What are all these “girl ” trends actually doing?

what we read & saved november 2023

Nov 03, 2023

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our fave long(er) reads:

We were never supposed to see our own faces this much Lola Christina Alao | DAZED

What it’s asking: Is our constant exposure to our own and other’s faces in today’s digitally dependent world to the detriment of our collective well being?

Favorite quote (emphasis mine):

“It can be hard to stop scrutinising and criticising our own faces, however, when increasingly so much value is being placed on appearances. Social media has shifted focus to prioritise our visual qualities above all else (the algorithm prefers selfies, after all). While beauty has always provided power and privilege, these days its importance feels bigger than it’s ever been. ‘In visual and virtual culture the image always speaks louder than the word. Dislocating our sense of self, from the “inside” to the “outside” is a fundamental change in how human beings see themselves and the world,’ says Professor Widdows.”

Best Buy will no longer carry physical movies in 2024, and I am no longer whole Umar Shakir | The Verge

What it’s asking: What is the future of media ownership & collecting when everything is digital?

Favorite quote (emphasis mine):

“Best Buy was unique in that it had dedicated personnel who were designated for media, which included DVDs, Blu-rays, music CDs, and video games. You’d normally have to go to a Sam Goody or Suncoast for that kind of help, and those felt fewer and further in between….However, I found media department workers actually cared about properly organizing shelves, were knowledgeable, and really helped customers find what they were looking for.
…Slowly, the consumption of movies, and even games, is becoming an all-digital affair, where even if you bought a title, you don’t technically own it.”

TikTok Star Devon Rodriguez Is Now the Most Famous Artist in the World. But What About His Work? Ben Davis | ArtNet

What it’s asking: How does performing art ( and the self) as content change the nature of what the art itself is revealing?

Favorite quote:

“…the most prominent feature of “Underground” was not that large self-portrait. It was a short UTA Artist Space-created film that played, on a loop, telling Rodriguez’s personal story and rise to viral mega-fame via TikTok, showing both his encounters with ordinary people and the clips where he stages run-ins with the likes of Ed Sheeran or Jared Leto on the subway and draws them.
The aforementioned orange subway seating was installed to encourage you to sit and watch this video, not to sit and look at the paintings. The projection was larger than any of the paintings, dominating the display.”

and the follow up:

The World’s Most Popular Painter Sent His Followers After Me Because He Didn’t Like a Review of His Work. Here’s What I Learned Ben Davis | ArtNet

What it’s asking: How have social media, parasocial relationships and the rise of “influencer art” changed our reactions to art critique?

Favorite quote:

“In fact, the only way I can understand Rodriguez’s incredibly thin-skinned reaction to my article is that he has managed to rise to this status of apex visibility without any kind of critical writing about him at all. It’s all just been feel-good profiles, so that the first critical word feels like a huge crisis. That’s a relatively new kind of situation for an artist to be in, and worth analyzing.”

“Girl” trends and the repackaging of womanhood Rebecca Jennings | Vox

What it’s asking: What are all these “girl _” trends actually doing?

Favorite quote (emphasis mine):

“Women on TikTok know what they’re doing when they dub their meals “girl dinners” or coin terms like “hot girl walk.” They know what trends have gone viral in the past — VSCO girls, e-girls, “soft girls” — and that their clickable, immediately gettable names had everything to do with why people care. They know that this year the highest-grossing movie and what may become the highest-grossing musical tour in history center on the very conundrum of women in their 30s experiencing their own versions of girlhood. They know that people will always care about what girls do, because girls are not yet women and therefore less easy to despise. Girls are more available for consumption, and girls have more available to them.”