Pop Culture Mondays/8.16.21
The ‘BAMA Edition
HAPPY Monday my pop culture junkies. Look, here is the deal. I am on holiday. The last few gasps of it anyway and the Italian air is calling me so I am making this an abbreviated version this week and I AM SORRY. I mean look, not much happened other than UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA SORORITY RUSH which we will get to so perhaps you will forgive my brevity this week. While the world is seemingly burning, the Taliban is back and women are running for their lives, the Delta Variant continues to dominate, the Obamas seemingly made a tacky misstep, people are losing their minds over masks AND kids are going back to schools…WE HAVE POP CULTURE and RUSHTOK. Priorities people. So with that….I give you a BABY PCM if you will. If you are new here, welcome. We are Trump-free. We are Trump adjacent-free. We are a guilt free escape and one you probably need headphones for. Sit back and enjoy…
XOXO.
ALABAMA RUSHTOK:
Guys. I mean I really don’t know what to say but not since sweet little winking William “Whitey” White, has the world been brought together by one thing and that one thing is ALABAMA RUSHTOK. WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT? OK…for those of you totally unfamiliar here is a quick break down. Many colleges and universities in the US has the GREEK SYSTEM aka sororities and fraternities aka frats. Obviously if you are here you have seen “Legally Blonde” so must I reallly get into the weeds here? ANYWAY, this is the time of year where girls get to their schools and start the RUSH process which is actually a pretty cruel exercise if you want my honest opinion. But girls get dressed up (more on that) and they go to all the sororities and make small talk and see the girls and houses and it’s a wild tour. They then pick the certain amount of sororities they want to be a part of and IF those sororities want them, then they get matched until the list gets down to the one they mutually pick and that’s BID day. Some girls get none. Some girls get a few and have to pick. At the University of Alabama there may be NOTHING more important. This is generational. Moms and grandmas are legacies in some cases. SEEMINGLY the majority of these young women are blonde, rich, very southern, skinny and white. NOT ALL OF THEM I will add and we will get to that…but the fair majority. I mean it was only in the last ten years that Alabama desegregated the Greek System if you can believe that. (WELL, BELIEVE IT CLICK HERE.) But BAMA RUSHTOK took over everyone’s FYP (for you page) and it became a major thing. For those who have never seen this experience, here is a good glimpse from another year of rush:
People got invested in some of the girls and some of the girls started becoming TikTok famous real fast. You had celebs and normals like me all around the world asking “WTF is happening and how did I get here…” meaning how did they get to RushTok. OK, basically everyone was asking that. But as these things do, some culture stuff started popping up.
NO MORE SO THAN MAKAYLA. Of all the girls who were parading around on TikTok showing us their “OOTD” aka their Outfit of the Day (stay tuned for that) we had Makayla aka WhatWouldJimmyBuffettdo on TikTok. She became the William White of ‘Bama RushTok. People went nuts for her and became very invested in her. Maybe it’s because she seems really sweet and sincere. Maybe because she is mixed race and therefore not the stereotypical rushee (there are plenty of those)…either way here she is:
Here is a one two punch- a video of Makayla and her friends showing their OOTD for the first day of rush:
There is a lot to break down here. So we really all first meet Makayla in this TikTok\. We also get to see a trend of the friends lining up and showing us where their things are from. Here is a small list of brands kids are flocking to and parents listen up because you will see things on your credit card statements:
- SHEIN: Dear LORD this store is everywhere…if you have a teen girl then you might be triggered by this name . SHEIN seemingly pronounced “SHEEN” and every single TikTokker wears this…basically you can buy an entire outfit for $30. I am talking dress, shoes, bag and bangles. Some can be very sweet….some can be very um…the opposite of sweet. There is something for everyone and I am sorry if you see bags and bags of this stuff arrive at your door. I guess it’s better than from a pricey store though.
- The Pants Store: THIS is an Alabama local that has been THROWN into the national zeitgeist this week. It is a store in Alabama. Seemingly sells a lot more than pants. Seemingly caters specifically to the Sorority and frat crowd (I mean look at this site) and we as a massive community got really into the Pants Store…like people were guessing what part of girls outfits came from this store. LIKE I SAID YOU GUYS…it has been a WEEK.
- Kendra Scott: THIS is an inexpensive jewelry line. Maybe not $10 but pretty cheap for sure. And man, did every single RUSH girl have some Kendra Scott thing. The girls definitely have a high/low thing going like some will be like “Y’all my dress is Shein, my shoes are Amazon, my necklace is Kendra Scott, my bracelets are Van Cleef and Arpels/Hermes/David Yurman/Tiffany/ETC…and my watch is Cartier …” and it’s like being in a zoo watching this all I am telling you. OK, I digress…but Kendra Scott herself got in on it:
OK so also let’s be clear Anna Wintour where you once told Kara Swisher on her Sway podcast that Amazon was not in the fashion business…then WHY MADAM is every single outfit of the day on TikTok include something from Amazon? EVERY THING. I think Amazon is VERY much in fashion. But that’s not what this newsletter is about so let’s move on. Forgive me but here is a sampling of some more rush TikTok…
AND gasp what you must know, after the world followed Makayla she was cut from ALL houses and the world gasped. It turned out a video resurfaced of her out with a friend seemingly drinking and maybe drunk and doing teenage girl shit. But the Greek system strictly forbids this kind of thing (yeah right) and she got banned. Some think it’s because she is mixed race. Some think it’s because some bitches got JEALOUS. I think probably all of the above. ANWAY, sit back and enjoy:
This one went viral because food delivery guy was like WTF is happening am I going to die?
There were some clear “LEADS” in this story including Makayla:
OK…so there is a lot more and I could sit here all day but I cannot. HEre’s the deal…you can go deep. Like there is a whole part of TikTok slightly teasing the videos and doing their own versions though if course TINX my girls is my fave:
And like I am pretty sure this is parody but it’s gotten to the point you JUST CANNOT TELL:
OK back to our girl…Makayla is OK. She is at STEAK AND SHAKE and she is telling her story. I didn’t post the drunk video that leaked out because I AM NOT 16! ANYWAY, here is out girl and let’s see what’s next for her aka she has a manager and an agent by now I am sure:
AND JUST A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS (AND SOME DESPICABLE ONES TOO…)
I TOLD you…a mini…but here are JUST a few things that rose to the top this week you might have heard something about or missed you are welcome:
- UM….have you seen the White House chef???
- Did you know the US had a paintball team? Not in the olympics but like an actual team? And there was a woman on the team who has been cancelled for posting a TikTok mocking a teen in the hospital with covid. And then ONE TikTokker in particular (below) did some DEEP dive CIA stuff and outed her and it went viral and then she was kicked off the ESTEEMED US Paintball team…Sigh. I cannot post the original video due to some weird Italian rights law or something but here is a summary basically and BYE GIRL.
For more:
- This kid got STUCK in an elevator during a flood and managed to TikTok and it is terrifying and thankfully they were saved but I mean this is NOT the dream you guys.
For more:
- UK reality “star”, a guy I am grateful to have never ever heard of and hope to never ever again, shared a video ON TWITTER of his reality “star” girlfriend giving him a blowjob. So yeah…it went viral before Twitter realized it and removed it. I mean I have had friends who were innocently breastfeeding their kids have tweets removed faster than this guy getting head BUT I DIGRESS. (IT IS A MAN’S WORLD GUYS…). Anyway, last fucking laugh is on him though as the dude made $1M in 12 hours on his OnlyFans page so I am guessing there will be more of this to come. OY.
- New meme alert. This one crossed over to many gens and many differnt types of people. You have seen at least ONE I am guessing at this is the “FALL PLANS VS DELTA VARIANT” trend. Here are some great ones liek this one bemoaning the fact that instead of picking LeVar Burton to host Jeopardy we got some boring white dude:
And some more I love:
And props to the Captain….
And if you know you know…(HOT PRIEST/FLEABAG reference):
THAT IS IT. I am sure I have missed a lot but I need to go and get my Covid test and find some gelato so PEACE out and get a vaccine please and see you NEXT MONDAY!
Be safe, be kind.
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