People Are Pissed About Kim Kardashian’s ‘Neo-Nazi’ Tesla Robot Photoshoot
Over the weekend, digital publication Perfect Magazine published their latest cover shoot with Kim Kardashian. In the photographs shot by Steven Klein, Kardashian is seen in various poses next to the Tesla robot, who’s apparently named Optimus, and lying on top of of the Tesla cybertruck.
People are very understandably uncomfortable by this association with Elon Musk, following a very tense and scary political moment in the United States. The truth is that Kim Kardashian and Elon Musk have a lot in common. They are billionaires, which is a small club. They are also businesses. They are not the same as common citizens. Kardashian, with her money and influence, holds a kind of power similar to an overlord like Musk, than a private citizen.
Kardashian has obviously made clear her allegiance with Musk, as well as with Melania Trump and the current administration in general, but what is most disappointing is that Perfect Magazine made this association such a focal point in their editorial, making it crystal clear that they are fine with such partnerships with such a regime have a place in fashion. A lot of people in the fashion industry are calling out the industry’s hypocrisy for rightfully boycotting Kanye West following his antisemitism and misogynoir, but not boycotting Kim Kardashian for this.
Kim Kardashian has been criticized by the fashion world as much as she is invited into participate in the fashion world. As much as fashion is about luxury, as fine arts end up being, it’s also about labor. Fashion is a luxury, but that is because it requires expertise, craft, time, and vision, and those things cost money. Those things are also what ground so many people in the fashion industry to the fact that fashion does not function because of the elite and wealthy. It functions because of outsiders, because of the working class, because of queer people, because of people from marginalized communities. It’s easy to be seduced by power and money, but if fashion is only about power and money, it will fall flat every time.
I wish I could say that fashion shouldn’t tolerate fascism or even association with fascism, especially because it very famously uses the marginalized for inspiration and is an industry built on physical labor. I wish I could say that no one should tolerate fascism because it is atrocious and evil, but the truth is that fashion, like the rest of society, has long tolerated fascism. I’m not the first to draw this comparison, but Coco Chanel maintained her legacy within fashion, despite dating a German military officer as Nazis began infiltrating Paris’ high society and aiding in espionage on behalf of them during their attempt at seizing Madrid. That is one of fashion history’s biggest stains. This is another.
