… will be sensitive to the republication on social media of old images of Barr dressed as Adolf Hitler and removing a tray of gingerbread cookies from an oven with the headline: “That Oven Feeling.”
To put those images in context: they were published in 2009 in the Jewish magazine Heeb and were intended as satire, though even at the time they ignited heated debate.
“Heeb is a satirical Jewish culture magazine that interrogates stereotypes and ideas (hopefully in creative ways) that many hold sacred in order to represent the complex and nuanced perspectives that many Jews have about their identities,” the magazine said at the time, in its defence.
The magazine, which is no longer published in physical form, aspired to specialise in provocative imagery.
Among its other cover images: comedian Sarah Silverman wrapped in a sheet with a small hole in the front and actor Jonah Hill squirting a tube of sexual lubricant into a bagel.
In a later interview, Barr defended the images saying they were meant to convey that holocaust-like horrors had become everyday.
“There’s another, deeper layer to it … moving off this Holocaust, there’s been about 50 of them since then, that’s what I’m kind of trying to say,” she said. “It’s like, Jesus Christ, it’s so f—ing every day now, holocausts, it’s like baking cookies.
“I don’t give a f— what people think, I care what people do,” Barr added. “That’s what I’m trying to say. Let’s stop holocausts. When I did The Star Spangled Banner … let’s care about freedom, instead of symbols of freedom.”
Read the article by Michael Idato in The Sydney Morning Herald.