Queer activists are mad at Gucci for “appropriating” their culture
Queer activists are putting fashion label Gucci under fire after they created a line of shoes that “appropriated” the “queer core” movement.
The “ugly Mary Jane” shoes were reportedly a staple item for punk LGBT people in the 1980’s, but now the shoe is being re purposed by the top designer brand.
It is a traditionally clunky boot with cut out details, and Gucci has added its own spin on the style with oversized buckles, cutaways and leg cages all for the hefty price of $2000.
The brand admitted that they were inspired by the “queer core” fashion movement of the 1980’s.
However, the “inventors” of the movement have said that Gucci did not ask any of them to contribute to the collection, and insisted that paying thousands for a pair of the shoes is not what queer core stands for.
“Queercore didn’t ‘lend it’s name’ to Gucci for their shoes. I should know, I invented the term ‘Queercore,’” filmmaker GB Jones told LGBTQ Nation. “They stole it, plain and simple. It’s theft.”
The original people who belonged to the movement said that they made their fashion work during a time when they were “toiling in poverty and obscurity”.
They feel that Gucci is using their creations and promoting them to an entirely different community because “punk-era artists could never afford” the shoes.
“You’d think with all the money they pay their people, someone at the office could have come up with something original,” Jones added.
“I live on less in an entire month than it would cost to buy one pair of these shoes, and I managed to invent the term!”
The group are also annoyed that Gucci will sell the product in countries that are notoriously anti-LGBT such as Saudi Arabia.
“What are they doing to help the LGBT communities in these places? Are they helping them fight for their rights?” asked Jones. “These are the questions that need to be asked. Because selling them shoes is not helping.”
