Culture Club - Princess Treatment, Love Island's Racism Double-Standard & Are Men Falling Behind？

00:00:00.000 Zayn opens up about his time in One Direction, Love Island boots off contestants for racist

00:00:11.940 posts and has the princess treatment trend gone too far?

00:00:16.540 I'm Maggie Zau and I'm Jasmine Wallace and you're listening to Culture Club where we

00:00:21.140 chat about pop culture, current affairs, the internet and our lives.

00:00:25.280 Today we're on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung people of the Kulin Nations.

00:00:32.820 We would like to pay our respects to Elders past and present and extend this to any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander listeners today.

00:00:43.460 Hi Jazz.

00:00:44.700 Hello, how are you?

00:00:46.360 I'm going well. We've also got producer Blake here. Hello.

00:00:50.880 Hi ladies, how are you?

00:00:52.400 We're going well. We're happy to have you in the studio with us today.

00:00:57.040 We've got lots to chat about.

00:00:58.780 Yeah, happy to be here. You have been busy this morning.

00:01:01.720 We have. We had a little shoot, but we're not going to tell you anything else.

00:01:07.380 That's it. That's all you're getting.

00:01:10.420 So mysterious. Isn't that a mysterious era on a podcast?

00:01:14.220 Well, speaking of, I'm going to say something that's very not mysterious.

00:01:17.120 I feel like the last few weeks of Culture Club, I've been giving everyone updates about my

00:01:21.660 relationship with social media. I think two weeks ago, I was like, oh, I'm in a bad spot. I've been

00:01:26.820 comparing myself. Then the week after, I was like, wow, my video went viral. And then now I'm like,

00:01:32.860 oh, it's I'm trying to operate at a happy medium. And I actually just installed an app where I

00:01:40.620 essentially like block out the morning. So currently, I'm like trying not to go on social

00:01:44.360 media before 9am and that's massive dare i say so what does the app like yeah non-sponsored

00:01:51.440 whatever it's called screen zen and i like it because you can limit like the specific apps

00:01:56.000 how many pickups you do and stuff because i just found i was waking up in bed opening social media

00:02:01.520 and then feeling bad it feels like eating junk food almost yeah well no no shame there no shame

00:02:07.200 no no no but like of course like i love junk food every now and then but not like the first minute

00:02:11.400 you wake up yeah and like correct every day yeah um so that's been good it's day two guys streak

00:02:17.620 is on day two so we'll see how we go but I'm happy for now I feel like at the moment the coolest

00:02:22.700 thing is being totally offline obviously we're not going to do that with our jobs but yeah there's a

00:02:27.700 lot of people putting things and systems in place at the moment to limit it while we're on the topic

00:02:33.660 of apps I also wanted to share that Culture Club is now on the Podrex app. Tell us about it because

00:02:42.460 I actually hadn't heard of it until recently. So I got a DM from the founder and she said that

00:02:49.660 they've had a few requests for Culture Club podcast recommendations to be uploaded to the app. So

00:02:55.460 essentially it's an Australian made app and you download it obviously and you follow your favorites.

00:03:01.180 so now we're on there but there's also shameless stylish kick pod etc you can click into our

00:03:08.000 account and see all of the links and recommendations that we recommend in bookmarked which is so fun

00:03:14.080 it's all in one consolidated place and it's updated really quickly love to hear that because

00:03:19.120 we're spitting out recommendations like nobody's business we've been doing two wrecks a week i

00:03:23.740 think almost since the beginning of this pod so there's a big backlog and like obviously we

00:03:27.980 recommend movies and books and tv shows but um for the other podcasts that recommend products

00:03:33.240 there's also those links as well so it's such a cool app so if you want to have all your recs in

00:03:38.500 one spot download pod recs it's time for culture quickie where we go through some of the biggest

00:03:49.600 stories of the week and my fan girl self is so happy because almost every single week on this

00:03:55.960 pod incidentally we're talking about One Direction members. Of course so the big news this week is

00:04:02.840 that Zayn first of all is back making new music but he's also shared a snippet of an upcoming song

00:04:09.140 on Instagram called Fuchsia C which opens up about his time in One Direction. Yeah so I saw this

00:04:16.520 pop-up on my feed he posted an Instagram real snippet of this song but then also like doubled

00:04:22.100 down on his stories and posted the lyrics and some of the lyrics we need to talk about so I'm

00:04:26.960 gonna read some he raps in this as well so um I feel like my teen self is so gratified like I've

00:04:32.900 always wanted to see Zayn rap more anyway here is some of the lyrics got my back against the wall

00:04:41.220 so much they think I got a brick fascination do you remember every conversation because I have

00:04:46.600 been conscious of every connotation and while they concentrate on their elevation I've got a round

00:04:51.540 trip to the constellation i'm a convert to the concert and i did that for inflation because i

00:04:57.160 worked hard in a white band and they still laughed at the asian oh zane i'm here for this like

00:05:04.700 opening up about his experience in one of the like the biggest pop bands boy bands in the world

00:05:10.220 and we know that zane kind of went a bit off grid post um separation from his partner gg hadid and

00:05:17.040 mother of his child and also of course the loss of Liam Payne at the end of last year so this is

00:05:23.840 I think a nice thing for like fans like us but also just of course for Zayn himself so if you

00:05:31.020 weren't across Zayn's background he was born to a Pakistani father and raised in the Islamic faith

00:05:37.700 in 2017 Zayn opened up about his identity sharing that he takes a quote great sense of pride and

00:05:45.180 responsibility in his background yeah in that same interview he said quote I'm not currently

00:05:51.860 practicing but I was raised in the Islamic faith so it will always be with me I identify a lot with

00:05:57.900 the culture but I'm just me I don't want to be defined by my religion or my cultural background

00:06:02.820 I'm so glad that Zane essentially was brave enough to put this in a song because I think he does fall 0.58

00:06:08.960 into that model minority myth where you've got to like be well behaved you can't speak out you can't 0.90

00:06:14.560 like veer from your place um but he has chosen to be really vulnerable and be like hey like it was

00:06:21.420 hard like still laughed at the asian that's like humiliation that he's talking about so i am like

00:06:27.000 really feeling for him randomly though did you know that he had a whole album drop last year

00:06:32.320 no yeah not being like oh he's taking some time out uh i totally missed that yeah so that album

00:06:38.960 was called room under the stairs and then also randomly i think it's worth noting there is a

00:06:43.640 single on the album called fuchsia c so he's like just reusing his names for songs but oh well um

00:06:50.220 i'm jumping in now because i'm confident enough to because jazz wasn't up to speed with that so

00:06:55.120 i'm not much of a direction i'm just gonna say it but have any of them like opened up to this extent

00:07:00.300 on a song or you know via interview whatever it be i don't think so i feel like the the boys

00:07:06.280 are usually quite like grateful and they speak quite generally about their past in one direction

00:07:11.980 but it's very vague yeah yeah it seems like they're very private about that experience like

00:07:16.620 even in all of harry style's albums can you think of a song that is like oh that's about his

00:07:22.240 experience one direction like they're all kind of like love songs or friendship songs or pop songs

00:07:26.440 like maybe i'm not the biggest fan of louis solo work like just haven't really listened to much so

00:07:32.160 we could be wrong if there's any directioners listening and there are other solo one direction

00:07:37.560 songs about this we would love to hear them and we can dissect yeah but watch the space with zane's

00:07:42.400 music like this single is about to drop he said coming soon so we will hopefully listen to his new

00:07:48.440 music for the first time in a decade the gender pay gap has flipped at least for gen z's according

00:08:01.360 to a recent report from the center for social justice full-time working gen z women so in this

00:08:07.500 report that's between the ages of 16 and 24 are out earning their male peers by an average of

00:08:14.660 4,600 Australian dollars per year. This report is from the UK as well so it's like very important

00:08:21.980 context. I was shocked to hear about this because this report came out a little while ago but I

00:08:27.280 hadn't heard much conversation about this but I feel like it's quite a telling statistic. We've

00:08:32.440 been talking for a while about how women are starting to like outperform men and men are

00:08:36.760 kind of falling behind in many regards like education and getting paid in terms of financials

00:08:42.880 but this is quite explicit and it talks explicitly about the younger generation too yes so it's

00:08:51.080 important to note that this is just for young working women so some of the articles around it

00:08:57.020 also say that like this is expected to reverse and then widen back in favor of men again in the

00:09:02.740 future um this is just for this small group at the moment so it's like the headline sounds great

00:09:08.760 right like gender picket reverse we've done it yay but there's a lot of intricacies around it

00:09:13.720 yeah we see this trend a lot especially in superannuation um so typically actually women

00:09:18.500 and men are pretty on par if not i think women sometimes even like outperform in superannuation

00:09:24.720 when we're younger but when it comes like late 20s and um entering 30s uh there is a massive dip

00:09:31.160 for women who choose to like take maternity leave and take time out of the workforce so

00:09:37.180 yeah that trend is very much there. Yeah it's actually called the motherhood penalty and so 0.70

00:09:42.460 it's the unfair share of child care that's undertaken by women that then widens that gap 0.99

00:09:48.780 like if you're out of the workforce. So the British report is crediting this change in the gender pay 1.00

00:09:53.300 gap to women outpacing men in education and workplace skills and one of the major findings

00:10:00.520 was that there's been a 40% increase in the number of young men aged 16 to 24 who are quote

00:10:08.180 neat so that is not in education not in employment and not in training and that's between 2020 and

00:10:14.880 2024. That shocks me because I'm like not to be naive or so embedded in our system but it's like

00:10:21.040 what else are you doing if you're not working or studying or like being immersed in the world like

00:10:26.560 what are you spending your time on yeah there's a number of factors that they've like attributed

00:10:31.860 to this and that is the shrinking of labor jobs in the UK so we've got the economy but then there's

00:10:37.820 also a growing disillusionment with the education system great point Ari like what are you doing

00:10:44.240 if you aren't immersing yourself in the world and you know participating in education training

00:10:48.760 whatever it be do you feel though men are kind of happier being lost and not doing things whereas 0.98

00:10:56.580 like women are like no no no I need to you know be doing something even if it's not what I want 1.00

00:11:01.640 like I'll do this in the interim yeah that's a great point I feel like women have this innate 1.00

00:11:07.280 pressure to be like I have to act so my life goes the way I want yeah whereas I think I mean I'm 0.99

00:11:14.600 speaking very generally but I do think the world to some extent is set up for men to succeed so

00:11:19.580 it's like if I perhaps was a male moving through the world it's like no but these these industries

00:11:25.480 and these barriers are made to suit me so I don't actually have to be that active as a participant 0.99

00:11:31.080 in my own life whereas women I think we're like no we have to actually squeeze our way in sometimes

00:11:35.520 I think the thing I'm finding hard about this conversation in the UK that then is trickling

00:11:42.740 over here there obviously are some issues with men and boys and the way they're moving through

00:11:48.140 the world the content they're consuming etc but it feels like especially governments are like

00:11:53.020 this is a crisis like we need task force and reports and everything to figure out why are

00:12:00.380 men falling behind or like why are women overtaking them like this this can't be right and it's like

00:12:05.260 for centuries women have been deemed lesser than like we've earned less we've had less university

00:12:12.360 degrees, less education. It's only like really in the last generation or two that we're becoming

00:12:17.980 more equal. In the UK, the health secretary, Wes Streeting, declared that crisis in masculinity

00:12:24.100 and said, quote, society has been slow to wake up to the fact that a lot of men and boys are

00:12:29.460 really struggling today. The truth is it can be quite tough to be a young man in today's society.

00:12:35.020 And that's the British health secretary. I'm not arguing that there isn't an issue. I think it's

00:12:41.540 really scary and we saw in terms of pop culture the tv show adolescence and the conversations

00:12:46.420 that brought out especially in the uk i'm not saying there's definitely an issue with men's

00:12:51.340 role models the content they're consuming podcasters lol though yeah i'm repeating myself

00:12:56.060 but like the government being like it's it's tough to be a young man in today's society it's like

00:13:02.160 it's always been tough to be anything but a particularly young man in the rest of time so

00:13:08.780 why is this suddenly an issue yeah it's so funny i'm going through the articles now and it's like

00:13:13.920 so what's up with boys and they're calling it staggering and it's like this big worldly crisis

00:13:19.280 whereas it's never been questioned in a headline why women are earning less it doesn't even get

00:13:25.240 interrogated totally and on that note i found a tiktok on my feed this week and it's by the user

00:13:32.460 at Just Me Virginia and she really sums up especially how I feel about this conversation.

00:13:39.240 Good morning this is your reminder that never did men look at the fact that women weren't in college

00:13:43.080 or in the workforce and say oh my gosh this is a problem of huge proportions that everyone needs 0.98

00:13:48.200 to hear about we have to fix this because women are behind all the doctors and lawyers and lawmakers

00:13:53.320 are men and this is an issue no in fact they looked at that and said it's perfect wouldn't

00:14:00.620 change a thing and now that men are having issues academically and are falling behind women

00:14:11.340 everyone needs to care about it it's a problem that everyone needs to address

00:14:15.980 and figure out a solution for to what to put men back on top to make sure men are outperforming

00:14:22.940 women but you see the difference is that women were systemically prevented from participating

00:14:32.500 there's nothing stopping men from participating there's nothing stopping them from getting good

00:14:38.060 grades from studying hard from getting that job if they're the best candidate yeah so sounds like

00:14:45.420 personal problems I also actually edited an article on this for pedestrian tv so the headline

00:14:51.980 it was just talking about that report and it was a male colleague who wrote the story then it was

00:14:57.700 actually had two editors on it and both of us are women and that's because we just wanted to make

00:15:02.580 sure that the article wasn't giving what about men and it was really interesting experience and

00:15:09.920 I don't think that the person who wrote it will mind me saying this like it was an interesting

00:15:13.060 experience reading the work of a young man on this topic and then editing it as a woman and

00:15:20.100 then thinking about female readers because you don't want to be like yes this is a conversation

00:15:24.160 that probably is worth having like this is an interesting report that's also why we've spoken

00:15:27.540 about on the podcast today because the stats are interesting you then don't want to like

00:15:30.920 be like well what about men like you know yeah but on the flip side of that to be honest it's

00:15:36.740 funny because we don't have a high percentage of male listeners but I'm thinking about them

00:15:41.280 listening to this conversation to be even more meta we have two men in the room with us right

00:15:45.700 now as we record the podcast and I am thinking like I want to exercise empathy but I'm not gonna

00:15:51.320 this is what Jamila Jamil actually said in her live tour in Australia that copped a little bit

00:15:56.400 of heat like I want to I want to hold those two truths at the same time that I don't disagree I

00:16:02.180 think it is actually hard to be a young man at this time I think there are a lot of a lot of

00:16:06.380 conflicting messages but I want them also to hold accountability and recognize like historically and

00:16:12.600 culturally they have been um privileged um as well all these can be true at once and i think

00:16:18.960 it's hard because we just can't make generalized sweeping you know phrases about our entire gender

00:16:26.120 uh and i blake who's been on mic as a man in the room agrees and we've got aiden next to us as well

00:16:32.320 yes i also agree two men have approved this messaging

00:16:35.900 there's been a new tiktok trend that has taken over our feeds this week and that is princess

00:16:48.900 treatment what is it how do we feel about it has it gone too far is it not far enough uh let's dive

00:16:56.540 in so since february the tiktok creator courtney palmer who's a 37 year old american woman stay

00:17:04.640 home mum has been kind of showing off her outfits and sharing day in the life videos. She isn't the 0.99

00:17:11.180 first to discuss the quote princess treatment but she has gone the most viral for it and there's

00:17:17.340 one video in particular that has really taken at least my algorithm by storm and it's you know a

00:17:23.060 lot of discourse has been sparked from it. Tell us about the video what actually goes into it because

00:17:27.200 if I'm being real I actually did not get any of the original content about this on my feed I've

00:17:33.180 just seeing like discourse around it. My favourite thing is when the algorithm shows you the original

00:17:37.600 video once and then knows you're on a certain side of the internet and then we'll show you like all

00:17:44.120 the takes on it on that particular side. So in this video that I saw from Courtney Palm's account

00:17:50.020 she's basically talking about princess treatment and that is when she's out in a restaurant with

00:17:56.140 her husband she doesn't make eye contact with the hostess, she will rarely speak to the wait staff,

00:18:03.180 And she lets her husband, quote, lead and order everything in this hospitality setting.

00:18:08.920 Blake is like trying not to laugh right now.

00:18:11.520 I actually haven't watched the original video.

00:18:13.400 I'm just getting the variations. 0.98

00:18:15.180 She's a very wafty girl that looks like she's like whispering into the microphone, 0.90

00:18:19.440 into like the phone.

00:18:20.240 And she it's a five minute video.

00:18:22.120 Like she goes in depth about it.

00:18:24.840 Yeah, I just it's a lot, isn't it?

00:18:28.000 Let's play a clip now.

00:18:30.320 She comes back out, opens my car door.

00:18:33.180 walks me into the restaurant, opens the door and I stand and wait. I did not make eye contact with

00:18:37.860 the hostess. I did not talk to her. I waited until my husband came back. He comes back,

00:18:43.320 does the exchange with her and then we went and sat down. Can I just say I was at a dinner the

00:18:47.420 other night and there was this couple next to me which literally just grinded my gears because I 0.81

00:18:53.840 think they were doing princess treatment. I don't know if she wanted that but it was happening for

00:18:58.960 her like this man walks in like as soon as he sits he's like to the um the staff like oh can I

00:19:04.300 please like taste these two wines like but there were bottles and and the staff was like sorry you

00:19:09.060 can only like taste one one's not like supposed to be open and it was like a little bit of back

00:19:13.220 and forth and then and then I overhear more and he's like oh she likes a bold one she likes a

00:19:19.000 blah blah she's right there and this happened a few times like he was just speaking as if she

00:19:24.320 wasn't there or she was incapable of voicing her own like opinions and her own desires I will say

00:19:31.000 who knows maybe she wanted that yeah etc maybe she was opting in to princess treatment but I was just

00:19:36.400 like babes are you just talking over and for her you gave me the ick I was like I would never want 0.73

00:19:41.420 that sorry and some people some couples do like that like that's the dynamic some people like 0.56

00:19:46.020 we're not gonna yuck anyone's yum but I think this is a bigger conversation about the trad wife

00:19:53.840 culture that we've been seeing online yeah a lot at the moment look I do want to just um ask a

00:19:59.160 question right because you're like oh you don't want to yuck anyone's yum in terms of relationship

00:20:03.580 dynamics if we were to gender flip this right and that stereotype of the woman in the relationship 0.90

00:20:08.980 who's like the mom or like the caregiver to her to her boyfriend but he's like her son like she's

00:20:14.500 picking up after him she has to do she has to pack his lunch she's got to remind him to like

00:20:19.800 you know wash his clothes all that stuff we're not gonna are we gonna be like no that's just so

00:20:24.660 dynamic like it's fine I think that unless there's like domestic violence and abuse going on I don't

00:20:32.040 know if it's some that works for some people I've been watching a lot of wife swap at the moment

00:20:36.960 funnily enough you still love that show it's my new like I was watching catfish last year just

00:20:41.460 that like trashy show people are arguing just using it to switch off your brain and I've from 0.68

00:20:48.700 watching that I've seen a lot of different dynamics and some of the women they love being

00:20:53.220 housewives they're like this is my whole purpose and like a man should walk through the door and

00:20:59.240 made to feel like this is his sanctuary and there's a hot meal on the table and I'm watching

00:21:03.620 it with my partner my male partner and I'm like this is very like outdated isn't it like oh my

00:21:08.560 god I can't believe that like we could never be like that but at the end of the day like they

00:21:12.560 might learn a few lessons from their doing their wife swap oh also if anyone doesn't know wife swap

00:21:16.300 is this old tv show where they get two families usually from different socioeconomic statuses

00:21:21.280 um different parts of the country i'm watching the uk version and the wives go to the other

00:21:27.440 family's household for two weeks and then for one week it's the original wife's rules and the next

00:21:32.920 week she like flips it and it was like right it's my rules now like this is how i treat my family

00:21:37.060 and they're meant to learn something at the end of it sorry it's such a tangent but yeah so my

00:21:42.140 opinion is i don't know if we should you we might not think it's right like we might not think that

00:21:48.680 like we wouldn't do things that way or there are a lot of problematic issues around it but is there

00:21:54.440 one way to be in a relationship no but then are you saying that like all trad wife content that's

00:21:59.440 fine because that's just a dynamic that's different i think because that's sharing it with the world

00:22:04.440 and trying to influence other women to do that but this is exactly that we're talking about princess 0.59

00:22:08.100 treatment because she's talking about it online yeah i get what you mean in terms of but you were

00:22:12.700 talking about the restaurant i was talking about the restaurant so that's what i meant by we don't

00:22:16.100 know what their dynamic is but in in princess treatment she is saying like this is the best

00:22:20.940 way to be and she's obviously like sharing that with 4.5 million viewers so that's different you

00:22:26.880 know what i mean yeah i think where my head is at is that if we look at individual relationships in

00:22:32.220 a silo outside of literally the context of society in the world sure do whatever you want like that

00:22:37.800 is true a relationship is between two or whatever people but we actually can't be we we don't live

00:22:43.700 like that like everything that we do our interactions together they're shaped by the

00:22:48.600 culture they're shaped by like politics so I think it can't be like well it's just the way we are

00:22:53.660 that's just how we like it quote unquote it's like no you're acting that way because of cultural

00:23:00.260 and societal influences right like that's what a good woman looks like or that's what a man acts

00:23:05.280 right so it's I'm not disputing that that they're being influenced by something else by the wider

00:23:10.120 culture but like are we going to do something about that individually like would you walk over

00:23:14.260 them and be like that's the wrong dynamic like actually to be honest if it was a friend if they

00:23:19.160 had a relationship dynamic where the gender roles were really rigid and I felt like it was

00:23:24.300 suffocating somebody's freedom but not in necessarily like an abuse way but like I'm just

00:23:29.460 looking at it as a friend and like maybe she acts very different in other contexts or whatever

00:23:34.260 yeah maybe I bring it up obviously not if it's a stranger but yeah I would as well if it was a

00:23:39.420 friend rather than a stranger but going back to Courtney Palmer one of the interesting parts 0.99

00:23:45.060 about this discourse as well is that a lot of the time this princess treatment or trad wife culture 0.55

00:23:49.940 can often come from wealthy people you know usually the woman doesn't need to work traditionally

00:23:56.480 because there's enough income but some people have pointed out that they think that Courtney Palmer 1.00

00:24:02.460 is actually middle class because they live in an apartment and again we don't know all the ins and 1.00

00:24:07.680 outs they can do whatever they want but there's also the element of why is she being like the 1.00

00:24:14.560 spokesperson for quote-unquote princess treatment when she could be living like a pretty average 0.74

00:24:19.480 life like is this her trying to be more lofty than she is? Yeah I also saw this Guardian article

00:24:27.240 yours titled is princess treatment a harmless trend or yet more fuel for misogyny that was

00:24:32.600 written by emma beddington and i loved one of the um kind of observations she made about how like

00:24:38.260 the princess label here is pretty accurate when we're um putting it in the context of like trad

00:24:43.620 wife and um male female dynamics um she wrote historically princesses provided beauty and

00:24:49.820 babies and were largely powerless royal marriages were transactional arrangements so it's like yeah

00:24:56.020 you kind of are like a princess in a way um there was a comment left on one of courtney's videos

00:25:02.140 and he was like i prefer queen treatment queens speak for themselves go off queen so i guess

00:25:09.120 people are suggesting that this princess treatment is like regressive for women and it's arguing

00:25:15.460 against the idea that women need to be quieter in order to be deemed feminine right because that's 0.91

00:25:23.900 what Courtney is saying she's like I don't need to make eye contact I won't speak because like 1.00

00:25:28.520 I'm in my feminine energy also maybe a topic for another time feminine versus masculine energy and

00:25:33.760 like being in your feminine means you're living a soft life and that means that your husband takes

00:25:37.320 care of you and if you're in your masculine energy that means your husband doesn't give a 0.98

00:25:40.720 fuck about you I'm like oh my god what are we doing like this is crazy it's crazy yeah and the 0.90

00:25:47.680 thing is as we're speaking I'm like before I knew what princess treatment was I was like oh I love 1.00

00:25:52.440 being like taken care of in a relationship in the way that like one of my favorite ways to receive

00:25:58.040 love is like acts of service and Tom is like so good at you know fetching me things they're like

00:26:03.580 he just bought us sushi for lunch because we were on a shoot and we didn't eat I was like I'm just

00:26:09.280 gonna go to this record hungry and then he offered to buy us sushi and he bought us some rolls like

00:26:13.800 legend yeah and there's a lot of that and I think because it's reciprocal and because it's not like

00:26:18.900 an expectation that makes it you know more healthy but it's like I'm not going to deny that you know

00:26:25.000 I don't want to call it princess treatment but I guess acts of service and I'll be very clear like

00:26:29.600 acts of service for each other it's two it's a two-way street but I very much appreciate being

00:26:35.220 cared for in that way in a relationship I my family calls me like a princess oh I'm a princess

00:26:39.780 to the core but like like passenger princess and stuff like that like there's so much I so relate

00:26:45.000 to some other princess label wait no i'll tell you i'll out myself so um i don't eat mandarins

00:26:51.720 because i don't like peeling them and historically in the past when i have mandarin people peel it

00:26:56.700 for me even at work literally this week someone um it was they gave pieces to other people too

00:27:01.740 but they peeled oranges like mandarin for people including me i don't i don't like it on my fingers

00:27:08.060 so that is the most princessy you can get i have a little one that i'll add in yes i am so

00:27:13.600 hypersensitive to like everything so when i cut onions i know we all cry but i feel like i flood

00:27:19.520 our kitchen so i i'm like the best cook in our house but noah's chopping our onions love that

00:27:26.920 i'm very blessed oh that's very nice sacrificing the eyes and the the hands smell my princess

00:27:32.280 treatment is coffee in the morning oh yeah so laurie he loves making coffee but then even if i

00:27:39.340 could I won't when he's there so then it kind of has become this dynamic where it's like no I can't

00:27:44.860 I don't know how and we had a guest over the weekend and so then he was like oh I'd love a

00:27:49.920 coffee but like no worries if you don't know how to use a machine I was like I'll try like it won't

00:27:53.560 be as good as Laurie's and I like made him one and he was like are you kidding me this is like

00:27:57.500 just as good he's like are you lying to Laurie I was like yeah that's so funny so yeah we all have

00:28:03.200 a bit of princess in us but I'm not gonna stop making eye contact with people or opening my

00:28:08.820 mouth to to satiate this princess treatment australian discount chainsaw big w has been

00:28:20.580 caught selling make america great again caps i thought this was fake when i first saw this

00:28:27.480 so big w has said that this is like a party costume it's in that section but it's still

00:28:34.600 under the men's hats and caps category and the description says step into style and make a

00:28:41.700 statement with this iconic make america great again baseball cap perfect for any donald trump

00:28:47.720 supporter or political enthusiast come on imagine being the copywriter who had to write this this

00:28:56.720 would have gone through multiple eyes dare i say but stop it perfect for any donald trump supporter

00:29:02.280 or political enthusiast. Ridiculous. This came to our attention after the speaker and anti-racism 0.99

00:29:09.280 advocate Jeff Kasubi, who we also mentioned last week, spoke about this on TikTok. As soon as you

00:29:16.060 sent me the videos, I did Google to see if the hat was online and it has been deleted from Big

00:29:21.820 W's site. But just the way Google works, you could still see kind of the product remains essentially

00:29:27.560 up there and we have kind of gotten to the bottom of it because big w yes has removed it from their

00:29:34.420 site it turns out they operate um with third party sellers actually who can sell on big w so

00:29:41.420 it's not like direct like you can't maybe necessarily find it in store but you can

00:29:45.760 definitely buy online still through big w so we're not like giving an excuse but that is kind of more

00:29:52.500 of an explanation they still need to make that decision though to sell some things on their site

00:29:57.440 it's very disappointing because big w is of course it's an australian retailer yeah big w is owned by

00:30:04.660 woolies and i also wanted to mention bunnings is owned by coles and bunnings also operates in this

00:30:10.320 third-party retailer like i bought this really random washing machine a year ago and that was

00:30:15.420 technically like bought on bunnings but it came from like a random company i've done that before

00:30:20.380 i bought an office chair yeah from bunnings online and it wasn't actually bunnings that's the thing

00:30:25.340 so yeah but the why we're bringing this up as well is there's a question I want to bring up which is

00:30:30.940 who is actually accountable here you know how much heat should big w be copying is it their

00:30:37.980 fault is it the retailer's fault like whose I think big w should cop hate for this because we

00:30:44.660 are an Australian retailer why is a political slogan an American political slogan like it's

00:30:49.800 one thing to have Australian political slogans merchandise in a retailer but it's another to

00:30:53.400 have an American and it's another to have this statement that is so loaded right this isn't just

00:30:59.900 like vote one Donald Trump or like whatever something about Joe Biden this is a slogan

00:31:05.820 that for the past decade has caused so much hate and division we've obviously seen the LA riots

00:31:12.780 and the raids with ICE in the US like it's really really really bad and so why first of all why is

00:31:20.480 like in the party and costume caps I think that's a real issue as well like will we ever move past

00:31:27.040 republican party and right-wing politics if you know neutral people or people on the left think

00:31:33.720 of it as funny surely I actually don't know who's wearing this costume like what side of the

00:31:39.220 political spectrum you would be like I would never not even as a joke I don't think this is

00:31:44.740 funny um but i do think yeah it's big it's on big w to know what products are on their site

00:31:51.140 we should start a petition to change the name big w to big l

00:31:54.180 i had that locked and loaded

00:32:00.900 in this same week stay with me because i think these two things are connected we saw another

00:32:08.260 big pop culture headline asking a similar question of you know where does accountability lie when it

00:32:14.120 comes to racism on reality TV shows. So this week, Love Island USA has taken a stand against

00:32:22.340 its contestant, a 25-year-old Sierra Otega, and she was kicked off the show after allegedly some

00:32:30.500 racist social posts re-emerged. So have you seen this conversation, Jazz? I've seen it a tiny,

00:32:37.560 tiny bit, but I've not dived into the ins and outs. So I'm going to need you to explain this

00:32:42.700 me yeah i mean love island usa and beyond it keeps infiltrating a lot of like my social media but

00:32:49.220 i have not mamacita was that love island oh yeah the mummy second time we referenced that on the

00:32:55.940 podcast and neither of us have watched the show but i'm really excited to get into this one with

00:33:00.540 you so love island booted sierra from the show quote due to a personal situation so this is

00:33:07.940 really important they actually didn't explicitly say why and we'll get into it but most people can

00:33:13.480 assume that it is because a week before Sierra came under fire after old screenshots surfaced

00:33:21.160 of her using an anti-Asian slur on two separate occasions as the photos were being resurfaced

00:33:28.360 people pointed out that she had actually used the word again after she was called out the first time

00:33:33.880 um so the main example of this is that while she was getting botox in 2023 she used the slur to

00:33:41.860 describe her eyes but being like oh I don't want to have blah blah blah eyes before all this

00:33:46.660 information came out she had close to a million followers um but since she's lost more than 200,000

00:33:53.080 followers is this the first time that reality tv or love island has done this do you know what's

00:33:59.100 funny this is the second contestant this season alone so contestant Ulyssa Escobar was kicked off

00:34:06.640 the show because she was found to have said the n-word several times during a podcast interview

00:34:12.000 yeah and that was the same season and she actually did an interview afterwards like giving the low

00:34:17.740 down of how it happened like producers called her aside and were like there's some things that have

00:34:22.420 come up on social media and you're not looking good so they were kind of a little bit more explicit

00:34:26.380 about it what I've enjoyed about this discourse online is that it's not a black and white issue

00:34:33.220 there's an article on refinery 29 it was called two things can be true Sierra was wrong and Love

00:34:39.720 Island mishandled her exit what was interesting was a writer actually pulled out some other

00:34:44.820 contestants from this season who had actually been racist but weren't you know penalized for it so

00:34:52.360 So for instance, there was an old video of a contestant called Nick Van Steenberg

00:34:57.260 making a stereotypical joke about Chinese people eating cats.

00:35:01.520 And both fans and producers like ignored it.

00:35:04.960 And just days ago, a contestant was just voted out.

00:35:08.300 His name's Austin Shepard.

00:35:09.420 But he was reposting racist TikToks before he went on the show, 0.99

00:35:13.300 promoting violence against black women. 0.98

00:35:15.160 He really was like left unscathed. 0.99

00:35:17.440 He issued an apology, blaming his quote, dry sense of humor. 0.79

00:35:21.860 so not really an apology so it's like this is a double standard Sierra is not white

00:35:26.740 yet she has been dealt with so much hate and she was kicked off the show whereas you know

00:35:34.720 these other people that I've just mentioned they didn't have any repercussions and they're white

00:35:39.760 yep um the white man that's an interesting point Sierra Otega has shared a video on Instagram

00:35:46.760 apologizing to the Asian community for the derogatory term and said that she had quote

00:35:53.140 no idea that the word held as much pain as much harm and came with the history that it did or I

00:35:59.280 never would have used it and went on to say that it's absolutely no excuse because intent does not

00:36:04.660 excuse ignorance and she had no idea of the meaning of the word until 2024. Why are you using

00:36:09.740 the word then? Yeah um I don't know I don't know about that it was obvious I think from it the way

00:36:16.480 that she used it originally she knew that it was used about asian people and she used it negatively

00:36:22.100 if you like swapped it for like a new it was like a negative sentiment that she had

00:36:25.780 but about but whatever i mean i also like the point in that refining 29 piece which was like

00:36:33.080 love island probably should have been more explicit if that's the reason why she was kicked

00:36:36.640 off you know they essentially just made a vague you know she's left due to personal reasons

00:36:41.960 are they saying that they condone or they don't condone racism i feel like they can be more clear

00:36:48.800 about that a lot of people wouldn't otherwise know why these contestants are leaving i don't

00:36:54.240 know is that messy but it leads me back to the same question with big w though you know like

00:36:58.400 who is accountable is it the show and the producers or is it the talent that they're putting on

00:37:04.080 is it everyone like everyone has a part to play i also want to know like what is the statute of

00:37:09.920 limitations for things like racist Instagram posts or you know past problematic social media posts

00:37:15.680 right because I've been on the internet for so long I know there have been things probably that

00:37:20.400 I've said when I was very young like 13 14 or whatever that I might not have understood and

00:37:25.680 that is now on the internet and it's um it's true someone could definitely dig up something I've said

00:37:31.400 off the cuff because I've been on so many bloody social media platforms that would um be

00:37:36.540 cancellable potentially this conversation is also in the headlines around ethel kane have you heard

00:37:42.820 that no what happened so ethel kane is a singer songwriter and she's also coming under scrutiny

00:37:50.460 for controversial comments from her past that have been surfaced is it do we have like a rule

00:37:56.120 is there like a year that we can put on it anything that comes to mind to you i don't have a blanket

00:38:01.980 rule really on it do you I have a gray area rule where I think the age of the poster should factor

00:38:12.040 in right if someone was a minor posting something I might give them a little bit more leeway but if

00:38:17.700 they're like a grown-ass adult perhaps not well in Ethel Kane's case she used a racial slur makes 1.00

00:38:26.080 a rape joke and employed fat phobic and xenophobic language um so this was posted in her late teenage 0.95

00:38:33.860 years and now she's 27 so these are probably what 10 years old yeah and they were on twitter and 0.67

00:38:39.160 the now defunct platform curious cat right you're right there's no like explicit like black and

00:38:45.240 white answer that we can apply to these situations um maybe it is always just a case by case the

00:38:51.540 finale of love island usa is airing this weekend so we'll see where the discourse goes from here

00:38:59.180 and to be honest i think that this has just put more eyeballs on the show

00:39:04.380 it is now time for bookmarked where we share a recommendation from our week that we've loved

00:39:16.240 this episode has been kind of heavy so let's end on a light note. Jazz you're up first what have

00:39:23.380 you loved? On Tuesday night I was lucky enough to attend the Melbourne premiere of the new Superman

00:39:28.760 movie in IMAX. Okay superhero era. I know I'm not a superhero gal usually. It was only like a year

00:39:37.640 or two ago that I watched all the Spider-Man finally. I'm still actually a bit behind on

00:39:41.300 the tom holland ones i think living with my male partner now i'm like leaning more into like action

00:39:47.720 and superhero movies and i really enjoyed superman i didn't even know there was a new one because i'm

00:39:54.060 low-key scarred from the last superman thing i consumed which was batman versus superman one of

00:39:58.640 the worst movies i've ever seen i've not seen any batman any superman okay not even small

00:40:05.040 so i was like going in dark knight get onto it some of the best movies anyway it's on my it's

00:40:10.680 high on my list yeah but take us back to superman you actually posted a thirst trap of one of the

00:40:17.300 actors one of the actors i post of superman himself oh sorry and it's like slow-mo set

00:40:22.560 to one thing by lola young i was like girl is in her thirst trap era so the 2025 superman

00:40:30.220 follows the hero as he's drawn into a conflict um at home on earth and abroad and he's battling

00:40:39.140 the tech billionaire lex luther um who is trying to get superman out of the way for good the new

00:40:46.220 superman is played by david corn sweat um he was formerly in the politician with ben platt do you

00:40:54.140 remember that tv show no but his face is very familiar and he is very superhero and our fave

00:41:00.200 rachel brosnahan is lois lane and rachel of course plays the marvelous mrs mazel in one of

00:41:07.740 It's one of our favourite TV shows.

00:41:09.260 I love this.

00:41:10.220 I'm so excited to watch it actually for her, to be honest now.

00:41:13.460 I'm back on, baby.

00:41:14.840 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:41:15.280 I was the same.

00:41:16.160 I was like, yes, I need to see Mrs. Maisel.

00:41:18.120 And we get to the end of the movie and I was like, I love,

00:41:20.500 I can only see her as Mrs. Maisel.

00:41:23.320 And then Laurie's like, that's where she's from.

00:41:25.420 I spent the whole movie thinking, like, knowing I knew her face.

00:41:29.060 Also our fave, Nicholas Holt is Lex Luthor.

00:41:32.420 I have loved him for so long and especially after the great epic.

00:41:37.740 um so a really really strong cast the plot itself you know i'm going in with a grain of salt

00:41:44.540 it's quite american superheroes always kind of propaganda but superman is actually an allegory

00:41:51.820 for an immigrant story and it's quite on the nose at points like there were points where i was like

00:41:56.220 this is literally israel gaza and this is literally the term aliens like is used as

00:42:03.500 basically a slur in this movie you know because superman is from another planet and there's a

00:42:07.820 monologue about like i'm not an alien like i have my humanity and your humanity is like looking

00:42:11.720 after other people and stuff so i walked away being like that was actually quite a political

00:42:15.640 movie for a superhero movie because normally like marvel is so like army propaganda so of course

00:42:21.340 people on the right are saying now that it's like a woke movie like we can't have anything and it's

00:42:26.840 like the superman story has always been an allegory for immigrants like what are you talking about

00:42:31.920 but in terms of like the movie itself like seeing on IMAX highly recommend yeah take it with a grain

00:42:37.760 of salt with like the graphics and I think it's quite violent but I really enjoyed it it was a

00:42:44.000 fun watch there's some comedy you know people laugh out loud comedy quite a lot of drama

00:42:48.320 Nicholas Holt plays a really really good villain as well like I want to see him play the bad guy

00:42:52.620 more he's normally such like the good guy normally have you watched Mad Max yes Mad Max

00:42:57.840 yeah and even in the menu he played kind of a villain like a dickhead do you think that you'll

00:43:06.400 be going to see superman at imax well okay no i do want to watch it now but i don't know if i'm

00:43:11.160 just going to wait till it like leaves the cinemas i'm on that streaming grind or like just waiting

00:43:16.640 for it to leave the cinemas unfortunately sorry same cinema i know i love the movies but it's the

00:43:23.280 same with materialist like i've heard such mixed things i'm like i don't want to pay for it i just

00:43:26.880 can't wait sorry but that's the truth and what have you loved watching reading or listening to

00:43:33.700 this week max i have loved another musical oh my gosh watching stage things is probably one of my

00:43:41.420 favorite hobbies dare i say and last night i took you to the opening of annie in melbourne

00:43:46.620 annie the musical obviously a classic film um haven't watched it since i was a kid but i was

00:43:52.200 very excited to see it as a stage production I'd never seen it before and it was honestly such a

00:43:57.760 great musical I'm not surprised at all that the musical came first it was debuted in 1977

00:44:05.360 whereas the movie came after and actually interestingly enough I didn't know this but

00:44:10.340 Annie is based on a comic strip from the 20s so that's kind of its origin story but it was just

00:44:15.680 such a fantastic and like kind of like a life-affirming musical like watching these incredible

00:44:21.040 like young girls and like such a talented cast go full out like fully full out just like incredible

00:44:27.120 dancing and singing um was so enjoyable i feel like this is such a classic musical for maybe um

00:44:33.960 if you've got any younger people in your life or people newer to musicals i feel like you're getting

00:44:39.820 in it with this it's like a 1920 like set in 1920s new york and like it's very fabulous

00:44:46.020 1930s is it she's born in 22 and then she's 11 oh yeah true okay 1920s 30s not the fact

00:44:54.200 check on vaguely yeah this orphan annie that's totally real during the depression great depression

00:45:01.200 yeah okay dad's your father today sorry i don't remember i don't remember you're like too scared

00:45:09.320 to talk about it now yeah anyway it was in the 1920s or 30s slash both um it was such a good

00:45:18.700 musical so it just opened in melbourne and then we'll actually be going to brisbane from december

00:45:23.880 so get in it was beautiful i actually like watching it in winter just because it's quite

00:45:28.880 winter it's around christmas time but in the northern hemisphere so a very nice cozy night

00:45:35.140 wasn't it we loved it the dancing was incredible the little girls singing their hearts out on tune

00:45:42.660 like literally brought a tear to my eye yeah no seriously same i was like really choked up it was

00:45:46.760 just like beautiful seeing people doing what they love that brings us to the end of this episode of

00:45:52.400 culture club thank you so much for tuning in we've had such a joy chatting it was so fun it was and

00:45:59.820 we'll catch you very soon keep up with us on tiktok and instagram and we'll be back in your ears

00:46:05.660 before you know it talk to you soon bye

Culture Club - July 15, 2025

Princess Treatment, Love Island's Racism Double-Standard & Are Men Falling Behind？

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