not j*ss Finally Letters the News!
Let's cover the topics that have been on all of our minds in July.
Hello, not j*ssers!
As you should know by now, despite being a newsletter I don’t tend to letter the news here. An appropriately known fact about me is that during my college era, in which I did not graduate, I was a journalism major! Reporting news is what I was studying! I took a Media and Culture class! This is my area of not quite expertise, as I dropped out before getting any type of degree, but vested interest. I know the rules, I know objectivity, I know not to let my personal opinions get the better of me.
Colleen Ballinger, you are a FREAK.
This is a bit dated, actually. It’s been a full month, we’ve moved on. I also don’t love to platform insidious people, but when someone has so much more of a platform than me, I feel as though I get a pass, right? Everybody reading this already knows of The Situation, capital T, capital S.
If you aren’t aware, Colleen is a uniquely successful and “influential” YouTuber. I think she was part of Waitress on Broadway at one point in time, which is the pinnacle of culture, really. People let her get so far in life. In recent years, she has been facing all types of allegations, grooming being the most pressing one. Almost all claims have been corroborated with screenshots, photographs, videos, none of which does Colleen actively try to debunk. Colleen decided to make a response video in the form of a Lin Manuel Miranda-esque ukulele number. It’s decidedly not an apology video. Throughout the song, she sings about how there’s a “gossip train” fueled by “misinformation” spreading against her. She calls these “lies” and that people are “ignoring facts,” yet when she defends herself… she just basically says “not true lol!” with no actual attempt to contextualize the allegations or providing any reason to believe she is innocent. She doesn’t have facts for us to ignore!!! What baffles me is she has been fighting these allegations for well over a year, and she thought this was the best way to face them.
Anyways, after this video went mega viral (I don’t encourage watching it at all, she does not need the views at this point) people did some further reading and have found all types of insidious details from throughout her career. Notably a few instances of blatant public racism, and just so much more inappropriate behavior that hadn’t even been alleged or brought up beforehand. There’s nothing more to say besides she’s a FREAK. Trisha Paytas canceled their podcast together. TRISHA PAYTAS said Colleen was too embarrassing for her brand. That’s how you know it’s over.
Doja Cat, it’s time to PUT DOWN THE PHONE!!!
Please!!! I am always very scared of discussing big presences in pop culture, because standom is something serious, but I feel as though in this case I’m in solidarity with the fandom. I am not dissing them; I am actually linking arms with them. Full disclosure, my views of Doja Cat have been strained since her TikTok mocking Amber Heard last year. As you know, one thing about me, I don’t play about Amber Heard. As such, if you’ve noticed I’ve been mostly silent about Doja for the past year. Not just because I think that was very telling of her character, I also don’t particularly enjoy being a negative or hateful person. I don’t consider myself to be a Doja “hater” by any real stretch, because being a hater doesn’t come naturally to me at the age of 23. I’ve grown out of that era of my life!
Since the start of her career, Doja’s digital footprint and social media presence has wavered pretty consistently. As such, it is always interesting to see where people draw their personal line. I don’t really know how things have escalated the way they have, but it would appear that Doja has burned one too many bridges with a lot of her fanbase. I’ve gathered it has something to do with her boyfriend. I can’t lie, I do not know who this man is. From what I have gathered… he doesn’t sound great! That isn’t my business, but what caught my personal attention was her saying “my fans don’t name themselves shit. if you call yourself a “kitten” or fucking “kittenz” that means you need to get off your phone and get a job and help your parents with the house.” and then said she doesn’t love her fans because she doesn’t know them. Paraphrased. Apparently, this came after she defended her boyfriend from a lot of fans raising valid concerns, but again… I missed a few chapters, so correct me if I’m wrong on that part. Either way, her social media presence within the past year has been… notable, to say the least.
Doja Cat has spent her entire career online and has built a lot out of that. Social media has become an integral throughline of her success. I don’t mean to be rude towards her, but I don’t think being so online at this stage of her career is quite productive or healthy. It’s time to disconnect! Not that she’s looking for advice from me, but it’s clear a lot of her fans do not love the energy she is currently putting out, and it’s not that I think she owes them or anything, but when you build your career off of social media from the ground up basically, losing that support is very damaging for the brand you curated. Do I think her career will disappear overnight? No, honestly, after 2020 I’m sure she’ll bounce back from anything. However, she’s lost over 200k followers over this incident alone. She is losing more and more support. They’re interviewing deactivated Doja stan accounts on NBC News, it’s A Thing Now. I don’t know if she’s already taking a break, but I do believe just temporarily disconnecting from social media would be the best for her.
Aliens are real?!
Unless they’re subscribed to the newsletter, I don’t see how that is my business. Much respect to them, please don’t abduct me. Moving on.
New Tinashe song!!!
This has nothing to do with anything else, I just love Tinashe. I wonder if the aliens from the UFO hearing have streamed yet. They should. Oh, I just know they would love 333.
The Month Of Divorce!
In case you are unaware, which seems impossible now, Ariana Grande and Dalton Gomez are over! So are Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello. Love is dead! As I’m writing this, Tina Knowles and Richard Lawson, too, are divorcing. It’s not even just the Month of Divorce anymore, it’s the Summer of Divorce! Most of these separations have hit the timeline, gagged us a bit, but promptly left our collective psyche… except one. Ariana Grande’s separation with Dalton seems to be having a new development every few hours. No matter when I publish this, it will immediately date itself by where I cut off this story.
I’m going to be honest and say my care-o-meter is at about 3/10. It goes lower and lower with each development. At first, rumors and speculation were that Dalton wronged Ariana in some unspecified way to cause their separation, and who knows! Maybe that is the case! But within days, it’s reported that Ariana has been seeing one of her Wicked co-stars, who also played Spongebob on Broadway, which is very relevant to the story, I think!
Extra scandalous because he, himself, is, or… well, was married and with child. This entire circumstance caused a lot of discourse on the timeline, because you know… homewrecking. A recent claim implies the timelines don’t actually overlap, so both were separated by the time they started entangling with one another, but… this just isn’t my business. The only people impacted are the people involved, this is all too interpersonal for me to engage with further. That isn’t to say you shouldn’t care! I love inserting myself into celebrity drama more than anybody, but I don’t know… the drama isn’t drama’ing enough for me. Ariana may not be a “girl’s girl”, but she’s sure winning the IDGAF war right now. Nothing but love and light to Lilly Jay and her child, though.
ELON MUSK, LEAVE TWITTER ALONE!!!!!!
I suppose I should say leave X alone. He keeps making choices that are making the app more and more unusable. Half of my circle is on DM limit at any given hour nowadays, because you basically have to pay to message people now… it’s insane!!!!!!!! Soon you’re going to have to pay to Tweet, oh, sorry… soon you’re going to have to pay to “send an X.” I’m applying less context to this one, because if you are subscribed to my newsletter, you more than likely have been aware of Elon’s antics for a while now. Stop the madness!!!!
The Strike.
If you are online, own a television, or are even slightly aware of current events, you already know about this strike. You also already know that I am fully in support of the writers getting what they deserve, as without writers… we wouldn’t have any entertainment. The writers, and also actors, are what make pop culture what it is. If you want to learn a bit more about the ins and outs of the strike, I do recommend streaming High Low with Emrata. The April 27th episode, Hollywood and Everything You Need to Know About a Writers’ Strike, that is where I learned a lot about it. However, some other details can be found here. Both of these sources are months old, as such don’t cover everything, but do stand as a good starting point in understanding why this moment is so relevant to this moment in time. Anyways, here’s a thread to help support those striking.
Anyways, I will probably never do another issue like this. Thank you for hearing me out. I’m seeing Beyoncé on Tuesday so if I never post again after that, it’s because I have ascended after hitting the peak of my life.
xoxo, not j*ss.