• Mood: angry

This thing is not OK. (Old news: Sarah Palin's fashion choices.)

This one hit me during the 2008 election or thereabouts, and I got my rageface on. It got shoved to the back of the list what with other stuff, but. I'm not sure whether this counts as racist or not, but it's certainly culturally unaware bullshit with a side order of smug self-justification. That is a fucking kuspuk, you Outsider. This is traditional Yup'ik dress. Whether by appropriation or assimilation, it is worn by any local who happens to own one. Mama could dig out family photos of tiny!me in a rather regrettably tomato-red one. Sarah Palin is a white woman. I disagree with a whole lot of her politics. She is also a fellow Alaskan, and she is wearing a piece of Native Alaskan clothing, which is traditional to her mother-in-law's tribe.

You can say that it's a bad photo. (It really is. Fisheye lenses are not good for anyone's looks.) You can criticise her hairstyle. You can suggest that the kuspuk in question might look a little ratty, or that red trim is really not the best choice for setting off pink cloth. You might even be a little daring and suggest that this particular kuspuk is the Alaskan equivalent of "mom jeans" (and then I'll invite A GOOD PORTION OF MY FELLOW FEMINIST FRIENDS over to your place to respond to your suggestion that there's something inherently wrong with mom jeans to start with, or wearing them to the supermarket). YOU DO NOT FUCKING CRITICISE THE KUSPUK ITSELF.

I would be having approximately this level of angry response if you told me that this guy is wearing a stupid-looking hat. This is not an acceptable target. This is not OK, and this is personal to me.

Crossposted. comments.