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MORE BIRKIN BAGS THAN BRAIN: FASHION BLOG MAG IN SS-DISASTER
UPDATE: THE BLOGETTES HAVE REMOVED THE OFFENDING CONTENT. THANK YOU. CHECK STATEMENT IN COMMENTS SECTION. MORE ON THIS HERE
The Blogettes is a brand-new online mag by self-proclaimed Gossip Girl bloggers Julia Basagic (Austria) and Mirjam Herms (Switzerland). Key features include: How To Turn Your Blog Into A Ca$h Cow or This Is How A Gossip Girl Does A Fashion Shoot. So far, so innocent teen fodder.
But then I stumbled over a portrait of Material Girl Aurela from Austria. Aurela loves fur, and Birkin bags which she shows off to full effect in front of her parents’ bookshelf. Unfortunately, she strikes her sexy poses next to a framed portrait of a SS-man (granddad?). The situation isn’t exactly helped by the skull-print scarf pimping up one of the Birkin bags:
© The Blogettes / Aurela (All pictures sourced from The Blogettes online mag using computer screenshots for magazine citation purposes)
Now. The SS ran the Nazi concentration camps, including Dachau and Ausschwitz. It was key in implementing the Holocaust. The Waffen-SS, known for its ferocity and fanatism, participated in WW2 massacres in France and Russia. The Totenkopf (Death’s Head) was the universal cap badge of the SS.
Which makes referencing Nazi-insignia in a fashion context a bit hmmm… tricky. It is textbook knowledge in German speaking countries that channeling Eva Braun or Hitler Youth will only lead to troubles. Even for Birkin-bag heads like Aurela. In fairness, it should have been the publishers’ responsibility to prevent the poor girl from starring in the worst fashion disaster in a blog publication.
Dear Blogettes, why not take your Birkin-bags to a trip to your local Holocaust memorial, for a change?
Unfortunately, this is only the latest incident in a string of recent Nazi-related style disasters. Last week, Pete Doherty had to apologise for singing Deutschland Über Alles, the first verse of the German national anthem which is banned, at a Munich gig. In November, budget airline easyJet was forced to withdraw their inflight-magazine because it featured a fashion-spread shot at Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial.
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ps1: Dear Aurela. I did not suggest you are a Nazi. I only pointed out using SS-imagery in a ‘Gossip Girl’ (Tussi) fashion context is very problematic and your publishers should have advised you better. You are very welcome to have your say (Gegendarstellung) in a separate post at any time. Threatening with legal action is not very cool. As mentioned above it’s usually people playing with Nazi-insignia who owe an apology not the other way round.
PS 2 Dec 8, 12:37
Aurela now threatens to have my site blocked by her attorney if I don’t remove the pictures by tonight, adding: “I would like your site blocked “now” but I must have to give you the time to delete yourself!”
Can somebody please fedex me some leftover semtex, please?
comments (23)
Please, dear Aurela: Try to improve your english or stick to german…
And why are you even so offended by this? IF that is your grandpa and IF he wasn´t a nazi, there shouldn´t be a problem, right? And even if he had been a nazi, that doesn´t imply that you are to, doesn´t it? BTW, Play never accused you of being one, she merely remarked that having pictures like that in a fashion-shoot is not very wise. (Which Julia and Miriam apparently are perfectly aware of) Whether you want to display that picture in your bookshelf is none of our buisiness. Just don´t let everybody see it, cause some people WILL be offended.
Please dear, your obvious obsession with money and blatant display of brandnames is annoying enough, don´t humiliate yourself any further by having a unneccesary lawsuit.
«Skull and Bones» is a rather old symbol used in a number of armies, eg. by the 17th Lancers in the UK and a French infantry regiment I can’t reall. A student organization at Yale University sports them as well. Well, if I were German I would hesitate to use them.
This ist ridiculous. You´ll find thousands of these pictures in germany bookshelfs. Not because these people are evil nazis but they are want to remember their fallen relatives.
It was common to take a picture before the soldiers marched out to the front. My Grandma had such a picture from my fallen grandpa and another relative of mine even had four of these pictures, one for her fallen husband and three for her fallen brothers.
The german history won´t change if we stop remebering our relatives and so these pictures are just “life”.
Following the removal of the offending pages by the editors, I decided to remove the link to A.’s blog. Again, these pictures should never have been published in the first place. But in the end, it’s the editors who are to blame, not the girl’s naivety.
hello. thank you for all your comments. since there were quite lot of them coming in last night, some unfortunately got overlooked. they’re published now. I do however retain the discretion to delete personally insulting, derogatory, sexist or any other kind of abusive comments.
bestPLAY
Die einzige die sich hier Rechtsverherrlichend zeigt bist du Play
super Artikel!
wirklich daneben so etwas überhaupt im regal stehen zu haben!
Lächerlich das Ganze…
Es geht hier doch nicht um irgendwelche Bilder im Hintergrund sondern um die Mode und das Model! Ich kann mir nicht vorstellen dass das Bild im Hintergrund absichtlich dort positioniert wurde! Und bitte das ist ja kein Bravo-Fanposter sondern ein Bild von ihrem Großvater!
zur allgemeinen information: wir ignorieren diesen fehler nicht. die macher von the blogettes distanzieren sich entschieden und eindeutig von nationalsozialistischem gedankengut. WIR nehmen dieses thema ernst, daher haben wir gestern nachmittag beschlossen, diese zwei seiten zu löschen, das aber erst gestern nacht durchführen können. das löschen erfolgte nicht heimlich, wir haben auf der startseite von http://www.theblogettes.com darauf hingewiesen!
wir wollen unter gar keinen umständen, dass the blogettes und seine macher in einem falschen, nämlich rechten licht dargestellt werden, deshalb auch dieser kommentar.
How could someone think it’s not necessary to deal with NS-past? Either you’re not from germany or your education wasn’t successful. And this isn’t about wether the accusations are real or not, but phrases like “1. Du bist neidisch auf Blogettes du wurdest mit deinem “null comment blog” nicht einmal erwähnt!
2. Aurela ist berühmt du nicht also ist der neidfaktor wieder da.
3. Du hoffst auf mehr Medienpräsens durch diesen billig-post von dir”
make me mad! I guess there are only a few who saw that this isn’t about being jealous.
Wie kann man nur Gratis PR machen? Die freuen sich doch wie doof darüber – dumm muss man sein
Ooh dir sollte man einen Nobelpreis verleihen! S.C.H.E.R.Z.
1. Du bist neidisch auf Blogettes du wurdest mit deinem “null comment blog” nicht einmal erwähnt!
2. Aurela ist berühmt du nicht also ist der neidfaktor wieder da.
3. Du hoffst auf mehr Medienpräsens durch diesen billig-post von dir
this is an interesting article. not necessarily because it shows rather piquante details about the blogger in question, but first of all because of the reactions to it. here is some great piece of journalism, and three things happen:
a) you are accused of envy because you apparently are less “successful” (whatever that might be) than the two girls editing the magazine
b) aurela (who thinks herself exposed as a nazi) threatens you with legal steps, while what you did in the first place was to depict some problematic pictures in a magazine which is not edited by her, i.e. the pictures are not necessarily a problem for her but for the editors
and c) even a day after aurela reacts, the pictures are still online, which means the editors must have had the chance to delete the pictures but did not do it and probably did not realize why those pictures might prove a problem for them.
i do not think that miriam and julia (and aurela for all she’s worth) saw the problematic content of the pictures when they edited the magazine. these things happen if it’s your first time editing articles. and after all, the portrait was a part of the background in a private apartment, not a studio where everything placed in the picture really is meant to be there.
however, as soon as somebody tells you that there might be a problem with a picture you put online, you should check it and if there really is a problem, you take it offline and see to an apology. so what i think really problematic is the fact that this did not happen. and i do guess that you gave them notice about this post?
Thanks for all your comments.
I only post things on my blog I feel v passionate about. Careless and/or naive use of NS-imagery is something I feel very strongly about. And why should I do free PR for something I’m supposed to be jealous of? I’m not anti-Blogettes hoping they will do a great job next time:-)
Play, please: let’s keep it playful, this is a step too far. It’s not a real scandal, even though you try very hard to turn it into one. It’s other peoples private matters, more or less. Just forget the girls and tune up your own thing. They should not make you sooo jealous.
She updated her pictures, cutting off the portrait of her grandpa.
Just wanted to mention it.
However I don’t understand this “envy”-argument here. Theres nothing to be jealous of. This post only describes some facts and undermines them with some pictures.
das neidargument ist gefallen und um nazis ging es auch schon! die anzeichen, dass wir uns im internet befinden, häufen sich.
Ich fand deine Seite immer toll aber dieser Beitrag ist “shit” von dir und gar nicht zum lachen kann es sein, dass du etwas neidisch bist auf The Blogettes kommt so rüber?
You stole this picture?
quite funny to see that you just owned yourself by posting this video on dec6,aurela:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE5lnXtTzAk&feature=player_embedded
haha
Darling
a)since when is it illegal to link to an article? Like, since never.
b). Bildzitat:
Die Zitierung ganzer Fotos ist im Interesse der geistigen Auseinandersetzung zulässig, wenn sie durch den Zitatzweck geboten ist und der wirtschaftliche Wert des zitierten Werks (Foto) nicht in einer ins Gewicht fallenden Weise ausgehöhlt wird.
Voraussetzung für die Zulässigkeit eines Bildzitats ist demnach, dass es
• im Interesse einer freien geistigen Auseinandersetzung notwendig ist
• sich auf den durch den Zweck gebotenen Umfang beschränkt und
• das zitierende Werk selbst urheberrechtlich schutzfähig ist.
c)’I must give you the time to delete yourself’. I don’t know how to delete myself. Maye you can fedex me some leftover ss-semtex?
you must delete my pictures from your blog now!
this is my grandpa! and I am not a nazi!
and you can see also the “menora” (from my grandma)
the pictures are my property/copyright! so if you have “more brain” delete immediately my pics I will take legal steps!