video essay: female loneliness and the catch-up friendship crisis

"I kept seeing conversations about friendship in crisis everywhere. Articles about the effect of COVID on friendships, the subgenre of “I have no friends” youtube videos, the panic of men’s loneliness and mental health, the lack of “third spaces” to spend time socializing, TikToks of girls openly crying because no one showed up to their birthday dinner... In this video we are going to dive beneath the surface to see what lurks below, in the hopes of discovering why so many of us feel so alone in a world that has never been more connected - and maybe figure out what we might be able to do to fix it.

video essay: queer villains and the death of media literacy

"To simper at the feet of those who would condemn us, while pointing to our most vulnerable as collateral damage in queerness’ good name - that is what real villainy looks like."

watch the video essay here

the infantilised spectacle of autistic representation

"I decided to look into it, and ended up going on a deep dive that took me from the legacy of Nazi Doctors during the Second World War, to the worrying consequences of the savant genius myth. In this video we’ll be looking at characters from Sheldon Cooper in Big Bang Theory to Raymond in Rain Man, and shows from Love on the Spectrum to Heartbreak High, as well as autistic headcanons and theories - to breakdown the state of autistic representation today..." watch the video essay on youtube here

The Subversive Power of the Lesbian Cheerleader

A video essay deep dive into the sapphic cheerleader trope including Santana in Glee, Cheryl in Riverdale, Jennifer's Body, But I'm A Cheerleader and many more...

almond moms and the cult of generational diet culture

"The “Almond Mom” is not an isolated quirk of a particular time in recent history - it is just the latest phrase to describe a behaviour, a pressure, an expectation that has been around for much longer than that - of women especially to adhere to a specific body type, to guide their daughters towards that same end - to ensure their social success as much as for reasons of “health”. " watch the video essay here

Gay for Pay: The Dystopian Tactics of Rainbow Capitalism

"People often believe that they have some sway over these companies, in the same way we see the later iterations of Godzilla being brought onto the side of humanity. But are they just tricking themselves into thinking they are the ones controlling godzilla.org – when, in fact, it is an uncontrollable entity from the depths of capitalism, which acts entirely in accordance with its own interests?"

Watch the video essay here!

Sad Girl Vibes: The Double-Edged Aesthetics of Mental Health

From tumblr edits to TikTok trends - mental illness has always been romanticised and glamourised on the internet - but is this really always a bad thing? Let's dive into the controversial and paradoxical discourse surrounding mental health aesthetics...

The Controversial History of the Queer FanFic That Shut Down AO3

The story of how The Untamed actor Xiao Zhan shut down AO3 - or did he?

Let's talk parasocial relationships, the Chinese fan economy, and queer censorship in today's deep dive video essay!

I think the outlier “six figure” author advance payments really skew people’s perception of how much authors make... 

In 2022 the income of professional authors (people where writing is their primary income) averaged just £7,000 in the UK - and that figure is, unsurprisingly but still depressingly, even lower for marginalised authors.  

Pirating books is an ethical issue - and you can look at your circumstances and decide where you want to draw the line - but don’t kid yourself that authors are living it large and that the pirating of their work doesn’t have an impact.

alright for the millionth time I'm seeing yet another author I admire talk about how they literally can barely afford to live & yet there are people openly admitting to pirating their books so, like

i guess it needs to be said again

pirating books is not the same as pirating your favourite Disney movie or whatever. book piracy kills author's incomes and can genuinely ruin someone's career

fuck "girl lunch" fuck "girl math" a woman is a hairy animal who sweats and grunts and excretes and hungers and gets wrinkly and dies eventually. you have to love that.

✨ NEW VIDEO ✨

💅🏻 This Girlboss is eating Girl Dinner because she's tired of Adulting 💅🏻 Let's talk about infantilisation, millennials, and queer time theory...

Let's talk about infantilisation, millennials, and queer time theory...

"I hope the V&A will be able to answer these questions and reassure their visitors that their commitment to LGBTQIA+, and specifically trans, inclusion is not open to compromise. I am sharing this statement because I believe it is important to share my concerns publicly, and that the V&A responds publicly, in order to reaffirm their commitment to trans youth."

Here is the link to the full statement.

Here is the link to the tweet to signal boost.

Can we define "good" and "bad" LBGTQ+ representation? 🤔

"Ladies and Gentlemen and those who are not members of the aristocracy, I’m a video essayist standing in front of a wall of red string, I think you know what that means - it’s chaotic conspiracy deep dive time!"

Well, I'm certainly going to try in this unhinged deep dive!

me, when the person i’m dining with tells the waiter we don’t want a dessert menu

*me, literally sick with want* whatever

a deep dive about ai, capitalism, dystopia and... hope?

"Writing, painting, playing music, drawing - art - is something human beings do to relax, to express themselves, to bring joy and catharsis to those around them - the fact so many people are working so hard to ensure machines, that feel none of those things, can replace humans in that process - that feels instinctively soulless to me."

watch the full video essay

some audience reactions to *that moment* 👀

a deep dive about ai, capitalism, dystopia and... hope?

"Writing, painting, playing music, drawing - art - is something human beings do to relax, to express themselves, to bring joy and catharsis to those around them - the fact so many people are working so hard to ensure machines, that feel none of those things, can replace humans in that process - that feels instinctively soulless to me."

watch the full video essay

a deep dive about ai, capitalism, dystopia and... hope?

"Writing, painting, playing music, drawing - art - is something human beings do to relax, to express themselves, to bring joy and catharsis to those around them - the fact so many people are working so hard to ensure machines, that feel none of those things, can replace humans in that process - that feels instinctively soulless to me."

watch the full video essay