Culture Club - The New Status Symbol

00:00:00.000 a tumblr blast from the past millie bobby brown's call out and is food now an aspirational status

00:00:13.320 symbol i'm maggie zow and i'm jasmine wallace and you're listening to culture club where we

00:00:19.460 chat about pop culture current affairs the internet and our lives

00:00:23.580 today we're on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung people of the Kulin Nations

00:00:32.820 First Nations people have taken care of our lands and waterways for over 60,000 years

00:00:38.580 and have been sharing knowledge and culture through oral history from time immemorial

00:00:43.420 we would like to pay our respects to elders past and present and extend this to any aboriginal or

00:00:49.500 Torres Strait Islander listeners today. Hi, Mags. We've barely seen each other this week

00:00:59.160 because I've been interstate and you've been at Fashion Festival. Yeah, it's been a busy few weeks,

00:01:05.860 hasn't it? I think last time we probably jumped on the mic together, I was 25. I was living in

00:01:11.720 a different house. I hadn't been to New Zealand for a short trip. And as you said, Melbourne

00:01:17.880 Fashion Festival probably hadn't happened yet. So it's been a busy Feb, March period already.

00:01:24.540 It really has. How did you find Fashion Fest this month?

00:01:28.400 This was really fun. I feel like it's always a very like vibrant, poppy atmosphere. I feel very

00:01:37.040 lucky because lots of like my friends are there working or attending. So it's always nice to see

00:01:42.260 people's faces and at the concern of sounding like annoying um it's obviously such a fun week

00:01:52.320 and I love it and the shows like getting to attend shows is such a privilege but I will say like

00:01:56.700 you're often leaving the house at like 5 or 6 p.m sometimes after work and then you get home like

00:02:02.160 past 10 p.m so the dinner times are skewed uh and I was a little bit tired I was very tired from the

00:02:10.820 week actually that's fine I think two things can be true at once right I'm like so cognizant of

00:02:16.240 not complaining about fun things but even fun things can make you feel tired especially when

00:02:22.120 you're out of your routine and I know that you love your routines yeah I do but you went Adelaide

00:02:29.040 and Loki I forgot that I went last year and I was looking through your photos I was like oh my god

00:02:33.820 that looks so familiar I was like no I'd be there how was it yeah my first time in Adelaide which

00:02:40.400 is crazy because it's only like an hour flight from melbourne like it's shorter than the flight

00:02:44.200 to sydney um but yeah i got to go with south australian tourism so i think that was like an

00:02:50.580 amazing way to see it for the first time because they planned the itinerary and like we were

00:02:55.740 staying right in the center right near the market um but i loved it there was so many i think the

00:03:02.140 like food and drink was such a highlight yes so many amazing restaurants and we also were there

00:03:08.960 for like adelaide fringe adelaide festival and then there was this art exhibition in the botanic

00:03:14.440 gardens as well so it's really cool to be there when it's like really buzzy and happening but

00:03:19.300 yeah loved like would highly recommend i also really recommend the gallery like the south

00:03:23.620 australian gallery we had some spare time and we were close by so like let's just pop in and

00:03:28.940 it was a real highlight as well so yes i was there for like three four days and then came home and i

00:03:36.080 managed to attend two fashion shows on the friday night so i was really glad to like see people and

00:03:42.580 get to see some amazing clothes we saw you and i saw the sustainability runway on the friday night

00:03:47.760 saturday night oh saturday night sorry see i don't even know what day it is

00:03:51.480 yeah so it was saturday also long public holiday today so it's throwing me off but yeah i thought

00:03:58.300 that was really inspiring to see like runways made of donated clothes not all of them were

00:04:04.740 donated but yeah it was a good fashion week and fun to try something new and go see a new place

00:04:10.800 in Adelaide yeah one other thing that shocked me during the break was Channing Tatum's new

00:04:20.480 potential girlfriend did you see this I saw it and I saw your video and I couldn't really remember

00:04:28.260 who Inka Williams was like I was a Tumblr girly but I was looking at pictures of her after I saw

00:04:33.800 your video and I was like I don't think I remember who Inka Williams is because I was at a friend's

00:04:39.400 wedding uh during you know our off time and I got back to the Airbnb at home and then I saw this

00:04:46.040 news I was like oh my god I just need to post the TikTok about this and like straight from the app

00:04:50.320 quickly posted it I'm like I'm like in bed like still got a bit of makeup around my eyes um and

00:04:55.760 of course that's one of like my most performing TikToks in recent months like of course yeah I was

00:05:01.440 like oh my god i always find that i was saying that to lori um because i made this like recap

00:05:08.660 of adelaide and i spent dead set like an hour editing it like finding the right videos putting

00:05:15.400 into the right music posting it and it's like flopping and it's always the ones that take like

00:05:22.020 two seconds that you just like train of thought consciousness that perform well so i feel like

00:05:27.220 this is more evidence of that yeah how many views is there is that now 180k i just checked then it's

00:05:32.960 got 180k views so yeah yeah um to give people a recap right so of course channing tatum was

00:05:41.520 with zoe kravitz they split publicly in october of last year and now he was actually spotted with

00:05:49.420 inka williams on feb 28 so for those who might not know her because to be honest she is pretty

00:05:56.000 niche she is niche like i i did say that i knew her from my tumblr days but um otherwise she's

00:06:01.660 not mainstream but she's a model she was born in australia but raised in indonesia um and i was

00:06:09.080 obsessed with her she's like kind of like bohoey she's like quite doe-eyed like obviously just

00:06:15.320 like a beautiful model um she came up at the same time as like shelby hamilton and people like that 0.67

00:06:21.560 that's her name shelby hamilton i shelby hamilton is one of those people who i think of every now

00:06:28.560 and then and i remember like her content and her pictures and her face and stuff and i'm like

00:06:32.340 whatever happened to that girl like what even is her name yeah well wow thank you for the

00:06:37.900 of course of course and um with inka and shelby they were both like supre girl gang girls back

00:06:45.080 in the past if you if you remember that you had to be there sorry sorry for our listeners who are

00:06:49.920 very confused right now. But honestly, this news just like shocked me. I don't know how to describe

00:06:55.900 it. It was just like two different worlds coming together. And yeah, I just wanted to share with

00:07:01.140 the class. I love this for you. We'll have a throwback. It literally feels like One Direction

00:07:06.340 fandom or it feels like how Taylor Lautner married a fan, you know, like it's like it gives hope

00:07:12.040 or something. It's not like I want to be with Channing, but you know.

00:07:19.920 british actress millie bobby brown is currently in the middle of a press tour but what people

00:07:26.460 are talking about is less about the movie which i'd never heard of and more about her appearance

00:07:32.280 obviously because millie is promoting this movie she is getting snapped a lot she's on a few red

00:07:37.300 carpets doing interviews etc this particular press tour has led to an onslaught of commentary about

00:07:44.580 her appearance the commentary reached a crescendo in the last week when millie herself posted a

00:07:49.800 video calling out these journalists and the comedian Matt Lucas for making jokes and insulting

00:07:55.980 rather than questioning why people are mocking a young woman's appearance. I saw this video come

00:08:02.880 up on my TikTok or Instagram and to be honest I was quite shocked seeing this because we never

00:08:07.380 really get to see celebrities calling out the media in this way in such an explicit way. So in

00:08:13.760 the video Millie actually pulls out specific article headlines and names the writers so 0.99

00:08:19.980 she pinpointed articles such as the Daily Mails one which read why are Gen Zeders like Millie

00:08:28.080 Bobby Brown aging so badly and what has Millie Bobby Brown done to her face? Millie said I started

00:08:35.180 in this industry when I was 10 years old I grew up in front of the world and for some reason people

00:08:40.700 can't seem to grow up with me. Instead, they act like I'm supposed to stay frozen in time,

00:08:45.640 like I should still look the way I did on Stranger Things season one. And because I don't,

00:08:50.540 I'm now a target. She continued, this isn't journalism, this is bullying. The fact that

00:08:56.260 adult writers are spending their time dissecting my face, my body, my choices, it's disturbing. 0.99

00:09:01.840 The fact that some of these articles are written by women, even worse. A lot of this heat kicked 0.95

00:09:07.380 off because there was this pap photo floating around where Millie is actually walking with her

00:09:13.080 younger sister Ava uh in LA and all like a lot of the comments were being like why does she look

00:09:19.340 like why does Millie look like someone's mom like she looks she looks so old all this kind of stuff

00:09:25.200 right and people were speculating about the work she's had done she was being uh compared to Pamela

00:09:32.200 anderson or like dolly parton like it was it was quite savage to be honest

00:09:38.660 not to play devil's advocate because i do think this is very like it's not on but i also

00:09:47.340 do wonder if it's the styling like i don't agree with articles of course like i think that's cruel

00:09:54.580 and don't think we should be questioning anyone's kind of face faces but i in terms of the pamela 1.00

00:10:01.940 Anderson comparison I was thinking that's because of her hair like whole messy bun thing that she's 0.98

00:10:06.220 got going on I've seen some of the styling from this Netflix movie and it does seem like more 0.81

00:10:11.500 mature which like isn't a bad thing if that's the style that you want to wear but I think that's

00:10:16.220 playing into it and I don't know if that conversation is like being brought up during

00:10:19.980 this kind of controversy it's like everyone's like we shouldn't comment on women's faces

00:10:24.460 if they've had work or we shouldn't speculate if they've had work done or not because it's like a

00:10:27.980 huge ecosystem of like patriarchy and beauty standards but I also think like that's true

00:10:34.620 for sure but when no one's talking about the styling you're like talk about her ugly styling 1.00

00:10:41.380 I mean in the pap shots as well she's wearing like pig slippers like fluffy animal slippers 1.00

00:10:49.360 she's wearing like tracky escapant she's wearing a zip up kind of like a sweatshirt in a way so 0.58

00:10:55.280 she's not dressing up to go you know out out she really looks like she's having like a cozy time 0.92

00:11:02.780 out in public also the pop shop that's really making the rounds is like really doing her dirty 0.65

00:11:06.960 like her eyes are mid-closed and you know it's okay i didn't see that on purpose oh don't even 0.99

00:11:13.220 worry but you are right like in it her hair is in this like messy updo and that's kind of the

00:11:17.440 um dolly parton uh similarities that people are calling out so you're not you're not wrong

00:11:22.740 one article that has been doing the rounds since is millie bobby brown is proof people still can't

00:11:29.740 handle when famous girls become women by madison leach for honey it reads at 21 most women are

00:11:37.100 still figuring out who they are they're experimenting with fashion beauty sexuality

00:11:41.360 and making plenty of mistakes along the way with the keen knowledge they have their whole lives

00:11:46.260 ahead of them to figure it out but when millie bobby brown does it all hell breaks loose that's

00:11:51.640 such a good point like think about when you were 21 and you know you're just figuring things out

00:11:57.220 you're experimenting but of course doing it in front of the public eye you cop so much more

00:12:02.100 this is also reminding me of the fact that olivia rodrigo just turned 22 and it's like when you're

00:12:07.540 a teenager or in your early 20s and you look at celebrities they do seem so much older but now

00:12:13.020 that i'm even older like nearing 30 and i look at like these 21 22 year old celebrities i'm like i

00:12:20.480 cannot even imagine being that famous at that age like Olivia and Millie's even longer since she was

00:12:27.060 like 10 or whatever but Olivia like from 17 to 22 and she's done so much like world tour

00:12:34.440 super super famous like it just it blows my mind really like you have to be so such a particular

00:12:40.560 type of person I think to be able to handle that yeah and like I feel like the young celebs who

00:12:47.260 make it through this really hard period are honestly like the exception I actually don't

00:12:53.360 know how people come out of it quote-unquote normal like I think it would mess with your

00:12:57.720 brain so much 100% I also read this other piece in Bloomberg which was called Millie Bobby Brown's

00:13:04.360 bullies are an institutional problem and that was written by Alex Zaragoza in it they were talking 0.96

00:13:10.140 about how yes like writing these articles sucks but they were referring to their own experience 0.55

00:13:15.400 as a writer and media and how like by editors you were insinuated to write kind of poorly about

00:13:23.260 female celebrities targeting things like appearance like this and in the piece they finish off by

00:13:29.300 saying although journalists deserve some of the heat most of the ire should be aimed at the c-suite

00:13:35.220 executives at the top of these publications and perhaps some managers and editors below them

00:13:40.000 who don't push back enough they all play a part in what lands on a writer's assignment list

00:13:44.860 totally agree with this as well it's quite hard to break in media and journalism nowadays

00:13:51.540 regardless so if you are like a young 20 year old journalist and you get your first job at the daily

00:13:57.640 mail just to like get your foot in the door most of the time like you are going to be told what to

00:14:03.280 write and even if you come up with the pitch then the editor or manager will say you have to angle

00:14:08.800 in this certain way like when it comes to tabloids and publications with like such a particular tone

00:14:13.740 voice guarantee that's happening because otherwise you'd have like so many different opinions and

00:14:19.440 angles um from the one publication so I agree with that as well like it's not deeper than people

00:14:28.080 think but I was kind of shocked that Millie named them all by name yeah what do you think of that

00:14:34.780 as like a journalist as well I mean I think it's fair game because it's like literally printed on

00:14:40.520 the website and if you are saying these words you've put your name to it I do think there is

00:14:46.020 a power imbalance in the sense of like you know she is so famous and she's got a massive following

00:14:50.920 and hopefully that doesn't lead to like I mean is that I was gonna say hopefully it doesn't lead to

00:14:57.140 hate mail for the journos but I mean they're directing hate mail to Millie Bobby Brown

00:15:01.800 essentially so there's a double standard there but there is also a power imbalance so I think

00:15:07.840 it was fair game but if i just if i had to like pick a yes or no answer i'd say no she can do that

00:15:13.060 i agree but and it's not very black and white is it

00:15:16.340 the fashion brand feeler dropped a collaboration with hayley bieber this week in some of the shots

00:15:29.560 hayley can be seen spilling fresh groceries out of a brown paper bag while she holds a sippy cup

00:15:35.240 and croissant in the other. While this is most likely to be angled as commentary on working

00:15:40.500 mothers and kind of a hangover from the girl boss era, we couldn't help but ask, is food becoming

00:15:47.280 a luxury item? This is a conversation that isn't necessarily new, but it has been building up in

00:15:53.700 recent years, especially here in Australia. I mean, probably if you're listening anywhere in

00:15:59.560 well, this is applicable to you, but the cost of living crisis is really hitting people hard.

00:16:06.040 So here locally in Australia, a retail analyst warned The Guardian last month that high food

00:16:11.400 prices are now like the norm in the economy. So for some examples, egg prices, if you couldn't

00:16:18.160 even get them, let's be real, surged 11% the last year. The cost of cooking oil is up 7%.

00:16:23.680 percent land prices have jumped 17 and we're paying about six percent more for fruit and

00:16:30.300 vegetables than last year and that's like not including the jumps we've seen since 2020 like

00:16:37.020 that's just in the last year we all know the jumps uh over the past like four or five years

00:16:42.180 guess how much i went grocery shopping yesterday guess how much one potato like i bought multiple

00:16:49.980 potatoes guess how much they were each two dollars okay well they were over a dollar each

00:16:56.480 which you know I typically associate potatoes as like you know poor man's food you know it's like

00:17:02.180 a it's like a staple it's whatever but I was like holy moly like what do you mean almost ten dollars

00:17:09.240 ten dollars for a bag well I mean okay calling myself out I was buying like I didn't get a bag

00:17:15.800 of them i just got them loose so like a few but like yeah still still anyway yeah potatoes are

00:17:22.200 meant to be the cheapest yeah the retail analyst michael harvey said cost of living pressure is

00:17:27.800 not new and it's ongoing consumers will need to continue to respond to the high food prices in

00:17:33.060 terms of their purchasing decisions with this in mind mags it's no wonder that luxury influences

00:17:38.360 and fashion labels are focusing on lifestyle changes and healthy living over designer clothes

00:17:44.380 In our research for this, I stumbled across something interesting that I'd never known

00:17:48.760 before. And that was about pineapples. Don't know if you know this, but in the 16th to 18th

00:17:56.140 centuries, pineapples were such a massive status symbol. Like they were really hard to like grow

00:18:03.400 and they were really expensive. So did you know that rich people would actually rent them out

00:18:08.960 as ornaments for events i actually did know that one and i think that that's why you still see it

00:18:15.940 in like so many motifs right like if you're in a hotel or like in somewhere like well obviously

00:18:22.500 tropical because that's where they're from but if you're like yeah in those kind of luxury spaces

00:18:28.900 i think you're more likely to see them at least being used as a decoration like a buffet like a

00:18:34.240 giant pineapple on a buffet you know so not chopped up to eat like as a decoration no yeah

00:18:40.400 I remember um because that my local market sometimes I'll get like the the weekly fruit

00:18:45.440 box but you don't pick what's in it and uh one time there was a pineapple and I'm like besties

00:18:50.600 I am not gonna try to cut that up like that's terrifying so I gave it to my mom and she was

00:18:54.780 so happy and like yeah like left it displayed for a while so damn I just I was just I guess

00:19:00.720 unconscious of me also in White Lotus season one one of the suites like the big suites was called 0.87

00:19:06.500 the pineapple suite and there was pineapple memorabilia everywhere so no good memory god

00:19:11.860 I just watched it anyway another trend I guess we're seeing is grocery carts as the luxury

00:19:20.240 item a Bank of America study also showed that in 2024 Gen Z customers outspent all other

00:19:28.060 demographics at premium grocery outlets. This shocked me, but I did see another TikTok referring

00:19:34.340 to this and TikTok user Zowie kind of made a correlation between what we know about the

00:19:39.540 lipstick effect, which is essentially when economic downturn is happening, lipstick sales go up and

00:19:47.080 that we choose to spend on like small luxuries and that premium snacks is now kind of considered

00:19:52.920 one of those small luxuries. And I never made that correlation, but we see the rise of Air One,

00:19:58.060 even here in Australia, like green cut very locally. 0.89

00:20:01.280 Oh my God, should I say Yochi's?

00:20:03.400 It's just so expensive.

00:20:04.860 But even just like the snack culture

00:20:06.920 that I feel like I subscribe to,

00:20:10.840 like I totally agree.

00:20:12.640 Yeah, 100%.

00:20:14.580 One recent example from last week with this,

00:20:18.220 not as a status symbol because I didn't post it or whatever,

00:20:23.020 but I really fancied some lint chocolate like a block of dark chocolate and it was eight dollars

00:20:33.840 at the supermarket for a block of lint chocolate and I get that lint is like one of the nicer brands

00:20:39.540 but I so I was putting off a week so I was just like I'm not paying eight dollars for chocolate

00:20:43.500 no this is ridiculous like you don't need it you don't need it so like a nice to have and after

00:20:48.080 like two to three weeks that's my like clearly my litmus test because I think last week I was 0.88

00:20:54.780 PMSing and so then finally I was just like you know what I've been craving this for weeks it's

00:20:58.880 not going away I'm just going to buy it because it's what's going to make me happy and I'll make

00:21:02.140 my cravings go away um and I really did savor it more I think like I had a block or two not a block

00:21:08.220 a square or two for a couple nights in a row and I was really savoring it so that was kind of a nice

00:21:14.000 like obviously I didn't like paying eight dollars for the chocolate but it was a nice kind of thing

00:21:19.480 to feel appreciative of it like first of all I could afford to buy this like it wasn't like I

00:21:24.440 was foregoing another meal for it and secondly I was savoring it more because I knew that like

00:21:29.100 it was more special whereas like five years ago if that was like I don't know three or four dollars

00:21:35.400 it would be like yeah whatever I would just like eat half the block if I want and it's interesting

00:21:40.400 to your point as well when you said oh it wasn't a status symbol because you didn't post about it

00:21:45.060 but perhaps it's like an internal uh status symbol of like how it makes you feel as well

00:21:50.840 and that definitely that definitely counts true yeah I guess not you don't have to post something

00:21:56.360 for it to be a status symbol because I guess that was my like I knew that I wanted that particular

00:22:01.780 brand yeah I wasn't going to settle for like a dark chocolate from somewhere else but no one

00:22:07.740 doesn't like them that's why yeah and last thing that um to this grocery cart specific conversation

00:22:15.320 as well like very locally uh previous guest in front of the podcast martina calvey who's a 0.96

00:22:20.660 content creator and artist and author she kind of started this trend like photo trend of taking

00:22:27.120 like a top-down flat layer of your little grocery basket at the shops i don't know if you remember 0.99

00:22:33.000 but she's on like carousels with like magazines and snacks inside and and things like that and

00:22:37.500 that's like very explicit you know like we're talking about uplifting and elevating the grocery

00:22:42.600 store aesthetic and I think like you and I are also guilty of this because oh yeah I think when

00:22:50.700 we go to the markets like we will make content out of that yeah I mean but would you say it's

00:22:59.040 also like a flex in terms of not necessarily money but also values like hey yeah I'm choosing

00:23:05.180 to shop local or from farmers when I can like there's definitely that element which is related

00:23:10.380 to money sorry I take back what I said but and it's also a time flex right like if you have the

00:23:17.400 time even if you make it you get up really early on like a Saturday or Sunday to go to the market

00:23:21.600 it feels to me like doing that is becoming part of my weekly routine I live quite close to the

00:23:27.480 South Melbourne market and that reminds me a lot of slow living which is like a big thing that I

00:23:32.720 know you love to advocate for so it makes me feel like I'm more centered and like in control of my

00:23:40.900 time when I like get up and I can wander the market aisles and like choose the produce myself

00:23:47.280 and then go get a coffee and then go home and put it all away I feel really accomplished yeah

00:23:53.380 more so than like yesterday Laurie and I went to Aldi that was not as aesthetic and I'm not

00:24:01.280 posting about the fact like i'm not posting my grocery car from aldi firstly because it's just

00:24:05.760 more boring like what is that all about why are we doing that well i think there is an inherent

00:24:12.160 beauty in fresh produce as well like let's be real like they uh they have been referenced in

00:24:17.820 art for centuries and i do see like the aesthetic appeal of them and like think about like in

00:24:23.860 comparison to going to audi or coals or woolies like things are wrapped in plastic and they're

00:24:27.680 kind of not as visually appealing perhaps because at the end of the day like you could technically

00:24:34.660 like go to Coles go to Woolies and then like rearrange things at home and make it look like

00:24:38.860 you went to the market in a way but no one's doing that I swear to god oh my gosh no we also found an

00:24:45.720 article from Vogue Business by Lucy McGuire titled to Gen Z food is the new luxury what does that

00:24:52.400 mean for fashion it reads during the pandemic gen z's began romanticizing their daily lives

00:24:59.200 placing added value on simple pleasures like going for a walk making a meal or grabbing a

00:25:04.840 coffee and turning it into content and food trends entered the mainstream from dalgona coffee to

00:25:11.780 banana bread coming out of the pandemic and into a recession food has remained a status symbol for

00:25:17.080 some price-sensitive Gen Zs, much like a luxury item or piece of music merch, and experts agree.

00:25:23.760 They also surveyed Teen Vogue Glamour and Allure readers. Out of 166 16 to 24-year-old readers of 0.99

00:25:31.880 Teen Vogue Glamour and Allure in the US, Vogue business found that more than half of them had

00:25:37.320 actually bought what they considered to be like a luxury food or drink in the last year. And I see

00:25:43.620 that applicable in my own life now too I read this great fashion journal piece like a couple

00:25:50.120 years ago but I still think about it now and that was written by the managing editor Julia and it

00:25:55.840 was about how when so much financial insecurity is rampant and in terms of people not feeling

00:26:01.620 like they will have like a comfy retirement or be able to like purchase a home people do invest

00:26:08.880 in fashion and she kind of made the relationship of between you know buying a designer bag is that

00:26:14.980 kind of new security or like that new aspiration but now I also think like we've trickled down to

00:26:22.980 well that feels out of reach let's look at let's look at food yeah 100% and agree when you say

00:26:31.980 this isn't new like think about I don't know peasants in Rome or something like I'm sure

00:26:37.300 they would also love to have a hashtag haul of the fresh fruits and veggies instead of like dry bread

00:26:44.040 yeah but it's just different now I guess with social media and the accessibility that like

00:26:50.800 we in the west have to food it does feel like a vibe shift so to speak and because of this

00:26:59.840 fashion and beauty brands are then aligning with food institutions or using food at events

00:27:08.220 to build brand awareness and connection which I think you and I often see a lot when it comes to

00:27:18.100 collabs and even PR events one thing that came to mind I understand why they did it because they

00:27:25.620 were trying to create like an aspirational French thing but one major one of last year which I got

00:27:32.220 major FOMO from not being able to go I know what you're gonna say I literally know what you're

00:27:37.600 gonna say was the dip tea Paris event you went you went so you explain what it is oh my god I

00:27:44.060 sounded so salty then you went yeah I'm not yeah it was a mega event that was open to the public

00:27:54.000 you can buy tickets and essentially was promoting a diptyque handle range uh which was inspired and

00:28:02.080 in made in collaboration with a like a famous parisian cafe so they took over a um city city

00:28:08.200 spot and then it was bougie and very cute um so yeah that was a great example the other thing i

00:28:15.240 want to ring up which is happening more at events now i would say it's like a food styling trend i

00:28:19.960 don't know what you think about this but i feel like i've been going to more events and the food

00:28:25.140 table is more for aesthetics and for eating like there's a large amount of butter and when i say

00:28:30.520 a large amount it's like probably over five kilograms of butter in this like beautiful

00:28:34.360 tower but you're like it's kind of hard low-key to eat and obviously not all of that's going to

00:28:38.140 be eaten what are they doing with it like bread is sometimes placed like it's like a whole baguette

00:28:43.000 on the table but you're like do i rip it like there's a lot of um food for aesthetics rather

00:28:47.960 than function at events I feel like we could talk about this all day wow maybe we'll have to start

00:28:55.180 a series on food after this kind of conversation do you think that you will rethink your relationship

00:29:03.320 to posting food as a luxury item or do you think like it's okay yeah I mean that's a good question

00:29:10.620 for me I think I really like showing like things like a coffee at a cafe etc which does feel

00:29:16.300 semi-luxury at times and I actually think in a way it's nice to appreciate these things as

00:29:25.120 some sort of luxury and I hope it it my hopes is that it feels less kind of isolating and it's more

00:29:33.140 inclusive in a way you know we we all have to eat and I don't know I feel I'm like towing the lines

00:29:41.440 here because obviously food insecurity is so rife in Australia but for me when I post things like

00:29:48.060 a breakfast spread or whatever I'm like oh I feel so grateful for this right yeah like that's the

00:29:52.740 mindset behind it yes I agree I agree and when I find myself being like should I post this for like

00:30:01.700 aesthetics or like should I post this to like show that I've gone to green cup and it feels forced

00:30:08.980 I don't post because I'm like well you're not doing it for the right reasons like you're not

00:30:12.580 posting a green cup because you went with mags and you had a nice time you're posting your $15

00:30:16.660 smoothie because you know that it looks aspirational it looks good so can you stop like

00:30:20.940 that's what that's my kind of my boundary as well that's good that's good I like how you

00:30:28.020 explicitly said that like so true actually and that's like what we don't want to say to be honest

00:30:32.600 you know. Mags, it has been a few weeks since I've asked you this, so I'd love to know

00:30:44.160 what are you recommending for us today? I have a book to recommend and this is an audiobook.

00:30:52.420 I've actually been out of my reading habit, to be honest, in the last month. I haven't been reading

00:30:56.700 much. So I've just really needed something fun and light. And this one really did the trick.

00:31:02.620 It's called Love Unleashed by Melanie Sawad. I actually found out about this book because

00:31:08.540 Amplify Bookshop, which is here in Melbourne, who only stock books by BIPOC authors. This was one of

00:31:16.300 like their biggest sellers last year. And this one's a fun rom-com. So as like a quick nutshell

00:31:23.200 of it it follows big and bull woman Bryn Wallace who leaves Brisbane to pursue her literary dreams

00:31:30.180 in New York City and we see her wanting to become a publicist dare I say or literary agent I forgot

00:31:38.560 the details but and in this time in New York we see her work a job at a doggy daycare and make

00:31:49.480 friends i know it sounds i'm just throwing everything out there uh but it is like quintessential

00:31:55.360 kind of like a fun rom-com set in new york about a girl who wants to make it big what makes this

00:32:02.020 stand out as well is that this author is first nations and it's nice to see the uh kind of dual

00:32:09.400 dual locations of australia as well as new york in it so it feels quite close to home as well as

00:32:18.040 being like a fun New York read and I really enjoyed it as an audio book as well so um I

00:32:25.020 know I keep being like oh yeah it's like a fun rom-com but I thought it was a really engaging

00:32:28.900 book sounds nice and light-hearted but also with like some bigger topics as well talking about like

00:32:37.000 identity talking about um toxic relationships and and other things so and and grief as well like

00:32:47.620 there's quite a bit into it but yeah it's a really like beautiful story okay cool thank you for the

00:32:53.960 rec that was released last year right yes yes so it's a relatively new one and now it's time for

00:33:01.200 your recommendation what do you have for us today i am recommending a tv show it is free to watch on

00:33:07.880 sbs and it's called am i being unreasonable so laurie actually recommended this one to me

00:33:15.060 He had watched season one when it came out a couple of years ago.

00:33:18.440 He said, I would really enjoy it.

00:33:20.200 So it's a British comedy thriller series, and it follows Nick, who is a lonely mom living

00:33:28.640 in England, who's grieving a loss that she can't tell anyone about.

00:33:33.800 She feels a bit trapped.

00:33:36.060 Her cat is missing.

00:33:37.420 She has a young son named Ollie.

00:33:40.560 He's her main source of happiness.

00:33:42.120 and then a new mum named Jen moves to town and they quickly become friends and then things begin

00:33:52.080 to unravel it's quite hard to talk about without giving anything away but there are some really

00:33:56.980 big plot twists hilarious writing um it's very British though so like a lot of references and

00:34:05.180 things a really great cast and the actor who plays ollie um lenny rush he actually won a bafta

00:34:12.800 for his work in season one when he was like 11 or 12 which is so wild he won the bafta for like

00:34:20.520 best male actor whoa yeah he's so compelling like he's so talented he's crazy um it's written by

00:34:29.720 the two main stars as well so daisy may cooper and celine hisley so they play the two women and

00:34:40.020 yeah so talented brilliant writing um if you've seen this country also by daisy may cooper um

00:34:48.040 yeah same woman and it's had like rave reviews so i've been to watch two seasons over a week

00:34:55.280 it's really hard to look away and yeah season two has just come out and it's had like rave

00:35:00.900 reviews from the guardian which you know it's quite hard to get from the guardian so yeah

00:35:06.120 highly recommend that one on sbs i've never heard of that one thank you for bringing it to my

00:35:11.680 attention and we love it because it's free to watch as well yeah on sbs so hell yeah thank you

00:35:18.820 so much for listening to this week's episode if you enjoyed we would love to hear any thoughts

00:35:25.260 or if you want to give us a little rate and review on apple or spotify that would be super helpful

00:35:31.060 or tell a friend in your life who you think might like listening to culture club spread

00:35:36.900 the love that way we always appreciate it see you next time bye

Culture Club - March 10, 2025

The New Status Symbol

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