Every year, glamorous celebrities and socialites gather on the first Monday of May to display their sophistication through their outfits and manner. Hotels are booked, traffic is heavy, paparazzi are everywhere, and global superstars fill the city. According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Met Gala is a fundraising event for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, which is co-chaired by various celebrities, such as Anna Wintour, Beyonce, Nicole Kidman, and Venus Williams. This year on May 4, spectators tuned in from all over the world to see their favorite actors, musicians, and sports players stun with debatably the most anticipated looks of the year. However, something was different this year: rules were broken.
The Met Gala is a highly exclusive event, which has strict rules and regulations in order for a person to attend. According to Instyle, the event permits phones and social media use inside, requires an $100,000 ticket fee, every attendee must be on theme, and there is a strict 18+ age limit. According to People, every Met Gala connoisseur knows that Anna Wintour—Vogue editor and long-time Met Gala organizer—made the adults-only rule in 2018. Ever since, there have been no exceptions, no matter how big of a child star a person is. All of the aforementioned rules are crucial to implement in order to maintain the mature, adult atmosphere of the gala.
This year, the global audience that observed the Met Gala per usual started criticizing, complementing, admiring, and shunning those who attended the Met and their outfits. As the night went along, viewers began to realize the inconsistencies with elite celebrities and rule-following, showing their ability to manipulate the rules because of their fame and influence.
Two examples of the most notable exclusive stars who broke the “adults-only” rule were Nicole Kidman and Beyonce—both members of the Met Gala organization board. When Kidman appeared with her daughter Sunday Rose, and later Beyonce with Blue Ivy, different feelings flooded the media, as the public instantly spotted the exception to the event’s long-standing rule, resulting in mixed feedback from the populace. MSN reported that some of the viewers weren’t too satisfied, and felt that this was an example of “‘nepo baby’ advantage,” while others praised the girls for their freedom and self-determination.
As the photos and videos spread across social media, criticism quickly followed, as some observers accused the Met Gala organizers of showing favoritism towards celebrities with influence and power. According to Instyle, critics pointed out that dancer and actress Maddie Ziegler was denied access to the Met Gala in 2018 because she was only 15 years old, despite her being a well-known celebrity at the time.
With these rules getting broken, it raises the question to whether underaged celebrities will start attending the Met Gala, or if this is going to turn into a nepotism competition, of the best-dressed nepo baby.
A positive result that could develop from these broken rules could be that people under the age of 18 would be welcomed at more prestigious events where they could form important connections, and their talents could be more widely recognized and appreciated, resulting in more jobs and overall validation.
Despite this being a possibility, nepo babies are climbing in the social ranks, taking jobs of others, especially industry jobs. People complain about AI taking over jobs, but arguably when celebrities’ kids get the upper hand, it could provide the same effect for those who would like to be in the entertainment industry, turning society into a giant patronage system.
Overall, the presence of underage celebrity daughters at this renowned event has raised more concern than an overlooked age limit, but it represents the growing divide between the privileged and the self-made, and shows that rules can bend depending on a person’ s power and social status. What began as a strict, adults-only charity due to well-earned kids not being able to make the event is turning into a nepo baby takeover, leaving those without famous names and heritage behind the velvet carpet.
