This photo (see details in last paragraph), for a number of reasons, gave me pause for thought. On March 12, 2011, I posted a small essay on this blog discussing celebrity activism and the Palestine issue. In it I named a handful of actors, musicians, and artists who have had the courage to speak out on the at times politically expensive issue of Palestine; the names were from a short list to begin with. Yet, by her merely donning a scarf, actress Tilda Swinton has seemingly added herself to the roster. Hence one reason for my pause for thought.
When one is in the public eye, little is required to do much. In this case, one scarf, one photo. Is this an instance of activism? I'm inclined to say yes.
What allows the Palestine-Israel conflict to continue is lack of popular pressure on Washington - and on Western governments in general. That lack, especially in the United States, is largely a byproduct of the general poverty of awareness and knowledge on the subject. Therefore, to mitigate against that poverty is in itself a kind of campaign. So Swinton and her scarf seem to satisfy the basic criteria.
And I'm glad they do. Because it means activism isn't necessarily hard, which might encourage others to join in. And as I mentioned in my March blog piece, the more who join in, the easier it gets still.
(The photo appeared in the Nov. 2011 issue of the British Vogue. I learned of it in a Jan. 25 posting on Mondoweiss, which referenced an Oct. 2011 article on Electronic Intifada about Swinton, her scarf, and its designer.)
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/01/bad-career-move-by-tilda-swinton.html
