I love the opening line of a story about fur. The word alone causes that shiver, which the hyenas in The Lion King so perfected when they said the name ‘Mufasa’. (“Ooh, do it again!” – “Mufasaaaa!”) At fashion parties it’s become one of those bombs you’ll drop mid-conversation and see how many people you’re left with afterwards – in my experience, the better the fashion party, the less the anti-fur people. And there you have my stance. Much like Cruella Deville before me, “I live for furs! I worship furs!” So it made me rather sad when I learned that as of 2013, West Hollywood will ban the sale of "any article containing fur found on the body, including clothes, belts, hats, shoes, gloves and scarves," this according to WWD.
WeHo is of course a mere corner of Hollywood, but it doesn’t make that much difference. As an industry and a symbol of mainstream fashion, Hollywood has played one the saddest and most important parts in the popular soiling of fur. They’ve turned it into something dirty. The other night I was watching a clip of Kristen Stewart on a recent talkshow, in which she looked at the audience and said, in rather a tense, almost frightened way: “Just to make it clear – I would never wear fur!” It made me realise how these days, a young star’s career can almost be ruined if she wears fur. (I’m obviously not including veterans such as fur-wearers Janet Jackson and Madonna, who can pretty much wear what they damn please.)
What saddens me about the generalisation of fur as an all-round ‘bad thing’ – and the message that the West Hollywood governing body is sending with this ban – is that there’s no concern for the differentiation between fur-producing countries. Fur farmers in Scandinavia, for instance, work harder for the welfare of animals than most anti-fur people would ever bother to. I would fully support a ban of Chinese fur and the likes, but putting all fur-producing countries in the same box only confirms Hollywood’s overall stupidity, which is sadly trickling down into the minds of its stars and their supporters. They are all misinformed, ignorant people.
I take further issue with WeHo’s badly hidden discrimination of certain cultural customs and their ridiculous double-standard, which are seeping out of this fur ban like they would a bad Nivea campaign. While preventing people from buying fur in West Hollywood, this ban also manages to condemn cultures, in which fur is a huge part of the public mentality. In Northern and Eastern Europe, fur still very much has a real purpose and a certain peaceful effect when the strong winters set in. And on that same note, you rarely hear people complaining about African tribes killing lions as part of their ancient right-of-passage rituals.
As for WeHo’s embarrassing double-standard, it should be noted – and I know this a cliché in the defence of fur, but a crucial one nonetheless – maybe they should close down all McDonald’s ‘restaurants’ in the area and fight for the caged chickens while they’re already on their animal rights crusade anyway? It’s funny how you can’t say the word ‘fur’ without the subsequent Mufasa-effect setting in, but the fast food industry is still a cornerstone in proud American culture. Come to think of it, perhaps the people of West Hollywood should eat less chicken nuggets and spend their money on a Saga Furs coat instead. They might even go down a few sizes.