Glamorizing fascists isn't "Outrageous" -- it's gross

[marmar]

Glamorizing fascists isn’t “Outrageous” — it’s gross
There couldn’t be a worse time for Nazi worship dressed up as aristocratic whimsy

By Andi Zeisler
Senior Writer
Published July 15, 2025 9:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) The Mitford sisters have been called the Kardashians of their time, and it’s an apt comparison: Though three of them would go on to become authors, all were famous long before they’d done much of anything. They were daughters of a baron, cousins of the Churchills, and came of age in the UK between the wars, coddled in carefree privilege. An endless source of fascination for the society press, the Mitfords possessed cutting wit, a passel of nicknames for one another, and the kind of eccentricities that are considered delightful so long as they come with a deep pedigree.

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As breathlessly as the sisters were chronicled in their lifetimes, their cultural afterlife has been particularly tenacious. Nancy’s novels have been adapted into BBC programs, while “Downton Abbey”’s pitiless Lady Violet is rumored to have been based on the author herself. Diana appears as a character in “Peaky Blinders.” In 2017, Gucci debuted a navy sweater reading “Never Marry a Mitford,” a direct reference to the husband of youngest sister Deborah — Andrew Cavendish, the Duke of Devonshire, apparently had a taste for custom-knit slogan sweaters.

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Because right now, the United States, a country that built its myths of rugged individualism on rejecting the British monarchy, has a leader who acts like a king. Right now, masked men who may or may not be ICE agents are snatching people who they believe “look like immigrants” off the streets and whisking them away in unmarked vans. Right now, the richest man in the world has made some adjustments to his global social network’s AI bot because users complained that it was being too woke. Right now, that bot is calling itself “MechaHitler.”

So I don’t think it’s controversial to suggest that this is not the moment to try and make Manic Pixie Dream Fascists happen. Nor is it the moment to have the official copy for the show coyly lauding the Mitfords as “unapologetically bold” mavericks who “defied convention” — it might be technically true, but the phrasing is willfully disingenuous given the show’s focus. It’s surely not the moment to portray the leader of the British Union of Fascists as an absolute snack. Unity’s obsession with Hitler highlights that his power was alluring enough; Oswald Mosley, by contrast, is blessed with the physique of a Greek statue and the bearing of Errol Flynn. ....................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/07/15/glamorizing-fascists-isnt-outrageous-its-gross/