White People Wearing Headdresses

Aaaaaaand it’s time for a good old fashioned rant. Sarah Kabot, a (white woman) participant on the SJP-produced Bravo reality show “Work of Art” (where artists compete to be the next legit artist) decided that her entry in tonight’s contest would be TO MAKE FUCKING HEADDRESSES OUT OF PAPER FEATHERS. 

I. am. not. kidding.

First of all, Sarah Kabot paired her headdresses with a t shirt that had outlines of penises and breasts on it. “We were thinking sex sells,” she explained. OK… cultural appropriation paired with sexualization, not a new thing. 

You may be wondering, how the fuck could that be considered art? EXACTLY. And that brings me to my second point. Tonight’s challenge was to create art that could be sold on the street and converted into high art in a gallery. So… she thought that the best chance at literal commodification would be to sell headdresses+sex. This is too real. YOU CAN NOT MAKE THIS SHIT UP.

Also, what pisses me off the most is that Sarah Kabot is a freakin’ art professor. If I was as parent and my child wanted to be an artist and was being taught by this incredibly irresponsible and ignorant woman, I would be PISSED. How are we entrusting students into her hands? Art professors should be educated about the historical impact of their work, should they not?!?!?

Divine retribution: she got kicked off. HELL YES. The woman on the ellyptical behind me at the gym and I practically high fived (and I literally fist pumped) when they eliminated her for that shit. Unfortunately, the judges did not say a word about cultural appropriation or commodification/essentialization/stereotyping (or if they did, Bravo edited that out.. God forbid the judges have some cultural awareness) but one judge did note that “it comes off as a Halloween costume.” 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!