Culture Club - Gender Reveals Are Literally Setting the World on Fire

00:00:00.000 Harry Styles stars alongside an outrageously good cast. The Oscars are implementing new

00:00:16.080 diversity measures and the gender reveal party that triggered an out of control fire. Welcome 1.00

00:00:22.360 to Culture Club. We're media slashies Maggie and Jasmine and here's our weekly chat about

00:00:27.720 pop culture, current affairs, the internet and our lives. We would like to acknowledge that the

00:00:33.300 Wurundjeri, Turrbal and Boon Wurrung people are the traditional custodians of the land upon which

00:00:39.000 we live, work and record this podcast. We respect elders past, present and emerging and acknowledge

00:00:45.580 that sovereignty was never ceded. Maggie, I am so excited. The news yesterday, I think it saved my

00:00:56.080 2020 slash 2021 it actually like made my week this news oh my god yes i received an all caps

00:01:04.080 message from you like hey styles and florence purr wait still cut pew how do you say her last

00:01:10.040 name it's not a real last cue it is cue okay yeah florence purr so if you haven't heard you probably

00:01:19.780 haven't been on the internet for the last 36 hours but it's been revealed that Harry Styles

00:01:26.080 is joining Florence Pugh, Dakota Johnson and Chris Pine in a movie directed by Olivia Wilde 1.00

00:01:33.500 who did Booksmart and the internet has gone crazy the bisexuals have gone crazy everyone is ready 0.74

00:01:39.660 for the most beautiful cast full-time and yeah I'm so excited. The movie is called Don't Worry

00:01:46.900 darling and we really don't know much about it at all yet except that Florence and Harry are

00:01:52.500 playing husband and wife. It's a psychological thriller and it's set in an isolated utopian

00:01:58.540 community in the 1950s California desert. Olivia Wilde herself will be like having a mini role

00:02:05.500 in the movie as well. She is super busy so she directed Booksmart, was it, how many years ago

00:02:11.880 was that now? That was only what came out last year. Oh my god it's felt like five years since

00:02:18.340 2019 and then she's also set to direct a Marvel movie soon. Not much has been released about that

00:02:26.320 but she is one busy woman. Did you actually watch Dunkirk with Harry Styles? No I meant to and then

00:02:34.260 I never got around to it. Yeah neither and so the only acting credentials I've seen Harry Styles in

00:02:41.620 is iCarly so i'm just wondering how this will you know measure up yeah so this tiktok last night

00:02:48.800 that was like harry's um acting credentials it was like iCarly this is us the second one direction

00:02:55.720 concert movie whatever it was called um sesame street dunkirk and then this incredible movie

00:03:02.400 with like chris pine and dakota johnson yeah maybe a while was like you're hired but i think

00:03:08.760 it'll be interesting to see how he does and especially being a main character that's like

00:03:13.140 quite big I can't actually picture it to be honest I think it's just because it's going to be so

00:03:17.300 beautiful um but Harry replaced Shia LaBeouf who had to leave due to a scheduling conflict

00:03:23.640 I would have seen it either way like Shia or Harry so yeah true I'm still not over

00:03:30.020 holes the movie did you ever study in high school I never studied it but we watched it um like I 0.99

00:03:37.460 watched it when I was a kid no one ever studied it and we're both like Harry stands like we love him

00:03:43.340 like make no doubt about that but I'm always curious like obviously he got this because he

00:03:49.060 is so famous and I don't know about his acting that's why I'm putting that up in the air I mean

00:03:53.020 the iCarly tv show wasn't wasn't the best I'm sure he's improved but you know I would wonder

00:03:59.260 how I'd feel like if I was a aspiring actor um you know it's obviously a tough gig especially

00:04:05.980 now in COVID and then just seeing, you know, people like celebrities. And of course, he's a

00:04:11.080 singer first and foremost getting roles like this. Do you have any thoughts? I've been too excited

00:04:17.280 to actually analyze it too much. But yeah, no, that's a good point. That's kind of how the

00:04:22.940 industry works as well. Like Dakota Johnson is the daughter of two famous actors. Who? Wait,

00:04:30.120 Dakota Johnson oh my god I've been thinking Dakota Fanning oh my god I love Dakota Johnson so much

00:04:39.000 did you watch her Architectural Digest video yes I watched it last weekend I just want to be her

00:04:45.120 when I grow up I know you got the hair yeah now I've got the fringe to match but Florence if you

00:04:50.340 saw my Instagram Florence Dakota and Harry are like honestly three of my style icons of all time

00:04:55.440 and now they're all going to be on screen together set in the 1950s where things weren't great

00:05:01.240 socially but the clothing it's going to be great and just picture it against the backdrop of the

00:05:09.280 like californian desert you know look think about all this the behind the scenes like film photos

00:05:15.340 i'll take and whatnot i'm very excited to see that so getting back to dakota her parents are

00:05:21.020 Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson so they were like big in the 80s um so I'm also going to talk about

00:05:27.320 my recommendations nepotism is everywhere it's like a lot more prevalent than you think so

00:05:32.560 obviously Harry did work his way up in the industry like in the music industry he doesn't

00:05:37.140 have any well now he does but you know he didn't have any connections to start with so I think good

00:05:41.580 for him the only thing I was a bit confused about I guess like I text you and I think I want to know

00:05:47.300 more about the plot, but the cast is all white so far. Yeah. I feel like the internet, when I saw

00:05:53.000 this news breakout, there was two big things. Half the internet was super duper excited and

00:06:00.000 the other half were right to point out that, yeah, it was completely all white. And especially after 0.94

00:06:05.760 this year of Black Lives Matter, it just feels really kind of bad timing. Yeah. It feels a bit 0.92

00:06:12.900 weird to have announced an all white like completely white cast but there are that's

00:06:18.660 only the four main characters but if it's set in a desert will there be many more characters

00:06:24.120 and i was interested by the word utopian community is that utopian by today's standards utopian by

00:06:31.340 what you know the white picket fence american dream quote unquote utopia that the 1950s is

00:06:37.680 known for you know full of racism and classism and stuff so I think we don't know enough to

00:06:44.100 analyze it that deeply but I personally am incredibly excited and can't wait for more

00:06:51.260 like behind the scenes shots and for it to come out I think obviously it'll be 2021 but catch me

00:06:57.580 in the front row did you see how the Oscars have implemented these new like diversity criterias for

00:07:05.160 award nominations? Yeah I read one article it's really great because they have been known you

00:07:11.960 know hashtag Oscars so what so many years so that's nice that something in the movie industry

00:07:16.560 is finally changing. Yeah I think this really surprised me hearing this news I'll be honest

00:07:22.640 I'm not one for Oscars and Academy Awards so I really don't know how it really works behind the

00:07:28.160 scenes but I'll give a rundown for the new things that they have implemented so this will take into

00:07:33.800 effect in 2024 and what films need it's a little bit complicated okay so I'm just going to try my

00:07:41.120 best to break it down but basically there's a few different categories that movies need to fulfill

00:07:47.800 things happening in front of the camera and things happening behind the camera so movies will either

00:07:54.100 have to have one a lead from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group to have at least a third

00:08:01.920 of all actors from two of these groups, which include women, underrepresented racial or ethnic

00:08:07.860 groups, LGBTQ plus communities, or people with disabilities, or three have a storyline about one

00:08:16.300 of the groups mentioned. And also behind the scenes, they have criterias in place for things

00:08:22.440 like internships, to marketing roles, to producers, to finance teams. So literally it's very holistic.

00:08:29.040 it's not just talent in front of the camera which I really do appreciate yeah I think that's really

00:08:34.740 important because it's one thing to have representation within a movie but it reminds

00:08:40.100 me of the Jacqueline show this year where it was after the Black Lives Matter well the first round

00:08:47.060 of Black Lives Matter protests back in June July and they had a whole range of really diverse

00:08:53.860 models on the runway but then there was that selfie taken of all the staff and behind the

00:08:59.220 scenes people and they were all white and I think that is also really important in the fight for

00:09:05.520 diversity is it's not just who you see represented that's very important factor but it's also who's

00:09:10.760 making the decisions behind the scene who's getting opportunities for internships or you

00:09:15.740 know executive positions etc so that's really cool yeah there's been mixed reviews about how

00:09:21.700 well this will be and how effective it will be. I read a couple articles and some critics are

00:09:27.940 super for it and some aren't. I think it's a great step. I think when we're talking about like

00:09:34.420 the pathway to equality, sometimes we do need to have measures in place that maybe seem like

00:09:40.660 some underrepresented groups are getting an unfair leg up. But no, these measures need to

00:09:46.300 be placed because of the systematic disadvantage people have had. So I think it's good. It'll be

00:09:51.880 interesting to see how this plays out because it is something that I think was needed a long time

00:09:58.480 ago. And I don't think change will be overnight. They've actually said that starting in 2022,

00:10:05.200 which is a fun year to say, and also 22 is my favorite number and I'll be 22 at the start of

00:10:12.000 that yeah sorry oh god really excited I'm really excited to get get out of 2020 um anyway what was

00:10:20.520 I saying so in 2022 each movie will need to submit an inclusion standard form which basically is a

00:10:29.580 confidential breakdown of the movie's demographic data so I think transparency there I don't know

00:10:34.860 if that'll be published um publicly I don't know I don't think so actually because it just said

00:10:39.680 confidential. But I think having that transparency or at least monitoring things like that is super

00:10:47.120 important. On the same topic of movies, the new Disney Milan movie has been called to be boycotted

00:10:55.280 this week. And I haven't had a chance to read too much into it, unfortunately. I just know

00:11:02.160 that there's been a lot of controversy surrounding it. So shall we chat about that?

00:11:07.020 yes let's get into a explanation of all of this I feel like it's so multifaceted there are so many

00:11:14.420 reasons why people are angry so um you know let's do a rundown and then we can you know see how we

00:11:21.180 sit on the topic of boycotts again like last week's Oatly episode okay so I feel like one of

00:11:27.220 the main things that people are pointing out is that the actress of Mulan is Liu Li Fei and last

00:11:33.600 year she posted pro-Hong Kong police messages on her Weibo account, which is just another

00:11:38.500 social media account in China. And it read, I support Hong Kong's police. You can beat me up

00:11:44.800 now. What a shame for Hong Kong. That was translated from Mandarin. So that, of course, 1.00

00:11:50.980 spurred some controversy. And to add to that, I'm just going to run through all the things that

00:11:56.440 Mulan is being picked on for. The film was also filmed in the Xinjiang region of China, which is

00:12:02.180 where the Uyghur Muslims concentration camps are and also I think one of the things that's a massive 1.00

00:12:08.520 sticking point for me is that yes it is an Asian cast in front of the screen because we don't want 0.99

00:12:14.460 yellow face in 2020 but behind the scenes it is unbearably white they've created a film around 0.84

00:12:23.180 Chinese history and there's not really Chinese people making decisions behind the scenes which

00:12:28.200 is just very disappointing and another thing is that in Australia it costs over $35 to watch it

00:12:35.040 at the moment which is just too much money so again another sticking factor for me oh my god

00:12:41.340 but that's on top of the like the charge you pay for Disney plus right yeah I couldn't find like

00:12:51.140 the specific number. So it either costs an extra 30 or $35. And then the Disney plus

00:12:58.760 monthly subscription is like $7, I think. So still a lot of money either way.

00:13:04.480 Do you know if that $35 means you have it forever? Like you bought a DVD or is it just

00:13:09.160 to stream once? Oh, I don't know. I hope forever. Oh, I actually have no idea. Still expensive

00:13:15.500 either way, I would say. Like when you buy a DVD, it's usually like $20, I swear.

00:13:21.140 Yeah. I think back in the day, they were like, if it was a brand new movie, they were like 30,

00:13:25.240 35, but also times have changed and people expect things if they're streaming to be a bit cheaper.

00:13:31.360 Yeah. And then was there anything else to add to this mess?

00:13:35.820 Yeah. One more thing. Oh my God. So many dot points. And on Disney Plus,

00:13:41.240 there are actually no Chinese subtitles. So of course it's not really catering to the Chinese

00:13:45.920 audience either. How do you feel?

00:13:49.020 Yeah, I don't know if I want to support it. Why do we always come back to boyfriends? But I've seen a few things online of people whose parents don't speak English, wanting to see something from their culture, and then they can't watch it because there's no Chinese subtitles. I think that's awful to exclude a whole group of people like that. But yeah, I haven't researched enough to say too much on this. But yeah, we'll have to see what happens with it.

00:14:14.100 yeah and especially um growing up there's not much east asian representation in the media she's 0.91

00:14:22.440 like mulan is literally all we've got you know please don't ruin the only thing we've got

00:14:27.380 i literally watched the youtube video for reflection the song and i cried it's like a

00:14:32.700 two-minute song and it's like crying and then like if you look at my search history it's kind

00:14:36.960 of funny because it's like reflection mulan karaoke lower key because it's so high i'm like

00:14:43.020 I want to sing it, but you know, it's kind of hard. Also, this podcast I've been listening to,

00:14:49.000 which I'm really liking, it's called Stop Everything. And it's an ABC podcast with

00:14:53.700 Benjamin Law and Beverly Wang. It's kind of like a pop culture current affairs podcast as well.

00:14:59.100 And they chatted about Mulan this week as well. Beverly watched it. And one quote that she

00:15:05.900 described it as was, it felt like an external adventure movie that happens to have a lot of

00:15:11.860 Chinese people in it. Somebody else on the podcast described it as a Chinese Lord of the Rings,

00:15:17.520 which I found funny. They played a soundbite from the movie and it just sounded really

00:15:23.860 Westernized. It still felt like a Western lens placed on Chinese culture, which I think is

00:15:30.140 telling of who was working behind the scene. So with all the information that you've researched,

00:15:35.320 do you think that you will still watch the movie? I mean, I'm not going to lie. I think when it

00:15:41.420 comes to Disney plus without any extra fees in December I'll probably give it a watch like I'm

00:15:47.220 not desperate and I'm not that excited but I think I might also what's with the Disney remakes like

00:15:52.860 why can't they just make new movies I know I would enjoy if for the 2024 Oscars with all these

00:16:00.820 diversity measures they could start telling new stories I think that would be really fun and

00:16:04.580 exciting to have new stories for a new decade rather than just remaking all the movies from

00:16:10.080 the 90s. Our main topic today is kind of a newsy one, and it is one of the craziest news stories

00:16:23.740 of 2020, one of. As many people will know, sadly, there have been a number of wildfires burning on

00:16:30.480 the west coast of the US. The worst affected states are California, Oregon, and Washington.

00:16:35.780 Sadly, 23 people have been confirmed dead so far, with many more missing.

00:16:41.000 But one in particular has caught a lot of news and media attention this week,

00:16:46.180 as it wasn't started by lightning or backburning, but instead it was a gender reveal party.

00:16:53.180 So last Saturday, so only eight days ago, an expectant couple trekked to El Ranch Dorado Park in California

00:16:59.920 to document a gender reveal of their unborn baby.

00:17:02.680 They used a smoke generating pyrotechnic device to blast either pink or blue smoke into the air and they had their children around and someone there to record it on a smartphone and then the spark from that device lit up the grass around them that was 1.2 meters tall.

00:17:21.560 There's footage of them running back to their car to try and grab water bottles trying to put it out but it got out of control really really quickly due to the dry conditions and the heat wave that was going on.

00:17:31.440 The last news article I saw relating to this particular fire, because now there's so many fires burning all across the West Coast, but this particular one, it has been reported by CNN that this gender reveal fire has burnt 13,592 acres and 20,000 people have been evacuated from their homes because of it, according to the ABC.

00:17:54.340 see. Like, how does this sound real? You know, I think seeing photos of the actual area that has

00:18:01.440 been burnt and like the bright orange sky accompanying it, it just so feels something

00:18:07.580 so dystopian and I can't wrap my head around it. And all from a gender reveal party, I find it 0.93

00:18:13.680 quite, I don't even know the word. It's the pictures of the sky in like San Francisco and

00:18:19.680 Oregon and stuff looks like Blade Runner it just seems like it's a movie and I can't actually

00:18:24.980 fathom that that's real that the sky actually looks like that and it's not fake and yeah so

00:18:30.860 this is just one fire though it hasn't caused all of them across the west coast but it's definitely

00:18:37.600 done a lot of damage the couple could be charged with violations of public resources codes and

00:18:43.340 arson they could also be jails because arson or forest can mean a maximum of three years

00:18:48.420 and it goes up to six if the fire causes bodily injury sadly this is not the first time that a 0.83

00:18:55.340 gender reveal party has caused such a massive fire in 2018 a couple set 47 000 acres of forest

00:19:01.400 alight in a similar way the man who lit it was charged with five years probation and ordered to 0.91

00:19:06.100 8 million 8 million us dollars in restitution i just find the idea of gender reveal parties

00:19:12.280 so outdated, even though they're a relatively new invention. So I'm 21. I don't know like anybody

00:19:19.760 who's had a baby. And definitely when I was born around that time, I don't think that was happening,

00:19:26.380 especially not in the Chinese community, at least. Like definitely, I don't think my parents know

00:19:30.460 what it is. The woman that's associated with creating gender reveal parties actually made 1.00

00:19:36.100 this statement this week didn't she yeah so she's spoken out about it um a couple of times because

00:19:42.180 whenever something like a fire or there was another um instance in the u.s last year where

00:19:49.120 this couple set off a bomb it was meant to be a similar thing of like it releases smoke into the

00:19:54.460 air and it actually like blew up and shrapnel hit this grandma and she died on impact so every time

00:20:00.440 there's a really bad you know incident like that she speaks out and she's just like begging people

00:20:05.520 to stop her name is jenna myers carvenitis and she is a u.s blogger she created the first one

00:20:13.500 in 2008 and she i don't think she meant for it to become this like global thing she just

00:20:22.000 apparently made a cake and cut into it and the cake was pink and then because she was a blogger

00:20:26.860 the it just took off and it became a kind of trend thing her statement this week was actually

00:20:33.500 really funny even though the situation isn't funny we'll just read a bit of it out but she said 0.97

00:20:39.440 stop it stop having these stupid parties for the love of god stop burning things down to tell 0.99

00:20:45.040 everyone about your kid's penis no one cares but you it was 116 degrees in pasadena yesterday and 1.00

00:20:51.460 this tool thought it would be smart to light a fire about his kid's dick toxic masculinity is 1.00

00:20:56.860 men thinking they need to explode something because simply enjoying a baby party is for sissies 0.99

00:21:01.460 oh and of course I'm getting hate messages excuse me for having a cake for my family in 2008 0.97

00:21:06.840 just because I'm the gender reveal inventor doesn't mean I think people should burn down

00:21:11.500 their communities stop I think she's handling it really well because she would be getting

00:21:16.540 so many horrible death threats and messages I feel like from right-wing and left-wing people

00:21:22.440 for creating something like this even though yeah like she just mentioned like you just mentioned

00:21:27.160 she just baked a cake with pink on the inside. And now she's got mixed feelings about gender 0.74

00:21:33.180 reveal parties. So she kind of commented last year on how much the world has changed even in

00:21:39.240 10, 12 years in regards to gender and social norms. And she said, I did it at the time because

00:21:47.220 we didn't live in 2019 and didn't know what we know now. That assigning focus on gender at birth

00:21:53.540 leaves out so much of their potential and talents that have nothing to do with what's between their

00:21:57.780 legs who cares what gender the baby is plot twist the world's first gender reveal party baby is a

00:22:04.340 girl who wears suits and i love that so much and obviously the girl is what 12 and she i saw a

00:22:10.660 picture of her she's like this really cool like androgynous looking gal young young woman and um

00:22:18.180 i think that's really cool is that she was considered like the first gender reveal baby 0.95

00:22:22.460 and she's like subverting the gender norms by wearing a suit at 12 years old and like cutting

00:22:27.400 her hair short and stuff. Yeah I feel like gender reveal parties would do more harm than good. 1.00

00:22:33.140 You found a study that talked about that. Do you want to tell us about it? A study published in

00:22:38.320 2017 by Carly Giesler characterized the harms of the gender reveal party as allowing adults to

00:22:45.680 recuperate what they have learned from their own gendered constructions, re-inscribing expectations

00:22:51.040 and assumptions onto the unwritten body of the unborn and repelling these ideals into the digital,

00:22:57.340 social and public world. So my question to us today is, does this massive wildfire in America

00:23:05.320 mark the end of gender reveal parties or is it just going to continue and get worse and worse?

00:23:11.540 Well, yeah, to be cynical, I don't think it's going to end it. When you were telling that story

00:23:15.960 about how the grandmother got killed I remember another one and I think it involved like a dirt

00:23:21.820 bike or something like that and I'm pretty sure the father got killed well you know there's so

00:23:26.480 many tragedies associated with this even just beyond restricting your child to rigid gender

00:23:32.440 norms there's literally been fatalities and they're still going and I don't know because again

00:23:39.680 I'm not at the age of having people around me have kids but I feel like people love celebrations

00:23:45.480 and, you know, with marriages and baby showers and bachelorettes and engagement parties. Like

00:23:52.740 there's so many different things that I feel like people want an excuse to celebrate things. I don't

00:23:59.200 even think they care about the gender aspect. It's just an excuse to have a party or something. 1.00

00:24:05.360 Yeah. Maybe it'll still increase because, you know, after this year, everyone will want to

00:24:09.940 celebrate everything, which is really beautiful. I think that the original idea of them of just

00:24:14.880 having a simple cake or having your friends and family over and telling them, surprising

00:24:19.420 them, whatever, is actually a very nice idea of like community.

00:24:25.380 I think we place too much importance on gender in our society because gender is a construct 0.92

00:24:30.000 anyway. 0.86

00:24:30.440 It says that girls should wear pink and boys should wear blue and boys should have short

00:24:35.320 hair and girls should love dolls and things like that. 0.91

00:24:38.960 And then, yeah, your biological sex is the reproductive organs that you're born with. 0.79

00:24:44.880 Well, then at the very least, right, shouldn't gender reveal parties be rebranded just as

00:24:49.720 sex reveal parties? Like, that actually makes more sense. But I feel like the people,

00:24:55.260 people just don't want to say sex.

00:24:57.540 When they're talking about their child.

00:25:00.000 Yeah.

00:25:00.440 Yeah. I think that the idea of it is nice. Like, I love watching those TikToks of like

00:25:07.160 grandparents finding out they're going to be grandparents or finding out they're having a

00:25:10.380 girl or boy or whatever like I think there's an element of sweetness to them I think that the

00:25:16.100 whole like setting off a smoke bomb or like extravagant ness of them kind of it also ties 0.71

00:25:23.860 into consumerism I think because you're basically saying this is what gender the kid's going to be

00:25:28.680 so buy presents accordingly I would love to see trans people kind of reclaim the gender reveal

00:25:35.320 party and having like a coming out party I feel like that's something that could be celebrated

00:25:40.000 because it is something that should be your decision to make, 0.70

00:25:43.600 not your parents when you're like a bloody newborn muffin. 0.95

00:25:50.000 A fetus. 1.00

00:25:50.960 I've seen a few of those where trans people are, you know, 0.94

00:25:55.560 teenagers or young adults and their parents

00:25:58.140 through them gender reveal parties

00:25:59.340 and they're like fully grown people.

00:26:00.860 It's really cute.

00:26:02.100 I just don't think we need them anymore.

00:26:03.800 Would you ever have one?

00:26:05.440 No, I don't think so at all.

00:26:07.540 Have you?

00:26:08.540 No, I wouldn't.

00:26:09.560 Do you think you'd ever want to know the biological sex of your baby?

00:26:14.560 I think so.

00:26:15.840 I don't think it'd make a massive difference,

00:26:18.740 but I think I just want to know.

00:26:20.520 I'm someone who doesn't really wait for surprises.

00:26:24.580 I'm always like, just tell me, just tell me.

00:26:26.380 Because I don't think it is the biggest deal,

00:26:28.500 and in that way, I think it's not a big deal to find out.

00:26:33.960 But it's so far off.

00:26:35.900 I'm not even thinking about that.

00:26:37.260 What about you, though?

00:26:37.980 Yeah, I love surprises and I think I would want to wait nine months if I can. But I think a lot

00:26:48.640 of people like to know so that they can plan and organize and things like that. But to have this

00:26:54.540 like massive deal made because your child has a penis or a vagina is ridiculous and it's causing 1.00

00:27:03.380 a lot of destruction so this is a terrible tragedy the fires in the u.s and the one that 1.00

00:27:09.360 was started by the gender reveal party but there have been some amazing memes come out of it

00:27:14.140 this I was like almost crying with laughter which is awful because it is tragic but oh my god

00:27:20.160 the what was that there was one that was like I will reveal a new gender every day until my 0.89

00:27:25.360 demands are met oh my god I hadn't seen that that's actually incredible we needed we'll make

00:27:32.200 a carousel of all the good ones and if you take anything away from this segment just don't use a

00:27:38.040 smoke bomb if you ever decide to have a gender reveal party yeah definitely no hate against

00:27:43.680 if that's what you want you know everyone should be able to free to make the choice if you want to

00:27:48.300 have a party for your unborn child then that's great but um yeah let's stop using smoke uh

00:27:55.160 pyrotechnics and also stop using them while we're in a climate crisis because that is really what's

00:28:00.360 accelerated this issue as well is the dry season and people not being aware of fire hazards if it

00:28:09.740 smokes and it's dry in the middle of summer probably shouldn't just go out into the wilderness 0.98

00:28:14.680 and let a bomb off to know if your child has a penis or not what have you been reading listening 1.00

00:28:26.740 to or loving this week, Maggie? Yes. So I think this is my first article recommendation 1.00

00:28:33.340 in this whole culture club history. So the article I want to recommend is called

00:28:39.760 The Bachelor Australia's Diversity Problem Will Be Its Death Nail. Just ask the magazine industry.

00:28:46.580 And that was written by Grace O'Neill for The Guardian. So I'm sure quite a few of our listeners

00:28:52.340 will also know of the podcast after work drinks i really love it and that um and grace is a part of

00:28:58.960 that podcast um and she was a editor i think at l or harper's bazaar or a writer for both or

00:29:07.360 something like that um before they all closed off so that's her experience within the magazine

00:29:11.960 industry um she kind of just linked you know the bachelor's failing numbers with um what happened

00:29:18.500 with the magazine industry. And I just want to read out a little snippet. I mean, it's just about

00:29:22.620 magazines, but I still liked it. It's overly simplistic and factually incorrect to suggest

00:29:27.720 that print media could have been salvaged by diversity alone. Expecting a millennial generation

00:29:33.860 raised on free digital content to pay the equivalent of a Netflix subscription each month

00:29:39.060 for a single 60 page magazine was always a round peg square hole situation. And yeah, I think that

00:29:45.920 is quite true with the closure of the Bauer media publications I think everyone was very quick to

00:29:51.180 point out oh it's like a diversity and yes that was a big contributing factor but I don't think

00:29:57.320 it was just that. Grace also pointed out that the two remaining big magazines Marie Claire and Vogue

00:30:04.480 were actually better in terms of representation so for instance Marie Claire featured five non-white

00:30:10.300 cover stars in the last two years, which is 20% of their covers and 29% of Vogue's covers featured

00:30:17.480 women of color in the same period. So like one third, which is better. It is better than the 1.00

00:30:24.420 other magazines. And a few episodes ago, we had Mahalia Hanley be a guest on this podcast and she

00:30:29.980 is a model and she works closely with Marie Claire and she really praises their diversity

00:30:37.120 progress. I feel like this is a topic that we talk about a lot on here, but that's mostly

00:30:41.840 because we're talking about the media and current affairs. And this is really in the consciousness

00:30:47.400 right now, which is very important. But then I really liked the way she relates it to The Bachelor.

00:30:54.420 Yeah. And I used to love The Bachelor actually, especially like when I was in year 12, I found

00:30:59.520 it really a nice bit of escapism because it's very like highly romanticized and I mean, overly

00:31:05.040 produced. But it just feels like they are living in an alternate 2020 reality. The new Bachelorettes

00:31:12.600 announced this year is not just one white girl, it's two of them. It just feels like a parody, 0.89

00:31:18.600 you know, it feels like Junkie did a fake story about what The Bachelor is, but this is actually

00:31:23.740 what it is. And yeah, I just wanted to recommend this article because I think it was a really great,

00:31:28.920 it made a really great correlation between the magazine industry and the media industry in

00:31:34.560 Australia and connected some really important dots I don't think I really had read before. And

00:31:40.580 yeah, I just really, really like Grace O'Neill's writing. Yeah. We want to be Grace and Isabel

00:31:45.800 when we grow up. Please. And Jazz, what do you recommend this week? I finished some TV shows,

00:31:52.360 but the newest thing that I consumed this week was a podcast by Betches Media. Have you heard

00:31:59.740 of them? No, I haven't. They have like 7 million Instagram followers. It's very like a pop culture

00:32:05.500 media as American media company. And I was on Instagram last night, couldn't sleep. And they

00:32:13.580 advertise this podcast called, Do You Know Who My Dad Is? Episode one is about influences. It's an

00:32:20.700 eight part podcast series exposing the connections you never knew existed. So it explores nepotism

00:32:28.740 and the effects that it has on media, culture, and our current political system, mostly the UK

00:32:35.800 and America. So it's hosted by Brian Russell-Smith and Alicia Engels, who work for Bitches Media.

00:32:42.700 And in this podcast, they basically were told to go away and research two high-profile families

00:32:47.380 and then come back and explain how they are so connected. So Brian chose Cara Delevingne,

00:32:53.220 or the Delevenes and Alicia chose the Hadids.

00:32:56.680 Loving pop culture, I definitely knew that they were both

00:32:59.940 really well-connected families and a little bit of how, you know,

00:33:03.660 their parents are really wealthy or famous,

00:33:05.980 but I didn't know just how influential especially the Delevenes were.

00:33:11.000 If you go back on the Delevene family tree,

00:33:13.740 it goes back to royalty like in the 1600s

00:33:16.580 and they're connected to all these counts and like lords

00:33:19.960 And then as it gets closer and closer to 2020, they're like big publishing magnates and things

00:33:27.220 like that. So they are very well off. So it was just a fun podcast to get a bit of backstory

00:33:34.240 on these people. And it kind of relates to what we're talking about with Harry before

00:33:39.360 in that would Cara be the actress slash model that she is without her nepotism? Probably not.

00:33:46.980 So I enjoyed the podcast, but I did struggle a little bit with how American the podcast was.

00:33:53.560 I don't tend to listen to a lot of American podcasts just because I'm not used to the accents.

00:33:58.420 I know we have like 2% of our listeners are American.

00:34:01.040 So I'm sorry if I offend anyone, but especially like an LA, I don't know, yeah, kind of like a

00:34:07.100 valley girl accent.

00:34:08.240 So there were some points where I was like, oh my God, I can't, I can't.

00:34:11.960 But the topic was interesting enough for me to keep listening.

00:34:15.660 and i feel like i learned a little bit about american culture and how much nepotism really

00:34:22.320 does influence everything so if you're looking for kind of a fun easy to listen to while you're

00:34:27.960 trying to get to sleep podcast i would recommend that i'm curious to see what other areas they get

00:34:34.220 into because it's going to be seven more episodes about um nepotism so there you go that's my

00:34:39.900 recommendation for the week i think i'll probably listen to it i like american accents so

00:34:45.620 any american listeners out there at least half of this podcast is on your side i'm just trying

00:34:51.360 to rally them up i went to america last year so you know gotta stay on their good side

00:34:55.720 um but yeah i'll probably give that a listen i actually listen to a lot of your recommendations

00:35:01.480 and like i'm probably gonna start i hate suzy soon as well so i'm your biggest fan thanks yes i

00:35:10.180 I don't know what to say to that thank you and with that awkward compliment shall we end today's

00:35:17.720 episode yes it is Sunday night here so I'm about to go and have a bath I'm very excited and then

00:35:24.880 I'm going to cook some I'm going to bake a chocolate cake what about you what are you

00:35:28.800 going to do that is so wholesome I have no plans I'm going to wash my hair very exciting stuff but

00:35:36.280 Yeah, we'll chat next week and see everyone else on Instagram during the week.

00:35:40.380 And if you enjoyed this week's episode, don't forget to subscribe and like and maybe even leave us a little review because that would mean a lot.

00:35:48.240 Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode and we will catch you next week.

00:35:52.860 Bye.

Culture Club - September 14, 2020

Gender Reveals Are Literally Setting the World on Fire

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