Friday, May 3

CULTURE

Why Generations Of American Women Connected With Betty Crocker As She Turns 100
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CULTURE, VIDEO REELS

Why Generations Of American Women Connected With Betty Crocker As She Turns 100

Elizabeth A. Blake, Clark University Though she celebrates her 100th birthday this year, Betty Crocker was never born. Nor does she ever really age. When her face did change over the past century, it was because it had been reinterpreted by artists and shaped by algorithms. Betty’s most recent official portrait – painted in 1996 to celebrate her 75th birthday – was inspired by a composite photograph, itself based on photographs of 75 real women reflecting the spirit of Betty Crocker and the changing demographics of America. In it, she doesn’t look a day over 40. More importantly, this painting captures something that has always been true about Betty Crocker: She represents a cultural ideal rather than an actual woman. Nevertheless, women often wrote to Betty Crocker and saved the lett...
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Sex, Drugs And TikTok: Keeping Young People Safe Needs A Mature Response
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CULTURE, Journalism

Sex, Drugs And TikTok: Keeping Young People Safe Needs A Mature Response

Isabelle Volpe, UNSW and Clare Southerton, UNSW You may have read recently that TikTok allegedly “serves up” sex and drug videos to minors. Media reports have described the video-sharing platform, which is designed predominantly for young people, as an “addiction machine” that promotes harmful content. In an investigation, reporters at the Wall Street Journal created 31 bot accounts on TikTok, each programmed to interact only with particular themes of content. Many of the bots were registered as being aged 13-15, including one programmed with an interest in “drugs and drug use”, which was ultimately shown 569 videos related to drugs. The investigation sought to better understand how the app’s algorithm selects videos for users. The workings of these kinds of algorithms are an industry s...
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Is Art A Wise Investment? A New Platform Lets You Buy Shares Of Blue-Chip Paintings
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CULTURE

Is Art A Wise Investment? A New Platform Lets You Buy Shares Of Blue-Chip Paintings

Kathryn Graddy, Brandeis University In the fall of 2018, a Banksy work, “Love is in the Bin,” sold for US$1.4 million. Now the original buyer has put the work up for sale, and it’s expected to fetch over $5 million – that would amount to a return of more than 250% on the original investment. What if, instead of the art market’s being the sole purview of the deep-pocketed, everyday people could buy shares of a pricy piece of art and sell the shares as they please? That’s exactly what a new platform, Masterworks, seeks to do. Art investment funds have existed for over a century. Masterworks, however, has put a new twist on an old practice, in that the platform allows individuals to buy shares of specific artworks in $20 increments. Investors can then sell these shares in an easy-to-use ...
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Air Travel Used To Be Easy – An Entire Generation Of Americans Has No Idea
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CULTURE

Air Travel Used To Be Easy – An Entire Generation Of Americans Has No Idea

CULTURE Janet Bednarek, University of Dayton During the mid-1990s I traveled between Dayton, Ohio, and Washington, D.C., twice a month during the school year as half of a commuting couple. I could leave Dayton by 5:15 p.m., drive nearly 80 miles to the Columbus airport during rush hour, park my car in the economy lot, and still get to my gate in plenty of time for a 7:30 p.m. departure. Then 9/11 happened. The terrorist attacks brought swift and lasting changes to the air travel experience in the United States. And after 20 years of ever-more-elaborate airport security protocols, many air travelers have no knowledge of – or only vague memories of – what air travel was like before 9/11. As someone who has studied the history of airports in the United States – and someone old enough to ...
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The Irresistible Allure Of Mocking Southern Accents – TikTok, #BamaRush
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CULTURE

The Irresistible Allure Of Mocking Southern Accents – TikTok, #BamaRush

CULTURE Kathryn Cunningham, University of Tennessee As college students across the country return to campuses grappling with the COVID-19 delta variant, Greek letters of a different variety have captivated social media feeds with stunning virality. The #BamaRush trend on TikTok introduced followers to the annual recruitment process for National Panhellenic Conference sororities at the University of Alabama. The popular videos offer a firsthand perspective on the recruitment process, showcasing the various events and the women’s corresponding fashion choices – the “outfit of the day,” or #OOTD – for each stage. When this phenomenon came to my attention, I noticed that TikTok’s algorithm fed me not only the posts of women participating in #BamaRush but also parody videos made by people g...
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TikTok Is The Latest Battleground – There’s A Long History Of Dances Being Pilfered For Profit
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CULTURE, VIDEO REELS

TikTok Is The Latest Battleground – There’s A Long History Of Dances Being Pilfered For Profit

Jill Vasbinder, University of Maryland, Baltimore County In January 2020, 14-year-old Jalaiah Harmon created what would become one of the biggest viral dance sensations on TikTok. But few users knew that Harmon, who is Black, invented the dance, which she dubbed the Renegade – at least not until a month later, when The New York Times drew attention to her case. That’s because a TikTok user had copied the dance, and it was that TikToker’s rendition that went viral. Because Harmon didn’t get credit, she wasn’t able to reap the benefits of more views and followers, which, in turn, could have led to collaborations and sponsorships. Harmon is only the latest in a long list of women and people of color whose choreography and dance work have been pilfered for profit – a story that dates back ...
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Vacations Feel Like They’re Over Before They Even Start – Why?
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CULTURE

Vacations Feel Like They’re Over Before They Even Start – Why?

Selin Malkoc, The Ohio State University For many people, summer vacation can’t come soon enough – especially for the half of Americans who canceled their summer plans last year due to the pandemic. But when a vacation approaches, do you ever get the feeling that it’s almost over before it starts? If so, you’re not alone. In some recent studies Gabriela Tonietto, Sam Maglio, Eric VanEpps and I conducted, we found that about half of the people we surveyed indicated that their upcoming weekend trip felt like it would end as soon as it started. This feeling can have a ripple effect. It can change the way trips are planned – you might, for example, be less likely to schedule extra activities. At the same time, you might be more likely to splurge on an expensive dinner because you want to m...
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Legal Protections For Black People’s Hair Are Still Gaining Momentum, 2 Years Later
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CULTURE

Legal Protections For Black People’s Hair Are Still Gaining Momentum, 2 Years Later

Advocates of the CROWN Act reflect on its impact and the many remaining challenges on changing beauty standards. Candice Norwood Originally published by The 19th Two years ago, California became the first state to sign a bill expanding anti-discrimination protections to hair textures and styles like afros, braids and locs that reflect Black identity, turning a national spotlight on hair restrictions affecting Black people in workplaces and schools. The Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act, or CROWN Act, has since been passed in 12 other states and 29 municipalities. Legal experts and champions for such policies told The 19th that the new laws have led to important discussions about how White-centric standards of professionalism and beauty harm people of color. St...
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CULTURE

Broken Mirrors Cause Bad Luck – How Did The Superstition Start And Why Does It Still Exist?

Barry Markovsky, University of South Carolina Every human culture has superstitions. In some Asian societies people believe that sweeping a floor after sunset brings bad luck, and that it’s a curse to leave chopsticks standing in a bowl of rice. In the U.S., some people panic if they accidentally walk under a ladder or see a black cat cross their path. Also, many tall buildings don’t label their 13th floors as such because of that number’s association with bad luck. The origins of many superstitions are unknown. Others can be traced to specific times in history. Included in this second category is a superstition that is between 2,000 and 2,700 years old: Breaking a mirror brings seven years of bad luck. It so happened that in both ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, reflected images wer...
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Middle-Aged Americans In The US Are Stressed And Struggle With Physical And Mental Health – Other Nations Do Better
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CULTURE

Middle-Aged Americans In The US Are Stressed And Struggle With Physical And Mental Health – Other Nations Do Better

Frank J. Infurna, Arizona State University Midlife was once considered a time to enjoy the fruits of one’s years of work and parenting. That is no longer true in the U.S. Deaths of despair and chronic pain among middle-aged adults have been increasing for the past decade. Today’s middle-aged adults – ages 40 to 65 – report more daily stress and poorer physical health and psychological well-being, compared to middle-aged adults during the 1990s. These trends are most pronounced for people who attained fewer years of education. Although these trends preclude the COVID-19 pandemic, COVID-19’s imprint promises to further exacerbate the suffering. Historical declines in the health and well-being of U.S. middle-aged adults raises two important questions: To what extent is this confined to the...
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