I Don’t Care About The Met Gala… Do You?

One of the world’s biggest fashion stages comes around every year on the first Monday of May. Current favorite celebrities co-host the event, and all invitees have to dress on-theme. The most recent theme was Costume Art, an ode to the history of fashion in artwork within the Met Museum’s extensive collection. This fashion frenzy serves to raise money for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It started in 1948 at a ticket price of $50. In our present day, it has now become an egotistical, exclusive event only for those who are currently massive names in the cultural zeitgeist. Names like Beyoncé, Zendaya, the Jenner’s, the Kardashians, and even influencers can be expected at this event. Dressed head to toe in custom designer pieces aimed at matching that year’s always complex, always fanciful theme. However, when May rolled around this year, I couldn't have cared who attended or what they wore. In fact, the idea of looking into these trivial headlines bored me to tears. In the current economic state in America, with families unable to decide between medication and groceries, the workforce playing hide and seek with the unemployed, and the rich getting much richer. I have to wonder: Do we still care about the Met Gala?

In TIME Magazine’s “Everything You Need to Know About the 2026 Met Gala” article. Museum officials cited that the biggest money raised for the event was back in 2025 at 31 million dollars. With 2026 beating the record at 42 million dollars. But don’t worry, entry tickets to this year’s gala starting at $100,000. Chump change for these wealthy, never-aging gods! It is said that the Met Gala costs 5 million dollars to put on, but this figure is not confirmed and is merely speculation.

The co-chairs for the 2026 Met Gala were: Beyoncé, Anna Wintour, Nicole Kidman, and Venus Williams. With the illustrious host comintee inviting on current stars like Alex Consani, Sabrina Carpenter, Misty Copeland, Angela Bassett, and even Doja Cat. But wait, it gets better. The lead sponsors of this thrilling affair are none other than Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez Bezos! Titled as honorary chairs!

I just can’t help but wonder if I am alone in my dislike of this year’s showcase? My interest in it has been waning since I collected my first paycheck in high school. Which has now grown to an overall distaste for the, frankly, shmoozy party. Where no phones are allowed in the venue, and the events of this star-studded party remain under wraps. We can only imagine the unlimited sparkling glasses of champagne, Michelin-quality courses served one after the other, and even two performances by some of the biggest names in music. This year being performances by Madonna and Sabrina Carpenter. All reserved for the rich, famous, and beautiful. Shutting its doors to the average man. Where onlookers can only dream of feeling the richness of the silk dresses, the weight of quarter-sized diamonds slung around an actress’s neck, or the fine richness of sea bass sautéed in a French cream sauce. Especially as gas goes up, once comfortable families now penny-pinch, and the average 20-something graduate is shit out of luck for a job, I can’t help but scoff at the pomp and ceremony of the Met Gala. At these beautiful celebrities who pose and smile in million-dollar costumes while I could bet money that down the road from this venue, there sits a homeless army veteran, downtrodden and hungry.

Accuracy of the Hunger Games Capitol to the Met Gala:

Above, I’ve uploaded a blend of Met Gala images and other stills taken from the Hunger Games movie franchise. Which has a rich and illustrious city called the Capitol. Where the rich and wealthy who suck all the resources from the other districts live in wealth and excess. While other districts, such as the story’s heroine Katniss, live in hunger and poverty across the board. Where fashion and noteriety is its own currency, and anyone who does not abide by this system is chewed up and spit out. Anyone beneath these titans of wealth being left with the crumbs. Sound familiar?

Especially this year, 2026, more commentary than ever has come out about the uncanny nature of the Met Gala compared to the current lives of the average man and woman. There is a disparity so large that some even feel the Met Gala and all its glitz and glamour are

dystopian. Pointing and laughing at us normal working people. The biggest comparison being between this ongoing issue and the book/film franchise The Hunger Games. Which, as I referenced above, has The Capitol. Where the wealthy and powerful live and hide from the other poor and starving districts just beyond their walls.

All I have to say, in the year 2026, if it walks like the Capitol, talks like the Capitol, and dresses like the Capitol, where does that leave us?

Popularity In Adoration:

Time and time again, the world has faced waves of economic harship to economic prosperity. With it comes certain trends and patterns among the public and pop culture. Such as the newly coined concept of “recession pop” where pop and hip hop become more campy, gody, and sexy the deeper a recession becomes. Think the Great Recession from 2007 to 2009. We had Lady Gaga, dance-pop, Rhianna, T-Pain club music, the list goes on.

Other patterns like the “Lipstick effect” also take effect. Where large purchases like homes or cars decline as a whole, but smaller purchases increase. Think that $5 coffee you treated yourself to, or that new Glossier highlighter for $24. These small “treats” begin to increase as dopamine boosts to the general public who are facing the brunt of the economic instability in the country. Serving as an accesible small comfort to those who can’t afford rent, utilites, groceries, or big splurges.

Similarly, we saw the same occur during the Great Depression of the 1920s. Where cinema saw an increase in films about excess wealth and glamour while its viewers were visiting soup kitchens. Wealth became an entertaining, aspirational viewpoint to peer into during times of significant financial hardship. The Artifice writes on this topic and shares how Screwball Comedies became a form of escapism for the public. Where the rich and wealthy characters are made to be stupid and vapid enough for audiences to gawk at the luxury while laughing at its characters.

I think of how, currently, we’re seeing big-budget films get produced with wild camp and size. Singers decked out in rhinestones, red-bottoms with backup dancers; even our beds aren’t safe as we doomscroll for hours. Watching as influencers advertise Temu and TikTok Shop items by the dozen, while other YouTubers showcase their $30,000 shopping hauls. Even now, we gawk and rave at the unattainable luxuries online while watching our cards decline. Every website requires a paid subscription; every entertainment website has ads showing some unnecessary product; beauty is changing by the day; clothes are being made cheaply and marked up 5x the price to manufacture. Even my car has a subscription for a service it should automatically include! MY CAR! People are tired of it! And then you go and see the Met Gala…

So, What About The Met Gala?

I believe that people are fed up with the garish nature of the Met Gala. Which is why we witnessed many online spectators call out their disinterest in this event. It feels mocking. Reminding internet users of the kind of wealth and excess they’ll never see. That while they hurt their bodies, have sleepless nights, cry and ache, and look at their empty wallets. Just beyond the walls of a historic museum sit some of the world’s wealthiest people. They get to chatter and laugh, drinking $500 bottles of champagne while you get to worry about what you’re going to eat tomorrow. No pun intended, it’s in poor taste.

Which is how we get the Capitol comparisons, the reminders of recession indicators, the growing distaste for events such as this. People don’t want wealth shoved in their tired faces. They want a better economy for themselves, for their hard work to be of value, for employers to do right by them instead of giving themselves a handsome Christmas bonus. Where there was once admiration for the impossible, there is now only a condescending show of what the rich get to enjoy while everyone below them is crushed under the weight of those clownish costumes and diamond-dusted glitter. It shouldn’t even be a question why this year’s Met Gala was met with a different reaction compared to all others.