The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 5.3 The Painful Truth About This Billie Eilish Controversy, Pokimane, India, Australia & More

Starting point is 00:00:00 . Sup you beautiful bastards. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show. It is Monday, May 3rd, 2021. Hit that like button, subscribe, and a quick friendly reminder, you only have a few hours left if you want to snag something over at shopdefranco.com.

Starting point is 00:00:18 Our biggest, most limited, and most successful drop to date now coming to an end. Don't be stupid, stupid, emotionally exhausted. One day we'll all be skeletons. I'll have it going bye-bye forever at midnight tonight. I won't have another drop for probably about two months. But with that said, let's just jump into it. And the first thing that we're gonna talk about today

Starting point is 00:00:35 is this story involving international superstar, Billie Eilish. And it's not because she just dropped a music video that did crazy numbers, over 30 million views in just a few days. It's not because she's about to drop an album that's gonna be doing crazy numbers at the end of July, but because she is a young woman and has a body that exists.

Starting point is 00:00:53 And obviously you can kind of hear the sarcasm in my voice, but it's also true. It feels like all the big stories about Billie Eilish involve her body to some degree. Billie Eilish had this signature baggy clothes style, one that she actually came out and said that she chose to hide her body so that people would not comment on it.

Starting point is 00:01:08 But now in this Vogue piece, she decided to show more of herself and opened up about her body image and choice to change her style. Coming out and revealing that when she was younger, her body was the initial reason for her depression. Also adding that at one point when paparazzi caught her wearing tighter clothes, it went viral, sparked a lot of comments,

Starting point is 00:01:21 but even the positive ones bothered her. With her saying, it made me really offended when people were like, good for her for feeling comfortable in her bigger skin. Jesus Christ, good for me, fuck off. But also now saying that she's embracing her new look, trying to talk more about body positivity. Also saying she didn't like being compared to other female pop stars who were wearing revealing outfits

Starting point is 00:01:39 and she was praised for not doing so, which she didn't appreciate. And saying that's because there was a misogynistic subtext there and also she felt deprived of her own womanhood. And speaking on essentially the bullshit that women have to deal with, saying, suddenly you're a hypocrite if you wanna show your skin,

Starting point is 00:01:51 and you're easy, and you're a slut, and you're a whore. With Eilish adding, if I am, then I'm proud. Me and all the girls are hoes and fuck it, you know? Let's turn it around and be empowered in that. Showing your body and showing your skin or not should not take any respect away from you. Don't make me not a role model because you're turned on by me.

Starting point is 00:02:07 Right, and all of this coming as she released a single called Your Power, which she called an open letter to people who take advantage of their power, mainly men, saying that it's a universal issue. With Eilish saying, it's everywhere. I don't know one girl or woman who hasn't had a weird experience or a really bad experience.

Starting point is 00:02:20 She also said that she has experienced that kind of abuse herself. But they're also seeming to try and get in front of people that are going to criticize her, noting that some people might say, "'You're going to complain about being taken advantage of "'as a minor, but then you're going to show your boobs?' With her responding,

Starting point is 00:02:32 "'Yes, I am, motherfucker. "'I'm going to because there's no excuse.'" You know, ultimately this situation and this article sparked a big debate about women's bodies, control, the whole industry. I am unsurprisingly of the mindset of Billie Eilish should be able to do whatever Billie Eilish wants to do with her body, whatever makes her feel most comfortable,

Starting point is 00:02:48 most whole, but I do also have to acknowledge that it is not just a black and white situation. And one of the truths of the situation is that these young women, especially before they turn of the age, are already being sexualized by the media, right? And kind of in connection to that, one of the criticisms we saw online was a user saying,

Starting point is 00:03:02 "'Billie Eilish doing sexualized photo shoots "'after avoiding showing her body for so long isn't harmless self-expression when pervy grown men and adults in the music industry have been pressuring her to hypersexualize herself since she was a minor. And to that point, while obviously a different situation and there's a conversation to be had about who controls what when it comes

Starting point is 00:03:17 to a person's body and society. I mean, what, we talked about that other story, the another artist, Bad Baby turns 18, I think like a week after that, she launches an OnlyFans, makes a million dollars like that. So there is an argument to be had that the entertainment industry has this pipeline that encourages young women to show their bodies.

Starting point is 00:03:33 And is it truly owning yourself or is it playing the game? You could really only know that yourself. And hey, it can get a little bit messy, though I will say when it comes to Billie Eilish, and there's a lot of assumption here, it feels like she is very much in control of the situation and narrative. And so at least in this one situation,

Starting point is 00:03:50 it feels like true empowerment. But with that said, that's the story. Some of my thoughts, and I pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts on this story? Then let's definitely talk about our douchebag of the day, 56-year-old Bobby Paul Edwards. So Bobby Paul back in 2019 was sentenced to 10 years in prison as part of his guilty plea

Starting point is 00:04:06 to a forced labor charge. And that is because he reportedly enslaved a black man with intellectual disabilities for five years, forcing him to work 100 hours a week at a South Carolina restaurant without pay or days off. And actually as a part of his sentencing, Edwards was also ordered to pay that man, 43-year-old John Christopher Smith,

Starting point is 00:04:23 $273,000 in unpaid wages and overtime compensation. But federal prosecutors actually appealed that decision though not because they didn't think that Smith deserved that money, but rather because they believe that he was owed more under federal labor laws because of the delay in receiving pay. So actually the latest update to this story

Starting point is 00:04:38 is a positive one in that an appeals court has agreed saying that the district court made a mistake by not accounting for federal labor law. Which means that Smith is actually entitled to $546,000. So the appellate court sent the ruling back to the district court to recalculate for a final decision. Though here's the thing, it would be very nice to put a little bow on this.

Starting point is 00:04:55 It's huge, right? The doubling of Smith's payment. But I mean, when you look into the details of this, I mean, this money is not gonna undo the years of pain that Edwards put him through. And so looking into this, Smith started washing dishes and bussing tables I mean, this money is not gonna undo the years of pain that Edwards put him through. And so looking into this, Smith started washing dishes and bussing tables

Starting point is 00:05:07 at J and J cafeteria in 1990 at the age of 12. In general, everything seemed good, but when Edwards took over in September of 2009, paid wages and decent treatment began to disappear. Edwards reportedly moved Smith into a roach-infested apartment that Smith's attorney described as subhuman, deplorable, and harmful to human health.

Starting point is 00:05:22 According to reports, Edwards isolated Smith from his family, threatened to have him arrested, and called him racial slurs. He also allegedly physically and emotionally abused him over the years if he made mistakes or failed to work fast enough, whipping him with belts and kitchen pans and even punching him.

Starting point is 00:05:36 Reportedly once, when Edwards thought that Smith didn't deliver fried chicken to the buffet as quickly as he demanded, he dipped metal tongs into hot grease and pressed them into Smith's neck. With Smith saying that he felt like he was in prison, adding, most of the time I felt unsafe, like Bobby could kill me if he wanted.

Starting point is 00:05:50 I wanted to get out of that place so bad, but couldn't think about how I could without being hurt. While other employees that witnessed this were too scared, thankfully there was a woman by the name of Janine Caines, whose daughter-in-law worked at the restaurant who helped put an end to the abuse when she reported Edwards to authorities in 2014. So I mean, thank goodness for her.

Starting point is 00:06:05 She's our bamf of the day for stepping up. Yeah, I mean, those specifics are the kind of thing that prevent me from putting a pretty little bow on this story. But ultimately, it's just a horrifying, horrible situation. And I did want to get your thoughts. You know, what are your thoughts about the sentencing here? Does the crime fit the punishment?

Starting point is 00:06:21 It's too weak, it's too much. Also, what are your thoughts about the money that this man should be getting, but you know, isn't gonna be guaranteed? You know, a number of things could happen, but very much, I'd love to know your thoughts here. But from that, let's take a second to pay some bills and thank the fantastic sponsor of today's show, Squarespace.

Starting point is 00:06:36 You know, over the past year, I know a lot of you have found your passion projects and what truly makes you happy. Whether that means finally getting your independent business off the ground or creating a place to share your homemade goods, new favorite hobby, obsession, or even just having a personal blog to get all those thoughts in your head out,

Starting point is 00:06:50 Squarespace is there to help. And it's so easy. There is nothing to install, patch, or upgrade ever. And creating a beautiful website with Squarespace's all-in-one platform has never been so simple. It's extremely intuitive and easy to use. Plus, with Squarespace, you get access to all their marketing tools and analytics

Starting point is 00:07:04 and personalized support from their award-winning customer care team via email or live chat, whatever you need, they're available 24 seven to help out. So if you want to check it out, see if it's right for you, why it's been so great for so many others, go ahead and start your free trial today over squarespace.com slash phil.

Starting point is 00:07:18 When you realize you love it, make sure you enter an offer code phil to get 10% off your first purchase. Then we got news and updates around that whole hot tub meta Twitch controversy. Basically that situation where you had some streamers, primarily women streaming from hot tubs and their swimsuits in the just chatting section.

Starting point is 00:07:33 It's been allowed on the platform. You have some big creators like XQC calling it trash and pathetic. Among the criticisms, you have people saying that those streamers are taking audiences away from others, that it's kind of lowering the standard of Twitch, that it's also potentially going to ruin ad rates for Twitch in general, because it's more risque.

Starting point is 00:07:47 But at the same time you have massive streamers and actually one of the biggest female streamers in the world, Valkyrae saying, why are people angry? What's the big deal? Others saying that some of the criticism was just coming from people that are anti-women, not anti hot tub streamers. And among the updates we've seen,

Starting point is 00:07:59 you had the head of creator development at Twitch, Marcus Graham saying that they are aware of and monitoring the situation. Though he kind of used some at Twitch, Marcus Graham, saying that they are aware of and monitoring the situation. Though he kind of used some open language, not mentioning specifically where changes would be incoming or where people would be cracked down on. We also saw another massive female streamer, Pokimane, speaking about the issue on a recent stream.

Starting point is 00:08:16 Here's the issue. I can see Twitch is trying to make things straightforward, but then people like toe the line so much that you need to have someone who can just, as a human, go to a stream and be like, ah, this is suggestive and do something about that. That doesn't mean ban, but do something about that so that it's not just suggestive streams

Starting point is 00:08:41 that kind of take over the whole platform. Then we got the news today that Verizon is selling its media group to a private equity firm by the name of Apollo Global Management for $5 billion, which is absolutely a massive number, though notably the sale includes AOL and Yahoo, which Verizon actually bought for a combined $9 billion. So seemingly they're selling those properties at a loss,

Starting point is 00:09:00 which actually includes companies under their umbrellas like TechCrunch, Yahoo Sports, and Engadget. Then in news and journalism news, today you had Twitter launching a major advertising campaign to support local journalism. So the campaign kicked off today in conjunction with World Press Freedom Day, though it will reportedly continue throughout the year.

Starting point is 00:09:16 And as far as what exactly Twitter is doing here, it launched 28 full-page color ads in local newspapers across Gannett, USA Today, and McClatchy Network, which includes the Detroit Free Press, Indianapolis Star, Miami Herald, Cincinnati Inquirer, and several others. Those ads then direct readers to Twitter lists of local journalists created by each newspaper and Twitter.

Starting point is 00:09:34 With the online ads also running across the digital websites of each paper, and on top of that, Twitter is encouraging prominent national reporters, journalism advocacy organizations, and everyday news consumers to use the hashtag follow local journalists journalists alongside impactful examples of local journalism.

Starting point is 00:09:48 The goal here being to help boost the followings of local reporters, as well as draw attention to their work. Personally, I will say I love any effort from a large organization to help local news. We've talked about it before, but if you do not know, local news companies have been suffering for years now, especially now amid the pandemic, which has unfortunately triggered even bigger

Starting point is 00:10:04 financial blows, job losses, and newsroom cutbacks. A lot of those big national stories start from local outlets who then get picked up by larger ones. And so hopefully we'll see a positive impact from this initiative, especially, you know, getting people that are more on their local beats online, more accessible. So in surprisingly fun news, I am in the news,

Starting point is 00:10:23 thanks to the Columbia Journalism Review. They did an article about someone on YouTube in the news space, i.e. me. And it was surprisingly not a hit piece or something that aimed to diminish what I try to do with the show, which I was like, oh, this feels nice. It was really well written and well-rounded. If you're a fan of my content,

Starting point is 00:10:39 I definitely recommend checking it out. But even more importantly, the people who were inspired by my show in the past and became journalists, and if you're watching now and you're like an aspiring journalist, I definitely recommend checking it out. But even more importantly, the people who were inspired by my show in the past and became journalists, and if you're watching now and you're like an aspiring journalist, I definitely recommend checking it out. Because I think we're already seeing the merging

Starting point is 00:10:50 to some degree of the influencer space and the journalist space. Though I came from influencer first and now we're seeing kind of journal first and then there's influencer element. Yeah, there was that. And then we should definitely talk about this COVID-19 news because I know that for a lot of people

Starting point is 00:11:05 when it comes to COVID-19, right now the conversation is, am I vaccinated? Am I not? What is it like in my state? What is it like in my country? But it is important to remember that it is still a huge international issue. In fact, today, according to the World Health Organization,

Starting point is 00:11:18 the number of global coronavirus cases reported in just the last two weeks eclipses the first six months of the pandemic. And this is largely because of what is happening in India and Brazil right now, but please know, it is not just about India and Brazil, and it might reflect a big problem that other countries are going to have moving forward.

Starting point is 00:11:35 And so since February, India has been experiencing an explosive rise in the number of COVID-19 cases across the country. And at that time, it was reporting about 10,000 new infections a day, but it is so, so much worse now. Last month saw the country hitting nearly 7 million new cases, which accounts for a huge share of the 19 million

Starting point is 00:11:50 it's recorded since the pandemic began. And this month has started with particularly bad news for India with 400,000 new cases per day, which unfortunately also means a huge spike in deaths as well. And to date, over 200,000 people in India have lost their lives to the virus. And possibly the most frightening thing about that is about one fourth of those

Starting point is 00:12:07 just came from the month of April. But also with India, it is hard to see if there is any sort of silver lining there because while those numbers are massive, the actual death rate is officially quite low. But as many experts have pointed out, the local reports seem to indicate that there are many, many unreported deaths.

Starting point is 00:12:22 And actually with all of this, so you have the World Health Organization warning today that what's happening in India and Brazil could happen elsewhere unless we all take public health precautions. Because there are a few causes for the spikes, but possibly the most impactful are a few COVID-19 variants traveling through India

Starting point is 00:12:35 right now, including the UK strain and multiple variations of an Indian strain. Some of India's most prosperous states have been particularly hit, including Maharashtra, the country's financial hub. In response to that, they initiated lockdowns about two weeks ago that will last until at least May 15th. Other efforts to combat outbreaks

Starting point is 00:12:49 include bigger vaccination efforts with over 150 million people receiving at least one of the two vaccine shots. While that is a big number, that's only about 10% of the population, and it's estimated that only about 2% are completely vaccinated. However, India has made huge gains over the last month

Starting point is 00:13:02 to dramatically increase how many people are getting vaccinated. And the country is due to get help from abroad with many nations promising medical support, including the United States, which has now vowed to give $100 million worth of medical support. Although one of the international reactions we've seen

Starting point is 00:13:14 regarding India has also been fear. For example, over the weekend, we saw Australia implementing a travel ban on India. And I mean, it covers everyone, even Australian citizens. Like it's an actual criminal offense that could get you up to five years in prison. With Australian officials saying that the new restrictions would keep its hotel quarantine system

Starting point is 00:13:30 from being overwhelmed. The Australian foreign minister saying on Sunday, 57% of the positive cases in quarantine had been arrivals from India. It was placing a very, very significant burden on health and medical services in states and territories. So understandably with this Australia story, a separate debate has sparked with people saying,

Starting point is 00:13:45 is this the right move for Australia? Or with some saying that this level of a ban is ridiculous. You have people saying it feels like my country has just abandoned me. But on the other hand, you have others arguing that no, they're just making the necessary decision. It can be hard, it can be uncomfortable, but it's important to protect the mass of people.

Starting point is 00:14:00 But yeah, I guess the main point of the story is it is important not to forget that COVID-19 is still out there, even if your life has been slowly going back to a normal. Hell, I'm vaccinated now for the first time in a year. I was with other vaccinated people outside. Felt so nice, but it's also important to remember that it's not gonna go completely back to normal,

Starting point is 00:14:18 especially as you recently had the New York Times noting, "'Some public health experts and scientists now believe "'that the United States is unlikely to reach herd immunity and that the coronavirus will instead become a manageable threat. It's something that could circulate for years, but it depends on several factors, right? How often are people reinfected,

Starting point is 00:14:32 vaccine effectiveness and adoption, virus mutations. It's already looking at a situation where if you're someone that's been getting vaccinated, you're gonna need yearly or boosters every few months. Yeah, we're gonna have to wait and see what's happening on the ground, what the research shows us, and go from there. And ultimately with this story,

Starting point is 00:14:47 and honestly anything else that stood out to you today, I'd love to know your thoughts in those comments down below, because this is the end of the show. As always, thank you for watching, liking the video, subscribing, all the good stuff. Also remember, you only got a few hours left if you wanna snag something from shopdefranco.com.

Starting point is 00:15:01 But with that said, of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love yo faces, and I'll see you tomorrow.

Your Ad Here

The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 5.3 The Painful Truth About This Billie Eilish Controversy, Pokimane, India, Australia & More

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.