David Kaufman: WNBA and Met Gala highlight everything wrong with ‘progressive’ institutions

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The real problem is the impotence and inaction of progressive cultural organizations like Vogue and the WNBA, which are obsessed with performatively placating everyone, but end up pleasing no one. As a result, it’s left to “the stars” like Galliano and Cunningham to mop up the messes created by the folks in charge.

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The situation with the WNBA is clearly the messier and more consequential of the two. Bafflingly obsessed with equity and identity, the league is stridently committed to welcoming all female basketball players, but refuses to define what constitutes “female.” Is it genetics, physiology — both, neither? WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert has yet to make that clear.

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“A complex and nuanced topic” is how Engelbert has described this debate. It’s little wonder that male former NBA stars Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White are exploiting this “complexity” and have declared their desire to enter the WNBA draft next year. For the moment, at least, there is seemingly nothing stopping them from doing so.

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What isn’t nuanced here is the intense backlash Cunningham has faced over her pro-women positions. I attended a WNBA match in New York last month, where Cunningham was met by scores of pro-trans protesters convinced she’s the J.K. Rowling of the basketball court. They were held back by police barricades from dozens of equally raucous Cunningham supporters who believe in her commitment to protecting female players.

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While both sides were reasonably well behaved, Cunningham has been the victim of stalking and harassment. Beyond her sheer skill — and, yes, looks — what makes Cunningham such an easy target is the bullseye the WNBA has allowed to be placed on her back. Rather than merely playing the sport she loves, Cunningham is effectively propelling debates she is neither responsible for setting nor empowered to enforce.

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Without a clear gender policy, Cunningham — rather than the league’s leadership — has become the highest-profile face of a debate that extends far beyond athletics. All the while, WNBA officials like Engelbert fumble along the sidelines while convening feckless task forces and listening sessions.

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Vogue and the Metropolitan Museum of Art clearly listened to the outcry surrounding Galliano’s Met Gala honours. But this is no time for pats on the back. Wintour, who’s long past 70 and fiercely protective of her legacy, and the other Met Gala organizers did not fess up to the chaos of their own make, but rather left it to Galliano to do all of the dirty work.

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He was the one who ultimately opted out of the Gala, rather than Vogue and the Met publicly opting out of him. Like Cunningham with the WNBA, Galliano has assumed all of the obligations of authority with none of the benefits.

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Most, of course, will shed few tears for the man. But unlike today’s bumper crop of vocal antisemites, Galliano actually paid the price for his obscenities and offence. He now continues to pay it as those who so ineptly returned him to centre stage claim unearned credit while scrambling for a face-saving reset.

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Vogue’s Wintour and Engelbert from the WNBA inhabit very different universes, but both trade most ardently in optics and appeasement. These women should be managing damage control, not Cunningham or Galliano. Real leaders set the agenda rather than respond to it — whether courtside or along fashion’s front row.

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National Post

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David Christopher Kaufman is a New York-based journalist and former New York Post editor and columnist. Sign up for his Substack newsletter, Counterintuitive.

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