The Out-of-Touch Adults’ Guide to Children’s Culture: What Kids Think of Beyoncé
The big pop culture news this week for young people is the release of Beyoncé’s newest album, which is also the biggest pop culture news for older generations. Cowboy Carter is the rare piece of pop culture that’s on everyone’s radar, so I decided to try to figure out why this singer can accomplish something that no one else can. There’s also a new, rude word to learn, and we can all admire the ingenuity of young people as they try to get around online rules against sexual content.
What Beyoncé means to Generation Z
Late last week, Beyoncé released her eighth studio album, a country-influenced collection called Cowboy Carter. The singer/songwriter/icon is 42 years old and a late millennial, but young people aren’t ignoring her. If online responses to Cowboy Carter are anything to go by, Queen is bridging generational differences as thoroughly as she overcame musical differences by taking on country music. There is a dance trend on TikTok : videos like these are getting millions of views, and Gen Z is even getting into country music . killer album . It’s not just the first single; The internet also became obsessed with her new take on Dolly Parton’s “Jolene.” For cultural comparison, Beyoncé is like mid-career Madonna, but more so. She’s an icon who’s still relevant, and if there’s any significance to popular culture at all, the release of Cowboy Carter feels like turning a page: Besides the usual grumpy jerks , everyone, regardless of age, race or creed, is excited about Beyoncé’s new album. I even like him, and I hate everything.
Green screen ass and Twitch culture war cat and mouse
Streaming service Twitch, known primarily for streaming gaming content, has been waging a cat-and-mouse war with some of its users for years. Questionable: Twitch’s policy on risky content in streams. The latest salvo in the battle: Twitch has banned users from streaming content on their butts.
About two weeks ago, innovative Twitch streamer/cosplayer Morgpie circumvented Twitch’s anti-nudity content policy by using a green screen to display game footage on her body. This weekend , Twitch responded with an announcement : “Starting Friday, March 29th, content that focuses on private parts of the body for an extended period of time will be prohibited.”
This isn’t the first time Morgpie has inspired Twitch to change its content policies. Back in 2023, she began appearing topless on streams, but framed so that users could not see the forbidden parts of her breasts. Morgpie has been temporarily banned and Twitch has updated its sexual content policy .
This led to streamers using censor bars , something called ” Show Meta Hole “. Even earlier, back in 2021, Twitch cracked down on Hot Tub streams , while acknowledging how difficult it is to decide whether sexual content is too sexual.
What is jelqing?
Like “ Looksmaxxing ,” “ breaking bones ,” and “ meowing ,” jelqing comes from the moldy and disturbing world of incel culture. Simply put, it is stretching the penis. Jelkers either pull out their junk by hand or use special stretching devices—it’s not a medically approved procedure, so there’s no set of best practices. The idea is that the injury creates micro-tears in the skin and the penis grows larger again. As for whether it works or not, the smart money says “hell no.” There are anecdotal reports online from jelkers who say it works, but sometimes people lie on the internet. I can find no reliable data on the effectiveness of the procedure, and urologists note that it can lead to scar tissue, pain, erectile dysfunction and Peyronie’s disease.
Gay furries broke into a church and bought inflatable sea lions
SiegedSec, a group of self-proclaimed gay furries, claims they breached the security of River Valley Church in Burnsville, Minnesota. In a recent Telegram post, SiegedSec accused the church’s pastor of making anti-trans statements, posted links to prayer requests emailed by church members, and used church funds to send them 100 inflatable sea lions.
“We hacked their accounts and spent thousands of dollars on inflatable sea lions (we couldn’t donate them), and also leaked over 15 thousand user data :3,” the hackers wrote .
River Valley’s top idol, Rob Ketterling, is active on Twitter, spreading the bizarre idea that Joe Biden has declared Easter Sunday a transgender holiday . I hope he likes the inflatable sea lions.
Viral Video of the Week: Duck Song 4
This week’s viral video is the fourth installment of The Duck Song , an animated video for children that was viewed nearly two million times in its first week of release. “The Duck Song” is a line that divides generations. If you’re under a certain age, you’ve seen it. If you are older than this age (and childless), then no.
YouTuber forrestfire101 released the first Duck Song video 15 years ago, and since then it has been viewed 625 million times. It’s impossible to explain exactly why. The story/joke is funny enough, the song is catchy enough, and the crude animation is cute, but that could be said about the countless millions of videos aimed at children on YouTube. For some reason, “The Duck Song” has captured the imagination of children and the YouTube algorithm to the point where it has become a generational staple.
The creator of Duck Song wisely decided to limit the release of new installments instead of flooding the zone with Duck crap when it was first released, thus avoiding it becoming a fluff. They also did not attempt to expand, alter, expand or otherwise interfere with the simplicity of the original video. Thus, Duck Song videos have become a household name for at least two generations—fans of the original Duck Song now have children of their own and no doubt share it with them before waddling off.