’ Donuts is using Rachael Ray’s scarf to signal support for terrorism is “conflating” … what, exactly?
I’m mocking the idea that Dunkin’ Donuts is “supporting terrorism” (Malkin’s words, not mine) by putting a black-and-white fringed scarf vaguely reminiscent of a kaffiyeh around Rachael Ray’s neck in a commercial to sell their overpriced frozen drink. I’m not quite sure where you get some kind of conflation on my part from that.
I’m sorry that Malkin and her pals automatically assume that Palestinian people = terrorists, but that’s their conflation, not mine.