Everything Is Content - Renaissance, Surveillance Capitalism and The £85 Grinch

Episode Date: December 8, 2023

Beth, Ruchira and Oenone are taking a break from their relentless December social calendars to dive into this week’s pop-culture. On today’s episode: THE £85 GRINCHHow are we handling the pressure of Christmas? What is Elf On The Shelf, exactly?!  RENAISSANCEIs Beyoncé’s silence too loud? Have we reached the saturation point with celebrity documentaries? TIKTOK SURVEILLANCEWhat is this new worrying TikTok trend, and what does this mean for women on nights out? And a bit of gentle homework for you, next week we’ll be chatting about May December - which you can stream on Netflix from today.—VULTURE: The End of His Heartthrob Era An assessment of Chalamet’s sex appeal as he steps into the role of Willy Wonka.https://www.vulture.com/article/timothee-chalamet-sex-appeal-heartthrob-era-ends.html INSTAGRAM: Let’s Talk About… the stress of christmas https://www.instagram.com/p/Cz8lPMZokuN/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3DDAILY MAIL: Mother pays £85 for a 'Grinch visit'… only for an entertainer to WRECK her homehttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10307689/Mother-pays-85-Grinch-visit-entertainer-WRECK-home-pour-juice-SON.html VULTURE: The Silence Is the Loudest Part of Renaissance: A Filmhttps://www.vulture.com/article/renaissance-a-film-by-beyonce-review.html#_ga=2.265171724.223446767.1701768303-370695103.1701177855 NEW STATESMAN: The Rise Of Reality Star Documentaries https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/tv/2023/03/rise-reality-star-documentaryPOP CULTURE WITH CHANTÉ: Can Pop Culture Do ADHD? (spoiler: no) https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/can-pop-culture-do-adhd-spoiler-no-pop-culture-with/id1650625380?i=1000605497209GLAMOUR: Women are being filmed on nights out without their consent – why can't they just enjoy themselves in peace?https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/manchester-nightlife-tiktok-series-misogynistic THE GUARDIAN: ‘It’s not a public service, it’s toxic’: welcome to the world of gossip surveillancehttps://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/nov/22/tiktok-overheard-gossip-sharing-trend ---Follow us on Instagram:@everythingiscontentpod @beth_mccoll @ruchira_sharma@oenone ---Everything Is Content is produced by Faye Lawrence for We Are GrapeMusic: James RichardsonPhotography: Rebecca Need-Meenar Artwork: Joe Gardner Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

yeah i probably should have should i kept my next time maybe i'll bring my slippers oh yeah you could leave them there oh my god imagine if we had pajamas just at your house oh my god i'd love to do this i'm beth i'm richera and i'm anoni welcome back to everything is content the podcast where every week we do a deep dive into pop culture hot takes and weigh in with our opinions and get our hands dirty rummaging around in the discourse. This week we'll be taking a look at Beyonce's renaissance and something on TikTok that kind of worried us.

Thank you to everyone who got in touch after our first episode last week. And if you do want to chat to us, you follow us on instagram at everything is content pod so what have we been loving this week i have been loving i know this kind of isn't news but maya jammer and stormzy i'm just really enjoying seeing them together and they were at the british fashion council is it an award or is it just a ceremony i think it's an award right is it an award what are they awarding dresses I guess British fashion fashion it's I love seeing everyone's outfits like everyone really kind of goes quite avant-garde it's always amazing but they look stunning and I just every time I see them together it does feel like something is you know the world's kind of

nature's healing and I love a reunion couple you know when Ben Affleck and JLo got back together there's something very much like ah love comes together again. You know, when Ben Affleck and JLo got back together, there's something very much like, ah, love comes together again. The world is good when you see it happen, you know? Especially when it's been a long amount of time. I think that's when you're like, okay, they actually are meant to be together because they were broken up for how long? Like four years?

I just whipped that in front of Noah. She wasn't really engaged to someone else in that time. And also, she got away with kind of, not got away with, she absolutely should have been able to, but like she got engaged, got unengaged. There was not really any like backlash, but there was just kind of like oh no longer engaged it was very quiet yeah she sort of went and now i'm back with my man so what was she wearing on monday night my drama she had three looks she had a white look a red look and a black look the white look was my

favorite it was like kind of corseted and then like chiffon and drapey but I just think she is one of those people that she's just getting higher and higher and higher and when we're older I feel like she's just going to be I mean she already is iconic but I'm going to see where she goes because she's already kind of transcending heights that other British presenters like how old is she she's definitely younger than me I think she's 28 i love seeing her when she's off in a little jackling cling motherfucker and then she's like staying in these like amazing hotels did you see when she went and stayed in the the one in dubai and it was like

no did you not see this it was massive it was like the her room was a whole hotel and she was like sliding on the banner so she was like dancing she was there on her own it was i don't know there's something about there's some people that enjoy wealth in a way that you you want to buy into it and enjoy it with them other people you're like uh you're so like showy with her i'm like i want to see the jet i want to see the hotel she's fun she seems so fun like she throws her halloween party and she seems to actually enjoy things like may she prosper yes my job supremacy and what about you guys what What have you been enjoying? Have you guys read this piece on Vulture about Timothee Chalamet

and is he a heartthrob anymore? I'm obsessed. Tell us. Okay, so it's by this journalist called Alison P. Davis. And it's basically this idea of, you know, Timothee Chalamet was the internet's boyfriend.

Everyone loved him in Lady Bird. He was the guy that everyone wanted to fuck at one point. Is he fuckable now he's playing Wonka i was just obsessed with this article which basically propositioned the idea that he's lost all kind of fuckability for one of a better word fuckable i would love to know this because i feel like he's looked 16 years old since he was 16 years old that's true but i'm sorry you can't argue he is the internet's boyfriend he just is i'm glad you said that beth because out of everyone i've ever met i'm the only one that's true but i'm sorry you can't argue he is the internet's boyfriend he just is i'm glad you said that beth because out of everyone i've ever met i'm the only one that's kind of in your

camp where it's like i kind of understand where there could be a bit of he could rustle up a little sparkle in me if i met him at a bar and he kind of gave me a wink but beyond that there is nothing else he's not stirred anything in me i mean i do always think of that picture of him on the yacht with um lily rose and I do feel sad for them that this moment was exposed because they're having a horny moment together like full mouth open snogging and I just thought that little boy's not for me he's just too he's too skinny I think I'd break him in half he's a little man and I quite I mean I often date a quite not older like problematically older so he just never he was never gonna be for me stepson perhaps but do you really not get the charm at all like even in ladybird when he's kind of they

talk about this in the piece but it's kind of this idea of like the perfect he's never going to like you which makes you long for him even little woman maybe i got that earnest sort of i love you i love you whatever yes that i get more okay but ladybird no I still feel like even though there's that thing where and I do see it more in Little Women but I think that I'm still seeing him as if I'm watching over like an older person watching teenagers so I'm like that's cute for them but it's like this doesn't concern me I do too yeah I don't I don't feel involved but it's back to the the Wonka bit it is interesting because obviously the first wonka was gene wilder is that his name yeah and he was like an older man i don't know actually because people

bloody know people back in the day looked so old he could have actually not been that old he could have been 15 years old and then it was johnny depp and now he's so like i wonder what the shift was to pick someone like how old is he supposed to be so this is a prequel it's wonka so it's basically how he became the willie Wonka of the prior films. But can I just read you one line from this piece just because I'm obsessed. Is Charlemagne enough of a sex symbol to engage in earnest singing, dancing and candy making and continue making loins throb? Why am I not getting it?

As in why are you not getting why he's throb loining? He's not loining.. Loin throbbing. Not my loins aren't throbbing, but also... Is a loin a real thing, quickly? Loin cloth. It just means the whole area, I think, is throbbing, which does happen with so many celebrities for me, but it's absolutely not him.

He's never had a throb with Charlamagne. Never once in my life. I would have to reflect if that happened. I do think he looks very young. Okay, now I feel judged. Okay. No, you look young too, so it makes sense. He's not for me. Get it, whatever. let's watch the film and make our own decisions it is out today in cinemas

okay so we've got a few weeks till christmas how are you both dealing with the um associated stresses pressures pains everyone's just busy all the time i feel like i can't see any of my friends So Christmas, how are you both dealing with the associated stresses, pressures, pains? Everyone's just busy all the time. I feel like I can't see any of my friends and vice versa. We've got like polls. We've got dates flinging across WhatsApp groups. We're all busy all the time. It's crazy.

I have my first Christmas dinner this evening and then it's kind of like flat out for the rest of the month. Do ever lie to your friends and say well i'm busy on that because i have to mark out time when i can't talk to my friends i don't want to speak i don't want to see anyone but because i'm being invited to places i've had to lie i have to say i actually do want to go i love i love i love no i agree with you because i do have to have my time out weirdly what's happening when it is i seem to not have like that much on the weekends it's like every weeknight i've got like a dinner. So I've got Saturday, tomorrow I've actually got nothing on. So I'm like using that as my recoup and restoration day.

I'm doing it like back to front. Because like you said, we've all got polls and everything. And everyone's like, when are you free? I did a kind of quiet a bit before this because I knew this was coming. What I always end up doing is I got from summer and then I just kind of go straight through to Christmas so I actually haven't been going out as much and I in in the knowledge that from now at this point of December it's going to be a home run but you know what it is I and none of us here have children watching my friends and family with children is a whole nother level of stress because my yeah my

cousins have got um young children i've got a lot of cousins they've got a lot of young children and they are excellent like they're great parents they wake up full-time jobs wake up 5 a.m earlier to do some kind of elf on the shelf nonsense and it is something else and i realized i've got nothing to complain about because that is a full-time job, managing that fucking elf. Okay, question. What is Elf on a Shelf? I'm going to play the immigrant card here.

I did a lot of Christmas shit because I didn't really celebrate it. What the fuck is Elf on a Shelf? It didn't exist when we were younger. Absolutely not. For sure. There was a children's book that came out in 2005 called The Elf on the Shelf.

But I don't think that The Elf on the Shelf, it's basically like a toy that's an elf and in the book I think the elf kind of destroys things so people have buy this toy elf and then they put it in the house doing different things and every night in the lead up to Christmas parents will like have it like put loads of toilet roll in the bathroom they'll have the elf sat on the chair but it's people get so inventive with it and it's quite competitive if you follow like different mum mummy bloggers or like just even family they it's because it's been around now for a few years it's become such a big thing that people have like a few elves on the shelf and then they'll have like they'll put like poor flower on that like it's really become quite performative and that little

boy where they draw on his face and he wakes up and he's fuming at that elf so his parents did that yeah no no you're sure the elf did that sorry sorry and they just don't get it they do they actually do like real chaos on their children i think it's maybe a little bit of a get back of like how annoying children are they go the elf did it but have you seen the one as well when they put someone paid the grinch to come into store 85 pound grinch yeah wait have you seen this we need to and i know this is a scottish family as a scott i can say this they paid this cringe 85 pounds to come around and do like i think what the parent expected was it come around be a little bit naughty it wrecks the house it they pour like washing up liquid all

over the floor smash the tree smash stuff up the kids are loving it who's that for business oh i think it's a freelancer it went so it went so viral people are still doing it and people are filming it and genuinely grown men dressed as grinches are breaking into houses and smashing up people's homes it's so funny but it's like i would that's my worst nightmare guys i've got a job pivot and tomorrow i'm gonna be a grinch please do because I do think it'll pay me far better than any journalist in my entire year 85 quid I'll do anything it's so much

like it's adding up so much there's also this Christmas Eve box which I have found out about which apparently is actually a Scandi thing which is way nicer in its origin

which is where you get given a set of pyjamas and a book on Christmas Eve so you wear your pyjamas and you read which is actually really lovely my housemate is doing this with her boyfriend

but now it's turned into like children getting Christmas Eve boxes so you get a Christmas Eve box then a stocking then your pajamas and you read which is actually really lovely my housemate is doing this with her boyfriend but now it's turned into like children getting christmas eve boxes so you get a christmas eve box then a stocking then your presents and it's like how much stuff do we need to be layering onto this thing which i don't know well so actually funny enough i was listening to lockdown parenting how with um rob and josh rob beckett first name turns only and they were saying how there's a like of some parents nowadays because i thought about being like this and then i realized i'm screwed i was just going you know what christmas isn't real we're just going to explain to our kids that santa isn't real and they were like if you do this you are ruining all of the other parents lives because that child

was going around and then you have to like reconvince them but it is so weird that we all buy into christmas because i don't think it's necessarily a good a good thing i don't know no we all i mean i end every december like i say frazzled but i also end it having spent too much money and as a family of just adults my immediate family is just adults this year we got together and we're like what are we doing we're spending too much money we stress we're not enjoying it how about we spend half the amount of money how about we don't buy each other loads of shit and we do this instead we don't we don't actually have to buy into any of this it felt like freedom that's amazing that you had that conversation that's really yeah that's really interesting

as somebody who never really celebrated for most of my life coming into it now as an adult and getting into the spending and stuff like that i have i think the complete opposite where i'm getting to kind of decide the rules as i go but it's quite weird yeah I don't what is your like ideal way to spend Christmas not that you necessarily will be able to do that because we have to take in you know other people's I feel like just the classic like being around family and friends and just having a big meal I think I don't know I don't really know what do you mean by pan grinch in yes oh my god beth yes thank you say no more i've got it sorted oh my god you read my soul thank you what do your family do around christmas time is there anything um so we used to go away we used to go away to india and visit

family but so it would be the kind of thing where even on christmas day we might be on an airplane yeah and just because it's cheap isn't it to buy flights on Christmas day it's actually great time to go away yeah whereas nowadays I kind of spend it with my boyfriend and yeah it's kind of entering his his family traditions and things like that and I get the very classic Christmas now which is weird it's weird but nice would you have Christmas if you had children in the future would you do Christmas I think so I think so it's nice just to have a day to do something yeah with traditions yeah that's true how do you spend it well quite stressfully normally at my parents I tried to get out of it this year like really told off and they were like you have to come home so I'm going home on Christmas Eve but it's just like it just ends up being so stressful because my mum wants to be

so perfect like she starts hiding the house in like August she's like I'm turning the house for Christmas and then it's like the cooking and everything kind of like someone wakes up late then we drink too much champagne then someone's a bit drunk and then something burns we end up having Christmas dinner at like 8pm and by that point none of us talk to each other so I do a weekly thing on Instagram called let's talk about where my audience send in topics they want to talk about and last week it was about the stress of Christmas and it was just this really long thread about how basically everyone finds Christmas very overwhelming but I revert back being 14 me and my middle sister Emily have the

worst fights you've ever seen always every single time I'm exactly the same I revert I regress is the word like I do honestly want to hit my siblings and bite them and you go what on earth is going on like I have to take a lap I get like stoppy like you would as a child i feel like i'm gonna have a tantrum sometimes and i'll never be like that but like something is wrong and i'm like yeah slamming doors running away to your room being like no one understands me and also you can't you have to be involved the whole time that's the thing i'm used to like being able to get away and like have space for myself but when you're at home for christmas you kind of can't just take yourself to a room because that's rude so then i might my battery just gets lower

and lower and lower and I just I just think we should just be fairer to ourselves and each other and just go like everyone has a social battery like we are allowed to have it doesn't have to be the perfect picture perfect Christmas we just have to be yeah vaguely in the same house and on speaking terms guys there's something i really want to talk about so beyonce's concert movie renaissance premiered in london last week angelica jade bastienne wrote a piece for vulture about the movie have you guys seen it no but i heard it when i went to the cinema last week to watch salt burn and they were playing beyonce really loudly and me and my friend Poppy were like what is going on and then she was like oh the Beyonce movie is playing. Oh my god so this piece looks at Beyonce's aesthetic might but it also brings up the questions

about her supposed neutrality and vagueness on global political issues. Angelica said this amazing thing in it she said quote more than anything renaissance is a testament that Beyonce isce is a brand that stands for absolutely nothing beyond its own greatness what do you think of that quote wow what so is it is the film literally just the film of the tour well i've not i've not seen it i think it's not just concert footage i think it's lead up to i think it's because it's one off the back of her she did this obviously huge coachella performance um a few years ago it's her having knee surgery it's her right the back of her. She did this obviously huge Coachella performance a few years ago. It's her having knee surgery. It's her building towards this absolutely enormous spectacle. So I think it is everything.

And then it's concert footage. It's behind the scenes. So I think it's like a real overview of everything. She obviously had Homecoming that came out on Netflix in 2019. Is it a similar idea? Yeah, so I think it's a follow-on from basically her prior films in the piece angelica does an amazing job of talking about how beyonce kind of utilizes this idea that she's revolutionary she's political as part of her image but then when it comes down to it she's showcasing

her films in israel and has never commented on what's going on right now exactly and also will perform in dubai abu dhabi she will go where the money is um and and what angelica asked in this piece which is excellent i think it's a beautiful and brilliant piece of of syrian critique is who are you do your politics really align with what you position yourself as it's asking questions and it's asking for an answer from you know the beyonce machine yeah i one thing i will ask i wonder because i don't know how much control do taylor and beyonce have over the like dissemination of their films like how many how far removed are they because obviously performing i think is one thing

which yeah you can probably directly say but i wonder whether or not film i don't know how rights work i don't know how much they own so it's hard to know exactly who makes the decisions i know the amc is the distributor of this so i don't know what beyon own. So it's hard to know exactly who makes the decisions. I know the AMC is the distributor of this. So I don't know what Beyonce's role is in deciding whether this can be played in Tel Aviv or whether it can be pulled. So it's a thorny issue. And I can't comment on that. Yeah, it's definitely really thorny. And I think this piece I think was fairly measured and like quite a good piece of criticism. But there was one aspect which people to be honest, I think rightly enough pointed out. She talks about Beyoncece's uncle johnny and you know what a big role he had in picking outfits for destiny's child but uncle johnny as many will know was diagnosed with hiv and passed away due

to complications with aids yeah exactly and angelica makes makes a point in the piece that beyonce in not talking about her uncle very much or the fact that he you know had um had medical issues and what they were specifically in the film she's shying away from that and I think that is a really big statement to make about somebody and I don't know if she can make that statement no and that's the only measured really measured criticism I've seen of it's that point in particular because that's someone's mourning and that's how someone grieves and that's how someone celebrates someone i mean it's a celebration the renaissance tour was a celebration it was a celebration of queer artistry black queer artistry a very particular moment in time that she didn't want to include the end of a

person's life and how that happened i think that's i do I do know what you mean but it does it makes things feel intentional it makes it feel like she's trying not to be political or she's trying not to comment yes I do agree it's a personal thing and why wouldn't why no one you don't owe anyone anything I wonder if she comes from a school of thought where she feels like I do think we're in a weird place like even with the conversation we had around Salt Burn, where everyone wants everyone to be everything. And Beyonce is a superstar. She's a performer. She's an artist.

And I understand the want for her to be political, but I feel like it's a very active choice that she's taken to kind of not, she lets her music speak. I reckon that's her MO is like, my art is my voice. I agree. I agree to a degree, but as the piece kind of makes out I think she

really leans into being kind of this political voice of a generation she opens up renaissance with this quote that's like you know we've all gone through trauma this is not verbatim obviously but it's like this is a healing space for all of us and as Angelica rightly puts she never really clarifies what point she's making what trauma that is exactly and i think these kind of vague comments as angelica says is like being a little bit political dipping your toe and being like i am i am gonna say that i'm creating a space for trauma but i'm not also going to talk about any of the actual trauma that's happening in the world yeah it is very it's vagaries and i think as more and more famous

powerful people only talking vagaries it stands to critics and it stands to us to say but what precisely do you mean be specific tell us what you mean tell us what trauma what shared trauma what are you talking about so that we can understand better because otherwise it is i do just it's kind of poaching from these words and saying well I'm I'm standing in liberation in liberation from what um Beyonce's a millionaire a billionaire sorry so she is aligned with the highest of powers she's a successful black woman but she's a capitalist at the same time and I think someone has to say it and they have to say it very plainly do you think it's because she's so, as you say, she's so wealthy.

She's like in the upper, upper echelons of society. Like she's gone past like normies. She has, yeah. Do you think she's probably so incubated is the wrong word. Insulated? Incubated. She's a little chick. By PR teams, by power, by pr teams by power by management by agencies that

people she might write a statement and then someone goes let's pull this out let's pull that out let's take this out and obviously she has the agency to say no but i wonder if it's that thing of trying not to offend people because as you say she's a capitalist she still wants those people on the red belt i agree whatever and then do you think it becomes so stripped that actually it kind of offends everyone because it's like who are you speaking for i think it's so stripped that it stands for as a gel it stands for nothing i think in the piece she talks about this fake intimacy that we have with yes mega famous people we don't know them they position themselves as our friends um in a way to of course separate us from our money and what she's done in the from what i've seen of the film is to she you kind of see her mothering you see her thought process it is

to position a kind of fake intimacy um and it's very effective but they aren't our friends can we talk about also the celebrity documentary industry that's like popping off right now the fact that they're inviting us in quote unquote into their homes gives us the idea that we're best friends with them you know the beckons robbie williams taylor swift all colleen rooney yes it's been going on for a while but i feel like this year it's been going off on a different level and i think it's really interesting that a lot of them are being made by them yes it's image control isn't it and i'm really sucked in by i watched the robbie williams and i didn't question a lot of it i i need to finish i started watching it the other day and but i was just thinking obviously there was also

lewis capaldi like i remember sitting down with my family and watching the taylor swift one whenever that was that too beginning of 2020 i feel like it was a longer time ago miss americana it was such a big thing and it was amazing and i felt like that was kind of the beginning and then i remember they started coming out and now like i watched the beckhams but what's interesting is like celebrity documentaries will always i always want to say post hummus posthumously post humbly you would get like the beatles documentary or something it would always kind of be like a bit like an autobiography you'd get it once that person had lived their life but then it'll be warts and all because it was after they died i guess it also could be slightly warped by the person who's writing it but it's interesting that we're finding out from these

people in the it's something quite strange about it yeah and also how many i have to say i'm getting a bit fatigued by it like when i even i know everyone's saying the robbie williams one is amazing i just watched the beckhams one and when I heard it was coming out I was a bit like okay right another one yeah yeah I feel exactly the same and I do I always think of it what's the business angle like what are you going to try and sell me next I think they're trying to sell their image as exactly as they like it the same as with the autobiography I will watch it and I will watch Beyonce's because I do think she is unmatched I think everything about her as a performer is true. She is the best to do it.

I'm fascinated by a person who is excellent. She is excellent. But we mustn't consider her our friend. We can't consider her above critique. And when someone like Angelica writes a piece like this and receives, she's been doxxed, she's been harassed online by Beyonce's fan base. That's when I think we do have to have a discussion. We can leave Beyonce out of it and say,

the way that we engage with criticism, we've lost the plot. Yeah. No, I think that's such an amazing point. And I think all of this ties together. The fact that celebrities are doing their own documentaries, the fact that fan bases hurl abuse at people who are offering criticism,

the fact that journalists find it really difficult to get time with these people. I think celebrities don't want any kind of, you know, bad press or any kind of authentic representation of what they're doing. They can control the narrative because they get production companies to do and say what they want in these documentaries. And when a journalist does get some criticism out there, they get doxxed and treated horrendously. It's really, really worrying. But I do think with artists and stuff, I am wary of kind of like looking to them.

It's been like what we were talking about before. Especially for a black woman to say, tell us, you know, lead the way. And being like, I need you to stand up. Even though I guess this is the world we live in now. It is, isn't it? Like they, she does have the power and influence and her saying something maybe would be the change that would like like create affect what we want i don't know it's i find it really tricky to know where to stand on it because weirdly i do i feel i'm like i feel

that the Beyonce appreciates that i think there's a point to be made she has done a really beautiful thing with this and so many of the comments weren't saying this is a terrible piece they were saying but you know what she has done something revolutionary for me yeah i'm a black queer person and i've gone to this concert i've had this album i've loved it and it's made a safe space for me and that might not be she's not you know upending the yeah the economics of it but she is creating something that i feel liberated by which is real that's real absolutely it but she is creating something that i feel liberated by which is real that's real absolutely it's very important so maybe that's the issue maybe it's

that the artists if you're just going to create your music and then zip it up then that's fine but if you're going to start professing and making claim and then it's like okay you can't position yourself as a revolutionary and then when people say go on tell us where you stand in the revolution then it's just you know pr statements how does this go everyone's like worried about ai taking our jobs but like what with robbie williams doing these documentaries and like colleen rooney and whatever what happens to actual documentary makers and people that want to like come out if celebrities are just going to like rehash and revisit their already well-trodden stories and well-documented lives and i mean it's kind of the same with podcasts as well you got these huge celebrities coming on as a couple and just talking it's like where do all of these

new stories new creatives it's kind of like there's not that much room anymore the cosmos is filled up by these i agree completely actually and like i think we lose a lot of great journalists especially and like critics because we just expect everyone to do everything we go you're really good on tiktok for example you can have a podcast and like talking to a lot of friends in the industry they don't really work yeah you know we are expect we're stretching people too thin because we want you know like all-around performers yeah i think it's a click i think it's just like a numbers thing people are like they do well on this platform they'll get it's everyone's trying to get the younger generation so they're like whoever's performing well on these platforms let's get them on the catwalk but then it's like you

don't have these specialist people who are and I do enjoy I mean there's so many people that I love watching doing certain things but it does feel like we're in this weird like rotisserie where everyone's just getting like shuffled around yeah yeah yeah Sarah Minerva's wrote an amazing piece for New Statesman I believe about this where it was like TV companies are planting influences basically to front these documentaries and what it leaves you with is this almost like hollow feeling when you're watching something because you're like well why is this person leading the subject i'd rather somebody who's been affected by an issue or has a personal stake in the game share that story because it feels

really authentic the one that sticks out in my mind was the sam thompson adhd documentary which obviously got a lot of backlash because it was like he was going to find out if he had adhd and all these people were like why him and i get it because actually he is really charismatic and he is good but there is a problem with putting the same people doing every story you just don't get anything new that's the problem yeah a hundred percent nail on the head it's like this kind of as you say just like rotating circle of the same people front in fronting the documentaries kind of sharing the same points of view I think Shantae Joseph made a point about that where she was like there's so much in terms of racism when it comes to the labeling of ADHD that would have been really interesting to explore but Sam Thompson can't do

that yeah so true so do we think that's the same with the celebrities doing this? So with the Taylor Swift and Beyonce's Renaissance film, is that the same thing? I think very possibly. It also feels like everything comes so fresh on the heels of the last thing. Beyonce has just wrapped this tour a couple of months ago or a month ago and now we've got this incredibly

well-produced documentary about it. It does feel like it's kind of everything is what everything is just. Everything it does feel like it's kind of everything is what everything is just everything is content but it's so quick it's so the cycle of it is so quick I feel exhausted I don't feel like I have time to digest anything it's just constant it's so funny he's just said everything is content I was literally just thinking that what all of this is is documenting we've become obsessed with everything nothing is left to just happen like what happened

to rumors and history and sort of like you had to be there it's like don't worry if you weren't there because you can watch it back what's the live stream very strange everything is being cannibalized and everything we want to recreate remake film there's nothing left that isn't kind of being packaged up and i do think it's that capitalist thing of like, yeah, we made 600 million. I don't know how much money they make on the tour. Maybe it's more, yeah. But if we film it and sell it, we can make more. And it's like, again, the level of artistry

or something about the live, it's gone. Oh God, I hope the beehive don't come for us. Wait, was I supposed to laugh? No, that's going to be put in in post so this week I want to talk about an excellent piece that I read from Chloe Laws for Glamour magazine about quite a sinister and sexist trend of an account on TikTok filming women young women in I think predominantly northern cities all dressed up for the nights out filming them without their consent and without their knowledge and then posting them to I mean hundreds and thousands of people to essentially direct really vile,

vitriolic abuse and commentary about the fact that these women are dressed how they're dressed. They're going out for a night out. I don't know if you've seen this. I've seen it. It's been a bit of a phenomenon this week because it was reposted by Ian Miles Chong,

who's a far-right Malaysian blogger, journalist. He always comes up on my blockly blockly blockly ex formerly known as Twitter feed and I'm always like I don't necessarily constantly

I'll start reading I'm thinking what the hell is this like no one I follow comes up it's just him and the suit guy what's he called

oh the the menswear guy yeah Derek guy Derek is sort of like chaotic good whereas Emile's charm

is bad vibes I think he's at still grey on X for me on Twitter and he just reposts stuff for engagement

he's really engagement themed but this like the caption was a night out in Manchester why was it

why do these women do this to themselves or something and it felt very personal because I was like those are the Manchester girlies like the northern cities they the girls know how to get dressed up yeah they look beautiful don't they are impervious to the cold leave them alone it's one thing I hate I have to say about living in London is women don't

dress up so when I was in Cardiff when we like some nights we wouldn't but there were nights where you could go out and you could wear your stilettos and you could wear your dress and when I lived at home we got in Bristol you wear that you get dressed up in London it's kind of like you almost there's certain events you can do it there's actually very few and far between situations unless you're going for a really posh meal where people take on the night in that way yeah do you know what I mean roll is in all day yeah you're wearing the shoes that are like cab shoes oh i love it i love it so much i know friends i'm sure we've all got friends who go to the north for their nights out yeah that's that's an indictment of yeah london i agree i'll say that much but and when the women make the effort if you're there with your phone like

rubbing your hands together thinking i'm going to make fun of them rather than going oh what beautiful world i get to witness this you're a piece of shit you're right and it is and it's also surveillance culture so this really I mean the piece is wonderful I think Chloe's an amazing writer and she really nails it it's misogyny it is maybe it's engagement bait as well because who knows you know like what is going to get the internet riled up and engaging it's a chance to be sexist do you know what some of the comments are I'd be really interested to see if tiktok's any more positive because you know i guess the general i did just look on x and i saw carol vorderman which chloe also writes in her piece carol vorderman you'll always be famous i love her she was like let's not worry about why the girls are

dressed like this let's worry about like middle-aged men are bothered by this yeah why are you so sexist yes it's reminding me of do you remember that women who eat on tubes do you remember that no i don't there was this facebook page and it was massive and it was just pictures of women eating on the tube so it would be like women on the northern line at 9.5 pm eating a tuna sandwich and the whole thing was just critiquing women out in the wild as if women are like public property whereas men will read a book and you'll go go to my shop game or men will hold a baby and they go go to what women will have a little tuna and she's in trouble also what i kind of hate about this is i kind of love those street style videos which you do see where people look amazing and it's championing

fashion and it's like god you look totally and then the idea of you filming these women which these men filming these women i'm sure those women wouldn't touch them with a barge pole first comment it's kind of like it's so bad-minded it's so the idea is to embarrass and it's like we the the meanness i think the coolest part of it all is that women live in a society where we're made to feel like we're not good enough and so we do the fake tan and the hair and the nails and the makeup and the boobs out and the skinny dresses to feel good enough for this world which makes us feel like shit and then we do the fake tan and the hair and the nails and the makeup and the boobs out and the skinny dresses to feel good enough for this world, which makes us feel like shit. And then we do that and then people laugh at us. Like it's just.

You'll never win. And that's the point. They will take aim at you if you dress down. They'll take aim at you if you dress up. The point is that they will get their paper clicks and they will get their engagement. It's so pathetic and if you watch these videos it's taken from like a really low angle you can tell this is just some freak um on you know just just filming women and yeah it's a spectacle if you see women dressed up to the nines and it's snowing outside fair enough go wow they have endurance don't put on the daily and the

daily mail do this don't put on the daily mail don't put it on your tiktok i think this is a bigger issue of surveillance. And it's my most boomer opinion, but young people need to put down their phones and stop filming strangers in public. I hate it. I feel like there's this real trend of just kind of utilising strangers for content online.

And it's fucking disgusting. I feel like, where is everyone's morals and ethics when it comes to just filming a stranger just for clickbait or like virality? It's insane to me that we've normalized a world where you would think it's okay to video people, strangers, and then they would be online, go viral and have no idea about it.

And they have no consent. And obviously this doesn't go, if you're out there being racist, sexist, and you are absolutely, you know, that is a way to throw light on someone who absolutely should be publicly shamed. But it's people having their worst day. Like I've seen autistic meltdowns. I've seen breakups. I've seen people just drunk or, you know, inebriated in some way,

go viral. And you've got your worst day could be fodder for someone else's Instagram. Not even that, just like what if someone, I don't know, has an abusive ex-boyfriend and they're going out on the night out and their boyfriend doesn't know they've moved to Manchester or whatever it might be I it's so weird to me like you remember that whole thing with the gym videos where there was guys being like guys looking at me and they were filming that was like its whole thing whenever I used to film gym videos I was so conscious about not ever getting anyone in the video and I was kind of embarrassed I was filming I'd been there for hours I'd wait that thing if someone moved I'd move away and that was like a really ingrained thing to me that like

I'm filming so I've got to make sure I'm not getting anyone in there this has completely changed by like have you seen the girls that like do their videos on the tube oh sorry in the in the in the underground and they're filming their outfits with like the tube in the background and there was one girl where this guy like people kept walking in her video and she's like ah yes you won't get out the way of my video and I was like sorry

entitlement you're on the tube love like either get there it's a public space it's not a space where and the idea that filming this video is more important

or that anyone cares I mean I wish I had that level of because I'm mortified even like taking pictures in public I still find it quite embarrassing

so the idea that people like us are so online now entitled they believe that like that video them taking that video is more important than someone going about their day-to-day life using public services it's quite crazy i think it's yeah i think it is such surveillance capitalism where it's like this idea that we're all entitled enough to basically be owned everyone else's existence to go viral for ourselves it's so strange like there's a lot of like basic humanity in it it's just really really horrible but what's

the opposite i guess you have this the the flip side would be we police you know filming other people then you like it it's like being in a house all the time you can't get your phone out in public take a picture everyone niche niche reference just describe it i think just get to the point where we actually i think it should be as unacceptable to film a stranger and post it as to get your willy out

or pee in public and it's so weird how do you enforce that without it being like a legal thing and then that is a whole other issue it's a code of conduct

or an ethics that we have to and I feel like we did have that agreed yes what changed at some point I mean I think it's one things like TikTok

do encourage that transparency they want everything they want users to make longer form content and so users going fuck what do i need to do the goalposts are moving and they need to do more and more to go viral and it's quite a shortcut if i see someone doing something funny in public yeah i can describe it on twitter or you know exact or i can show a video that people can watch in two seconds and share and share and share it's easier it is easy it's a shortcut you're right there was an amazing piece in the guardian about this by alessandra chardet not sure if i'm saying that right um about gossip surveillance as

well so i don't know if you've seen a few videos go viral where someone's overheard gossip and said we've got to find the person that's being gossiped about the person that's being gossiped about then finds out goes i didn't want to know this i know i've got all this undue attention it's like making someone else go viral in addition to you non consensually right and also to hear that your friend's been talking so painful did you see the one about the bridesmaids where they were bitching about the bride and it was on twitter and this girl was like oh my god i was in a coffee shop in this place and there's these three bridesmaids one had a short hair like this and they were saying the bride was like this at her wedding. No. And it was on Twitter. And this girl was like, oh my God, I was in a coffee shop in this place and there was these three bridesmaids, one had a short hair like this

and they were saying that the bride was like this on her wedding day, blah, blah, blah. Gave so many details and she was like, I hope the bride sees this. And lots of people were tweeting like,

oh my God, this is awful. And I was thinking. You've got to find her. Do your fuck. There is something to be said. Like if you go back into the history of humankind, gossip is like a massive bonding thing

and it's something you do. And sometimes you talk about people and you don't really mean it but you're just sort of like venting and you would be horrified if your friend heard it i don't always think that means you shouldn't say it i think there's a time and a place when sometimes you just want to get a bit of steam off agreed and it doesn't it doesn't have to be cruel but actively trying to get it back to this person there's some there's some there's and something else at play here, which is like real puritanical surveillance where like the younger,

it's like you shouldn't be bitching and you shouldn't be, like the codes of conduct have kind of moved. Is that all word salad? Yeah, we should be able to hear bitching happen and go, that is how humans interact. I perhaps it's quite unkind, but it's not my business.

We all do that to some degree and not feel like, well, I've got a way down here. And it's not my business we all do that to some degree and not feel like well i've got a way down here i think we've got this weird thing where it's like you can't do something we need justice you need to be perfect all the time and it's like no humans are fallible you know you can say something bad about your friend or you could do this it's like that is not something that you need to go on twitter talk about and then i do think lack of proper justice in like we live in a very unjust world i think when we take justice into our own hands it does satisfy maybe that inner okay justice exists because we can do it ourselves because actually yeah shit good happens like it is we're in such

like a drought of actual justice maybe it does feel like you're doing the right thing when you i don't know can i just say no one has to be an internet sleuth and that is the hill i'll die on why do we all think that we're detectives online we do not need to be no one has asked us no one has given us credentials none of us have a phd in this let's log off let's log off i did see something quite sweet actually a long time ago it was like someone had seen a dad in an art gallery showing his baby the pictures of holding his baby up and instead of what would have happened is taking a photo of it and putting a stranger's face and their baby online they've drawn a little picture of it and i was like that's just as effective and it's also cute and it's also

its own thing no one's privacy was violated by that and we got to hear about a really positive thing and i think actually let's just be creative like describe it draw a little picture but don't put some dad on blast same with girls on a night out let them be think about them talk about them draw a little picture of them but leave them alone leave their faces and bodies for themselves let them have their own image leave them off your socials yeah okay girls so for next week i have something that i'm desperate to talk about i got a screener for a film that you will have heard of called may december yes yeah it's a todd haynes film with natalie portman charles melton charles melton riverdale riverdale fame julianne moore yep it

is excellent heartbreaking it is out on netflix today you can go to cinema and watch it but i mean watch from the comfort of your own home it's so moving it's really quite controversial could you give me a plotted synopsis because i've seen pictures but i don't think about it yes so the film is about a relationship a may december relationship which i think is quite a sanitized way of saying it's a relationship between a very young person and a much older person that strays um into illegality and controversy and like real taboo it is about a family made up of a very young man and a much older wife it is it's beautiful it's strange the performances are really really excellent and i do think there's so much to talk about wow okay so if we watch that over the weekend or whatever you guys watch that yes and we'll

discuss it if everyone watches it then we'll all be on the same page amazing yes absolutely thank you for that recommendation beth if there's anything else you want to tell us send us a message and follow us on instagram at everything is content pod make sure you're subscribed and tell your friends tell your friends and your mom and your dad no no no not your dad never your dad no don't hate dad or my dad see you next week