Pop Culture Mondays/8.19.24
The “DEMURE & MINDFUL” Edition
Happy Monday, my darling pop culture junkies. We are in the dog days of summer but a busy pop culture time nonetheless. I am guessing most of you have seen something to do with being very demure and very mindful the last few days, but I am guessing not ALL of you know where this trend came from, so I got you. I created my baby Yoda using AI, and it took a few tries; it’s not perfect, but I will take it. I did not use Grok, the latest “product” from Space Karen’s “X” which might have done a better job, but that’s because the product, like the company, has no moral compass. I assume it will be sued to oblivion, but before it gets shut down, here are some classics that some X subscribers created. I must warn you that some of these are not only offensive but truly, TRULY upsetting.
Yeah. Pretty fucking horrible.
I cannot imagine why brands would not want to advertise on this platform!
X and Elon love guns SO much that they took the water gun emoji that is on your Apple emoji keyboard: 🔫 and turned it into a realistic emoji of a gun when you type it into a tweet, aka POST. Not a joke.
And to make sure we knew it was intentional and delightful to Elon….
He really is a human form of a hemorrhoid.
I have to think about making PCM ELON-FREE as much as we are Trump-free because this shit is not fun. And we want FUN!
And my podcast is fun, so definitely check it out when you have some time:
See how DEMURELY I segued there? Yeah, baby.
I am not going to cover Bama Rush this time around. It’s just the same thing it was the last year and the year before that. There are a few stand-outs, a few heartbreaks, and a lot of OOTDs with 18-year-olds wearing a lot of Van Cleef. But there is one TikTok I wanted to show, which is from one of the girls who was a break-out star from last year. She is now in the sorority and in a leadership position, it seems, and she lives in a house with a few other sorority sisters, and she does a room tour….and let me just say this: I was born in the wrong fucking era, you guys. Like, actually, the wrong era. I had dirty tapestries on the ceiling, a lava lamp, starchy sheets, a matching duvet, which wasn’t really a duvet and was as stiff as cardboard, and an old blanket from home in my room during my sophomore year.
I want a do-over!!
Ok, let’s get to this!
VERY DEMURE, VERY MINDFUL:
This trend took off like wildfire. Everyone is using it (and I will showcase some), but where did it come from? We have this creator, Jools Lebron, to thank for this. It started with this:
AND dear lord, did this take off.
“Your demure is what it means to you. It’s being mindful and considerate of the people around you, but also of yourself and how you present to the world,” Jools told “CBS Mornings.”
And more from her interview with “CBS Mornings”:
She was working as a cashier and posting content from her car — never imagining that her videos would reach millions. Her “demure” theme began as a reference to another video, where she had chosen to go with a more natural look for her first day at a new job after initially doing a more dramatic makeup style at a previous job.
“I was like, let’s go very natural. Let’s not do too much. So then I was like, I don’t show up to the first day with a green cut crease. I don’t show up looking like a clown, but I was really referencing how I had shown up at another job.”
Let’s see how wide this thing went:
PS: Note to Britt or Kara…THIS is what I want for Christmas! Diet Coke HARD WIRED into my kitchen
Moving on…
Some used the OG sound, and others took it and made it their own.
And this one excited me to no end because HOW excited are we for the new “BEETLEJUICE”???? I cannot even explain how much I am looking forward to sitting in a movie theatre and watching this movie. And Jenna Ortega and our boy Justin Theroux added into the mix? AMAZING.
From the premiere of the new season of “Emily in Paris,” which of course I am watching:
And this trend has transformed Jools’ life, and she is incredibly grateful for it:
I love how people really took this trend and made it their own:
And it wasn’t exclusive to TikTok. It is everywhere:
And if you haven't been used in conversation yet…YOU will. This only happened less than a week ago, and it is already mainstream. WILD!
I MEAN…THE WHITE HOUSE GOT IN ON IT:
ANYHOO….as a result of her viral fame, Jools has made enough money to finance the rest of her transition surgery which is awesome for her. What a thing. A week!
ANOTHER GROWING TREND…
Yes, another week, another look at the Blake Lively discourse. As I am in PR (though not celebrity publicity, which is a different beast), it is painful to watch something lose control so much, and while I understand the reactions people have, I also think it is unfair and probably sexist — women dragging down women — it all feels very high school. And truly, this has spiraled, and I am sure it feels like shit. BUT perhaps we can all learn from this and look at how this happened.
It all started with the press tour for the movie starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, “It Ends With Us.” This is a book that has been read by MILLIONS and is very personal to many as it deals with abuse — both emotional and physical — and this obviously connects with a lot of people. A LOT. So it is already wrought in terms of how this movie will connect with all of the fans of the book. And then the red carpet events began.
And then stories came out that Baldoni must have done Blake dirty because Blake was only being pictured with her husband or with other cast and the writer and never with her co-star, who also happens to be the director AND the person who optioned the book in the first place, Baldoni. Normally, the costars would be photographed together. This was not happening. Initially, the narrative was that Baldoni must be bad, and Lively was the wronged party. So, people searched for things that might have gone down. Rumors came and went that he had fat-shamed her during the filming of the movie. Rumors came and went that he bullied her during the filming of the movie. But nothing stuck.
Then, the tides turned. All of a sudden, Lively was the villain. The mean-girl narrative took over swiftly.
Lively claimed in an interview on the red carpet that her husband, Ryan Reynolds, wrote the pivotal rooftop scene:
And that did not sit well with some people…including the screenwriter who said this in an interview AFTER Lively made news with her comments about the scene:
But even more importantly, the involvement of Ryan Reynolds gave a lot of people the ick. He is not a producer or involved in the movie at all, so people were like, NO THANK YOU.
Overexposure is also a thing. And this movie is coming out on the heels of the “Deadpool” movie, which had a super publicity blitz and marketing mayhem (really Heineken? REALLY?) And what goes up, generally people love to tear down. Especially if they are a couple that seemingly has it all: beauty, brains, money, fame, fashion…etc.
But then Lively did do what I consider a misstep. She missed the tone of the whole movie. The movie is about abuse, ultimately. Yes, the main character is named LILY BLOOM and is a FLORIST for the love of GOD, and so on top of that LITERAL madness, Lively decided to take a floral approach to her red carpet look. And a fun and celebratory tone. And people compared it to wearing florals and being all cheerleader-like as you head into a movie about the holocaust or cancer…it got dark.
She also has a sarcastic side, which I normally love. But when in crisis, sarcasm does not work. And this interview has made the rounds:
She also used the red carpet for a movie about abuse to promote her new hair care line, Blake Brown, which launched at the same time as the movie.
Then, to jump on the bandwagon, a Norwegian journalist posted an interview from years ago that she said made her want to change careers as she found Lively to be mean, and this took off:
I DO want to say that there could also be something else at play here that we are not aware of. Bladoni was quickly becoming the villain in the initial rollout of the film. But he hired a crisis communications person quickly, and then we saw the narrative shift to being about Lively as the villain. I mean WHO knows….but I will say we are all likely being manipulated to SOME degree! But was she tone-deaf? YES.
And this sums up the internet this past week:
A LITTLE OF THIS & A LITTLE OF THAT:
Hopefully, you are now up to speed on the most talked-about pop culture topics at the moment. But we have a few more, from lesbian TikTok drama to Doritos to a couple of other notables.
MEET SEDONA & LIV:
Sedona Prince (the one in the brown tank top) is a 24-year-old college basketball player currently playing for Texas Christian University (TCU). 24 means she has been playing college ball for six years, which is unusual, but who am I to judge? Lols, I judge. Anyway, you might remember her from years earlier when she was a player at Oregon; she showcased the difference between the weight rooms for the men’s and women’s March Madness basketball teams. And it went viral:
The other woman is her now ex-girlfriend Olivia (Liv) Stabile, a TikTok star and content creator. They had a very public relationship, which they showcased on TikTok. But they then broke up, which happens, my little darlings. Hearts get broken…it is a story as old as time. Also, this is not Sedona’s first public breakup, as she had another TikTok girlfriend before Liv.
But the relationship ends, and we all move on. But then, Liv decided to drop a bomb in the form of a 10-part TikTok series detailing the abusive end of their relationship, which ultimately painted Sedona as emotionally and physically abusive, violent, gaslighty, unstable, and everything in between. I won’t post ALL 10, obviously, but here is a glimpse:
The story gets wilder. She claims Sedona left her alone in the middle of the Mexican jungle at night on purpose. And she crashed an ATV, and Liv got injured. And complaining about every little thing about the Tulum holiday Liv was paying for to take Sedona away for her birthday. And just on and on with verbal and emotional abuse, among so much more.
And TikTok came out a swinging in support of Liv and ready to take down Sedona. There is currently a petition that has over 150K signatures to remove Sedona from her basketball team:
WILD. But this is NOT just because of Liv; she is just one of several former partners who have now accused Sedona of physical abuse.
But Sedona and her family are apparently getting death threats, and that is NOT ok. But it should show you how big this story has become. Sedona posted this to her IG story:
Liv claims that Sedona has sent a cease-and-desist letter, but she has not stopped posting content about it. This story is clearly still unfolding.
If you want to watch a bunch of the videos, here you go:
DORITOS ARE LIFE:
Maybe the most relatable thing Kamala Harris has said yet was about her raw-dogging a bag of Doritos after Trump was elected. Let me explain to you the love I have for this nacho cheese chip. I still remember the feeling of joy when EVERY ONCE IN A BLUE MOON, my mom packed a small bag in my lunchbox. I still remember the OG Jetblue days when they handed out the MUNCHIE MIX with Doritos. I sit here typing this, and I can envision my fingers caked with the delicious orange powder that would coat them after a Doritos frenzy that can take over me.
How did we get here? It started with a campaign email…which I got and actually immediately opened, unlike many others (I have given more to this campaign than any other political campaign before):
I OPENED THIS RIGHT UP. They knew their audience. And this was the intro to the email:
I remember sitting in a hotel room in Lisbon when Trump was elected, and I ordered the entire late-night room service menu. I had chicken tenders. Pancakes. French Fries. Ate them all. Had there been Doritos in that mini-bar, I SURELY would have inhaled them too.
But of course, the right FREAKED out on this narrative. Hilariously. They found it to be TOO emotional. Ok, simmer down weirdos.
And Walz and Harris leaned into it:
We are not done with TORTILLA discourse. Because Walz also unveiled something pretty relatable to the public and for what the Right tried to make into racist commentary: White Guy Tacos:
LOLS. Ground beef and cheese, and you know it’s a crispy shell. NO SEASONING!!! NO SPICE. I mean…like how perfect is this for the YIN and YANG of the two. LOVE.
I CAN’T…
I am sorry to introduce you to these things…this is a new brand called SNEEX, which is the new company from Spanx founder Sara Blakely. The new line is bringing us comfortable high heels…or sneakers with a heel on it.
I mean, what do I know? These will probably become a huge hit but for me, at the moment, they are a no.
One to watch!
WHAT A HUMAN:
Nick Cave has seen his fair share of tragedy. He has lost two sons tragically and yet has managed to still be an inspiration to many. As an artist, as a husband, and as a father. This clip was shared with me over a dozen times this past week, and I thought it a lovely way to end this week’s PCM:
What a beautiful thing.
THAT IS IT, my darlings…
That is that, my darlings. Whether you are enjoying the tail end of the summer holidays or are in BACK-TO-SCHOOL mode, I hope you have a magical week!
We are switching off of Medium SOON….so expect an update there. NOT SUBSTACK, so do NOT worry. IT IS COMING…
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Have an amazing week!!
Xx,
Brooke
