The February issue of Vogue, which will begin to show up on newsstands this week, includes details and a photo of something new from the celebrated fashion designer Alexander Wang, but it’s not quite like anything he’s done before, and it’s more than a piece of apparel. It’s a statement of solidarity, a cry of protest and a sign of just how many people from just how many walks of life are determined not to let the Olympics come and go without shining a light on Russia’s discrimination against, and persecution of, L.G.B.T. people.
It’s a winter hat, to be exact. A beanie, he calls it. Black. Warm. But the most important detail is this: It spells out P6, a shorthand for Principle 6 of the Olympic charter, and it speaks to a strategy by gay rights advocates—specifically, by the groups Athlete Ally and All Out—to get spectators and athletes in Sochi to register their opposition to outrageously repressive, regressive anti-gay laws in Russia without running afoul of one of them, which bans what it vaguely calls gay “propaganda,” or of the International Olympic Committee’s own restrictions against political statements.
The Principle 6 campaign involves the visual promotion of the phrase Principle 6, the number 6 and the logo P6—on clothing, for example—as a way of flagging support for gay rights. It has caught fire since I last wrote about it on this blog, which was the first place to report on it as an alternative to some of the other ideas that advocates had floated, such as having athletes wear rainbow-flag pins or having athletes of the same gender hold hands during the opening ceremonies.
Those gestures carried a risk, in terms of Russia’s propaganda prohibition, that was made clear over the last few days by a report that a teenager in Russia had been detained by Olympic officials and the police for brandishing a rainbow flag as he watched the Olympic torch relay pass through his town. Also recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin showed his true and bigoted colors, assuring the world that gay visitors to Sochi needn’t worry about their experience at the Winter Games but adding: “Just leave the kids alone, please.” That’s right. We travel the world not to see its wonders, but to recruit. We go to Sochi not for the figure skating, but for the playgrounds.
In any case, here’s how I explained the Principle 6 campaign when it was launched:
It involves appropriating the I.O.C.’s own words and stated values and turning them into a coded affirmation of LGBT equality, an epigrammatic protest of Russia’s laws that doesn’t include the word “gay” or any of the conventional symbols of the gay rights movement. Russians wouldn’t easily be able to classify it as so-called gay propaganda, which the country deems illegal. And I.O.C. officials could hardly take offense and muster any opposition. The Olympic charter includes something called Principle 6, which decries discrimination of any kind and makes clear that the games are committed to equality and human rights…
So Athlete Ally, working with a company called the Idea Brand and the professional football player Brendon Ayanbadejo, came up with and developed the notion of using the very name of that clause, along with a logo or logos that allude to it, as a rebuke of Russia’s laws and a method for athletes and fans to express their convictions. The symbol and the syllables P6, perhaps worn as a sticker, perhaps woven into clothing, could evolve into something along the lines of a Livestrong bracelet: a ubiquitous motif that doesn’t spell out a whole philosophy but has an unmistakable meaning and message.
Subsequent to the announcement of that campaign, my colleague Stuart Elliott reported in The Times that American Apparel had decided to begin selling Principle 6 apparel, including “T-shirts, hoodies, hats, bags and underwear,” with the proceeds to go to L.G.B.T. groups in Russia. That apparel has been in stores since the start of the year and was available online for several weeks before that.
Meanwhile, the number of former and current Olympians who have signed on to the Principle 6 campaign, agreeing to promote the logo or at least express their concern about Russia’s treatment of L.G.B.T. people, keeps growing, and is up to almost 50 people now. This swell of support reflects a similar one outside of the world of sports. It seems that every week, another prominent person—Wang, for example, or the musician Melissa Etheridge, who recently released a special song in support of L.G.B.T. Russians—joins the chorus of concern.
Vogue in fact plans an online spread in early February, just before the Olympics begin, of selfies taken by athletes, entertainers and other public figures who are wearing Wang’s limited-edition P6 beanie. And the former Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe, who claimed that his dismissal from the team was connected to his outspoken advocacy for gay marriage, wore a red hat that spelled out Principle 6 during a recent television interview with Anderson Cooper of CNN.
Wang’s beanie will be sold starting on February 1, at his Manhattan flagship and by various retailers, either online or in stores, including Nordstrom, Bergdorf Goodman, Moda Operandi, Jeffrey, and Fivestory. It will cost $125 and the proceeds will go to the Principle 6 campaign and to Russian groups.
Wang told Vogue that it’s meant for “athletes, fans—anyone and everyone who believes in equality and nondiscrimination, both of which are entirely compatible with the spirit of the Olympic Games.”
via fashion - Google News http://ift.tt/1ff9Rbb
0 意見:
張貼留言