Alright, I am here to give you guys a sort of cultural digest of what has been happening since the new year started! Starting off, this is the year of the horse according to the Chinese calendar; it is interesting to see the people of America starting to care more about Chinese culture and traditions. I also think that inherently in the media the American people are obsessing over Asian culture in sort of a negative light. We saw this early this year with a story about a girl who went to Hmart, which is an Asian grocery store, and they heard people laughing at the products sold there. Media literacy is so important, but so is cultural literacy; don’t throw yourself into a culture if it feels uncomfortable to you, and with that, ALWAYS DO YOUR RESEARCH.
On the topic of media literacy, Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” came out this past weekend; the reviews have sort of been up in the air by the general public, but critics aren’t receiving it well. If you are expecting a book-accurate adaptation, throw your expectations out the window because it is not that! In my opinion, I think Emerald tried to use shock value to make it look like her movie was moving and deep; however, it didn’t work on me and a lot of other people.
In other news, sad girl Americana pop legend Lana Del Rey just released her new song titled “White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter.” Lana loves shock value in titling her songs. She has a song titled “Grandfather, Please Stand on the Back of Father While He Is Deep-Sea Fishing,” and I think it’s fun seeing her push the boundaries of how long a song title could be.
On TikTok in this past month, a new star has emerged who has been being referred to as “The Staples Baddie.” A woman who works at the store Staples, who goes by Oblivion, has been sharing things that they sell at Staples in a Gen-Z light, and the public is living for it. It’s clear that in a world of creative new marketing campaigns, office supply stores are lacking spunk and engaging marketing. On that note, I don’t understand why brands like Staples continue to keep their old marketing strategizers, fire the old creatives, and hire the new ones.
The Super Bowl happened; the Seahawks took it home, but clearly that was not the focal point of this game, with a lot of the world calling it the Benito Bowl. We got one of the best Super Bowl halftime shows in history out of Bad Bunny; it was a wonderful celebration of Latin American culture, reminding people that Latino culture is a part of America. I’m not even going to touch on the “other” halftime show because of how ridiculous that is. If you are not comfortable watching someone sing in Spanish because you think it is un-American, you need to read more.
Moving on in a world of accessible media, the art of literature is sort of lost at the forefront of culture right now. Taking its place as the “you’re better than someone if you do it” hobby is watching movies. With the app Letterboxd, it sort of feels like the new pretentious hobby that makes you feel like a more important person if you participate and analyze it.
Earlier this year, during the start of January, we saw what I would say was a kind of general yearning for better times, with everyone obsessing over 2016. Everybody and their mothers were posting nostalgic photodumps to old DJ Lazer songs over pictures of them in 2016. While on a surface level I think this could just look like a comeback in aesthetics, I think it is sort of a more subconscious way of showing that America is in a depression right now. Closing out, I’m just going to mention the Olympics are happening. While this is the end of this sort of culture clump, more is to come, so please look out for it!
