A handsome, muscular man stands in a dimly lit kitchen, passionately chopping vegetables. Suddenly, he slams the knife into the cutting board in theatrical outrage. Emotional background music swells as text on the screen highlights a serious, viral women’s rights issue. Maybe it's the mass rape and drugging trial of Dominique Pelicot. Or maybe it's the more recent global rape economy, in which 62 million men watched and participated in the sexual assault on their partners while sleeping. In his bio, he claims to be creating a "safe space" for women. Except it’s all a performance—nothing more. [Keep reading]

-Sophie Randell, Writer

Glasses on the edge of his nose, phone comically close to his face, using only his index finger to scroll, completely enthralled with whatever’s happening on the Facebook TL and think, wow, you look like an iPad baby right now? Well, turns out you’re not alone.

According to the Washington Post, social media use is growing among people 65 and older, from 11 percent in 2010 to 45 percent in 2021. And some of their children and grandchildren are worried they’re slipping quietly into screen addiction. That’s a pretty crazy and slightly concerning jump in numbers tbh.

This entire article is full of personal accounts of people disgruntled and upset about their parents and grandparents being glued to their devices, stuck talking to GPT, playing Candy Crush or looking at AI memes, and feeling as though it's difficult to even spend time with them without the device stuck in their hands. Oh, how the turn tables.

Next, Netflix has been sued in Texas over claims it collects data belonging to children and adults in the US state without their consent. Are we surprised? Sigh. Add ‘em to the extensive list of platforms that love to do the same. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton accused the streaming giant of "spying" on citizens, saying it "records and monetises billions" of pieces of information about how users behave on the platform. Netflix denies these claims. So I guess they’ll hash it out like grown folks, in court. (P.S. Netflix, historically, this hasn’t ended well for the others.)

Lastly, a commencement speaker at the University of Central Florida was booed by graduating humanities students… after stating that “AI is the next industrial revolution.”

Which seems to have started a trend. Arizona students booed former Google CEO Eric Schmidt as he talked about AI during graduation speech. And THEN Graduates booed Stern professor Jonathan Haidt as President Linda Mills welcomed him to the stage at NYU’s all-university commencement in Yankee Stadium. This was following backlash claiming his platform built on criticism of technology use and progressive university culture does not represent graduates’ values. Trend? Or are we all just tired of accepting the people in these powerful positions? Either way, I kinda like the sound it makes.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

In reality, he is using a highly calculated trap.

Recently, digital creator Barrett Pall highlighted this exact phenomenon on Instagram, using creator @bigggwinter as a prime example. Pall posed a question to his audience: Which video belongs to the manosphere? The obvious red-flag content advising men to secretly put pre-workout in a woman's drink? Or the kitchen-dwelling male feminist?

The answer is both.

It relies on overt misogyny, aggressive podcast bros, and dating gurus who view women as adversaries. Mainstream audiences have grown adept at spotting these red flags. So now, a dangerous new mutation has emerged: performative allyship.

Creators like the aforementioned have figured out the algorithm.

They know that women’s rights, safety, and emotional labour are highly engaging topics. By echoing progressive talking points and adopting a protective, outraged persona, they build a massive, loyal following of women who believe they have found a safe haven online.

A deeper dive into these creators often reveals a history of anti-LGBTQ+ stances and deeply misogynistic takes.

The ultimate giveaway is often hidden in plain sight: their following lists. In the case of creators like this, public data reveals they follow an incredibly narrow group of men, almost exclusively conservative, MAGA figures who actively campaign to roll back women's reproductive rights. The only outlier is often a family member or partner posting the exact same style of bait content.

They do not practice what they preach. They simply rely on the fact that the average scroller will not do the research or due diligence required to uncover their actual beliefs. THIS is why media literacy is so important today. “Don’t believe everything you see on the internet" has quite literally never rung truer.

Because they weaponise women's real fears, trauma, and systemic struggles as bait. Their motives generally fall into three categories:

By pretending to care about the very people their political ideologies harm, they exploit the empathy of their audience for personal gain. Awesome. Love it here.

Particularly in the harms we face in this world.

True allyship is not a performative aesthetic set to trending audio in a kitchen. It requires consistency between online messaging and offline beliefs, political alignments, and personal actions. When a creator's entire persona feels perfectly engineered to trigger an emotional response, it is time to look past the chopping board.

Ladies, we must start investigating the creators we allow onto our feeds. Check their past content, look at who they support, and question their motives.

The next time a man online claims to be fighting for you, make sure he isn't just fishing for your engagement, or other things.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

The song is full of soul and ultimately just a good vibes type of track. Creators are using this sound to joke about those moments when people around them start calling them out for something specific, but they’re completely unbothered because it’s obviously not about them... right? Confused? Here are some examples, "when my friends are yelling at makeamoveitssoobvious but my name is Cam so it's chill" and "when our mums yell at us and say ucan'tgoouteverywknd but that's not our names so we chill."

Using this audio, turn the camera on yourself, then add on screen text sharing the moment you got called out. Most creators are starting the caption with “when they start yelling at…” and ending it with “but my name is... so it’s chill”. But do have the freedom to play around and get creative. Have fun my nonchalant kings and queens.

A few ideas to get you started:

-Fiona Badiana, Intern

😂Yap’s funniest home videos - "AHHH"
❤How wholesome - "Heaven"
😊Soooo satisfying - "Satisfying spirals"
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight - Crunchy Summer Salad

Hey Lydia!

This is such a common struggle for small businesses, and there's no silver bullet. Creating content does take time. But the best thing you can do to create content at scale is to have a system to help you get it done. For example, you might decide you're going to spend 1 day a month bulk creating 4 weeks of content. So you'd mark that day on your calendar, work out how many hours you need for filming vs. editing, then just stick with it.

When you can afford it, you could look into getting a freelancer to help you with this. Eventually, your time might be better spent developing your business. So if you can outsource some content creation, you'll likely get a better result and free up your time to do other things. But in the meantime, create a system then just be consistent. That's really all there is to it.

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

We get it. Creating content that does numbers is harder than it looks. But doing those big numbers is the fastest way to grow your brand. So if you’re tired of throwing sh*t at the wall and seeing what sticks, you’re in luck. Because making our clients go viral is kinda what we do every single day.