Jun 6, 2022
Pop Culture Mondays/6.6.22
The “PRIDE 2022” EDITION
Happy Monday, my beautiful pop culture junkies. We have made it another week, and it was a WEEK. Johnny and Amber verdict, the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, the jealous meltdown of a former One Direction member, people losing their minds over the boys of Top Gun 2, and of course, JUNE, so it is PRIDE month. I live in West Hollywood, and before that, I lived in Greenwich Village, which means that I live in two of the most significant places to celebrate Pride. The streets come alive, people are dancing in the streets, and there is a lot of nudity and glitter, and I am HERE for it. It is hard to imagine how people are anti-love and joy and instead spread hate and anger at every turn. While being in WeHo makes it feel like the whole world is embracing the LGBTQ+ communities, I found that on the West Side, aka Santa Monica and the beach…you would be hard-pressed to find any acknowledgment of the day (Sunday was like New Years Eve times 10,000 in WeHo). So it shows how very different communities are all over this world. But of all the takes I have ever seen about acceptance and intolerance, no one, in my opinion, has said it better than MMA fighter Jeff Molina. Molina wore the UFC Pride month shorts, which are shorts with his name written in rainbow colors. Here you go:
YEAH, super offensive right? 🙄🙄🙄
Well, he got a lot of hate for it. Because that’s the world we are in. And Molina let loose. It’s raw, and it’s not perfect. But it is real. It is honest. And we need more of it…
I love this. I also love how he describes time. 50 years ago? “Less than a person ago…” I am stealing this line.
Let’s all be like Jeff Molina. A UFC featherweight fighter is telling it like all people should.
OK, let’s GET into it. If you missed my pod last week, I had the amazing Taylor Lorenz from The Washington Post on as my guest, and we broke down Amber and Johnny verdict and all the misogyny at the heart of the reactions and some other fun stories, so pleaser check it out!
If you are new here, welcome. Sometimes we are silly, sometimes we are serious, but we are always weekly, so you will get the hang of it.
XO…
THE QUEEN’S PLATINUM JUBILEE:
What exactly IS a Platinum Jubilee? It is the 70th Anniversary of her Accession Day. She has been the Queen since 1952, which is a pretty amazing thing. My mom was 12, and I remember her telling me how consumed she was with the news of it. Just as I was when I woke up in the middle of the night to watch Diana and Charles wed. Americans are transfixed by the royal family and always have been — almost as if we are the bad kids who rebelled and were hell in school only to spend the rest of our lives regretting that and trying to impress the teachers who we once despised by posting things on Facebook to show them we turned out ok…OK, maybe that’s JUST me, but you get the idea. We ran away from them, but we could not stop watching their every move. And thanks to TikTok…we have the chance! From the analysis of the Queen (people seem to think she will pass away now that she got thru the Jubilee, which is morbid AF, the cute antics of Prince Louis to Paddington Bear….let’s ROLL tape as they used to say:
This creator geniusly showcasing what every conversation seems to be in the UK this weekend:
And there is a longer video of Paddington Bear and the Queen, but this is the best part and maybe the happiest I have ever seen her appear, as we are so accustomed to seeing a very serious Queen. I loved this….
People really really loved this video, and I love how this shows the crowd watching it:
And Prince Andrew was nowhere to be seen, and then it was announced that the disgraced Prince had COVID, so alas, he could not participate. NO CHANCE this was correct was the consensus, and this was just an excuse they gave to keep him away. AWKWARD. But socials had fun with that one…😳
But moving on to cute…remember when we all hated Charles and Camilla and now…NOW they are the adorable and happy GAM GAM AND POP POP, and I am here for it as well:
Harry and Megan were there, too, and I can only imagine how emotional that must have been for all involved. They were not part of the immediate family on the balcony, but they held their heads high. There are some really mean TikToks out there that I refuse to contribute to, and instead, I will celebrate their love and grace because we need to be better:
If you know me, you know I am an absolute Anglophile. I have said this many times before in PCMs of the past. From the men I date to the friends I have to the fact I say “literally” with a bit of an accent and pronounce it “LIT-TRULLY”…I love the country very much. I love the pride, traditions, and beauty of the country. I am ALL in, except for the Boris bit. He’s an ass. Oh, and Piers Morgan. He blows.
But here is a TikTok showing the pride of England…
AND they LOVE their doggos in the UK. You can LITRULLY take your dog pretty much anywhere. ANYWHERE. And of course, the Queen herself doesn’t seem to go far from her corgis, and what better way to honor them than a DRONE LIGHT SHOW?
AND…because the spectacle spectacular felt a LITTLE like the Harry Potter experience at Universal Studios (which is AWESOME BTW, worth every dollar, and it will cost a LOT of dollars, but I digress…), we have a FULLY gold carriage which apparently has NOT been seen on the public streets in 20 years. It is being drawn by many horses, and who is inside?? THE QUEEN.BUT…the hologram version of her. YUP. That is correct….HOLOGRAM:
And LASTLY, the kids were the hit. And one of my favorite TikTok trends applied to them made me laugh:
God, I love the pomp and circumstance. I have no idea if the monarchy lasts…it’s hard to imagine this, but I hope so. It brings such joy to so many…yeah yeah yeah, I know there are a LOT of things to criticize but let me have my moment. 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
EGO IS A HELL OF A DRUG:
So, I got into this in last week’s pod, but it is one of those stories that continues to grow and evolve, and the kids are CONSUMED by it. Let me explain. The kid in the tan ensemble is Liam Payne, known mainly as one of the boys in ONE DIRECTION, aka 1D. The band has been broken up for some time, and all of the LADS have gone off to do their own projects, most notably PCM fave, Harry Styles. Both Harry and Zayn Malik, another former member of the band, have had several NUMBER ONEhits, and Harry — OBVIOUSLY — is working on world domination at the moment. A little brief history of the band:
They were formed by the ever genius Simon Cowell in 2010 on the hit show “THE X FACTOR.” They all had auditioned individually, but the judges didn't think they were strong enough as individuals, and Simon suggested that they team up, and THUS, a boy band of BOY BANDS, was born. And the boys, who had ZERO prep for this and all came from totally different backgrounds, were thrust onto the main stage of fame and have remained there in various degrees ever since.
Look, I cannot imagine what it must feel like if you came to love and appreciate the fame and all the benefits only to have it diminish when the band breaks up while you watch some of your mates become superstars where you might not be recognized while walking down the street. It might require therapy or an ashram if it really got to you. But this Liam Payne tried a different angle.
So backing up AGAIN…he is ALSO known for having a relationship, and a child with the singer Cheryl (aka Cheryl Cole aka Cheryl Tweedy), which was significant because she was the adult judge on the competition the boys were on initially, meaning Cheryl was a part of the rise of 1D and coached the boys when Liam was 15 and Cheryl was 25. TEN years later, they were romantically linked. ANYWAY, the breakup and Liam has a series of relationships, and there are stories around his drinking, and he then claims he isn't drinking anymore and he has a lovely fiancée, and everything seems to be moving in the RIGH direction. BUT…in my expert opinion, jealousy/envy/resentment or whatever you want to call it can do ugly things.
Liam began unraveling. Stories on the socials showed that he and his fiancée split after it was revealed in another woman’s Insta story that she was being loved up by him:
The former fiancée, Maya Henry, asked fans to stop sending her pics of her fiancée and other women as it was too hurtful. At which point, Liam stated that her use of the term “fiancée” was misleading and untrue.
DICK.
OK, I honestly cannot believe I am writing any of this, but Liam's story took a turn on Logan Paul’s podcast “ImPAULsive” which you can watch here (PS, I wrote Logan Roy like ten times before figuring out my error, but I digress…)
And as Taylor Lorenz corrects me on my pod, LOGAN Paul is the good brother compared to his crazy boxing brother, Jake Paul. But that’s another post for another day.
In this YouTube video, you can see Liam is drinking, which MAY be why he got himself in trouble. ANd trouble he did get into. He claims that Simon built 1D around HIM and his face. He claims his first solo song was more significant than any of his band’s first solo songs, which is incorrect. And he went on to say he didn’t like Zayn but would still have his back because he came from an unsupportive family.
Sidenote…I hung out with Zayn about eight years ago while in Jamaica. Upon meeting him, I had no idea who he was. He was darling, polite, so sweet and open, and was SO proud to have been raised by strong women. He spoke of his mom and sisters and his aunties, and it was genuine and honest, and he was open about his struggle with fame and how his desire was for anonymity. So while I hardly knew him, I find Liam’s characterization faulty from my experience.
Anyway, here are some clips if you don't want to watch the whole thing.
Here is one where he references the alleged fight between Zayn and ZAyn’s former partner Gigi Hadid’s mom:
And some more fun ones:
And honestly, the reactions on Twitter and TikTok and Insta have been pretty funny, and I could sit here all day posting them, but here is a TikTok going through some of the best Tweets:
And maybe Lizzo put it best:
And, of course, the guy has regrets…
AND NOW FOR SOME OF MY FAVORITE THINGS (OR SOME OF THE DESPICABLE ONES…)
- And speaking of Lizzo, her song really has become the song of the summer…though I think it is now so massive that people are rebelling against it. BUT not this baseball team!
- This trend is growing on TikTok using this sound. People use it to showcase something or someone they cannot get out of their mind…some make it funny, some make it sad…
- PORN 2022 is not on PornHub; instead, for millions of people, it is “TOP GUN: MAVERICK” as they are the BOYS of summer. The beach scene is getting a TON of love, as is Miles Teller IN general (the social media community is rallying around Miles Teller and turning their backs on the kid playing Elvis, but that’s for next week, I think)…not to mention, MUSTACHES are like making a comeback now.
And peeps are LOSING their minds over the BEACH SCENE…
And Miles Teller, IN particular…
THIS kills me:
AND this…
- IN despicable news….ACTIVISION made a regrettable decision in not pulling this ad for the new “CALL OF DUTY” game from the NBA Playoffs, less than a week after the school shooting leaving viewers horrified and disgusted. Not a lot of press on it, but MAN, did my Twitter stream explode on this:
- And honestly, one of the most loathsome and pitiful figures of our time, Tucker Carlson, got some real hate directed at him. By the Dems? NOPE. By women protecting their reproductive rights? NOPE. By the BTS ARMY of millions and millions of mainly young women fans of the superstar KPOP group? YEP. Delightful. Tucker made fun of the White House for hosting BTS and having them thank the Biden administration for their efforts to combat anti-Asian hate. And because Tucker is an ACTUAL white supremacist, he found this amusing? GOD SPEED, TUCKER. God. Speed. I hate giving this man views, but should you want to see this clip:
And if only this were true…
- Now look, I personally would be mortified if my man proposed to me at Disney, but to EACH THEIR OWN, you know? That said, THE AUDACITY of this Disneyland Paris employee to do this. Like he ripped the ring out of the hands of the proposer? NO SIR. I would have literally slapped that guy. Disney had to issue an apology….
- AND lastly, I do not want to speak anymore on this Amber/Johnny mess and what it all means. The point is, neither of them seems like great people. Johnny had amazing lawyers. Amber had lawyers her home insurance covered. They both seem toxic and out of touch, making grave mistakes. Does this verdict hurt women who are in abusive situations? YES. Did Amber herself contribute to this? Seemingly YES. Do we as a society prop up badly behaved men and destroy badly behaved women? YOU BET WE DO. The Daily Pod was great today:
THAT IS IT, my darlings…
Have a wonderful week, my darlings. Stay calm, stay kind, stay funny AF.
And please…be kind to yourself and others, and let’s change our world (MANTRA MANTRA).
AND…please do check out the POP CULTURE MONDAYS ON THURSDAYS podcast here or wherever you listen to podcasts.
If you aren’t already a subscriber (PLEASE PLEASE SUBSCRIBE!!!) and please do SHARE this with all your friends…and IF you want this in your inbox, please send an email to:
subscribe@popculturemondays.com
Or CLICK SUBSCRIBE below!
