Culture Club - August 24, 2020


Censorship and the Cuties Netflix Backlash

The Demise of Girl Boss Culture Fatphobia and Racism in Fashion and a Chat with Model Mahalia Handley

Episode Stats


Length

40 minutes

Words per minute

172.27

Word count

6,907

Sentence count

86

Harmful content

Misogyny

5

sentences flagged

Toxicity

14

sentences flagged

Hate speech

33

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 A new report shows just how far we have to go in media diversity, how the Free the Flour
00:00:17.100 campaign is gaining more traction, and is Netflix promoting pedophilia?
00:00:22.160 Welcome to this week's episode of Culture Club.
00:00:25.460 We're media slashies, Maggie and Jasmine, and here's our weekly chat about pop culture,
00:00:30.340 current affairs, the internet and our lives. 0.59
00:00:33.120 But before we start, we would like to acknowledge that the Wurundjeri, Turrbal and Boon Wurrung
00:00:37.960 people are the traditional custodians of the land upon which we live, create and work.
00:00:44.080 We respect elders past, present and emerging and acknowledge that sovereignty was never
00:00:49.300 ceded.
00:00:49.720 hello Maggie how are you this week yeah pretty good pretty good actually I started a new very
00:01:01.100 very very fun hobby and that is playing Scrabble Go on my phone with strangers on the internet
00:01:07.900 oh my god I can't believe that I'm saying this on the pod is it just like words with friends
00:01:13.380 yeah it is I'm pretty sure it's exactly the same thing the UI is like quite disturbing it's very
00:01:20.060 much like a gambling game I think it's so colorful and there are so many graphics and I'm just like
00:01:24.640 chill out just want to work on my vocab and talk to people and not talk to people so sorry
00:01:30.480 opposite of that every time I get like a message from like a middle-aged white guy
00:01:35.580 when I'm playing Scrabble with him I'm like oh no thank you is it just like one-on-one
00:01:41.880 yeah just one-on-one and I don't know how you can find strangers but they just
00:01:46.320 hit you up on it and you can start a game with them which has been really fun actually I've
00:01:50.960 really enjoyed it how long do the games go for then like a normal scrabble game yeah it's because
00:01:56.840 like you play a tile and you have to wait for the other person so it does take a while I've got 20
00:02:01.600 games on the go at once if I may say so myself hopefully that's not too much of a humble brag
00:02:06.820 but yeah lots of games at once that's so funny and I saw on Instagram that you baked a cake
00:02:12.460 oh my god yes okay so I have baked this one lemon cake three times in the past like a couple weeks
00:02:19.860 but two times in the last week it is so good and I know Bon Appetit have caused a little controversy 1.00
00:02:26.240 recently in recent months and I and rightfully so for not paying workers who are of color properly 1.00
00:02:32.240 etc and unfortunately it is their recipe so it is a great cake but currently not a great 0.98
00:02:39.520 organization so I don't know how much of a recommendation that is but anyway what about
00:02:45.020 you what have you been doing this week I've had kind of a slower week this week I've been
00:02:51.220 taking it easy I have been re-watching Mrs Maisel the best tv show my I'm re-watching it with my mom
00:03:00.400 um she's never seen it before but I'm just out of season three which I actually haven't seen so
00:03:06.120 yeah I'm obsessed I like it so you can binge it so easily and just the costumes are amazing oh
00:03:13.460 I should probably explain what it's about people don't know so it's called The Marvelous Mrs Maisel
00:03:17.780 and it is about a woman in the late 50s who accidentally becomes a stand-up comic
00:03:25.360 and it's her journey through living in New York City
00:03:29.560 and it's her journey through the ups and downs of comedy
00:03:33.320 and also just like carving out a career for herself
00:03:36.480 as a woman in the 50s.
00:03:39.500 So I know I'm already doing my recommendations
00:03:42.560 at the start of the episode, but that's been really good.
00:03:46.280 I'm so glad you brought up Marla's Mrs. Maisel though.
00:03:49.020 I feel like it's so underappreciated
00:03:51.080 and not as popular as it should be.
00:03:53.280 so it's on Amazon Prime and it's made by the creators of Gilmore Girls which is so cool and
00:03:58.520 you can kind of see the quick wit from both tv shows flowing together but it's such a good show
00:04:03.700 I'm so excited for the new season to come out is there a season four oh I don't know I'm just
00:04:08.740 hoping I'm hoping fingers crossed oh no yeah it's one of those shows that actually makes you laugh
00:04:14.760 out loud and yeah it's really really good writing really funny um script and the sets are incredible
00:04:23.660 so for this week jazz and I are switching things up a little bit and we're just going to be
00:04:29.100 chatting about more newsworthy events that happened in the Australian media this week and
00:04:33.380 I guess internationally as well instead of focusing just on one topic and to kick start us
00:04:39.620 off, Jaz, do you want to talk about the new diversity report that was released?
00:04:44.220 Yeah, so we didn't really need a study to find this out but this week a report by the Media
00:04:50.680 Diversity Australia found that presenters, commentators and reporters on Australian TV
00:04:56.500 are overwhelmingly from an Anglo-Celtic background. So almost 76% of those on our screens were of
00:05:04.060 Anglo-Celtic heritage. The other 18% were those with European heritage but not Anglo-Celtic
00:05:10.200 and then only 6% were from Indigenous or non-white backgrounds. So it's something I think that a lot 0.99
00:05:18.360 of people recognise but it's big news that it's finally in concrete stats and has been released
00:05:26.420 this week yeah hearing six percent of people aren't white it's actually horrifying to me
00:05:34.060 like I was actually more optimistic I would have guessed perhaps like 15 percent at least 0.65
00:05:40.120 what about you how did you feel yeah I wasn't surprised at all um and that's across it's not
00:05:47.960 just like the reporters you see on tv it's also about um the people on the boards and the people
00:05:53.840 in the newsroom who are doing the producing who are like telling the stories so yeah I don't think
00:05:59.540 it's that surprising but what was surprising to me was that 100% of news directors across all
00:06:07.560 channels are white Anglo-Celtic men that's I don't I was like okay maybe 98% like maybe there's three
00:06:14.980 women in Sydney somewhere in a boardroom who have some control over the news but no it's 100% white 0.65
00:06:21.000 men running the current affairs and news programs that we watch on television so very concerning
00:06:28.680 the report also found that the ABC and the SBS had cultural diversity measures but commercial
00:06:36.000 stations like channel 10 or channel 9 did not which is also reflective of the tv that you see
00:06:42.120 so hearing that about the males in high upper positions reminds me of the tv show
00:06:49.480 morning wars and the tv and the and the movie sorry bombshell so obviously they're both focused
00:06:56.600 on sexual assault and toxic workplace but they still kind of show the behind the scenes of
00:07:02.040 newsrooms and it's kind of weird to see that that that's reflected in our day-to-day
00:07:08.500 like australian media industry i mean like it's just not surprising that
00:07:13.840 this the stats are reflected this way but it's good that it is now out and open and something
00:07:20.720 that was really interesting was karl stefanovic's response so did you hear what he said no i didn't
00:07:27.160 either tell me so obviously channel 9 was rated one of the worst uh in for diversity and he is
00:07:34.640 on the morning show at channel 9 and his response in a tweet was to say that he has a yugoslavian
00:07:42.340 background and you know his last name is Stefanovic and he was asking isn't that diverse enough
00:07:48.300 and he said I was called a wog in school and it's like okay no one is arguing that you weren't called
00:07:56.240 a wog in school but this you're still a white man like you still are a white Australian man
00:08:00.700 that's not diversity and it's not the diversity that this report is talking about so that was 0.86
00:08:06.580 not again not surprising yeah well I think that's so interesting because especially he's such a big
00:08:12.600 player in the Australian industry it's so disappointing that he would say something like
00:08:16.780 that and I don't know I'm so naive and so optimistic because I was like hey we just had
00:08:21.980 MasterChef there are heaps of you know diverse people on the show or my family watch ABC News
00:08:29.140 most nights and there's at least one like reporter that's not white as well and I'm like surely this
00:08:35.820 is becoming more common actually saying that though when I'm watching the news and a non-white 0.96
00:08:40.680 reporter comes on I'm like oh my god they're not white and it'll be very obvious which it shouldn't 0.88
00:08:46.560 be it should be more normalized I mean but at least I don't know I guess I'm seeing a little 0.97
00:08:52.740 bit of it but reflecting back it's not enough yeah it's a very slow change as well and it's
00:08:58.960 also bad that the commercial stations are so white um imagine if ABC and SBS weren't in this report 0.57
00:09:06.860 it would be like way way worse but I was just I was wondering your perspective as well like
00:09:12.540 growing up wanting to be a journalist or an editor and being of Chinese heritage how did 0.60
00:09:18.120 you ever notice that Australian television and media was so white yes and growing up I didn't 1.00
00:09:24.920 want to become a journalist or anything in the media industry and I genuinely think that's because 0.94
00:09:30.340 I never saw myself reflected there so it was literally never a possibility um weird to consider
00:09:37.000 now this is one of the first times I'm really reflecting on that but I think you're so right
00:09:41.240 yeah that's something for me that I've never that's my white privilege I've never had to
00:09:46.580 think about that I've always been told that I can do anything that I want if I put my mind to it
00:09:51.660 And also I've seen white women in positions of power and especially being on TV, like looking up to Samantha Armitage or Melissa on Channel 7 on Sunrise.
00:10:05.240 I wouldn't say they were my heroes or anything, but they were women in these positions talking about the news and reporting.
00:10:12.940 And so I could see myself reflected.
00:10:14.300 And it's so, that's why diversity is so important is so more people can see themselves in everyday
00:10:22.280 situations or actually being a reporter's point on everyday situation, being on TV, but yeah,
00:10:28.400 being seen.
00:10:29.840 Also, Deborah Williams, who is the CEO of the Creative Diversity Network in the UK, actually
00:10:36.480 told ABC Radio last year that diversity on Australian screens was where the UK was like
00:10:43.260 20 years ago which is oh that's early 2000s so we're just talking about the OC
00:10:49.100 last episode and how backwards you know their values were then and apparently that's how
00:10:57.920 Australian media is I mean obviously it's not the same I don't know why I brought OC into the
00:11:01.880 conversation any chance to but still just thinking back into the early 2000s and how many things have
00:11:09.260 changed since then it's really disappointing that australia is portrayed as something so backwards
00:11:14.180 which i think yeah it's it's rightfully rightfully said by deborah i agree it's pretty embarrassing
00:11:21.660 that we are so far behind and how slow we've been on like the uptake of diversity and how it's like
00:11:28.880 a debate why is this a debate like kyle stefanovic coming back and saying like oh i'm diverse because
00:11:34.340 i have like european heritage like no this isn't the same thing we're talking about you know black
00:11:40.260 people indigenous people people who have lived here for generations second generation immigrants
00:11:46.100 like that is actually what australia is australia markets itself as like a multicultural melting pot
00:11:53.600 of people but then when you look at the media or people of power or influence it's just
00:12:00.520 overwhelmingly white and that's not what society is and that's dangerous because then stories only
00:12:08.840 get told from this one perspective. I 100% agree with you there and I feel like one way that news 1.00
00:12:15.260 organizations and media outlets try to combat this very whitewashed voice of Australian media
00:12:22.980 is inviting panelists and guests on their platform which I do think is really great you know you're
00:12:28.380 platforming otherwise marginalized voices or passing and sharing the mic along with others.
00:12:34.820 I think that's really good, but something that happened in the media this week made me question
00:12:38.900 that. And so we're going to be talking about a musician and his name is Ziggy, but we are not
00:12:45.220 talking about Ziggy Alberts, the anti-vaxxer. We're going to be talking about indigenous musician
00:12:52.240 Ziggy Ramu, and I love his music. I've been listening to his music for a while and he's great
00:12:57.720 and he appeared on ABC's Q&A to talk about, well, not on purpose, but they ended up talking about
00:13:05.340 censorship and performative activism. So Ziggy was invited onto Q&A to talk about diversity,
00:13:13.440 but it ended up becoming this conversation about censorship because he wanted to play a song
00:13:18.420 called April 25th, which is about, obviously that's Anzac Day, and he mentions hating the Anzacs,
00:13:24.540 but it ended up being a really good conversation about our history so we're going to play a little
00:13:31.000 clip here so is it performative because me sitting on this panel ticks off a box for the ABC that is
00:13:38.220 cultural diversity but if I'm not able to express my perspective is it performative or is it actual
00:13:45.600 culture diversity because as Barnaby said it's important that we have freedom of speech and
00:13:50.920 freedom of expression. So if we have seats at the table but then we are not able to express our
00:13:57.220 lived experience, are we actually having cultural diversity or is it performative? So the whole
00:14:01.540 point of a song about April 25th and as soon as I say, after I say I hate the Anzacs, I say how 1.00
00:14:07.980 wrong is that? How wrong is that? We pick and choose our history, we rearrange the facts. We 1.00
00:14:13.140 fought for a country that didn't see us as humans. We weren't seen as humans in our own country. So
00:14:19.520 the reason why I wanted to talk about this and in my art is that I want to celebrate the Anzacs and
00:14:26.960 I do celebrate the Anzacs. I've gone to the other side of the world on Anzac Day to celebrate what
00:14:32.760 our people have laid down for us. So if we've done that, we can't just pick parts of our history that
00:14:40.500 we want to recognise and bury the others. If in World War II we fought against genocide, yet we
00:14:46.640 don't recognise the genocide in our own country. That's a double standard. So the whole reason
00:14:51.800 why the song says, I hate the Anzacs, is to demonstrate that how outrageous is that? 0.99
00:15:00.080 I think Australia definitely is guilty of picking and choosing which parts of history to remember 0.99
00:15:06.320 and commemorate. And I believe that's why we have such an issue with changing the day and why it's
00:15:11.680 taken so many years and it's still going on with like no result of changing the day of Australia
00:15:17.400 day um because in school we're not really taught the significance like the massive impact of the
00:15:24.880 genocide it's not called that it's called like settlement and like when the British came to
00:15:31.060 um Australia but the fact that thousands of languages have been lost and cultures lost
00:15:37.520 families taken away etc and then and then we don't really have a day that respects it the
00:15:45.560 same way that we do Anzac Day or Remembrance Day exactly and I feel like there's something to be
00:15:51.400 said about the tokenistic tick box approach that lots of people go through right and I think
00:15:56.820 especially with Ziggy he's very palatable slash you know lots of comments were like wow he's so 0.54
00:16:02.780 eloquent and you know he's very well spoken and I remember when at the height of Black Lives Matter
00:16:08.860 I was following I am following this Indigenous artist her name is Rachel Sarah or Sarah
00:16:16.140 on Instagram and she's very outspoken about social issues but she also has really beautiful like
00:16:22.660 quite contemporary artworks that she posts online it's really gorgeous her feet is like very pink
00:16:28.060 etc and one thing she did mention is that during this time you know a lot of focus is on her and
00:16:33.520 other Indigenous advocates or activists online that are quite palatable or easy to connect with
00:16:42.040 for a white or non-Indigenous audience and I feel like that's interesting too I don't know if that
00:16:47.860 connects too much but that's what I was thinking. No it does I think Ziggy brought that up as well
00:16:52.700 like good on him for being invited onto this panel and having this platform and then calling that
00:16:58.060 panel out and like specifically that it's ABC as well I think that's really significant if it was
00:17:03.700 like on channel nine or something on channel seven I don't even know if he'd be invited on anyway
00:17:08.520 but um the fact that it was on the national broadcaster and he was being like is this
00:17:14.700 performative or is this genuine cultural diversity that we're talking about here
00:17:19.160 so yeah it was very interesting to watch it reminds me of the quote um diversity is being
00:17:25.920 invited to the party inclusion is being asked to dance and I think that's quite impactful I know a
00:17:32.540 few people have a few disagreements with it but I think overall as just like a broad statement I
00:17:39.280 think it's pretty accurate I think you know it's very easy to let's say invite someone to a party
00:17:44.300 or send out an invite but to make someone feel really included and make them feel welcome I think
00:17:49.680 that's a whole other step and I think I'm so happy that he touched on it
00:17:53.800 when we first started coach club i never thought that sport or afl would be a topic that we chat
00:18:07.500 about um but there has been some really interesting and important news this week in the afl and that
00:18:14.060 is the support of the free the flag movement in case you didn't know the aboriginal flag is the
00:18:21.520 only national flag that is privately owned, copyrighted, and licensed. It is owned by a
00:18:27.420 company called Wham Clothing, and the license was given to them by Indigenous artist Harold Thomas.
00:18:34.600 So Wham Clothing has sent multiple companies cease and desist notices for using the Aboriginal flag
00:18:41.660 on clothing, pins, whatever, and a campaign by fashion label Clothing the Gap, which started
00:18:50.740 about a year ago but it's really picked up movement this week with 16 out of 18 footy clubs
00:18:56.220 joining the free the flag campaign this week. The flag has only been recognized as the flag of
00:19:02.160 national significance by the Australian government since 1995. Were you aware of that? No not at all
00:19:09.300 it's ridiculously recent. And it's crazy that it's actually copyrighted like if the Australian
00:19:16.800 government wanted to buy it back, then it would cost approximately $25 million to this clothing
00:19:22.640 company, which is just so wrong. Back in June, I actually got to interview two of the women behind 0.84
00:19:27.340 the Free the Flag movement, Sienna Katsolo and Laura Thompson. They work at the non-profit fashion
00:19:33.060 line Clothing the Gap. And Clothing the Gap is a social enterprise and they have put 100% of their
00:19:40.300 profits towards Aboriginal health promotion and education in Victoria. What was really interesting
00:19:45.300 when i was speaking to sienna for an article a fashion journal article titled how fashion can
00:19:50.000 be a tool for indigenous activism and sienna actually described it as a contemporary form
00:19:54.700 of colonialism which makes sense because this is indigenous culture in this flag was part of it
00:20:01.560 and you know it's owned by a non-indigenous company they're making money and every time 0.59
00:20:06.560 that clothing the gap wants to use the aboriginal flag on their shirts or their beanies they get
00:20:11.700 and a cease and desist letter so it's a really important movement and it's really great that the
00:20:17.820 AFL is kind of bringing it more into the mainstream as well and like it's right there on your tv if
00:20:23.780 you watch the footy and you know so many of those guys are really high profile so it's really
00:20:27.720 important. Yeah it was I mean for someone who's not really interested in footy I still understand
00:20:34.200 that footy is such a big part of Australian culture and you're right these footy players
00:20:39.960 are role models to so many around Australia and perhaps, you know, we're in quite progressive
00:20:44.580 circles. So, you know, we see things about, I guess, like Indigenous rights, but those who aren't
00:20:50.420 in the same like left-wing bubbles that we are might not. So I think this is a great way to push
00:20:55.000 this message into the mainstream media. It kind of piques people's interest, right? Lots of
00:21:01.440 the footy players were wearing the t-shirts that just say, free the flag. And, you know, that's
00:21:05.780 quite intriguing in itself so it was a really cool movement to see so another thing was it was
00:21:13.080 the was it the Sir Douglas round of footy a couple days ago is that what it's called I don't know
00:21:18.840 I know right why are we talking about footy so we're recording on Sunday and yesterday was the
00:21:27.500 Sir Doug Nicholas annual AFL round which seeks to recognize and celebrate indigenous players and
00:21:34.300 culture so usually the AFL does buy rights to use the flag but this year they decided not to
00:21:42.540 and what was interesting is that most of the media and people in the AFL actually encourage
00:21:49.300 AFL goers or people you know the audience I really don't know the words for AFL 0.82
00:21:54.820 the audience members to like don the Aboriginal flag because you know they can't not everyone can
00:22:01.920 be fine i think that's also showing how fashion can be used as a protest as well yes that is
00:22:08.820 i'm like yes let's talk about fashion not afl um that's so true it's so true fashion has so
00:22:17.080 much meaning behind it and i think it can definitely use for be used for collective
00:22:21.200 resistance or collective activism i guess and clothing the gap also has a really great blog
00:22:26.540 post on their website um where they talk about if it's appropriate or not for non-indigenous
00:22:30.860 people to wear Indigenous designs and I think it's up to the individual but obviously the
00:22:38.160 Indigenous population only makes up a certain percentage of our Australian population so they
00:22:44.240 said to me from a business perspective it doesn't make sense to only have Indigenous people wearing
00:22:48.960 Indigenous designs but it was it's also a form of allyship especially this free the flag movement to
00:22:55.720 wear their jumpers or t-shirts because you're also signaling to other people that this is an
00:23:01.440 important issue that needs to be spoken about and it needs to be resolved yeah I feel like the
00:23:06.280 government shouldn't even need to buy it back because the like the idea of that company receiving
00:23:11.920 25 million dollars for doing this is ridiculous I think there was a quote I'm not going to get it
00:23:16.860 but someone was like they're just lacking common sense or common decency right I just don't 0.81
00:23:22.840 understand why this is a thing I mean this is so again optimistic and I guess idealistic of me
00:23:28.580 but I'm just like can't I just give it back to the rightful owners it's ridiculous imagine if
00:23:32.820 this was happening with the Australian flag it just doesn't make sense exactly and I think in
00:23:37.880 my opinion I think if it was the Australian flag it wouldn't even be up for debate it would just
00:23:42.060 be like yeah let's just like chuck the money at it and like get it back but like imagine what
00:23:46.680 instead of the government paying that 25 million towards this one clothing company imagine what
00:23:51.060 they did if they invested that 25 million dollars into Indigenous health or programs or education
00:23:56.760 anything 25 million is so much money that could be used for so many better things rather than just
00:24:02.600 getting the rights back for a flag that the Indigenous people should have free rights over
00:24:07.820 anyway. I'm hoping that this publicity definitely amplifies the movement and hopefully applies
00:24:13.560 public pressure onto WAM to do the right thing.
00:24:21.060 in other news did you hear about that movie that's about to be released on netflix which
00:24:28.220 is causing a lot of controversy um it's called cuties i only heard about it yesterday i think
00:24:35.000 and i kind of had a quick google of what's going on it's pretty crazy
00:24:38.340 so for those who hadn't heard about it there's been global outrage about this film that
00:24:44.920 supposedly sexualizes 11 year old girls and encourages pedophilia due to its Netflix poster
00:24:52.020 which let's be honest is quite inappropriate the poster itself so you know it's very like highly
00:24:58.360 produced like very photoshopped you see the girls in crop tops and sexualized poses and there's been
00:25:04.620 a change.org petition with over half a million signatures already and it's calling for Netflix
00:25:11.100 not to release a movie because it supposedly promotes child pornography the poster is it just
00:25:17.640 seems very American and it's a French film so when you compare the two posters they're so different
00:25:24.200 like the American Netflix one reminds me of cheer the cheerleading movie yeah sorry it's cheerleading
00:25:30.120 series or something or like some beauty pageant show like they look really dolled up and it is 0.94
00:25:35.700 very confronting but when you see the original they just seem like young girls like they're 0.63
00:25:43.000 walking up the street with shopping bags and like a bra over their top like laughing and stuff
00:25:48.540 um and they just look a lot more age appropriate and like they're girls who are moving into
00:25:53.960 womanhood and it's more a film about like discovering your femininity um but then I can
00:26:00.940 see how people would think it promotes that from that poster but the thing is it doesn't or it
00:26:07.500 actually it discusses that culture right yeah and what's really interesting is that there is so much
00:26:14.140 public outrage over a movie that most people haven't even seen yet and looking at the trailer
00:26:20.380 for it on youtube going through the comments was just horrible because people think they're in the
00:26:24.620 right they're doing the right thing by condemning this movie being like oh it's so bad let's get it
00:26:29.480 to blah blah many dislikes without I think critically thinking about what it's about and
00:26:35.400 what their hatred is actually doing it's directed by Maimona Decorde a black French woman and this
00:26:43.720 is her debut film sorry I say film really weirdly like a film film like it's a car
00:26:51.400 and the screenplay actually won the Sundance Global Filmmaking Award back in 2017 which
00:26:57.600 got her the recognition and I think maybe money to create this film and the synopsis just by the
00:27:03.880 way for people who don't actually know is it's a female coming of age comedy about an 11 year old
00:27:09.600 Senegalese Muslim Amy who is torn between the traditional values of her background and a group
00:27:15.200 of rebellious young girls in a dance group touches on becoming aware of female sexuality and
00:27:20.900 femininity which is quite accurate because Maimorna got the idea for the film when she was
00:27:27.320 at a neighborhood party and saw girls around 11 wearing revealing clothes and dancing in a central
00:27:32.260 way so I think it's wrong of people to cancel a whole film just based on the poster and the
00:27:39.480 trailer because most of the time when films are that controversial it's because they're actually
00:27:45.460 analyzing the culture and saying I obviously we haven't seen it's not out yet but um it's looking
00:27:53.100 out okay why are these girls this way and like looking at values and like different cultures
00:27:58.920 and religions and things like that and it's having that conversation. When I watched the trailer I was 1.00
00:28:04.860 almost underwhelmed like I was like oh is this all the controversy is about because I think it
00:28:11.000 is quite an accurate portrayal of young femalehood and growing up and kind of you know being between
00:28:18.900 a young girl and being a woman and seeing how you fit in society and I think especially I don't want 0.98
00:28:24.000 to be one of those old people that's like and because of social media and everything like kids
00:28:29.060 are growing up faster and I think people are kind of stuck between two places like growing up you
00:28:33.600 just don't know who you are and you're trying to figure out your identity and I think these
00:28:36.780 are conversations that need to be had and people kind of trying to silence these conversations
00:28:43.180 about female sexuality just does more harm than good because if we're not talking about it well
00:28:48.340 it's all happening 100% agree with you like and also it's probably an adult film like it's probably 0.72
00:28:54.780 rated for adults so you're not gonna like let your 11 year old daughter watch it it's for adults to
00:29:01.180 look at something and critically analyze or like go through that experience with them but I think
00:29:08.160 the poster should be changed 100% don't agree I think it's just Americanized and it is very
00:29:13.020 confronting but yeah the original is it just seems like a lot of cancel culture to me
00:29:19.360 and speaking about the poster this writer called Kaz Armstrong wrote a great article for a league
00:29:26.920 of their own and I'm just going to quote it a bit when Netflix's marketing put out a sexually
00:29:32.320 provocative poster they are deliberately leveraging the most controversial aspect of
00:29:37.080 the film in an inappropriate way they're doing exactly what the film itself puts under the
00:29:42.540 microscope sexually exploiting girls without the mature discussion required it's clickbait
00:29:47.780 well we're talking about it on this podcast so it is getting attention um it's made me aware of it
00:29:56.440 and it's actually made me want to watch it more however it could be damaging in other way in that
00:30:02.580 it is clickbait and it's made people talk about it in a negative way and be like oh have you heard
00:30:06.920 this like and switch off and also drag this new director's name through the mud as well.
00:30:14.300 Casper Salmon for The Guardian summed up really well with this quote saying,
00:30:18.360 cuties will be released with new artwork, perhaps even with something of a publicity boost.
00:30:23.320 Either way, this episode shows the damaging impact that the manipulation of words and imagery can
00:30:28.280 have on the internet. As culture makes the journey online, it stands to suffer just as much as
00:30:33.960 politics if people are not able to read pictures seek information and recognize disingenuous
00:30:39.820 arguments I think that's the whole issue with our culture and the internet in general at the moment
00:30:44.780 anyway is you're so quick everyone is so quick to judge something to form an opinion based off
00:30:51.920 having one percent of the information you know and that's what was dangerous about it yeah I think we
00:30:57.940 need to be less gleeful about I guess horrible things that might be going on in the internet
00:31:02.980 or just take a step back and evaluate what we think I think it's we need to normalize being
00:31:09.600 like oh I actually don't know much about this topic so I'm just gonna shut up and I think I'm
00:31:15.260 definitely learning that too and I think it's so fine we're not supposed to be experts on everything
00:31:19.700 so that's what other people are so why don't we do more listening
00:31:24.220 so max our recommendations for this week we both have podcast episodes what a surprise but what is
00:31:35.400 yours i know shaka right um but this one is different i was actually going to recommend
00:31:42.400 another like survival story podcast but i was like let's give the people a break
00:31:46.820 so I'm recommending the very much hyped call her daddy podcast episode with Miley Cyrus
00:31:54.920 so call her daddy is such a massive podcast like franchise and earlier this year they were in the
00:32:01.080 new cycle because the two co-hosts had a massive falling out all that jazz and before that I'd
00:32:07.600 only listened to one or two episodes and I wasn't the biggest fan but I think you know I might be
00:32:13.200 able to get into them if I listen more but it just I don't know I didn't really gel well with it but
00:32:18.720 anyway this episode I watched their YouTube recording of it which was good because you get
00:32:24.740 to see Miley Cyrus in her home which is kind of cool and this is the description or a bit of the
00:32:30.320 description that they said about it heartbreak trauma therapy guilt girl on girl being put on
00:32:37.600 the no-fly list for smuggling drugs her relationship with Hannah Montana the first person she lost her
00:32:43.020 male virginity to her love languages what she is looking for in a relationship her personal sex
00:32:48.800 advice and more so as you can tell it's a very long and juicy I guess episode it's almost an
00:32:55.680 hour long and I found it really entertaining to listen to but also a little bit cringy
00:33:01.640 should I like include you in the conversation did you listen to it or like hear about it
00:33:06.240 um I have not heard it I've heard I remember the controversy around call her daddy but I
00:33:12.680 didn't um listen to this but I would like to because I was a huge Hannah Montana fan and I
00:33:18.540 just love Miley in general so oh awesome I'm not the biggest Miley fan it's not that I dislike her
00:33:24.720 it's just like she's neutral to me like I just she's never been on my radar that much so I think
00:33:29.260 this was really interesting just from like I guess a neutral person's perspective but I did find it
00:33:34.740 a little bit cringy like I mentioned before but a comment on YouTube kind of summed it up well
00:33:39.140 uh the host of call her daddy name is alex um the comment read it was like alex was ready to
00:33:45.520 interview 2013 foam finger twerking miley but she got 2020 grown queen miley it just felt like
00:33:52.840 even though the ages are very similar i think it's two years difference miley's only 27
00:33:57.600 which is so wild to me um there was a real big gap in maturity and i understand call her daddy is
00:34:05.660 quite like a sex driven podcast and i love listening to things like that i'm very much
00:34:09.780 open to that it just felt a little bit forced at times um let's listen to an excerpt from it
00:34:16.580 even being on your show like i'm not someone that'll sit here and be like i just sit around
00:34:20.960 like watching porn and i'm so sexual and i'm like i'm like i know what i'm talking to i know what
00:34:24.440 the show is but that's not me like yeah it my art and like me taking care of my dogs and me taking 0.98
00:34:29.580 care of my business like that's my fucking priority and like i'm not gonna act like i'm 0.83
00:34:33.360 something that i'm not or i'm more sexual than i am because that's always just like that's like 0.97
00:34:37.440 for your entertainment and not for me and for me like i'm much more into building my business right
00:34:43.920 now that's so empowering just also like be considered a boss yeah for putting their 0.97
00:34:48.320 business first and then like it's so fucked up yeah that's really interesting that the difference 0.94
00:34:54.960 in maturity levels and what they wanted to chat to her about versus what she was wanting to chat 0.96
00:35:01.480 about um but I think she gives a lot of herself to the media in general and like social media so
00:35:07.480 yeah I think good for her exactly though it was quite interesting so in the podcast you know 0.68
00:35:14.580 um Alex is really growing her being like oh like how how often do you masturbate like kind of
00:35:19.820 things like that and Miley's just like I'm too busy she's like I'm thinking about busy 0.99
00:35:24.160 business deals I don't I don't have time to like lick my clit she's literally like that 0.98
00:35:29.200 So she doesn't really play into that over-sexualized stereotype or, you know, entertainment as she calls it herself, which I just think that's great. 0.99
00:35:37.960 I love that she acknowledged that.
00:35:39.580 And she is, you know, obviously like everyone else, a three-dimensional person.
00:35:43.320 She's not just like, you know, one-dimensional, I guess.
00:35:46.740 But I found it really interesting.
00:35:48.140 And also, I also want to say Miley's new song, Midnight Sky is Out.
00:35:53.500 And I love the music video.
00:35:55.340 It's very 80s inspired, very glittery.
00:35:57.980 It's super fun to watch.
00:35:59.200 There's also five stellar outfits,
00:36:01.820 except one of them is kind of culturally appropriated.
00:36:04.720 But like, do we look past that?
00:36:06.940 What are they culturally appropriating? 0.53
00:36:08.980 Chinese culture. 0.97
00:36:09.820 So it looks like the Chongsan. 0.67
00:36:12.200 So it's got kind of like the similar neckline and stuff.
00:36:15.540 And earlier in the video,
00:36:16.880 there's like neon signs with like Chinese characters.
00:36:19.660 I don't know.
00:36:20.020 It was still a cool music video. 1.00
00:36:22.080 She had very nice purple eyeshadow on.
00:36:26.000 No, I love her.
00:36:26.940 like anytime she does anything new or like makes a statement or makes a stand I'm like yes you go
00:36:33.680 girl I feel like I grew up with her what from watching Hannah Montana and like seeing all her
00:36:37.960 changes over the years so I'd be very keen to listen to that it sounds cool how about you what
00:36:42.720 did you listen to so this week I listened to The Cut's latest episode Optimism so The Cut if you're
00:36:50.760 not aware is originally a New York magazine, online magazine about culture, style, sex and
00:36:57.880 politics. And obviously the podcast is just the podcast version. So in this episode, the first
00:37:04.100 one after a hiatus, new host Avery Truffleman explores what optimism means in 2020. So like
00:37:12.480 so many people around the world, 2020 has honestly been my worst year on record. As a naturally
00:37:18.300 positive and optimistic person I've really struggled with staying optimistic this year
00:37:24.680 and it's made me question a lot of things so this podcast kind of analyzes that analyzes our culture
00:37:31.660 the culture around optimism and positivity definitely made me feel less alone in questioning
00:37:36.700 why bad things are happening and that I'm not the only one finding it hard to be optimistic when our
00:37:41.900 future is so uncertain it's really interesting she interviews a couple of different people
00:37:45.580 and the episode is only half an hour so really quick and easy to listen to but she also chats
00:37:51.040 to LaDarius Marshall who is one of the stars of the Netflix cheerleading show cheer did you watch
00:37:56.360 cheer when it came out yes loved it so good so he's obviously gone through a lot in his life
00:38:01.780 and he talks about how he stays optimistic even when the world seems like such a bad place and
00:38:07.600 people like Breonna Taylor's killers can walk free yeah so at the end LaDarius also he has this
00:38:14.600 really passionate speech which is really amazing but he also gives you a little bit of a pep talk
00:38:19.140 which was really inspiring so I just want to read a bit out when asked about optimism he said
00:38:23.660 I feel like you can learn how to do that when you take it for what it is you look at the issue for
00:38:28.760 just that an issue an inconvenience because the world is just going to be the world baby do what
00:38:34.520 makes you happy even if people don't understand if your job ain't making you happy quit your man
00:38:39.900 ain't making you happy leave if your woman ain't making you happy leave everyone is worth more than
00:38:45.580 that he seems like such a nice guy and the episode in general was a really nice look at trying to
00:38:54.020 stay optimistic when we're in the midst of 2020 so i would recommend that for sure and i'm keen to
00:39:01.580 see what else they do with um the cuts new podcast for sure i feel like that should be required
00:39:07.060 listening in 2020 and I'm glad they don't approach it in a very like toxic positivity
00:39:13.080 way where they're like oh everything's good everything's bad but actually acknowledging
00:39:17.500 like you know the state of the world as it is I think it's really important to you know validate
00:39:22.720 everyone's emotions as well yeah it was nice to hear other people and their feelings not just 0.93
00:39:29.280 being like we'll get through it like go team they were like this is shit how can we deal with this
00:39:36.120 so that's all we've got time for this week we've probably gone over actually but thank you again 0.89
00:39:42.200 for tuning in to this week's episode of culture club we'll be in your ears next tuesday thank you
00:39:49.360 everyone as always for your support and for 1,000 instagram followers and 1,500 downloads on our
00:39:55.060 episodes we're super excited that you guys are joining us yes we're virtually popping the champagne
00:40:00.600 and we'll talk to you next week bye