My respect for Gap has just grown exponentially. Not only did the cotton co.'s new ad feature a gorgeous couple—one of whom is Sikh model Waris Ahluwalia—it fought back against racism with aplomb. According to an article in Buzzfeed, a subway billboard with the slogan "Make Love" was vandalized to read: “Make Bombs” and “Please stop driving taxis.”
When Gap got word of the incident via a tweet by the senior editor at The Islamic Monthly, Arsalan Iftikhar, it immediately made the image its new profile picture. Gap also contacted requested details from Iftikhar so it could set about replacing the defaced banner, which was said to be located in the Bronx, N.Y.
For Iftikhar, though, seeing the graffiti served as sad proof that the U.S. still has a long way to go when it comes to racial tolerance.
"I want to live in an America where a fashion model can be a handsome, bearded brown dude in a turban who is considered as beautiful as a busty blonde-haired white girl in see-through lingerie," he wrote in The Daily Beast.
We do too, Iftikhar.
Schools set the rules, but as one student is finding out, some policies demand legal interpretation. According to an article in the Huffington Post, The Faith Christian Academy in Florida has threatened to expel Vanessa VanDyke unless she changes her 'distracting' hairstyle. (It's an actual policy at the school.)
The African American 12-year-old girl is an honours student who happens to like her unique, "puffy" hair. Though VanDyke claims she gets teased and doesn't fit in due to her hair, she believes it has to do with it not being straight.
It's not the first time hair has been a matter of contention in an American school. A seven-year-old girl ended up changing schools just two months ago after she was forbidden from sporting dreadlocks.
For someone who considers herself to have a pretty broad and forgiving sense of humour, I'm getting all punch and no line from Vice cofounder and so-called comedian Gavin McInnes, who simulated a wrestling match with his 10 month old in a video entitled "How to Fight a Baby."
It's all good clean fun, mostly. There is some old-fashioned tickling going on, yet some of the rough-housing is a bit worrisome, as it involves flipping an actual BABY.
"You've got to be more careful," wrote a commenter on YouTube. "You can accidentally hurt the baby throwing him around like that."
Aside from any safety concerns, the video smacks of (adult) desperation and wholly lacks charm, but that could just be me having a sense of humour fail.
For some reason McInnes is into mixing kids and aggression for laughs. According to an article in the Huffington Post, an earlier video, also titled "How To Fight," depicted the dad battling it out with his toddler daughter, referred to as "the thug."
Not surprisingly McInnes doesn't care if his video "makes people mad or not.” In fact, I'm willing to wager that's exactly what he wants, because publicity is publicity, after all. Methinks it's time for some new material, bud.
What do you think of the video? Is McInnes funny?
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