Why explain?

I can't seem to shake off the fate of being questioned and educated because I'm that different person, maybe cuz of my age, race, gender, orientation, or even my look. Often I don't know whether an explanation is necessary. If I do explain, I probably need shiii-it loads of word count to do so, or I feel I didn't quite make the point. But if I did, people's minds would probably wander off or find my blablablaing annoying. So gradually, I stop wasting my time.

When I proposed my thesis on "how to exhibit fashion as art in different cultural settings," my professor said, "You do know those big fashion brands museum exhibitions are just a way of marketing and show for show's sake, right? Don't let these packaged shows fool you." It's been too long, don't remember the exact quote.

At this point, I've seen the ins and outs of the fashion industry, hated it, and decided to step back a little. But I still love it and believe fashion can be about expressing an idea, telling a story, and yet why is it so wrong to take fashion as just another art medium to create art? So I stepped into the art world. Too bad there're two sides in this world, the all-noble academic side with all the integrity and the money-loving commercial side.

The noble side never quite liked the idea of putting fashion together with sculpture, painting, sound, performance, video, new media, bio, etc., as an art category. Why? Cus they smell money and feel like all big blockbuster fashion exhibitions are just in it for the art status or cultural acknowledgment, like gold digger to sugar daddy. So inherently, in art, they look down upon fashion and question fashion may dilute the scholarly principle of museums or art. It's not serious art, and no, it's not art. Lots of people in the art would still agree with this. Yet, guess what? Fashion exhibitions have 3 spots in the top 10 most visited exhibitions at the Met of all time, and the top one is Heavenly Bodies (fashion exhibition). So some of the nobles now pretend to love fashion, like some whites with Asian pride & related content, cuz they make money. Okay, still a good thing. Without positive market feedback, the change would take even longer.

Ok, back to what my prof said, explaining all the above, doesn't it feel like the west saying the Chinese government is oppressive and doesn't care about human rights to a Chinese person? And the funny thing is my professor is an English man, and I'm Chinese. So most of the time, I don't wanna say shiii-it. Cuz I'd rant a lot and still more to say.