The 2021 Met Gala was this past Monday and the fashion critics already have devised their iconic worst and best dressed lists. However, as the charity event is an opportunity to make a statement aligned to the gala’s ever-changing theme (this year’s being “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion”), a variety of celebrities decided to take the root of activist fashion.

An article from the Atlantic, titled “The Man Loves the Extra Publicity,” further analyzes these political arguments by looking at the shocking messages stars made on the red carpet yet, the article only discusses the statements made by female celebrities and portrays them in a negative light.

For example, the author focuses on a tweet about the appearances of Cara Delevingne, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Megan Rapinoe, and Carolyn Maloney’s that says, “think we can all agree that activism is kind of over and generally embarrassing tbh.”

The embodiment of the argument’s weakness is in utilizing this tweet, and other opinions from non-experts, as solidatary evidence. In short, it lacks credibility. The words of “@Thomasfreeboy” do not add a sense of sophistication or expertise to the argument.

Furthermore, the tweet referenced further exemplifies the sexism of the article’s main argument as it focuses on the ensembles of women, not including the controversial looks of men, such as Dan Levy, who received positive feedback of his outfit showing two men kissing, alluding to the LGBTQ+ community. This once again makes the article’s argument  ineffective due to bias evidence and its choice to hate on the political statements of women and not men.

As a result, men are being credited with starting political conversations as AOC and Megan Rapinoe are receiving enormous amounts of criticism for their “lack of action,” calling their fashion choice performative activism. And the issue goes deeper as women at the Met have higher standards than men to be placed on a “best dressed” list, with male celebrities able to make the cut in a simple, black tuxedo.

Above all, a simple news article can require us to think about the differing standards in women’s vs. men’s fashion and how this disparity is inevitably causing the negative portrayals of women in the media.