Millennials Think Dating Someone from Real Life is...Creepy?! Olympic Swimming Goes Full Racist, Antifa Successfully Breaks Up One of the World's Biggest Bands (The Five for 07/02/21)
Hey, welcome to The Five.
It’s Friday, so let’s dive into Culture & Commentary.
Let’s dive in.
[one]
A swim cap designed for black women with longer, natural hair has been banned from the Olympics.
Soul Cap, created in 2017, is a company that designs swimming caps specifically for natural hair in order for athletes to compete easily without struggling with cap size or the threat of damaging their hair. Following the decision, the company released a statement on social media explaining their disappointment in the decision and what it means for inclusivity within the sport.
"We hoped to further our work for diversity in swimming by having our swim caps certified for competition, so swimmers at any level don't have to choose between the sport they love and their hair," said co-founders Toks Ahmed and Michael Chapman.
I’m constantly amazed that large media outlets, which call nearly everything racist, have no interest in blatant racism if it doesn’t lead to a large number of clicks.
There’s no reason for this rule, as the cap provides no competitive advantage.
[two]
While there was once a stigma around online dating, Millennials have a stigma (and rampant anxiety) about…dating someone from real life?!
Newsweek reports:
That gut-level revulsion in response to a friendly overture—"Creeper! Ew!"—is partly traceable to the idea that male desire is in and of itself fundamentally predatory, which is in turn traceable to the trend of viewing sex and love through a power-and-privilege lens. The way the thinking goes, if every interaction between men and women must be contextualized against men's abuse of women historically, as a group, then any man approaching a woman should be rightfully viewed with suspicion; even the most anodyne coffee date comes with an unwanted, non-optional side order of three thousand years of patriarchal oppression. Drink up, ladies!
But today's horror at last generation's idea of a meet cute also reflects a bone-deep discomfort among young people with the sort of spontaneous, unscripted interaction that can spark an unexpected connection, like chatting up an attractive stranger in an elevator.
For a generation that prides itself on openness to experience, millennials have remarkably little confidence in their ability to navigate the complicated, confusing, or otherwise ambiguous territory of adult intimate relationships.
The far-reaching impact of the #MeToo movement may be visible here. What started as a well-intentioned attempt to protect women from pervasive harassment and abuse evolved into something more nefarious; young people have been taught to equate emotional discomfort with trauma and violation, and have thus come to believe that the only "good" relationship offers complete safety from ever feeling bad.
As I’ve stated previously in The Five, I often call myself the anti-Millennial Millennial, but I’m going to go easy on the younger half of my generational demographic on this one.
Observations:
A. Sure, it’s cliche at this point…but all those participation trophies have crippled Millennials risk-taking abilities. Those lessons that didn’t get learned from jumping off the high dive (got ripped out due to insurance premiums), getting turned down by a girl to your face (easier to avoid once Instant Messenger was invented) or being forced to reckon with difficult ideas in high school and college (hello “safe spaces”) all had unintended consequences—an entire generation being denied opportunities to build mental and emotional resilience.
B. The article points out that #MeToo changed everything, and I get it. I was once accused of grabbing a fellow high school student by the throat in anger, which never happened. The other student was jealous of an academic tried to destroy me through reputation assassination (the whole thing fell apart when it became obvious I wasn’t in that part of the school). That was 20 years ago, but I’m still leery of meeting with anyone (regardless of gender) one-on-one. I wasn’t falsely accused of sexual misconduct, but I was falsely accused all the same. And it changed my behavior for the rest of my life. It doesn’t take much for me to imagine the anxiety around modern dating issues, and how that anxiety could lead to…less (or no) dating.
C. All of that is almost certainly tied to the singleness/childlessness state of Millennials, as the top of our generation (myself included) approaches 40.
D. Youth culture always pushes back against the “spouse/house/kids/white picket fence” narrative…but the way the stats are trending, we’re about to find out what happens when the whims of youth rebellion meeting middle aged reality.
E. More than anything else, I wanted to cover this story as a call to compassion. I spent the majority of my twenties as a “successful screw up,” rocketing ahead in my career as a prodigy, only to have it all come crashing down in my late 20’s (media careers do that) and realizing I was alone, not rooted anywhere or with…and had no idea what to do next. If you’re reading this, and that’s you right now…keep going. And wherever life finds you on this July 1, 2021, be kind, for, as Philo of Alexandria put it “everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.”
[three]
Last week, Winston Marshall in one the most popular bands in the world, . This week, he’s unemployed after stepping down from the folk-rock act Mumford and Sons due to the backlash for…the great sin of reading a book documenting the crimes and intimidation of Antifa.
Marshall told former NY Times Editor Bari Weiss on her podcast:
At the time I tweeted about a book that documents the far-Left behavior in the U.S., which, considering I live in London, is a particularly niche topic in my world. I’m not sure sure it’s so niche in your country. And I’d been tweeting about books through the pandemic. … This one seemed to take off. There’s a couple of ways to what happens. So firstly, it starts to take off, and then you have, like a swarm of snakes. They come for every aspect of your life. So for example, for me, they started messing about with my Wikipedia page calling me a Fascist and Nazi and all these ridiculous things, and then, there’s sort of a second wave, where they come for your friends and your associates and their families, and it’s very intimidating.
And when they start going for your friends and people you love, that’s where it sort of changes. It’s a very effective mode of intimidation, because it’s one thing when they come for you, but when they come for those you love, you want to defend them. I imagine it’s very confusing for those people, particularly if they don’t know what’s gong on, what’s inspired this sort of attack or whatever.
The great irony is that the far left extremist group’s ability to force a lineup change in one of the world’s biggest bands through fear and intimidation of physical violence…pretty much proves the point of the Antifa book Marshall tweeted about that kicked this whole thing off.
'I feel like I got my integrity back and I feel like I got my soul back. I feel good now,” Marshall said of his decision to step down.
[four]
I have a deep (and unapologetic) love for pop cultures lists.
Since we’re at the halfway point of 2021, so here’s a list of “best of so far” lists.
From Entertainment Weekly :movies (not much here I’m interested in), albums (plenty here I want to listen to), books and TV (several I’d like to see but won’t have time to watch).
From Saving Country Music: best country & roots albums and songs (devouring these lists).
You can check out the movies with the highest Rotten Tomatoes scores here (again, more that piques my interest than I have time for).
I’ll round out this list of lists with the best albums roundups from Rolling Stone, Paste and Billboard, and best TV shows from Rolling Stone, Yahoo and Vulture. Finally, the best hip-hop albums fromBrooklyn Vegan, Complex.
Finally, the highest reviewed albums, new TV shows, movies and video games from Metacritic.
[five]
Let’s head into the holiday weekend with a pop culture roundup:
The beloved crime drama The Sopranos is getting a prequel, with the late James Gandolfini’s son Michael stepping into the lead role of Tony Soprano, playing a younger version of the character his late father made iconic. The Many Saints of Newark hits theaters and HBO Max October 1st (the release date implies an attempt at placing this one in contention for awards season). The first trailer looks very promising.
Sitcom goof turned A-list Action Star Chris Pratt (Parks & Rec, Guardians of the Galaxy) stars in one of the most expensive straight-to-streaming flicks ever (reported $200M price tag), The Tomorrow War, which releases today via Amazon Prime. All that money couldn’t buy good reviews though.
The 90’s tween novel series Fear Street is turning into a trilogy of films releasing on Netflix over the next three weeks, in a story that’s set in 1666, 1978 and 1994. Fear Street Part One: 1994 currently has very favorable reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.
Beloved fictional children’s story canine Clifford the Big Red Dog is getting a live action movie (well, “live action” with a LOT of CGI help). It doesn’t look particularly good, but if you’ve got kids in the age group the movie is targeting, you’ll probably wind up seeing it. One Twitter user pointed out that this shot from the trailer looks like a commercial for anxiety medication. “Are you followed around by the Big Red Dog of anxiety? Take Lexapro!”
MUSIC NEWS: Pop vocalist Halsey announced a new album completely produced by Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) and film score composers Atticus Ross (The Social Network). This year, Reznor/Ross won the Oscar for Best Film Score for Pixar’s Soul. Americana icon Jason Isbell covered Metallica’s “Sad But True” and you need to hear it. The extremely unlikely comeback of late 90’s nu-metal bros Limp Bizkit will likely culminate in a new album this year. Aaron Dessner (The National) and Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) announced a new album to release August 27th from their side project Big Red Machine, which will feature collaborations with Taylor Swift, Fleet Foxes, Sharon Von Etton and Ben Howard. Desner and Vernon collected plenty of awards season hardware over the last year thanks to collaborating heavily as songwriters and musicians for Taylor Swift’s Folklore and Evermore albums, both of which dropped in 2020. First three singles from the Big Red Machine (including the Taylor collab) here.
NEW MUSIC: G Herbo (grimy Chicago hip hop), jxdn (Gen Z TikTok star who captures the glory of Millennial pop punk w/a Travis Barker co-sign), William Fitzsimmons (really sad folk music from my “almost neighbor” growing up—from Jacksonville, IL), Flatland Calvary (top-shelf Texas red dirt), Lady A (pop country), Genesis Owusu (Ghanan born, Australian based rapper pulling from multiple genres to build his sound), People & Songs, We the Kingdom and Riley Clemmons (CCM/worship).
[epilogue]
In all likelihood, you’ll witness some fireworks over the holiday weekend. Which makes this a great time to talk about the show you’re missing in the night sky the other 364 days per year. The pic above is a look at how just one bad source of night time light ruins the skyline, which is linked to everything from insomnia in people to adverse effects on plant and animal wildlife.
To see just how bad the problem is, take a look at this shot of the Continental U.S., at the expansive growth of light pollution.
If you’re saying “but it makes us safer,” the evidence is that streetlights don’t reduce crime.
However, that doesn’t mean we have to live in cities and towns in total darkness. Simply changing the style of streetlights could reverse most of the effects of light pollution, restore a more natural rhythm for sleep and make the night sky visible again within city limits.
Until the next one,
-sth