India, May 11 -- 2024 isn't the first time the Met Gala's pompous affairs have synonymously drawn parallels with The Hunger Games, and it probably won't be the last. While underneath the frills and the mega grandeur pushed by the event's annual Red Carpet, the Benefit bolsters a foundation to support arts as a high-end fundraiser, its high-end, otherworldly position distances itself from the ground realities of more humane and humbler origins.

This year's outrage against the Met Gala particularly drove a case against its grandiose, ostentatious presentation with deafening bombs and ammunition blowing off in the distance, with Israel and Hamas taking up arms against each other. Simultaneously, civilians in the Gaza Strip face the wrath of...