Radical chic

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(Redirected from
Terrorist chic
)

Black Panthers Field Marshal Donald L. Cox (right), at a fundraiser for the Black Panthers in January 1970 at the Bernsteins' apartment on Park Avenue in New York City. The photo appeared in the New York magazine
article that spawned the term "radical chic".

Radical chic is the fashionable practice of

frivolous political agitators—ideologically
invested in their cause of choice only so far as it advances their social standing.

The concept has been described as "an exercise in double-tracking one's public image: on the one hand, defining oneself through committed allegiance to a radical cause, but on the other, vitally, demonstrating this allegiance because it is the fashionable,

aestheticization of violence
).

Origin and meaning

The phrase "radical chic" originated in a 1970

The Purple Decades. In the essay, Wolfe used the term to satirize composer Leonard Bernstein and his friends for their absurdity in hosting a fundraising party for the Black Panthers—an organization whose members, activities, and goals were clearly incongruous with those of Bernstein's elite circle.[3] Wolfe's concept of radical chic was intended to lampoon individuals (particularly social elites like the jet set) who endorsed leftist radicalism merely to affect worldliness, assuage white guilt
, or garner prestige, rather than to affirm genuine political convictions.

[Wolfe's] subject is how culture's patrician classes – the wealthy, fashionable intimates of high society – have sought to luxuriate in both a vicarious glamour and a monopoly on virtue through their public espousal of street politics: a politics, moreover, of minorities so removed from their sphere of experience and so absurdly, diametrically, opposed to the islands of privilege on which the cultural aristocracy maintain their isolation, that the whole basis of their relationship is wildly out of kilter from the start. ... In short, Radical Chic is described as a form of highly developed decadence; and its greatest fear is to be seen not as prejudiced or unaware, but as middle-class.

Background

The concept of "fashionable" espousal of radical causes by members of wealthy society in this case had been argued against by Bernstein's wife,

Felicia Montealegre, prior to the publication of "Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny's", a fact Wolfe details in it. The essay appeared in the June 8, 1970 issue of New York, 20 weeks after the actual fund raiser at the Bernstein residence was held on January 14. The first report of the event—which raised money in support of the Panther 21[4]—appeared the following day in a piece by The New York Times style reporter Charlotte Curtis, who was in attendance. Curtis wrote in part: "Leonard Bernstein and a Black Panther leader argued the merits of the Black Panther party's philosophy before nearly 90 guests last night in the Bernsteins' elegant Park Avenue duplex." According to Wolfe, the release of the story worldwide was followed by strong criticism of the event: "The English, particularly, milked the story for all it was worth and seemed to derive one of the great cackles of the year from it."[2]

The negative reaction prompted publication of an op-ed in the Times on January 16 entitled "False Note on Black Panthers" that was severely critical of the Black Panther Party and Bernstein:

Emergence of the Black Panthers as the romanticized darlings of the politico-cultural jet set is an affront to the majority of black Americans. ... the group therapy plus fund-raising soiree at the home of Leonard Bernstein, as reported in this newspaper yesterday, represents the sort of elegant slumming that degrades patrons and patronized alike. It might be dismissed as guilt-relieving fun spiked with social consciousness, except for its impact on those blacks and whites seriously working for complete equality and social justice.[5]

Felicia Montealegre wrote and personally delivered a response to this op-ed to the Times offices.[2] In her response she wrote:

As a civil libertarian, I asked a number of people to my house on Jan. 14 in order to hear the lawyer and others involved with the Panther 21 discuss the problem of civil liberties as applicable to the men now waiting trial, and to help raise funds for their legal expenses. ... It was for this deeply serious purpose that our meeting was called. The frivolous way in which it was reported as a "fashionable" event is unworthy of the Times, and offensive to all people who are committed to humanitarian principles of justice.[2][6]

Related terms

Palestinian keffiyeh

Terrorist chic (also known as "terror chic" or "militant chic") is a more recent and specific variation of the term. It refers to the

subversively, the process exemplifies aestheticization of propaganda. Regardless, because terrorist chic derives its iconography from groups and individuals often associated with violent conflict or terrorism
, the term carries a greater pejorative tone than "radical chic."

Instances of terrorist chic have variously been interpreted as morally irresponsible, earnestly

Shortly after the October 17, 1997 burial with military honors in

libertarian website, wrote and produced Killer Chic in 2008, a libertarian, anti-Communist documentary, in which he deconstructed the use of images of Che Guevara and Mao Zedong in popular culture. In his blog entry on 11 December 2008, Reason journalist Nick Gillespie used the term "killer chic"[16] in his review of Steven Soderbergh's film Che
.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Bracewell, Michael (November–December 2004). "Molotov Cocktails". Frieze Magazine. Archived from the original on December 1, 2008. Retrieved April 5, 2009.
  2. ^ a b c d Wolfe, Tom (June 8, 1970). "Radical Chic: that Party at Lenny's" (PDF). New York. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 31, 2018. Retrieved March 1, 2010.
    Wolfe, Tom (June 8, 1970). "Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny's". New York. Archived from the original on September 12, 2022. Retrieved December 11, 2010.
  3. ^ Foote, Timothy (December 21, 1970). "Fish in the Brandy Snifter". Time Magazine. Time Inc. Archived from the original on December 23, 2007. Retrieved April 5, 2009.
  4. ^ "BBC – When Leonard Bernstein partied with the Black Panthers". BBC. Archived from the original on January 27, 2019. Retrieved January 27, 2019.
  5. ^ "False Note on Black Panthers". The New York Times. January 16, 1970.
  6. ^ Bernstein, Felicia M. (January 21, 1970). "Letters to the Editor of The Times: Panthers' Legal Aid". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 12, 2022. Retrieved June 4, 2018.
  7. Independent News & Media. Archived
    from the original on January 18, 2009. Retrieved April 5, 2009.
  8. ^ Herr, Cheryl (July 2004). "Terrorist Chic and Marching Season Style". The Vacuum. Factotum. Archived from the original on November 20, 2008. Retrieved April 5, 2009.
  9. ^ Miller, Henry K (October 28, 2002). "Fatal attraction". New Statesman. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Retrieved April 5, 2009.
  10. ^ Connolly, Kate (October 6, 2002). "Astrid Proll's journey to Terror Chic". The Observer. Guardian Media Group. Archived from the original on July 24, 2008. Retrieved April 5, 2009.
  11. ^ Smiley, Shannon (February 20, 2005). "Germany Debates 'Terrorist Chic': Art and Fashion Stir Memories of Leftist Violence in '70s". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 9, 2017. Retrieved April 5, 2009.
  12. ^ Hernandez, Daniel (April 9, 2006). "'Terrorist Chic' and Beyond". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on October 11, 2008. Retrieved April 5, 2009.
  13. ^ Lando, Michal (January 19, 2007). "US chain pulls 'anti-war' keffiyehs". The Jerusalem Post. Mirkaei Tikshoret Ltd. Archived from the original on September 12, 2022. Retrieved April 5, 2009.
  14. ^ Cuba salutes 'Che' Guevara: Revolutionary Icon Finally Laid to Rest Archived April 20, 2006, at the Wayback Machine CNN, October 17, 1997
  15. ^ a b Bernstein, Richard (November 26, 1997). "Critic's Notebook; Looking Back With Cooled Passions at Che's Image". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 1, 2017. Retrieved June 7, 2013.
  16. ^ Gillespie, Nick (December 11, 2008). "Killer Chic: Hollywood's Sick Love Affair with Che Guevara". Reason. Archived from the original on May 13, 2013. Retrieved June 7, 2013.

Further reading

External links

Lists of examples

Essays and editorials