🕺A NEW HARRY STYLES ALBUM🕺
Mōrena lil shits!!
I went to a quiz night last night! Last week our team was ‘NZ Rugby Association,’ and the quizmaster said… ‘are you actually the NZ Rugby Association?’ To which of course we said yes. This week we were called ‘Watties Fiance Department’ and the quizmaster said: ‘are you actually the ‘Watties Fiance Department?’ To which of course, again, we said yes. As funny as it is to keep up the act, I’m a bit offended that we weren’t memorable enough for him to realise that last week we worked for NZ Rugby. PS we got 3rd (but I can’t vouch for how well they did the scoring…)
On another note (be warned, this is a very pop-culture heavy edish of the newsy), my FAVE artist/songwriter/Gemini in the world BANKS just released a new EP that I listened to yesterday called ‘I Still Love You’ and it goes offffff.
Oh, and here’s another great podcast recommendation from one of you! After I spoke about my newfound love for Alanis Morrisette (and espesh You Outta Know) one of you sent me this episode of a podcast called ‘songs that explain the 90s’ (great podcast concept) all about You Outta Know! If ur into music or nostalgia, this is for u I reckon!
✨ PS!! I’ve had a few people reaching out wanting to advertise in the newsy - if you or the organisation you work for is interested in renting some space to chat to over 50k of the coolest humans on the planet, hit us up (or just reply to this email!) ✨
In today’s newsletter:
WE’RE GETTING A NEW HARRY STYLES ALBUM
Why do we use LOL so much?
LET'S TALK ABOUT THE PAY GAP
Reese Witherspoon isn’t her real name
Jacob Elordi ate some hot wings
New Lorde music video
Can you picture an apple in your head?
WE’RE GETTING A NEW HARRY STYLES ALBUM
Disclaimer: This is what I wrote about it yesterday before it had been announced, but there are updates at the end :P
Have you heard of the whole YouAreHome sitch? If not, here’s a lil rundown. Harry Styles seems to be doing a similar ERODA style marketing campaign (like he did for ‘Adore You’) for… something new.
It started with fans finding unattributed “YouAreHome” ads in local newspapers:
Fans then went to the YouAreHome website where every day a door opens and there are different images inside.
And just yesterday YouAreHome went from theory to… kinda confirmed (???) when Harry followed the YouAreHome Twitter and Instagram accounts.
There is also a Discord server linked in the bio of the YouAreHome accounts, which is a hilarious mental image (there is no way in hell Harry Styles is using Discord… are they forming a DAO??) Not much is going on in there as of yet, but I'll keep you in the loop.
AND NOW, WE HAVE THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF A NEW ALBUM ON MAY 20TH
PUKING. COME MAY I'M ABOUTTA BE SO ANNOYING.
Jacob Elordi ate some hot wings
Why do we use LOL so much?
“The word rarely means “laugh out loud” anymore, but you probably knew that lol."
I’ve seen this article everywhere this week, so I’m kinda late to the party but I feel like lately, I’ve been talking a lot about words and phrases (go off, goblin mode, luxury surveillance) and this feels like a very Luce story. Also, I use ‘lol’ a lot, mostly as punctuation lol
Anyway, this wonderful VICE article goes into the history of LOL (spoiler: it was originally only meant to be used when you’re genuinely laughing out loud), and why this acronym (as opposed to rofl or even lmao) has enjoyed such longevity. There are lots of more interesting and technical points about how lol can be used as a “phatic language function,” or a “pragmatic marker,” but you can go and read about that intelligent stuff there - that’s a bit technical for the the SYSCA daily newsy lol
I reckon lol is in the fingertips of the beholder. My mum adds ‘lol’ to the end of most of her texts, which always make her look so sarcastic, but when I’ve talked to her about it, she has no idea it comes across this way lol
Personally, I’m more of a hahaha girl myself - it’s just more ✨fun✨ to type and less ✨intimidating✨ to receive, but again, I may have just thought too hard about this entire situation (though not as hard as the person who wrote a whole damn article on it.)
Lol
We need to start talking about our salaries
You know when you start talking about something and then you start seeing it everywhere? We had this conversation with my flatmates the other day about whether you should tell your partner your salary or not (⅘ of us were a solid YES!) and then I took it to SYSCA to ask what you thought.
76% of you do know your partner's salary
24% of you don’t
I've always talked super openly about money, and it didn’t come as a shock to me that my flatmates felt the same, but one of my flatmates works at a bank and made a really good (and kinda obvious) point about why she and her workmates talk about salary openly with each other. It’s so that they can understand what they’re making compared to other people in their position, as it helps them to be aware of any pay-gaps in the company (whether they’re related to gender, race or other factors.)
Anyway, after this conversation I saw this on Twitter:
And then I saw an article in WIRED titled: The Entirely Predictable Impact of Salary Transparency, which looked at Europe, and how they’re “about to decide whether to make everyone's salaries public, a move that could dramatically narrow the gender pay gap.”
The article starts off by talking about the GenderPayGapBot (which I wrote about here) before going into some proposed ✨legal stuff.✨
Currently, (according to the European Commission’s most recent data) the gender pay gap in the EU is 14.1 percent (in NZ it’s 9.5%) “and only diminishes at a snail’s pace,” but a proposal, presented by the EU Commission to the EU Parliament and Council, looks to change that.
As well as requiring employers to provide salary ranges on job ads and banning questions about pay history, it will give employees the right to request information on pay levels and force companies that employ more than 250 people to publish their gender pay gap data.
An example of large-scale salary transparency is taking place in Iceland, where, as of 2018, companies with more than 25 employees have had to prove they pay equally for equal work and correct any pay equity gaps. If companies can show they pay equally, they receive certification, and those without will incur a daily fine. A similar scheme for companies with 10 or more employees was implemented in Canada at the end of 2021, with a view to correcting all pay equity gaps by September 2024.
In some countries, gag clauses in contracts are also super normal. One in five UK-based workers are banned from talking about pay with colleagues, and in Australia, pay-secrecy clauses are often written into employees' contracts.
I have to end this section by shouting out the AMAZING work that Mind The Gap are doing to disclose (and help close) the gender pay gap here in NZ! Go and check out their directory of companies who've opted in to being transparent about it!
NEW CULTURE VULTURE EPISODE!
Dua Lipa's Lawsuits & Inner Monologues - Culture Vulture — open.spotify.com
When your reading this do you hear it? Or do you just read it?? Liv has an inner monologue and I don't - so we explain the differences in how we think, what the psychology is behind it, and what it means to have - or to not have - that inner speech.
We also chat about Dua Lipa's Dual Lawsuits, and give a very quick update on Ye. Listen wherever you get your pods!
New Lorde music video
In it, she’s speaking to her younger self and ✨taregt audience reached✨I felt v emo.
Can you pitcture an apple in your head?
This was something that came up during our 'inner monologue' episode of Culture Vulture so I wanted to ask you about it!
91% of you can
9% of you can't
Inner monologues: Explained (Culture Vulture)
All of your most embarrassing period stories (The Shit Show)
Inside the endometriosis communities forced to meet online after being dismissed by their doctors (Screenshot)
12 hours online and zero regrets: A day with the internet’s funniest meme curator (Vox)
Ashleigh Barty: World number one makes shock call to quit tennis (BBC)
Bored Ape Yacht Club creator raises $450 million to build an NFT metaverse (The Verge)
It's officially short king spring (Or so TikTok says)
You can listen to us talk about all things pop culture on Culture Vulture, about THE WORLD on The Shit Show or watch us explain the internet on Extremely Online.
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LOVE YOU THE MOST, LUCE XX
