It wasn't until 24 hours after seeing this photo of Meryl Streep that I found out why in the hell she was wearing the shirt, and
where the phrase originally came from. In 2015, that's how social media is shared—particularly statement photos like this. They aren't given a nuanced explanation. They aren't preceded with an asterisk or a warning or even a caption.
When I first saw the photo, I was disturbed and confused. It seemed to be making a very bad statement about slavery and how, if given the choice to either be enslaved or be a rebel, that Meryl, a middle-aged white woman who takes shit from nobody of course, would choose the rebellion over captivity any day of the week.
Here's the actual context:
A week after notable humanist Meryl Streep distanced herself from the word feminist in her Suffragette interview with Time Out London, photos have begun to circulate of the cast wearing T-shirts with a quote from Emmeline Pankhurst, the woman Meryl portrays in the film. The T-shirt, which says, "I'd rather be a rebel than a slave," is meant to inspire women to fight for the right to vote. Here's the complete wording:
"Know that women, once convinced that they are doing what is right, that their rebellion is just, will go on, no matter what the difficulties, no matter what the dangers, so long as there is a woman alive to hold up the flag of rebellion. I would rather be a rebel than a slave."
All of that considered, the shirt and the campaign are ridiculous. It may have sparked a conversation. But before doing that, it deeply offended thousands of people who took it at face value and assumed it was a privileged white woman making a peculiar statement on slavery.
Words have resonance and deep cultural meaning that must be considered when creating a fashionable campaign. For instance ...
If I created a T-shirt for college students that said, "Rape your physics test," many men might think that shirt is funny or quirky or counter-cultural. They may immediately get that it was a play on words, but for people who are sensitive to sexual assault, the shirt wouldn't be funny at all. It'd be offensive.
A similar comparison could be made to people who casually and humorously use the word Nazi—calling people things like a "fashion Nazi" or a "spelling Nazi" or a "grammar Nazi." Most of the people who use that phrase aren't making a conscious commentary on the Holocaust, but whether you intended for it to be that or not, it is. Your commentary is that the Holocaust means so little to you that you can use the perpetrators of it in casual conversation with no pain whatsoever. But for many, it is painful.
This isn't about political correctness. This is about being thoughtful and aware that you do not live on an island or in a bubble, but instead live in a painful world where folks have endured unthinkable horrors for generations.
This shirt was created, possibly with pure intentions, in that bubble. For those of us who live outside of it, it bothered us.