I wasn't planning on doing this 😬
➕ A discussion about 'queerbaiting,' and do words mean anything anymore??
I actually wasn’t going to write a newsy today - as you know (because the newsy is a place for me to overshare and I told you all yesterday) I just got my wisdom teeth out!! It was fine, everything went well, but holy SHIT, I was sedated for the procedure and I have never been so tired in my LIFE in the hours that came afterwards. And then, when the sedation wore off I was SO sore. Luckily the docs gave me some gooooood meds that had me feeling extra wavy (and naturally in no state to be trying to give anyone the news.)
Anyway, this morning I woke up LITERALLY LOOKING LIKE HANDSOME SQUIDWARD because my face is so swollen:
… but I am a LOT less sore (unless I smile, and for someone with a resting smile face instead of a resting bitch face… this is a problem.)
I’m also having a ✨chill one✨ with work today, which means I can casually tap this newsy out to you at 7:30am instead of 5am. I can’t promise a long one, or a very cohesive one, but I wanted to show up for you, coz I love you!
A note on tickets to The 1975:
Holy SHIT, the entries are coming through thick and fast! One thing I forgot to mention is on your entry, could you PLEASE STATE THE SHOW YOU WANT TO GO TO (Auckland or Wellington.) If you’ve already entered, no need to send through a whole new entry - I’ll be in touch if you’re one of the winners, but just if you haven’t yet entered! Also, I had NO idea how many 1975 stans we had in the building - that’s fucking cooooooooool. Oh, and I’ll let the winners know on Friday xxxx
Queerbaiting: what is it and what ISN’T it?
Remember that fake Eli Lilly tweet about insulin? It may cost Twitter millions
Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones dressed up as Fleabag and Hot Priest for Halloween
The world’s population just hit 8 billion
Do Words Mean Anything Anymore?
New episode of Culture Vulture: Queerbaiting: what is it and what ISN’T it?
Today we talk about the latest word to be weaponised by the internet: "queerbaiting.”
So what is it, can a REAL person actually do it (or is it reserved for fictional characters and strategists), and how do we make sure we don't see a repeat of what happened to Kit Connor?
Remember that fake Eli Lilly tweet about insulin? It may cost Twitter millions
The power of $8 and a sense of humor eh?? Obviously I’m talking about this tweet (which I chronicled on insta AND in the newsy so I’m hoping you didn’t miss it):
So this is a FAKE tweet by a FAKE Eli Lilly account, but naturally it’s not just caused the company’s stock prices to fall, but it’s also fucked with their reputation (and kinda fair enough - make insulin FREE.) It also (naturally) caused panic in the biz:
Inside the real Eli Lilly, the fake sparked a panic, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. Company officials scrambled to contact Twitter representatives and demanded they kill the viral spoof, worried it could undermine their brand’s reputation or push false claims about people’s medicine. Twitter, its staffing cut in half, didn’t react for hours.
And much to Elon’s surprise, his actions (or lack of) do have consequences, as the company have halted their ad campaigns with Twitter:
By Friday morning, Eli Lilly executives had ordered a halt to all Twitter ad campaigns — a potentially serious blow, given that the $330 billion company controls the kind of massive advertising budget that Musk says the company needs to avoid bankruptcy. They also paused their Twitter publishing plan for all corporate accounts around the world.
And they’re not the only company deciding to pause advertising, among others are:
General Motors
Unilever
Pfizer
Mondelez (behind Oreo, Cadbury, Trident)
General Mills
United Airlines
Audi
Carlsberg
I think it’s fair to say that things… aren’t looking good.
The world’s population just hit 8 billion
And I still can’t find someone to date!! I don’t actually have much else to add to this story except for good looooord that’s a lot of people.
Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones dressed up as Fleabag and Hot Priest for Halloween
This was exactly what I needed to see in my post-sedation haze yesterday (honestly, I thought I was imagining it at the start), BUT:
Do Words Mean Anything Anymore?
You all know I’m obsessed with words, and context drift, and how they’re taken from their original definitions and co-opted/ weaponised etc (see our whole pod ep on ‘queerbaiting’ above, and our episode on ‘gaslighting’ here), so imagine my excitement when one of my FAVE writers on here, Charlie, from Evil Female, dropped an essay titled: ‘Do Words Mean Anything Anymore?’
I don’t want to ✨spoil it✨ because I think you should all go and read this whole piece, but Charlie looks into how phrases like ‘the male gaze’, ‘intrusive thoughts’ (this was my fave section), and ‘gatekeeping’ have been taken and given whole new meanings through social media discourse. It’s pointed, thoughtful, and honestly, really fucking truuuuuue - so you should go and read it!
Today’s mundane poll:
Elon's Twitter Takeover, Explained (The Shit Show Podcast)
Queerbaiting: what is it and what ISN’T it? (Culture Vulture Podcast)
Dolly Parton gets $100 million from Jeff Bezos to spend on charity (NPR)
SYSCA playlists (✨Supporters only✨)
Our HUGE SYSCA reading list! (✨Supporters only✨)
Ok - but which crazy people are BITING their popsicle? (In Aus we call it an icey pole too)
I can't get enough of watching Twitter implode right now! It's giving me schadenfreude and I don't want it to stop