Borkowski Weekly Media Trends 24-06-22
Mark Borkowski on the Strikes | Bye Bye BBL | We Need to Talk About Ezra Miller | More Government Gaffes
This piece was written before the full viral might of Mick Lynch was revealed, and so the RMT unintentionally ended up taking Mark’s suggestion to get their argument out on new media platforms such as TikTok, but it’s probably giving too much credit to suggest that that was what they were planning all along when they decided to plonk a cantankerous 60 year-old union rep on every form of broadcast media going...
Bye Bye BBL as ‘Heroin Chic’ Returns
Every three to five years, we go through a cycle of beauty standards that are typically driven by social media and celebrity status. This week signalled the beginning of a new cycle as TikTok seemingly heralded the decline of the BBL era following Khloe Kardashian’s revelation of a new slim-thin figure, having apparently had hers reversed.
If you’ve been living under a pop-culture rock, a BBL (Brazilian Butt Lift) is a recently-popularised body modification operation where fat is taken from the stomach or back and is inserted into the buttocks or hips of someone who wishes to have a more curvy and shaped-up figure. The BBL’s surprisingly long lifespan has its roots in the early 2010’s when the Kardashians started to develop their cult social presence and began making their own imprint into societal trends.
The reality star sisters became popular in the world of beauty as they set a standard on what the ‘ideal’ body type should be - a small waist and an abnormally large bum in an exaggerated version of the ‘hourglass’ figure. But more sinisterly, they also set a standard for how their impressionable young fans could achieve this look, which just happened to be through the consumption of whatever brand was paying top dollar for their endorsement that week. The BBL body type became a phenomenon on social media, giving young girls and women the (unrealistic for most) aspiration and the belief that it would become a reality if only they bought enough diet supplements, lifestyle products and cosmetic procedures – like the BBL.
The hashtag #BBL has had over 5 billion views which speaks for itself, and only now that a mighty Kardashian appears to have disavowed the practice are TikTokers claiming that the era of the BBL is finally coming to an end. Tiktok is drowning in conspiracies that the reality star sisters have once again changed their body type ‘ideal’ for a more slender figure. Per the theory, it seems that society is entering the next phase of beauty standards, one that can be summed up as: The Return of the Kate Moss Era.
The ideal body type changes over time depending on what and who is trending. Before the BBL take over, there was the ‘strong athletic model’ look which was inspired by Gisele Bündchen, and before that, it was all about the early 90’s ‘coffee and cigarettes look’. A trend that was originally influenced and owned by Jamie King and Kate Moss. The trend was controversially labelled as “heroin chic”, a personified aesthetic of size 6 body types, inspired by ‘waif’ models. As we live in a TikTok time capsule, there’s a growing impression that this era is making a fullblown return, as the culture of grunge, under-eye bags, and thin limbs reappears.
The 90’s female look enabled a particular attitude that glamorized smoking, drugs, and depression. This trend defined an entire generation and caused a lot of backlash and outrage, as it seemed to leave harmful and permanent effects on the younger generation. As every era must come to an end, another must begin, and it seems that no matter what we do as a society, every beauty standard has its negatives. Whether we should be worried about the next era of beauty is yet to be known but fingers crossed that the era of Tumblr Girls and Heroin Chic won’t be as harmful as it once was.
We Need to Talk About Ezra
Back in 2011, ‘We Need To Talk About Kevin’, the cinematic adaptation of the Lionel Shriver novel, opened at the Cannes with a scene in which Tilda Swinton is smeared in what ambiguously looks like pulpy blood, but turns out to be tomatoes. In this style, the film builds a disturbing aura around Kevin, played by Ezra Miller, who eventually kills his father and sister and embarks on a school massacre with a bow-and-arrow.
And so an iconic monster of cinema was born…but it wasn’t only Kevin.
In recent weeks, Ezra Miller is ‘accused of housing children on a farm with guns and marijuana’. Shortly before that he was arrested twice in Hawaii for disorderly conduct and assault (which included throwing a chair at a woman), Miller was more recently accused of grooming and abusing a teen and served with two restraining orders. The newest addition to this litany of crime is an allegation that Miller has been hosting a 25-year old mother and her three young children at the actor’s Vermont farm, where they allegedly leave weapons lying around the house and farm marijuana. Curiously, the accusations never come from Ezra’s alleged victims, who seem to unanimously venerate the actor, but from their families, who often seem to have been isolated from their loved ones.
Warner Bros whose upcoming feature ‘The Flash’, is effectively a big-budget superhero franchise vehicle for Miller, are now facing an unenviable crisis; a headline star effectively embarking on a brainwashing crime spree. An urgent meeting is allegedly scheduled to determine the future of Miller’s role and the film altogether. The question is whether Miller is fated to be the next Amber Heard, or whether their reputation can still be salvaged.
The nature of their crimes is not necessarily easily digested by the public. Miller is creepy - and their crimes murky, cultist and psychologically disturbing- but not Weinstein creepy. A low-in-numbers cult is not quite a sexual abuse scandal, yet.
Miller could of course turn up to court when summoned, put out an apology and position the individuals they have victimised as vulnerable marginalised people in need of help and friendship. Maybe in a few years this could even be the foundation for an RDJ-style ‘reformed enfant terrible’ comeback. But it seems for now that their priorities lie elsewhere, and their career is not a key factor in the dilemma of whether or not to hit the road with a groomed teenager or steal passports from people at a farmer’s market.
It is not that all hope must be lost for Ezra Miller; it is that they actually do not care at all. Where each day is worse than the previous one, in an age where forgiveness and second chances are scarce resources, reaching the point of no return is just a matter of time.
Squashing negative press while being squashed at the dispatch box: Another week in government…
Normally in a week of by-elections the government would be focused on message discipline, and campaigning to win. But this is no ordinary government, and even the sharpest of wedge issues, like Rwanda, and train strikes were a secondary factor as voters came out in force against Boris’ scandal-pocked Conservative party.
This week’s admission that Number 10 had suppressed a story by The Times newspaper about Boris attempting to crowbar his now-wife Carrie into a job back when they were having an affair and he was still married to his ex-wife was another brushstroke in the great fresco that is the image of Boris as a corrupt, amoral oaf. And that as an impression voters clearly took to the polls.
Boris, however, smelled smoke and decided it was time for fiddle practice, brushing the defeats off as the kind of mid-term losses all governments must endure, and talking up the spectacular result in the Hartlepool by-election just last year (suggesting that mid-term by elections can be significant but only when they go your way). The salient change since Hartlepool is that the pubic no longer sees Boris as a man of the people, but as what some have always seen; an elite Etonian who thinks he’s too good for the rules, and is interested in power, not people.
Despite a controversial policy programme, word from the ground is that this week’s spectacular losses are because the leader is toxic. So toxic that according to YouGov not only is the Kier Starmer (who isn’t massively popular) more popular than Boris, so is Theresa May, Gordan Brown, and Ed Balls who is not even an MP anymore.
To compound the issue, Conservative party chairman Oliver Dowden MP did a 180 on his unwavering support for Boris Johnson and resigned saying “we cannot carry on business as usual”. While many would expect the chairman to resign after such disastrous results, blame within the party wasn’t laid at his door but the Prime Minister’s. Oliver was one of the key three supporters of Boris Johnson in the 2019 leadership election which saw him become Prime Minister.
NFT used to buy a $4.1m LA mansion? And more Paul boxing
Digital creator and Logan Paul crony Mike Majlak turned heads after 'officially' buying his first home in Los Angeles worth $4.1 million using his Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT as leverage to buy it.
Despite crypto markets crashing and tearing down high-profile NFT projects like the BAYC, Majlak - best known for his relationship with former pornstar & ex-girlfriend Lana Rhoades - played his hand exceptionally well. After purchasing the 'ape' for $700,000 and seeing its price drop dramatically, Majlak used it to secure a mortgage, putting it on a separate platform that offered him a loan.
The story is an excellent example of influencers using expensive brands for financial gain, with the primary goal to deliver clickbait-driven content. For a guy that's buddied up with Paul, featuring on his hit podcast as a secondary character, to creating news for his own channel is very savvy.
And to drive the wider point home and to glance at the other side of the Paul family, younger brother Jake is bolstering his boxing career by fighting fellow influencer (and actual professional boxer) Tommy Fury in a rescheduled match looking to happen in August. So whether you like or loathe them, the Pauls aren't going away anytime soon.