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“Ann Skank”: Trivializing and Sexualizing the Holocaust for Halloween [Sociological Images]

At the intersection of the trivializing of horrific violence aimed at ethnic/religious groups and the pornification of American culture, comes this “Ann Skank” costume[…] Yes that is, indeed, a woman dressed up like Anne Frank, the Jewish child who hid from the Nazis for two years, only to be discovered and moved to a concentration camp where she died from Typhus. Her companions are dressed up like Nazi soldiers. The Halloween revelers who made the choice to sexualize and laugh at this 15-year-old victim of the holocaust are graduate students in the Creative Writing program at Florida State University.

All three of them can go straight to hell. Do not pass go; do not collect $200.

I hope their names get blown up on the Internetz soon so that people recognize these FSU pieces of shit and render their yet-unearned MFAs completely worthless for getting any jobs. This is fucking disgusting.

[I am not even gonna have a full-on go-in on the black person in the fucking SS uniform. As far as I’m concerned, that asshole is beyond help, and can stay their ass living in whatever colorblind utopia they think they live in.]

ETA: I see that Sociological Images edited the post and removed their school information, but if you do a search for the school name and “Ann Skank,” the original posting’s the first result.

All of ‘em…but especially brotha mayne…

I just need to know where the Drop Squad is for this one. I want in. With my belt.

The Internet sure is good for reminding you just how differently minds can work.

I don’t normally wade into things like this, energy like this, comment threads like this. Mostly because my system needs to be taken care of, and I can’t feed myself anger and hate, and that’s what will happen…and then I’ll get stomach upheaval, and become tight in the body…and acid will flow into my mouth, and the urge to be violent will begin bangin around inside of me, just as a way to release all the chaos springing up within. And then physical violence may occur at some point later, to match the violence to my spirit.

And for what? Another of these pictures will be along in, O, an hour, or five. Or a day. There are ugly people all over, and they are busy all week. And have been since time began. And I don’t want to dwell in a perpetual state of revulsion. It would be handing my heart and soul to people who would be happy to see me forfeit it. And the world would go on as it is anyway. (This is not an argument for inaction or ignoring of evil in general; just an explanation why, personally, I choose my battles very carefully, and I choose ones in which I can strike direct blows.)

But I have to stop and say here, Wow. And I speak as someone who would not be in this country were it not for my Russian and Polish Jew ancestors on my mother’s side who only 3 or four generations ago left everything they had and knew to cross an ocean and come to the US, to escape the kind of hate celebrated in the image above. People who I might look like, or be like, but whose lives and histories and even last names have been lost to us forever, because Mollie (my great grandmother) was only 14 when she stowed away on a ship to escape the genocidal violence that was spreading across Eastern Europe. She got away with her life, but my family line has been snuffed out in reverse. Because without your stories and knowledge and history…what is there? Not even memory.

Look at this photo. What smugness. What self-satisfaction. What obliviousness. Yellow stars pinned to their clothes like it’s all one big joke. Swastikas proudly worn as if if they imagine themselves bloodthirsty killers.

It’s sort of magical, violence. You know? That’s why Hitler and his deeds still carry resonance with people. Power, violence, death, domination. It calls to our spirit. It is always our job to decide whether we shall feed our soul negativity, hatred, bloodlust…or whether we will take another route. Sometimes the good spirits feel weaker. Harder to grab. Sparer and fewer on this planet. Not as immediately intoxicating. Less reliable. More mythical. I get that.

For weaker minds, and younger souls, it is easy to follow. To follow huge trends and bodies of power; to just cruise in their wake. To go with the dominating flow. To wear swastikas and emulate Nazis…rather than emulating or celebrating or lifting up and standing with the crushed; the killed; the hunted; the destroyed. That takes character, real power, and love.

It takes nothing but a heartbeat to champion white supremacy and sexism and classism and all those forces that thrive on creating victims. It takes no courage. It takes no juice. It takes no brains. Just weakness. So you huddle close to the killers and drink in their stench. Feel your own pulse rise. Experience a momentary feeling of invincibility; of invisibility. Wink in the mirror as you adjust your red armband; leer at your own image, all wrapped in black leather and the faint stench of decaying bodies.

When I see this image, it calls to the violence in my spirit, too. That is the magic of violence. It is an energy you cannot contain. And now you have a viewer for your ritual, and the spell leaps out and connects with me. And violence spreads. Suddenly, I want to grab Swastika-wearing people by the neck. I imagine laughing as they get beat down by a mob for their cruel, hideous portrayal that bundles up millions of howling souls and wears them like a glittering trophy. I want to lean in and whisper violence feels gooood, doesn’t it? Is this what you wanted? Do you want more? Do you???

That’s the danger I think they do not see. Violence is radioactive, as I was taught early in my classes on counseling. And if these are the choices you make, you work for a more violent world. No, I do not make an appeal to their higher senses, because people like this are out of touch with them. Clearly, they are ethically and morally impaired. Clearly, they suffer intellectually. Clearly, these people above are as pupae, socially. Stunted individuals. But beyond all that, they are dangerous because they are fools who’ve found big tools. Because they cast spells casually. They wear the robes of taller, more powerful entities and parade around like children tossing handguns to each other, not minding where they point the wand.

If you invoke the horror and genocide of millions of humans so casually…you may end up swimming in it. You may end up drowning in it. Don’t ask me if I’d feel sorry about that. Right now I don’t think I’d feel a thing.

If these people are in fact members of my University, all I have to say is… IM DISGUSTED.

#Halloween is NOT an excuse to bring out the bigotry, ignorance, and disgusting displays of insensitivity with a smile on your face!

nezua’s commentary = YES

OH HELL NO.