Do The Fashion Police Need to be Policed

The hot topic right now is E! Network’s Fashion Police. The show stars Joan Rivers with her panel, consisting of: Kelly Osbourne, daughter of rocker Ozzy and talkative Sharon; Giuliana Rancic, E! News anchor and reality star; and George Kotsiopoulos, stylist to the stars. On the show, Joan gets to do what she does best, and is best known for; she criticizes others’ fashion choices as well as offending many. Unfortunately, Joan Rivers has recently offended a woman by the name of Rachael Lloyd.

Rachael is offended by one specific part of Joan’s show, Fashion Police. The segment: Starlet or Streetwalker. The offense: poking fun at exploited hookers, according to Lloyd. Now, as a fashion fan myself, especially of the looks that appear on the many red carpets, I have grown up with Joan and her humor. In good fashion, I enjoy the Fashion Police, on every Friday at 10:30pm, and there is no exception for the segment in question. However, I would like to point out that I never really thought the women who turned out not to be starlets, were actual streetwalkers! I always assumed that, like the magazines who insult commoner fashion with a mere black strip over the person’s face, Fashion Police was doing the same thing. But, according to Rachael Lloyd, “I watched with growing discomfort as I realized that these women – poor women, desperate women, drug-addicted women, women under the control of a pimp, women who are victims of violence and exploitation – were being used to highlight wealthy celebrities’ poor fashion choices. Mocking Celebrity X for wearing an ill-advised $15,000 couture gown to the Oscars is quite different than mocking a woman who is literally living on the streets. I doubt if E! would have fashion segments called ‘Homeless or Hollywood?’, ‘Drug Addict or Debutante?’, ‘Poor or Posh?.’ Yet because these women are not ‘just’ potentially homeless, drug addicted, and definitely poor, but are ‘streetwalkers,’ prostitutes, whores, hookers, they’re considered fair game.”

Did the rant absorb? This may help; Rachael is the founder and executive director of Girls Education and Mentoring Services (GEMS). The foundation is a survivor led organization with the hopes to “ending commercial sexual exploitation.” As a “survivor” herself, Rachael finds ‘Starlets or Streetwalkers’ “incredibly offensive and damaging.” Due to all of this, there is now a petition, with as many as some 14,000 odd signatures on it roaming the interwebs. It can be found at Change.org.

If this is a cause you support, go ahead and help Rachael reach 1,500 signatures. But I would like to hear your thoughts…did you think the ‘Streetwalkers’ were literally streetwalkers??

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