Culture Club - The Models, The Singer & The NY Times

00:00:00.000 our fave olivia rodrigo tracks the first indigenous and bisexual bachelorette demi

00:00:12.120 levato comes out as non-binary and a new york times ad that targets the hadith sisters

00:00:17.320 and jua lipa for speaking out about palestine we're jasmine and maggie and you're listening

00:00:22.540 to coach club this is our weekly chat about pop culture current affairs the internet and our lives 0.74

00:00:28.640 We acknowledge that the Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung people are the traditional custodians

00:00:33.780 of the land upon which we live, work, and record this podcast episode.

00:00:38.540 As always, we would like to pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging.

00:00:44.300 Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.

00:00:50.580 Maggie, the question that I'm sure many, many listeners want to know is,

00:00:57.220 what are your top three songs off the olivia rodrigo sour album this is easy for me and i am

00:01:03.440 i am loving reading everybody's top threes i totally judge people seeing what they say i think

00:01:09.320 it's so interesting seeing the range anyway let me tell you mine my top three are happier

00:01:16.100 jealousy jealousy and hope you're okay and what did you say what did you reply to my instagram

00:01:22.660 i'm sorry when i posted that i said your pisces sun is showing literally water cry baby

00:01:30.760 honestly and i actually um even though you told me i predicted your favorite song

00:01:36.960 the opening track of course i heard the opening track and i actually haven't really gotten past

00:01:42.520 it yet i just heard brutal on repeat for like three days now i love it so much could also be

00:01:49.840 because i don't know just the sad songs i'm like it's just too sad right now i can't deal with that

00:01:56.320 i need something that's like teen angst angry at the world um so yeah i'm still listening to

00:02:03.400 brutal and good for you i think i'll get to the slower song soon though but yeah so amazing what

00:02:09.660 a great debut it's like huge pop culture news i feel so proud of her oh me too um back to brutal

00:02:18.340 for one second i also love it it is creeping up in my top three but um tom tom also listened to

00:02:24.960 the whole album and he was like this song is so familiar and we just couldn't pick up for ages

00:02:29.480 we did a little google someone had done an article about it because it sounds like the song voodoo

00:02:35.000 child do you know yeah yeah okay good thank god if you play them side by side this is totally fine

00:02:43.640 because you know songs are inspired by each other i'm not saying it to call out olivia but it was

00:02:47.720 so cool to just kind of realize that because they've got the same um like yeah but fun musical

00:02:58.700 fact voodoo char by the rogue traders sampled that from an elvis costello song yeah so that

00:03:05.540 like it's sample of a sample so i think she must have had to sample the elvis costello song it's

00:03:12.600 called pump it up if you wanted to hear um because that's what I thought of first as well

00:03:17.920 and I sent it to my parents because they used to work in the music industry and I was like did you

00:03:22.820 think they had to pay Elvis Costello for this and my mom was like uh yeah otherwise he would

00:03:26.800 have sued her like it's so identical it's that no no no no no bit so yeah there you go it's full

00:03:34.180 of samples you are full of pop culture and music knowledge that actually just blew my mind and yeah

00:03:40.500 I saw that she also sampled or borrowed from,

00:03:43.920 don't know what the correct word is, from a Taylor Swift song.

00:03:46.340 And I'm pretty sure Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff

00:03:48.060 were like credited for the song.

00:03:50.220 What is it?

00:03:50.560 Two steps forward, one step backwards?

00:03:52.740 Yeah, three steps.

00:03:53.960 Wait, one step forward, three steps backwards.

00:03:56.600 We're just like doing a little dance with our steps.

00:03:58.640 I am so happy to see all this Olivia paraphernalia 1.00

00:04:02.200 and just everyone going wild over her because that's what she deserves. 0.96

00:04:06.200 Yeah, I can't get enough.

00:04:07.320 so I actually started watching High School Musical, the musical, the series.

00:04:11.800 I'm just one episode in.

00:04:13.560 Have you seen it?

00:04:14.640 No.

00:04:14.980 Is it good?

00:04:16.000 Yeah.

00:04:16.540 I mean, it's actually quite interesting because it takes a mickey out of itself.

00:04:20.940 So, for instance, there's one line.

00:04:22.840 It's like a mini documentary, so they kind of have cuts to the people

00:04:26.580 talking to the camera and whatnot.

00:04:29.280 But, you know, one of the PE teachers is like, yeah, I support the arts.

00:04:33.940 I pay for ad-free Spotify.

00:04:35.320 like it's got little quips like that that kind of you know it doesn't take yourself too seriously

00:04:40.900 or whatever so I'm enjoying it yeah I heard it's quite meta like because they're in a musical

00:04:49.060 in a school they're doing high school musical in a high school as a musical it is confusing that's

00:04:56.200 why we're like jumbling all over our words because it is set at a high school that high

00:05:00.700 school musical was filmed but it's like the legit high school that's like a normal high school so

00:05:05.300 they're putting on a production of high school musicals and musical where high school musical

00:05:10.020 was filmed oh I'm never saying this this is terrible no that sounds I think I saw the

00:05:16.740 trailer once um we talked about it oh I was thinking I had that conversation with someone

00:05:23.240 else whoopsie wow it was on the podcast we've already covered this I know okay I just also

00:05:32.300 with the olivia rodrigo album good for you also is like sampling misery business by paramore

00:05:39.260 there's been a lot of mashups on tiktok of the backing track and like mixing the two together

00:05:44.480 so like that's another one that made me want to relive my teenage years i was a big paramore fan

00:05:51.180 were you no i didn't have that like hey no i didn't have that like edgy kind of emo goth phase

00:05:59.500 really so i'm i'm sorry i was just thinking of yeah um when i was up in queensland when i was

00:06:08.860 staying at my family's um decode by paramore like the song from twilight came on youtube

00:06:14.140 um in the lounge i was like oh such a good song and my sister was like this song just reminds me

00:06:20.620 of your first period even though it was like years after um which is like so much teen angst like

00:06:29.140 you were just like emo in your room like listening to paramore that is so funny i actually love that

00:06:35.360 and you know what it sounds like we planned this out but perfect segue because we just want to say

00:06:40.200 a thank you to scarlet for sponsoring this episode we love talking about periods how perfect is this

00:06:46.840 so scarlet is an australian period care brand aiming to make our cycles more sustainable

00:06:51.880 and refine the period experience while crying to paramore so thank you

00:06:57.260 brooke blerton has made history as australia's first indigenous and queer bachelorette

00:07:06.020 so for those who don't know brooke is a 26 year old noonga yamiji youth worker who was on a

00:07:12.460 previous season of the bachelor as well as bachelor in paradise speaking to abc radio she said i do

00:07:19.520 feel a bit of pressure and a bit of responsibility obviously i have a cultural background and i'm

00:07:24.580 really proud of that but I do know that I don't represent every single person as every person's

00:07:29.960 experience is so different. Brooke is also the first bisexual bachelorette so that means that

00:07:35.880 men and women will be able to apply as contestants which is a first. How do we feel about this? Do

00:07:43.620 you watch The Bachelorette or The Bachelor? Yeah well I used to watch The Bachelor quite a lot

00:07:49.700 especially in high school um very very enjoyable very fun for me but I just kind of dwindled the

00:07:56.600 last few years I just haven't been clicking because honestly the bachelors and bachelorettes

00:08:00.920 weren't just that interesting to me did you ever watch never um not on it for any reason in

00:08:07.680 particular I wasn't really raised on reality tv or anything like I've never seen big brother or

00:08:12.660 anything but i remember we studied it lol um in my degree at rmit doing media um we i did a course

00:08:22.220 called like tv pop culture and tv or something and we looked at the format of it which i found

00:08:26.940 so interesting i find it fascinating but um i think i actually might watch this this version

00:08:33.860 because it is a first she seems like a really lovely girl and i am hoping that the contestants

00:08:42.160 will also be just as diverse oh yeah such a good point um Brooke is awesome so I see what she's up

00:08:48.460 to on social media quite a bit and she does a lot of like mental health work and works with youth

00:08:53.700 I mean kind of mentioned that before she's a youth worker so I'm halfway through her TEDx talk and

00:08:59.600 she speaks on being an indigenous woman but also feeling not Aboriginal enough or not white enough

00:09:05.640 to fit in in Australia so she's super outspoken about her cultural identity and I think it'll be 0.87

00:09:11.980 hopefully really great to see this play out in mainstream tv because of course i guess like a

00:09:18.120 lot of us who are progressive and might know her on socials or see the work she does that audience

00:09:24.680 i do think is also different to the audience that just consumes reality tv show or just watches the

00:09:30.500 bachelor so be awesome that she can maybe reach new australians definitely there has been a lot

00:09:37.100 of outcry from audiences for a number of reality tv shows recently where people are just saying like

00:09:42.980 this is so boring like the bachelor and married at first sight um all those tv shows that are on

00:09:50.900 all year round yeah love island especially people in australia have been like this is starting to

00:09:56.420 get so dull just seeing the same type of person and they'll have like a brunette and they're like

00:10:01.420 oh look a different type of person so maybe the producers are finally listening and yeah hopefully

00:10:08.540 that this hopefully this will bring a whole new audience to reality tv well it's interesting

00:10:15.520 looking over at the u.s who had their first ever black bachelor matt james um recently and that is 0.93

00:10:23.420 the first black bachelor in 18 years which i just think is oh my god so ridiculous that is you know 0.70

00:10:30.800 almost like all my life they've had they've run bachelor um but yeah this was such a first but 0.89

00:10:37.300 you might remember hearing about that drama because one of the contestants Rachel Kirkconnell

00:10:42.280 um you know photos emerged of her at a plantation themed party only back in 2018 which is not

00:10:49.920 long ago um as well as allegations that she had liked photos on social media that included the

00:10:55.640 confederate flags yeah well we even saw we had flex mummy on the podcast a few weeks ago and

00:11:02.820 even she was saying she's the only black contestant in this year's big brother house

00:11:07.020 so yeah i think australia really does have an issue with that australian tv as well

00:11:11.620 yeah and with that you know flex was eliminated in the first two weeks we've just seen australia's

00:11:18.720 rupaul's drag race where the only indigenous queen was first to be eliminated it just feels

00:11:25.580 a little bit off and also in terms of sexuality um it's really great that she's representing

00:11:32.420 bisexuality in the last season of married at first sight which i just watched um they did

00:11:38.320 have a bisexual groom for the first time liam cooper and that was good i think i think they

00:11:45.320 still the producers still played it quite safe and they also used the bisexuality thing as 0.82

00:11:51.000 like bait for a few storylines which was a bit uncomfortable so i'm hoping that people don't

00:11:57.980 fetishize her is what i'm trying to say and we've seen a lot of things come out in previous years

00:12:03.820 about bachelor contestants um even suing the channel or just at least complaining about um

00:12:11.720 being quite like manipulated or it's quite a toxic environment being on set and being exploited i

00:12:18.820 guess, for their storylines and whatnot. So I am a little bit nervous. And it is a bit apprehensive

00:12:25.380 to see how this goes as well. I would be nervous about, like you just said, her being fetishized

00:12:30.880 or mistreated just for views or to have that kind of clickbaity storyline come about. 0.99

00:12:37.660 Apparently on radio, there's already been a bit of biphobia around this. Australia's

00:12:43.020 mainstream media landscape is not the most progressive. So we'll have to wait and see,

00:12:47.640 i guess and just like we've seen with matt james in the u.s liam cooper on maths and now with brooke

00:12:54.220 blurton on the bachelorette uh just because we do have diverse people in these positions it doesn't

00:13:00.980 automatically make the situation woke or progressive um it takes more than just a like

00:13:07.640 performative gesture it just we'll have to see how the season plays out and how like respectfully

00:13:13.280 they do produce this show

00:13:15.640 emmy-winning american actor singer and style icon billy porter has revealed that he has been

00:13:25.000 hiv positive for the last 14 years in a story for the hollywood reporter we'll just play a snippet

00:13:31.260 now. February of 2007, I was diagnosed diabetic, type two hereditary. March, I was

00:13:44.380 signing bankruptcy papers. And by June, I was HIV positive.

00:13:51.260 you know my childhood was fraught with a lot of religious shaming growing up in the Pentecostal

00:14:05.720 church I was shamed for my behavior for my attributes from the minute I could comprehend

00:14:14.900 and thought and, you know, told I would never be blessed 0.96

00:14:18.620 and told that AIDS was God's punishment for gays 0.83

00:14:23.600 and all of that that we already know.

00:14:27.060 So watching this video and reading this piece,

00:14:30.320 it was really moving, I guess, to see how Billy was speaking about this.

00:14:36.460 You could tell it was very much an emotional issue for him,

00:14:39.900 as it should be, just seeing him open up about being HIV positive

00:14:44.880 when there is still a lot of shame and I guess taboo surrounding it was really I keep wanting

00:14:50.440 to use the word inspirational I don't know if that's right here but I think he didn't have to

00:14:55.240 share this but he chose to which I think makes it powerful yeah definitely like even though

00:15:00.720 we know more about AIDS and HIV than ever before there is still so much stigma left over from the

00:15:07.540 AIDS crisis of the 80s and the 90s so it's very powerful for him to speak out like this especially

00:15:12.800 as a black man as well i do want to read out another snippet that um was transcribed by the

00:15:18.080 hollywood reporter there's happiness yes the surface joy but there was also a feeling of dread

00:15:23.860 all day every day it wasn't a fear that my status was going to come out or that somebody was going

00:15:29.860 to expose me it was just a shame that it had happened in the first place and as a black man 0.97

00:15:36.140 particularly a black man on this planet you have to be perfect or you will get killed but look at 0.69

00:15:41.700 me yes i am the statistic but i've transcended it this is what hiv positive looks like now 0.94

00:15:48.780 the truth is the healing and i hope this frees me i hope this frees me so that i can experience

00:15:54.680 real unadulterated joy so that i can experience peace so that i can experience intimacy so that

00:16:01.300 i can have sex without shame this is for me i'm doing this for me so important and there's not

00:16:08.940 many HIV positive people I think with this kind of this level of public platform who are speaking

00:16:16.180 out so candidly about this and I think it's just so I'm so proud I'm like so happy for him I mean

00:16:22.980 I think it's a big step to de-stigmatize HIV oh yeah and in the snippet that we first played he

00:16:30.400 does talk about one of the biggest hurdles was being judged by the church and you know he had to

00:16:36.220 like telling his own mother was one of the hardest things he did um it was really nice to see her

00:16:41.800 reaction as well so you know I would actually encourage people to read the piece or watch the

00:16:46.560 whole video I agree that there is I don't think like I haven't had much education or had that

00:16:53.620 much information told to me about HIV or AIDS but it is great to see that I guess this year in

00:17:00.720 particular i have seen more content produced around this so for instance the tv show it's a

00:17:06.540 sin that's now on stand for those in australia revolves around this um i know grace o'neill so

00:17:12.900 she's co-host of the after work drinks podcast she wrote an article for gq called we were going

00:17:20.060 to war every day the remarkable true stories of the survivors who fought australia's war on aids

00:17:25.380 so she kind of focused the attention locally as well. I'm glad that this is gaining traction again

00:17:31.160 in 2021. Now you and I obviously care a lot about our everyday actions that can make a difference

00:17:38.740 on the planet. Yeah we love bringing our keep cups for our morning coffees or choosing to shop

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00:18:47.740 in more pop culture news on twitter this week the pop star and disney actress demi lovato

00:19:06.760 said today is a day i'm so happy to share more of my life with you all i am proud to let you know

00:19:13.540 that I identify as non-binary and will officially be changing my pronouns to they them moving

00:19:19.240 forward this has come after a lot of healing and self-reflective work I'm still learning and coming

00:19:25.640 into myself and I don't claim to be an expert or a spokesperson sharing this with you now opens

00:19:31.740 another level of vulnerability for me spoken about Demi Lovato a few times this on this podcast

00:19:37.240 but happy for them like it's very brave to do that with such a public platform what are your

00:19:43.760 thoughts yeah and in particular I think Demi's received a lot more backlash than other celebrities

00:19:50.540 who have come out as non-binary or trans seeing Elliot Page who we talked about when he came out

00:19:57.360 as trans a couple months ago now I also think about Jonathan Van Ness from Queer Eye or Sam

00:20:04.660 Smith a musician I just feel like I haven't seen this level of I guess not exactly scrutiny but

00:20:10.220 I think doubt like doubting Demi I feel like I've seen a lot of that for instance the top reply on

00:20:17.040 Demi's tweet was from a conservative reporter named Kyle Becker who said this doesn't make

00:20:23.540 you hip or edgy it makes you confusing to deal with and a poor role model for children of course

00:20:28.700 a children card by the way and candace owens who said what is it real men don't wear dresses in

00:20:35.360 response to the harry stylesvo cover also spoke out against demi saying like they them is just

00:20:41.020 poor grammar we know that i don't even want to say the actual quote because i don't want to give her

00:20:45.920 oxygen but um yeah she was also really doubting demi and we know that's not true in terms of the

00:20:53.640 grammatically incorrect things like it just pisses me off when people try to use her as like

00:20:58.300 an argument against using they them pronouns i'd really recommend following rainbow history class

00:21:04.200 on tiktok and instagram they have really great resources and help break down these concepts

00:21:09.840 yeah they're so great they came up on my for you page like i didn't follow them and now i really

00:21:16.340 enjoy their content obviously so it would definitely recommend that as well in regards to

00:21:22.120 them coming out as non-binary and the lack of support part of me wonders is it because of the 0.97

00:21:30.660 frozen yogurt incident that happened just a few weeks ago where they kind of trash talked a

00:21:37.980 local family run frozen yogurt shop saying that to have diet cookies and low sugar yogurt were

00:21:44.720 very triggering for their eating disorders and they were trying to kind of speak out against

00:21:50.440 diet culture that got a lot of people riled up this coming like three weeks after that

00:21:57.840 incident that makes me wonder is that why they don't have enough support I don't know

00:22:02.320 yeah I see that I didn't think about that before but I do think a lot of the um criticism against

00:22:10.540 Demi is because oh it's attention seeking they're only doing this yeah to get attention so that

00:22:17.500 could feed into it um but i think it's quite sad that we have to be so critical of people

00:22:23.920 who are choosing to do something brave and come out yeah i don't know even if that's what your

00:22:31.840 thoughts are i think maybe just keep them to yourself instead of saying this is attention

00:22:38.400 seeking because i don't know why would you why would you come out to like millions of people

00:22:45.080 and the internet when you already know it's a cruel place just for that little bit of attention

00:22:49.700 I don't think that is a thing like especially after what they've been through with their

00:22:54.200 you know addiction struggles and everything I think that it's good good for them I also really

00:23:00.880 like this article by Mary Emily O'Hara for NBC News and it was called Demi Lovato's non-binary

00:23:08.920 revelation is important in more ways than one Mary is non-binary so I think they wrote about

00:23:15.000 this really eloquently and gave a personal insight so I'll just read out the end paragraph the whole

00:23:22.900 thing is definitely worth a read but this really stood out for me Demi Lovato's coming out video

00:23:28.820 is powerful they asserted their validity as a non-binary person while rocking a full set of 1.00

00:23:34.920 false eyelashes and seriously pop in lip gloss Lovato's femme sheen doesn't negate their expansive

00:23:41.440 gender identity any more than jonathan van ness's beard negates theirs there is room for variety here

00:23:48.280 for evolution for play and for growth that's what being non-binary is all about yeah love that i also

00:23:56.560 just had a thought as well they are also one of the only disney stars to come out as non-binary

00:24:04.340 right yeah and i wonder if that they still have this there's still this aura around them of being

00:24:11.160 a disney child star and i think a lot of people parents especially even though they're not in

00:24:15.880 disney anymore have this kind of ownership over disney stars and they feel like with the role

00:24:22.060 model thing they haven't been a role model like they haven't been in that child sphere for like

00:24:27.500 years like 10 years now so i wonder if that's why they've gotten more criticism as well is that

00:24:32.160 they were a disney star yeah what do you think no i agree and it's so annoying that we conflate

00:24:38.700 technically just a job profession being a Disney star is a job with someone's whole identity and

00:24:46.220 what they have to live up to because at the end of the day acting is also yeah just another job

00:24:50.680 um we don't expect I don't know like a retail worker to come home and still be super polite

00:24:56.480 and have their hospo voice and face on um I obviously yes there are different levels of

00:25:03.000 influence there at play but especially when a lot of these Disney stars they sign up

00:25:07.220 or their parents sign them up from such a young age there are no like why do we have these

00:25:12.140 constricting like binds on their wrists for the rest of their lives like we've seen

00:25:17.560 like we've done an episode before um like the fall of the disney stars and that sheen wears off so

00:25:24.140 it's like why do we keep doing this yeah and that also could add to the attention seeking thing we 0.62

00:25:30.160 saw the way the mainstream media treated miley and even selena with all of her health issues

00:25:35.800 like I feel like people are particularly more brutal towards Disney stars and child stars than

00:25:41.960 they are to say someone like Elliot Page yeah I just think we do have a lot of preconceptions

00:25:47.880 about perhaps what a non-binary person should look like or be like or what a Disney star should be

00:25:54.900 or should look like that it does sometimes just cloud our perception of someone right in front

00:26:03.000 of us telling us who they want to be or who they are um who they are now so as a grown adult exactly

00:26:12.620 we should listen to them this week israel and palestine called a ceasefire after weeks of

00:26:22.940 violence over 11 days of fighting 243 people including women and children were killed in gaza

00:26:31.060 while 12 people, including two children, were killed in Israel. Jasmine and I are going to

00:26:36.680 do our best to break down this more than a century-old conflict to give context for this

00:26:42.760 next segment. We've also linked a couple YouTube videos that we found helpful, which we've linked

00:26:47.980 in our show notes. So as Maggie said, we have to give some historical context to explain the topic

00:26:54.600 we want to talk about. During World War I, Britain took control of Palestine, which was a nation

00:27:00.540 with a majority Arab population and a minority Jewish population.

00:27:05.580 Britain was asked to set up a national home in Palestine

00:27:08.200 for Jewish people specifically.

00:27:10.800 So this was begun by the Zionism movement,

00:27:13.780 which is basically an ideology that Judaism is both a nationality 0.62

00:27:18.140 and a religion and therefore has a right to its own country.

00:27:22.380 During the Holocaust, many Jewish people fled from Europe

00:27:25.920 to Palestine due to anti-Semitism,

00:27:28.300 and many Arab Palestinians believed that they were invader settlers.

00:27:33.340 Tensions began to rise and the UN, which had just been established, said basically,

00:27:38.920 okay, Palestine will be split into a Jewish state, which is Israel, an Arab state, which is Gaza and

00:27:45.300 the West Bank, and then Jerusalem can be this international city. So the Arab Palestinians 0.86

00:27:50.380 weren't happy with this agreement, mainly because of the fact that at that time there was about

00:27:55.840 1.2 million of them, as opposed to like about 600,000 Jewish people. So Britain was kind of

00:28:04.200 like, oh, we've done enough damage, we're going to yeet out of here, and left the other two 1.00

00:28:10.180 cultures to clean up the mess. Since then, there has been decades of conflict between the two

00:28:16.440 groups. I also think we should define the politics of the situation. So Israel has a right-wing

00:28:22.400 coalition government, whereas the West Bank has a political party called Fatah. But Gaza is ruled 0.73

00:28:28.660 by Hamas, who is a democratically elected government. But the USA, Israel, UK, and Australia

00:28:37.340 consider them to be a terrorist organization. So a few weeks ago, the Jerusalem District Court

00:28:43.300 ordered six Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood to leave their generational

00:28:48.280 homes as Israelis began settling in the area. This is because of a law that states if a citizen 0.57

00:28:53.800 can prove that a property was Jewish-owned before the 1948 Arab-Israel war, they can keep it. And 0.59

00:29:01.240 this is where tensions have recently heightened because of a court case around this. Thousands

00:29:07.480 of Palestinians protested this, and as Israeli military began aggressions on the ground,

00:29:12.660 Hamas sent Israel 100 rockets, and then Israel fought back by dropping an air raid on Gaza.

00:29:19.600 While both groups were fighting, it's important to note that Israel has advanced military defense,

00:29:25.300 including something called an iron dome, which is a piece of equipment that can intercept rockets

00:29:31.140 and destroy them when they're fired into their space. So it's a bit of uneven fighting ground

00:29:37.740 happening. Since the fighting began, a few celebrities, in particular Gigi and Bela Hadid,

00:29:43.860 have been speaking out against the Israel government. It's important to note they haven't

00:29:47.960 been speaking out against the people or Judaism as a religion. They are talking about this as

00:29:53.740 their grandparents were Palestinian refugees, so they're very passionate about this topic.

00:29:59.180 So after that long-winded but important background context, it takes us to this New York Times ad,

00:30:05.280 which we saw through Diet Prada. So the New York Times ran a full-page ad condemning Gigi,

00:30:12.620 Bella, and Dua Lipa for speaking out. So in the Saturday edition of the New York Times,

00:30:18.700 an organization called the World Values Network ran the ad with a headline stating,

00:30:24.560 Hamas calls for a second holocaust. Condemn them now. And the main theme of the ad was suggesting

00:30:30.580 that supporting Palestine was anti-Semitic.

00:30:34.060 So we did some background research, of course,

00:30:36.560 into this organization, and the World Values Network

00:30:40.320 is an American group who, on their website, state,

00:30:44.000 their mission is to disseminate universal Jewish values

00:30:47.360 in politics, culture, and media,

00:30:49.920 making the Jewish people a light unto the nations.

00:30:53.120 It is our belief that Judaism, with its unique emphasis

00:30:56.260 on perfecting the world and celebrating life, 0.99

00:30:58.960 can benefit America against some of the greatest challenges of our time including high rates of

00:31:04.500 divorce, teen alienation, depression and growing ignorance and materialism. When I went onto the

00:31:11.380 main home page of their website there is a big banner also saying the same thing the ad is saying

00:31:17.540 basically calling these celebrities terrorists. So I think what was really painful about this

00:31:26.220 was that they were inflating supporting Palestine with being anti-Semitic because

00:31:33.840 anti-Semitism is actually such a massive issue and during this time it's true they mentioned it

00:31:41.620 in the ad that hate crimes against Jewish people have increased across the world so for instance

00:31:47.920 in the uk um there's been roughly a 400 increase in anti-semitic attacks so this is not something

00:31:57.520 to speak lightly of but to conflate this issue with this kind of minimizes both issues exactly

00:32:04.240 and i think the hadith sisters through this whole thing have said we are not condemning jewish

00:32:10.620 people we are not being anti-semitic we are just standing with palestinians and their rights in the

00:32:16.400 add, Rabbi Shmuley Botich, who is the head of this organization, called the models and singer

00:32:24.260 three mega-influencers who have accused Israel of ethnic cleansing and vilified the Jewish state.

00:32:31.600 On their homepage, the World Values Network said, while Israel is under attack by thousands of

00:32:37.280 terror missiles, the supermodels Bella and Gigi Hadid and pop singer Jua Lipa have formed an

00:32:42.900 unholy trinity of anti-semitic file to demonize the jewish people whom they insist have no right

00:32:50.080 to defend themselves speaking to their nearly 100 million followers on social media they have

00:32:56.200 vilified the jewish state with an all-consuming hatred so like very very emotive angry words

00:33:05.340 that's on their website i should say that's not in the new york times ad um but it's the same

00:33:10.640 organization i am shocked sorry i didn't see that and just the fact that an organization has yes

00:33:17.340 actually they even state it like they've literally chosen to go after three supermodels

00:33:21.680 is just so so just out of the woods to me yeah well they have all three of them have been quite

00:33:29.740 vocal on social media especially bella she you know is posting pictures from her protests in

00:33:35.180 New York and things like that. But that doesn't give them any, you know, right to just like

00:33:40.920 attack them in the New York Times. Like it's pretty crazy. So Dua Lipa responded on her

00:33:47.040 Instagram story saying, I actually reject the false and appalling allegations that were published

00:33:52.840 today in the New York Times advertisement taken out by the World Values Network. This is the price

00:33:58.380 you pay for defending Palestinian human rights against an Israeli government whose actions in

00:34:03.800 Palestine, both Human Rights Watch and the Israeli human rights group B-Salam, accused of persecution

00:34:10.820 and discrimination. She continues, I take this stance because I believe that everyone, Jews,

00:34:17.640 Muslims, and Christians have the right to live in peace as equal citizens of a state they choose.

00:34:23.280 The World Values Network are shamelessly using my name to advance their ugly campaign

00:34:28.140 with falsehoods and blatant misrepresentations of who i am and what i stand for i stand in

00:34:34.220 solidarity with all oppressed people and reject all forms of racism and i saw like throughout

00:34:39.860 this week every time that i did post like on gg's instagram feed she even has responded to comments

00:34:47.260 of people calling her anti-semitic or anti-semite and she said like days days ago like when they

00:34:52.980 first started talking about this that they don't want to put any hatred towards jewish people like

00:34:58.740 this isn't about jewish people or the religion it's the whole situation that we just try to give

00:35:04.020 context to you know israel and palestine etc in the diet prada post a reporter from the white house

00:35:11.960 scott bixby compared the ad in the new york times to the central park five ad where donald trump

00:35:19.680 paid for an ad to call for five black young men to be executed for the rape of a white woman in 0.53

00:35:25.520 New York in 1989. The group were later exonerated just by DNA, but still there was this very

00:35:33.920 politically charged ad in the New York Times. While you can't really compare three wealthy white

00:35:40.560 women to five young black boys, the situation of this independent organization paying for this

00:35:47.200 politically charged ad in the New York Times remains the same, doesn't it? And it's something

00:35:53.760 that we have seen a lot more of, the, I guess, blurred lines of advertorial sponsorships and

00:36:01.920 journalism. So do you think publications like the New York Times have a right to remain impartial

00:36:08.100 and then not run these political ads? It's a big question because we both work in the media

00:36:13.880 industry and we know that of course you need dollars and profits for it to be run and a lot

00:36:19.600 of the time you know it is from paid ads that the media industry gets its revenue and I don't think

00:36:28.040 we're expecting news publications to stay impartial we don't just look to journalism for

00:36:34.080 facts and figures we look to them for opinions and perspectives but of course it gets so messy when

00:36:43.060 politics and things like this come into play you and i have both had to do advertorial content in

00:36:50.000 our careers so far um where we know that a client is paying for exposure or for you know a mention

00:36:57.900 in a piece but i think there's a big difference between knowing and publication needs ads to run

00:37:04.280 and survive in this media landscape versus putting out this like really really bad narrative

00:37:13.020 and attacking three young women like yes they have power they have wealth but they're like

00:37:18.140 25 24 you know like the young women who are standing up for what they think is right

00:37:23.460 and for a publication like the new york times to run a smear campaign i think is so shocking really

00:37:32.540 i think this is really big news in my eyes i also found it so interesting that this ad

00:37:40.800 only featured these young women under 25 who were speaking out they didn't mention

00:37:45.960 mark ruffalo his tweets they didn't mention roger waters zane obviously gg's husband um

00:37:52.540 the weekend or bella and gg's brother anwar and jew's boyfriend anwar he's also been speaking out

00:37:59.400 not as um much as bella and gg but still they have said things they have said zane's been saying

00:38:06.860 free Palestine since like 2014 you know so I found that very I know it's just because they

00:38:13.220 have bigger platforms and they're probably more influential than those men I've just mentioned

00:38:17.660 but I think it is yeah so fascinating yeah and the New York Times didn't have to accept that

00:38:25.000 they could have like took a stand and not and not accepted this but they didn't and you pulled out

00:38:30.960 this tweet that read they just published a really insightful article by a Palestinian American

00:38:36.220 journalists documenting her family's personal history of displacement and loss at the hands

00:38:41.320 of Israeli occupation. But of course, let's erase all that with paid propaganda. That'll balance

00:38:47.140 things out. Yeah. I feel like that tweet summed up so well of like, if you're going to run these

00:38:52.940 ads next to an opinion piece about why, you know, this person's family has been displaced. It just

00:39:00.360 really, for me anyway, like erases all of that work. It's not like they gathered two different

00:39:05.360 opinions and they they commissioned two different stories with like one person from Israel one 0.57

00:39:12.560 person from Palestine and they're saying their personal experiences with this awful awful conflict

00:39:17.480 but it was one person's story about their family and a paid ad like they're very very different

00:39:24.440 things for them to pay they must have paid thousands of dollars for that I'm guessing

00:39:28.400 I don't even know lots of money to be in the New York Times and it was

00:39:32.460 are like in the main section as well it's important to note this isn't just like in the back of the

00:39:37.720 tv guide this is like the saturday edition of one of the biggest newspapers in the world

00:39:42.180 at the front of it and they're saying hamas calls for a second holocaust you know so i think that

00:39:48.380 tweet really sums up it's so whack um i think the more we talk about it i just realized how ludicrous

00:39:54.720 it was to have an ad literally um attacking these three women I just find it so so strange and yeah

00:40:03.500 I really don't know how that got approved yeah so what will happen now if I was the Hadid sisters I

00:40:09.940 would sue the New York Times yeah and they probably have the money for it exactly the three of them

00:40:15.240 combined their net worth would definitely outweigh the New York Times so can you imagine though like

00:40:21.640 being around that Saturday brunch table like they've got their newspapers little kai's there

00:40:27.920 like zane and what like all of them are sitting there and then they just see this ad like attacking

00:40:34.020 them calling them terrorists like how weird would that be good on them all for speaking out I think

00:40:40.800 they have so much influence and power and they are young and you know as a result I think more

00:40:46.660 people will just be educated on this topic. Okay, Jasmine, what are you recommending us this week?

00:40:56.240 Running on from our last segment, something that I watched this week that really, really helped me

00:41:02.560 was a Vox YouTube explainer on the Israel-Palestine conflict. It's called A Brief Simple History.

00:41:09.700 it goes for 10 minutes and it just sums up how we got to where we are in the 21st century

00:41:18.280 this was published in January of 2016 so it doesn't explain the most recent conflict but it does

00:41:26.120 give a lot of context in history and explains the area really well which is something that I

00:41:32.320 don't know about you but I didn't learn about all this in school or I don't remember learning about

00:41:37.240 it. And I think having the visual explainer is so, so good because I was trying to piece together

00:41:46.260 bits and pieces of information from news sources like the Daily Oz, Al Jazeera, the BBC. So like

00:41:54.180 I was trying to go for those more like reputable news sources while also looking at the infographics

00:41:59.320 that were going around Instagram. And in my head, I was getting really like overwhelmed by all the

00:42:04.020 little pieces I was trying to like a puzzle trying to put together and this video just summed up the

00:42:09.660 conflict really well so if you were wanting to learn more about the history of the area

00:42:16.900 and the conflict I would definitely recommend that. Perfect you sent this to me as well and

00:42:23.340 I watched it and I found it super helpful it's just 10 minutes and explains that very succinctly

00:42:29.400 and clearly and I think engages both sides of the issue very well yeah I think in times like this

00:42:36.780 well-researched pieces of a journalism like this are so important yeah and well I think

00:42:43.820 Instagram infographics have a place I don't think they should be our only news source and I think

00:42:50.320 you should always fact check them and remember that they're coming from like an independent

00:42:54.920 person's brain whereas videos like this have dedicated researchers and teams and historians

00:43:01.860 and everything to go through and meticulously check all the information so I think just be

00:43:07.440 careful with what you're reading and we're all learning go watch that if you're interested Vox

00:43:12.580 is just such a great platform anyway I love all the journalism so yeah that's mine what are you

00:43:18.580 recommending this week I'm recommending something from quite a while back actually it's an article

00:43:24.740 that was published in 2018 it is called meet the McCallums one of Australia's few Amish families

00:43:32.600 it was by Melissa Fyfe and it was for the Sydney Morning Herald so I actually found this on

00:43:37.420 Instagram when content creator Tara Chandra shared it on her story because when she was in Tasmania

00:43:44.080 she was actually sold some baked goods from one of the Amish girls and she was googling and found

00:43:50.220 this piece so this is kind of a left-field recommendation but I loved this piece I have

00:43:57.280 a soft spot for long-form journalism and I really do appreciate like long-form feature pieces and

00:44:04.900 this really allowed readers to be curious about the lifestyles of the Amish without being overly

00:44:11.880 judgmental or overly critical do you know much about Amish people not really to be honest just

00:44:18.600 that they i'm generalizing but they don't have electricity and they have like very old ideologies

00:44:26.580 in terms of like the way they live like old industries and stuff that's basically all i

00:44:33.140 knew and i think um in our modern pop culture landscape they're usually just like the butt of

00:44:37.940 jokes you know like oh this is like an amish outfit or whatever it might be um and in this

00:44:44.720 um melissa i think she just built like a really great connection with the family so she did

00:44:50.820 respectfully gain the trust of them and in return we as a reader gain a really intimate look and

00:44:56.940 understanding about this little known religious group um you're right they like they don't have

00:45:02.480 a car so they ride like they have a horse that drags the carriage oh sorry i literally don't

00:45:08.780 know any of these words um or one of the things one of the passages that stood out for me was

00:45:14.980 you know they've got like a lot of children think like sound of music vibes um and they have like a

00:45:19.840 little girl like under the age of 10 and they're all doing their chores all respectfully um and

00:45:25.720 then the like little girl goes up to their parents be like like mommy daddy like anything else you

00:45:30.160 want me to do and then she's like shall I like slaughter the chicken like literally the author's

00:45:35.760 which are like outside in the garden like they're just you know slaughtering the animals um it was

00:45:40.860 just it was quite a culture shock um sorry vegetarian chas um but i don't know i think

00:45:48.540 she just like as a writer i think that was really great writing to read um yeah i really enjoyed

00:45:54.220 really enjoyed this one that sounds so good i really like to read that i'm gonna read that

00:45:59.560 tonight it's pretty long no i find that so fascinating like the fact that they're still

00:46:03.960 like living like it's the 1800s it's so so interesting yes um well thanks for the chat

00:46:12.280 jazz and thanks listeners for tuning in yeah thank you everyone for listening and of course

00:46:18.040 thanks again to period care brand scarlet for sponsoring our episode don't forget to find and

00:46:24.160 follow the instagram account at we are scarlet and you could maybe even try out some period

00:46:29.520 products for yourself all right talk to you guys later bye bye

Culture Club - May 24, 2021

The Models, The Singer & The NY Times

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