Claiming that a work of art is nothing more than an example of ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ is often met with derisory ‘you just don’t get it’ eye rolling or the ‘can’t you think of anything more original to say’ look. Yet its often the best way to describe what is rarely acknowledged: that art, particularly in a secular age, is necessarily deceitful, in a way that religion and alchemy are. Art is a religion where you only have to believe temporarily, for 90 minutes in a movie theater, it mostly has no meaning at all, and fails most when it tries to (anything in a white walled gallery post Duchamp), but like a magnificent cathedral its is often no less fantastic.

I’m going to document some examples here for a larger piece on the subject:

Androgyny is in, yet again.
New York Times piece where fashion designers bemoan the lack of originality in fashion but point to a new trend in gender bending as shocking and innovative, despite the fact that androgynous models who have been dieing of malnutrition have been a staple of catwalks for half a century.