Keep scrolling for nothing about Heidi Klum’s worm costume.
Selena Gomez says Taylor Swift is her only industry friend
Selena Gomez opened up to Rolling Stone this week ahead of the release of her documentary, Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me, in one of the most in-depth interviews she’s given in years.
Selena revealed she suffered from an episode of psychosis in 2018, which led to hospitalisation and a subsequent bipolar disorder diagnosis.
“I remind myself that I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the psychotic break, if it wasn’t for my lupus, if it wasn’t for my diagnosis. I think I would just probably be another annoying entity that just wants to wear nice clothes all the time. I’m depressed thinking about who I would be.”
The two drugs she takes to manage her bipolar disorder mean she likely will not be able to carry her own children.
Despite being entrenched in young Hollywood since she was a child, Selena claimed her “only friend in the industry is Taylor [Swift]”.
“I never fit in with a cool group of girls that were celebrities. My only friend in the industry really is Taylor [Swift], so I remember feeling like I didn’t belong. I felt the presence of everyone around me living full lives. I had this position, and I was really happy, but … was I? Do these materialistic things make me happy?”
Read the full interview via Rolling Stone.
Shane Dawson and Jeffree Star return with series mocking “cancellation”
After two and a half years of being mostly offline, Shane Dawson has returned to his documentary-style content on YouTube with the release of the first installment of his new series, ‘The Cancelled World Of Jeffree Star and Shane Dawson’.
This episode focuses on ‘The Mind of Shane Dawson’ before moving to his relationship and experience working with Jeffree.
The two first worked together in 2018 when Shane produced a five-part docuseries about Jeffree’s Myspace fame and cosmetics company for his YouTube channel. The series garnered millions of views, reinvigorated his YouTube channel, and further solidified his online presence.
In 2019, Shane debuted a sequel series called 'The Beautiful World of Jeffree Star’, which documented the creation of their makeup collaboration, The Conspiracy Collection. Over one million Conspiracy eyeshadow palettes sold out within 30 minutes, and the series has amassed over 140 million views to date.
In early 2020, multiple resurfaced videos and photos began circulating of Shane engaging in racist jokes, blackface, sexualising animals and minors, and saying the n-word. He was criticised for his close relationship with Jeffree, who had made numerous racist comments in previous years, and both were exposed as key players in the attempt to ruin James Charles’ career during the BYE SISTER saga.
In the new series, Shane shared that he and his partner, Ryland Adams, are expecting a baby and are currently going through the surrogacy process.
Shane addressed criticism that he only collaborated on the Conspiracy Collection for money.
“If I wanted to do a money-grab…[there were] so many easier ways. I wouldn’t have done a year-long documentary about it. I wouldn’t have spent my whole life editing it. I wouldn’t have almost lost my relationship over it… my passion was that series […] I did not make anywhere near what people think I made … people thought I made 10, 20 million dollars on it, I did not.”
Shane revealed that he and Jeffree had another makeup collaboration in the works, deciding not to release it after their 2020 cancellation.
“Me and Jeffree were going to do another palette, and we literally made it… We don’t have the finished packaging, but we have the actual palette, and that was back in, like, February 2020 […] Then, obviously, everything happened and then on top of that COVID and just so many other things, so I ended up saying let’s not do this.”
The episode concludes with Shane, Ryland, and their team deciding to visit Jeffree on his Wyoming ranch. (Because if you didn’t know, Jeffree is a yak farmer now.)
Read the full recap via Centennial Beauty.
Fluently Forward explores why Gen Z is obsessed with micro-labels
In a TikTok posted today, creator and podcaster Shannon McNamara of Fluently Forward explains the platform’s obsession with micro-labels for (what seems like) every human action.
She notes that Gen Z seems to be “repackaging” normal, everyday concepts and giving them labels that hold more value.
“Phoning it in at your job becomes ‘quiet quitting’. Texting someone once a week becomes ‘breadcrumbing’. Or even just how we’ve labeled things so much that like, a guy can’t do something right or wrong anymore— he only does things that are like a ‘green flag’ or a ‘red flag’.”
This is in line with Gen Z’s tendency to apply clinical terms to their own actions and the actions of others in ways that aren’t necessarily appropriate or accurate.
Shannon makes the point that these labels can lead to misinformation “because they’re treated like fast fashion”.
Watch Shannon’s full take on TikTok.
Tumblr is bringing back nudity
Tumblr announced updates to its community guidelines on Tuesday. The platform will now allow nudity in the name of ~expression, creativity, and art~ to grace its pages once again.
In 2018, Tumblr banned adult content, losing over 30% of its monthly page views in just three months.
While the site suffered in the following years, Tumblr was recently brought back into the cultural zeitgeist as part of Gen Z’s romanticisation of early social media and the Y2K era.
In a statement, the company clarified that creations that contain “nudity, mature subject matter, or sexual themes” can now be shared on Tumblr using the appropriate Community Label, however, this does not include pornographic or sexually explicit content.
“Historically significant art that you may find in a mainstream museum and which depicts sex acts—such as from India’s Śuṅga Empire—are now allowed on Tumblr with proper labeling. Nudity and other kinds of adult material are generally welcome. We’re not here to judge your art, we just ask that you add a Community Label to your mature content so that people can choose to filter it out of their Dashboard if they prefer.”
Read the full article via Vice.
TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney responds to Caitlyn Jenner misgendering her
TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney, who has amassed over 8 million followers for her ‘Days of Girlhood’ series, has faced intense anti-trans vitriol this week.
Dylan sat down for an interview earlier this week with President Joe Biden to discuss trans-related healthcare in America, leading to harassment on social media from various members of the U.S. Republican party.
Among those was fellow trans woman Caitlyn Jenner, who criticised Dylan for dressing in tight shorts in public and misgendered her.
“There is a difference between acceptance and tolerance, and normalizing exposing your genitals in a public way and a public place. I do not support that at all, in the slightest. Dylan… congrats [you’re] trans with a penis.”
Dylan responded via TikTok, asking Caitlyn why she was so willing to be hurtful toward another member of her community to win the praise of Republicans.
“You’ve been accepted by a group of people that very clearly does not accept me, and nearly every day this week, I have been called a freak, a child predator, an absurdity,” Dylan said. “I am none of those things that your cohorts are painting me to be, and my question for you is: don’t you feel a little lonely over there?”
Caitlyn apologised via a statement to Rolling Stone for misgendering Dylan.
See Dylan’s full response via TikTok.
Why is everyone so angry? The demise of chronically online communication
Centennial Beauty’s podcast, Renegade w/ Lauren & Jordyn, explores how and why communication on social media platforms has descended into a negative cesspool of hatred that never gives anyone the benefit of the doubt.
The discussion was inspired by a tweet that went viral last week by a user named Daisey.
Her tweet caused one of the most intense and collectively unhinged reactions we’ve possibly ever seen online.
The post quickly went viral, racking up thousands of replies and quote tweets tearing Daisey apart for various aspects of her tweet that could be considered “privileged”.
Many took issue with the couple’s flexible morning schedule — Daisey is a regenerative gardener and her husband is a yoga instructor and professional skateboarder— saying she should have prefaced their privileged work situations in the tweet as not everyone has ample time in the morning to enjoy coffee with their spouse.
Others criticised Daisey for “humble bragging” about being rich enough to have a garden and lucky enough to have a husband that is home with her, while several people shared their own morning schedules dealing with children, chronic pain, or early morning shifts. People told Daisey it sounds like marriage won’t last and one user even went as far as to say that “a lot of people didn’t wake up this morning at all”, so she should be more mindful of what she posts.
This controversy is indicative of a larger shift in online communication, where users are expected to pre-emptively defend every statement they post so those on the receiving end know they bare no malice.
If someone fails to abide by this etiquette, it gives users free rein to impose their own (usually negative) assumptions about the person, which can lead to outrageous whataboutisms and trauma dumping in their comment section— all of which we saw in the case of Daisey’s tweet.
Listen to the full episode of Renegade w/ Lauren & Jordyn on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.