Not kewl

02Mar09

A while back I unfairly attacked Ted Swedenburg, smart* American academo-leftist, whose blog does a wonderful job of tracking the adventures of the kufiya in the popular culture of the over-developed world. (Although I don’t really like his politics, of course.) Here’s some interesting snippets:

On Iron Man:

The real “bad guy” of the film, Raza (played by Faran Tahir), who leads the terrorist group, wears a kufiya around his neck. And not only does he wear it in the manner of the Western hipster–more typically in Afghanistan it would be worn it as a turban–but the colors are straight out of…Urban Outfitters. It’s tan. But it should (if verismilitude is the aim) be black-and-white, or maybe red-and-white.

So, Iron Man manages not only to associate just kufiyas with terrorists, but hipster kufiyas as well.

A blog recommendation:

an excellent blog, which y’all should check out: Anarchist Queer from “Syria.” Among other great things about it is that it features a red kufiya on the logo. (Uh, Anarchist Queer, isn’t black the color of anarchy? Or are you in fact more of a leftist?) [Recommendation strongly endorsed by Anti-German Translation]

On hipsterism:

This just in, from the blog Hipster Runoff: “Are Palestinian Scarves Still Authentically Alt?” This is so hipster that I feel I can’t really decode it. I think the blog’s answer is, no, it’s now “cool” to support Israel. Only blacks are still wearing (faux) kufiyas.

[Anti-German Translation’s take on that: Is that shit for real? Surely Hipster Runoff is satire? If not, I’m scared. Here’s Hipster Runoff:

I remember when Palestinian scarves were ‘all the rage’ back in the electro era of the alt world. Altbros and altbroads would wear them all the time. Went perfectly with a pair of sunglasses I read on a wikipedia page that these scarves are called “kaffiyehs” and that they are a militant fashion. They apparently are anti-Russian and anti-Israeli. I think in recent months, it has become ‘cool’ to support Israel and altJews, so I’m not sure if it is still a ‘kewl thing’ 2 wear, even though rappers started 2 wear them so I’m not sure if I can say that black people h8 the jews.

[Image above stolen from recommended post: Jihadi chic couture at niacINsight]

See also: Robots+Skateboards, City of Jennine.

*Smart as in clever. I don’t know how he dresses…

Filed under: psuedo-alternative culture   |  4 Comments
Tags: hipsters, Iron Man, keffiyeh, kefiya, kufiya, palituch