Growing a bush & showing some toes
while watching cabaret and reading romantasy
Hey all - it’s Ashe on the intro. I’ve got Mark Fisher’s Capitalist Realism on my mind.
Particularly, how critique of capitalism becomes, even with its painful irony, a way to reinforce capitalism. Media provides a safe place to discuss and even complain about the system without challenging it in any way. Commodifies the antiestablishment sentiments.
Hunger Games, Wall-E, #eattherich. Hopelesscore. Everything seems to end up back in the consumerism cycle, from punk aesthetics to protest.
It’s not so much about continued political apathy and endless critique and discourse. Maybe more that people have ingested this “capitalism or apocalypse” as truth.
This only signifies it’s time for me to dust off McKenzie Wark’s ‘Capital is Dead’ to get some feeling back. Or maybe someone can recommend me good fiction because non-fiction always gets me a little too philosophical.
Meanwhile, feast yourself on the past week’s internet rundown that Ilze and I have curated without further ado.
🗞️News
Apple Cider Vinegar, the series on wellness scammer Belle Gibson, hits Netflix today. The reviews are mid.
Grammys were all about the girls: Beyoncé won best album and best country album (1st Black artist to do so); Charli XCX got three for Brat and Doechii – for best rap album (btw her Tiny Desk Concert slaps).
But more than the awards themselves people were talking about Bianca Censori’s nude look. Less for being iconic and more for… being a humiliation ritual? Many are concerned that this is Censori’s husband Ye exploiting her body. Read more here.
Frank Ocean’s debut film started shooting in Mexico starring British actor David Jonsson
Black Sabbath reunite for final concert this July. Will the Spice Girls be next for a nostalgic reunion?
Millennial’s teenage fav: Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot in the works ft the OG slayer Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Historic trade in NBA: Slavic basketball player Luka Dončić to Lakers left even seasoned professionals thinking it was a hoax. It’s so inconceivable, you can’t even recreate it in the NBA 2K25 game.
Blue Origin (each report can’t help but make it clear that it’s Jeff Bezos’s ‘rocket company’) mimicked our Moon’s gravity for experiments with NASA. More here.
🧂Trends
Books are hot
Quite a week in the book universe! In the wake of the elections, readers are flocking to I Who Have Never Known Men, a 90s dystopian novel by French author Jacqueline Harpman. Though largely overlooked when it first came out, it's now smashing Goodreads review records and the bestseller charts.
Another book making waves—Rebecca Yarros’s romantasy Onyx Storm is now the fastest-selling novel in 20 years. Meanwhile, Gen Z girlies are going feral for Jane Austen, dubbing themselves "Janeties." Time to grow some sideburns, gentlemen.
Beating around the BUSH
The no-razor movement has been buzzing for a while (remember Maison Margiela’s FW2024 show, where models had faux pubes?). But the real pubic hair discourse just exploded, thanks to a viral TikTok where User shared her astonishment at an Etsy review that was accompanied by a pic featuring a full bush in a bikini. Now, Vogue has entered the chat, citing a New York beauty salon’s expert confirmation that Gen Z is ditching hair removal. Meanwhile, The Cut just dropped an anonymous essay from a woman regretting her laser hair removal.
The brand cleverly riding the bush renaissance is Kiehl’s, launching a campaign [below] with a font made of pubic hair. It’s their clapback to having their Personal Line ad censored for featuring models with visible, natural pubes. It’s winter– shouldn’t we all use some extra fur?
“American Lady Won’t Leave Pakistan”
Onijah Andrew Robinson has become TikTok’s current breaking story as she refuses to leave Pakistan, giving press conferences, and camping out outside her lover’s home.
Onijah, 32, traveled to Karachi in early 2025 to meet Nidal (18 or 19), who promised to marry her. After his parents rejected the marriage, she went on a media tour, gaining attention on social media with viral quotes such as "What's my plan?", “It's against my religion to tell y'all my business",” and "Listen, you talk too much," and asking for $100,000 and to rebuild Pakistan.
A man claiming to be Onijah’s son said she has bipolar disorder and this is possibly a mental health crisis. He's trying to bring her back to the U.S. Despite accepting a flight home, Onijah, a mother of four, refuses to leave Pakistan.
Here’s a breakdown by @shey.luh on TikTok:
Dylan O’Brien Resurgence
Ok - some of us have been knowing about Dylan O’Brien since Teen Wolf. The release of “Twinless” has brought O’Brien back into the white man of the week spotlight. Queue up Deepwater Horizon for a watch, y’all.
The movie was pulled off Sundance Festival’s streaming due to online leaks - specifically of scenes where O’Brien’s ass is exposed (trying not to accidentally spoil things here).
It got raving critic reviews + the Audience Award at Sundance, so it must be good?
Banana Botox
Gen Z is full of contradictions—one minute they’re going au naturel, ditching fillers and injections, the next they’re rubbing banana peels on their face because some girl on TikTok swears it made her skin tighter and glowier. Skincare experts already debunked it. Don’t believe everything you see online, kids!
Cabaret
There’s an uptick of interest in the musical Cabaret, and it’s not just Gen-Z discovering classic media. With the *ehm* state of the world right now, people are finding catharsis in this musical about the rise of Nazism, hedonism, and entertainment to distract from politics. From Alan Cumming to Eddie Redmayne to Adam Lambert - each emcee’s (sort of the narrator) performance is at the core of this interest in Cabaret.
Adam Lambert might’ve been the catalyst for the current popularity. It’s been reported that he recently had to reprimand audience members for laughing during the performance; Lambert made it clear "No. This is not comedy. Pay attention."
Beyond media discourse and analysis, there is a particular fascination with the song “Money”, and making edits to current world events.
Self-Heating Meals
MRE, move aside - well not totally. The internet is currently in self-heating meals era, especially self-heating hot pot. These aren’t new in East-Asia, but they’ve got the same interest MREs did.
Hadilao’s self-heating hot pots were viral around three years ago too, when people were craving a taste of this hot pot chain.
People have pointed out that while it’s got a cool factor - and it’s convenient - the amount of single use plastic used is concerning.
More Toes
Spotted: those gloves-for-feet shoes sported at the gym. “Best thing since being barefoot [for running]”, the gymgoer explains, with their Vibram covered toes twiddling.
The two in a Tabi just aren’t enough. More toe sections are in.
We already hinted at the rise of Vibram last August, but now they’re going mainstream. Will Adidas Superfinger [below] get the same love as Sambas did? Unlikely, but Zmeika’s three-toed, duckfootesque shoes are getting traction. Functional. Fashionable? Weird.
Know someone else who’d love to know what’s up on the internet but doesn’t have the time to keep up? Tell ‘em about us - sharing is caring.
And if someone has sent you our way…