I come back from a night out and decide to make some tea and catch up on the news. In the late hour I’m prone to click non-newsy links and so I do and am confronted with the following:
“Pillow Fight in San Francisco!”
Um, OK. I look at the pictures and it was exactly as I feared – hundreds of people bringing pillows out to a public place in SF to do something usually reserved for the privacy of bedrooms across the world. On first brush, I’m mildly disgusted – not only is it a big waste of pillow-related resources but its seems to bespeak of a massive deprivation of intimacy that moves people to spend their evening hitting other people with fluff.
Not to say that its not fun. I’ve participated in many a pillow fight and they are, indeed, quite fun and satisfying.
On second brush, I see that most of the folks in the picture are white. That what reigns in this situation might be an expression of white privilege – the flippant way of creating a hugely public event out of something private signifies the peculiarity of white privilege. It reminds me of cuddle parties, where people pay to cuddle with each other in private spaces, but its become such a phenomena, that it speaks of putting things public.
And to boot, this event happens on Valentine’s Day. Is it a singles event? I wonder whether one could find their soulmate after smacking their face with white goose down. Does love strike on first fluff smack?
