December 12, 2015
Media Coverage:
The Age Herald Voice Jerusalem Post JTA Forward
SMH Inquisitr NME Times of Israel
The B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC), has strongly criticised writer Camille Paglia for stating in a Hollywood Reporter article that Taylor Swift is a “Nazi Barbie.” In the essay, Paglia contends that Swift’s “…twinkly persona is a scary flashback to the fascist blondes who ruled the social scene during my youth,” and adds that Swift should retire the “obnoxious Nazi Barbie routine of wheeling out friends and celebrities as performance props.”
Dr Dvir Abramovich, Chairman of the ADC, issued the following statement:
“This article shows a deplorable lack of judgement and insight. The ADC has time and again denounced the exploitation and distortion of the Holocaust and has registered its concern when such false analogies have been deployed. While Paglia is entitled to her views about Taylor Swift’s music and performance, her absurd and offensive comparison of Swift to the Nazis, whose genocidal policies and actions resulted in the systematic persecution and slaughter of six million Jews and millions of others in the Holocaust, betrays an ignorance of what really happened in Hitler’s Third Reich. Such obscene and insensitive equations have no place in our cultural discourse and only serve to demean and trivialise the memory and suffering of the victims. Such comparisons are not only historically inaccurate and extreme, they are also immensely hurtful to Holocaust survivors, their families, as well as to those who fought bravely against the Nazis in World War II. We call on the Hollywood Reporter to repudiate the article, and would urge Ms Paglia to apologise and to refrain from using such Holocaust imageries in the future.”
For further information please contact Dr Dvir Abramovich on (03) 9272 5677
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