A Guide to Children’s Culture for Adults Out of Touch With Reality: What Was Lizzo Doing Anyway?
The youth of the world enter August pretending to fly like fairies, enjoying a video of an injured cop and showing off their weird Barbies.
Lizzo is accused of sexual harassment, fat-shaming and more
Pop star Lizzo, known for her songs about recognition and empowerment, has been accused of sexual harassment in a lawsuit filed this week by three of her former dancers. The lawsuit alleges that Lizzo’s tour was a hostile work environment. Prosecutors say Lizzo and others at her production company forced them to have sex in nightclubs in Amsterdam, made comments meant to embarrass the dancer, and worked so hard on the dancer that one of them got dirty during rehearsal. There’s so much more , and it all sounds pretty terrible, assuming it’s true.
Lizzo posted a response on her Instagram , denying the allegations, writing, “I usually prefer not to respond to false allegations, but they are as unbelievable as they sound and too outrageous to ignore. These sensational stories come from former employees who have already publicly admitted that they were told that their behavior during the tour was inappropriate and unprofessional.”
If the allegations are true, the lawsuit exposes the often demanding and demoralizing world of professional show business. But on the other hand, one of the former dancers, Crystal Williams, got the job after appearing on Lizzo’s reality show, so a cynical person might see a man in costume joining a circus and then complaining that zebra shit stinks.
What is #Fairyflying? And why is it controversial?
Fairy Flight is the newest TikTok meme format. The #fairyflying hashtag is filled with videos of users flying like fairies. Before you know how it works, watch a couple of fairy flight videos to see if you can figure out the simple yet ingenious special effect.
( Spoiler alert : “Fairies” stand on their toes on tables or chairs, and their ankle boots, giving the illusion of levitation.)
A sane person might think, “This is cool” and get on with their day, but this is a very stupid time, which is why some mental health experts (well, at least two) are very worried about the negative consequences of this trend.
“The #fairyflying trend can provoke or evoke negative emotions in people who have had suicidal thoughts, or who have loved ones who have attempted or committed suicide,” Dr. Josh Stein, a child and adolescent psychiatrist from Newport Healthcare. Message . “Even in its most innocent form, videos of hanging people can disturb someone.”
Except these videos don’t show hanging people. They are fairies! You know, fluttering around with your thin wings?
“What is the attraction here and why does it resonate with people?” Dr. Danielle Roeske, vice president of residential services at Newport Healthcare, Conn., told The Post . “What does this type of content say about our society and how we try to connect? Do we have to be shocked to connect with each other?”
In answer to your questions, Dr. Daniel Roeske, the attraction here is that these are funny videos made by creative kids that should be encouraged, not shamed. It resonates with people because we like to look at things that suggest that life can be magical.
The Rise of AI Sex Chatbots
TikTok influencer Imsimplynessa , who is mostly known for telling innocent stories about her life, recently posted a video that points to a disturbing new online trend. Nessa says the company approached her with an offer of up to $70,000 a week to make an AI version of herself to interact with fans. According to Nessa, the company didn’t tell her that they really wanted to license her image in order to turn her into an AI sex bot.
“They pitched it like, ‘Oh, we’d like to create an AI version of you so that your followers can talk to you, ask for advice, come to you for random stories,'” says Nessa. But when she looked into the company, she discovered that the company they were comparing themselves to was “cloning” another online star to use as a Telegram sex bot.
Nessa seems to be referring to Karyn Marjorie, who licensed her likeness as an AI girl but became more like an AI prostitute for users who paid $1 a minute.
Nessa turned down the offer, and Marjorie’s company is working on building fences to keep things from getting revealed, but you have to wonder if that matters. Will an AI need six months into the future someone’s permission to impersonate it? Maybe by law, but I doubt that people who require this kind of care don’t care.
TikTok brags about its “weird Barbies”
The blockbuster Barbie inspired many TikToker users to showcase their “weird Barbies”. The weird Barbie, if you haven’t seen the movie, is a Barbie that you cut and drew completely – a Barbie with no limbs and dressed in rags. The real life versions of these loser toys are a lot weirder than Kate McKinnon’s. There are these bald, terrifying Barbies , or these Barbie abominations , or this Barbie-beer mix.
Spoiled Barbies are fun, but in the movie, Weird Barbie represents the end of innocence, and some of these “Weird Barbies” are surprisingly poignant .
Viral Video of the Week: Cop Slide
A short video of a Boston police officer suffering a minor head injury after sliding down a playground slide took the internet by storm this week, racking up over 42 million views in a couple of days.
It’s one of those things that “gets better every time you watch it” and it raises important questions like “why is he rolling upside down?” “Why is he sliding at all? Boston ran out of poor people to terrorize? And, perhaps most intriguingly, “How does it slide so fast ?” Here’s a bunch of people going down the same hill at normal speed , so the cop got smeared or what?
The video is so funny that Boston Mayor Michelle Wu couldn’t help but wank on the nameless cop like the rest of the internet: “We want all of our public places to be loved and if it looks like we need to make sure there are more signage, which is for kids or something like that, we can do that too,” Wu said.
Just when you think you’ve watched the Cop Slide video enough times, someone flips it over so the cop inhales the slide! I could watch this all day. (I am easily entertained.)