Orbs, Workouts and the gorls
RIP Wilkos you were a real one
newsletter header girl
The summer of the gorls has arrived. In a trend pre-dating Barbie, there was a wave of mini moments focused on women - actually no. Women being girls.
Starting with the classic ‘hot girl summer’, ‘girlboss’, and ‘That girl’, this year we’ve had ‘hot girl walks’, ‘strawberry girls’, and ‘rat girls’. ‘Girl Dinner’ even made it into the New York Times.
And people are noticing. Vox talks about how women are essentially mini-marketing agencies. In the complexities of the 21st century we are trying to figure out who we are without traditional structures of the family, and motherhood to guide us. We turn to small moments to define and feel a kinship with - ‘strawberry girls' love of soft pastels might feel right one day, whilst being a ‘feral girl’ is great for a night out. Women know how to package up women’s lives. They know how to make their feed aesthetically pleasing enough to gain some views.
Dazed picks up on the infantilising nature of wanting to be a ‘girl’ not a woman. We resort to using younger terms and we fail to deal with the world of 2023. We don’t have access to mental health support we have ‘hot girl walks’. We don’t have riveting literature, we have ‘sad girl books’. By minimising these female traits we are playing into the association the female = trivial.
There are a lot of ways to look at what it means to be a woman or girl. In an age where we are expected to be many things, what appeals to me about these trends is that most of them are just funny. No one seriously believes that they are a strawberry girl or that they are making a girl dinner. It’s an act we put on online, to create some connection or build an image of ourselves. The reason they have taken off is because we want to find a sense of ourselves in others - no matter how abstract it might be. It’s just our desire to relate that binds the girls together.
Legs, bums, tums and Q-Anon
In a great article from James Ball, we discover the underbelly of the wellness industry - extreme far right views and conspiracy theories. It’s an interesting coin to think about. On one side they are most likely to help your body to heal (yoga instructors or PTs) but yet they reject science as being the reason why they can do so. This summer I went to a brilliant talk about how conspiracy theorists ultimately just want to be heard. They want to find a community they fit in with and can feel comfortable in themselves with. And isn’t that what most wellness experiences are trying to do - make you comfortable in your body?
Eye-eye
A friend of mine sent me a link to Open AI’s wunderkind Sam Alwal’s latest project…the Orb *que mordor-esque sound effects*. The idea is that silver orbs positioned around the world will scan people’s irises and then connect those scans to unique World IDs, creating a system of authentication — or “proof of personhood” — beyond the government-administered methods we use today. Paris Marx did a great write-up of how this libertarian idea fails to actually improve the material lives of people. But my favourite piece came from Imogen West-Knights, who explores the silliness of the Orb shape itself.
And finally:
A really interesting article on people-powered AI launching in India
Watching Silo on Apple TV and I am hooked. A great sci-fi thriller
Thanks!
Arda + Savena
All the typos in this email spell out a secret message
