Why Buffy is still revolutionary 18 years on, WTF is up with rap’s slut shaming, and the best damn version of ‘Hypnotize’ we’ve ever seen. Here’s what the Dazed team are hyping this week
PHOTOS THAT ARE TOO HARD TO KEEP
“Having just completed the Dazed Generation casting project I’m a big fan of photo submissions. If you too have a tendency to indulge in nostalgia or have a selection of cute or sexy images of you and your ex that make you feel physically ill, then check this out.” – Saorla Houston, Photographic Producer (@SaorlaHouston)
JARVIS COCKER'S NU-TROGLODYTE MANIFESTO
“No phone reception. No wi-fi. No TV. No radio.” Yes I realise it’s a) ironic that I’m praising an article about being free from the internet on an article on the internet and b) that I get paid to make people look at more stuff on the internet. But I’m with Jarvis on this sometimes I just want to spend my time cooking sausages in a cave far far away disconnected from all forms of communication.” – Sean Carpenter, Digital Marketing Coordinator (@SeanCarpenter2)
EARL SINCLAIR PERFORMS ‘HYPNOTIZE’ BY NOTORIOUS B.I.G
“My last few entries have all been a little on the sad side so here’s something to lighten things up. The world needed something crucial, something utterly vital and that thing is Biggie dubbed over clips from the kids TV show Dinosaurs. I think this video may have halved my productivity today, I cannot stop watching. Thanks to whoever made this, I owe you – and I possibly owe my bosses some overtime.” – Thomas Gordon, Digital News Writer (@AngstromHoot)
POST-INTERNET POETRY COMES OF AGE
“Kenneth Goldsmith is more popularly known as the university English professor who offers a class on Wasting Time on the Internet, but he's also an astute observer of the occasionally confusing (or, depending on how “internet” you are, always confusing) genre known as post-internet poetry. Here he uses Steven Zultanski’s new book Bribery as a jump-off to discuss where this new generation of writers is going.” – Zing Tsjeng, News Editor (@MissZing)
HOLLY HERNDON
“Oh look, it's already mid-March, two thousand and fifteen years since the start of the common era, and present day reality is exposing itself, second by second, granulating chips of The Now from The Going To Happen Then. Holly Herndon is amazing, the video by Metaheaven is amazing, the writing is amazing. The world is no more new now than it ever has been before. This video feels like that. Let's all click play on it now!” – Charlie Robin Jones, Digital Editor (@CharliexJones)
AMBER ROSE AND RAP’S SLUT SHAMING EPIDEMIC
“‘Amber Rose is hot. Amber Rose is also a mom. Amber Rose was also a wife. And if T.I. can be a convicted felon who’s rapped about sex, guns, and drugs and still be ‘father knows best’ on The Family Hustle once a week, why is a sexy woman suddenly an unfit mother just because she posts photos in her lingerie?’ That's the question The Daily Beast poses as it explores why women get such a hard time while men remain unsung heroes – no questions asked. The dilemma here pretty much remains unanswered, but it's an interesting take on rap music's relationship with a problem that it continues to perpetuate. Especially with lyrics such as the ones Rose’s ex-husband spits on this Juicy J track. Have a think next time you sing along” – Ashleigh Kane, Digital Assistant (@AshleighKane)
EXPLAINING DANNY DYER: A HEROIC ENGLISH SLAG
“Full disclosure: it’s production week, I’m tired, and I’ve just eaten 3 packets of M&Ms for no reason. I don’t even know who I am anymore. Luckily though, I was able to find this breathtaking ode to great British hero Danny Dyer, and it's helped me see the beauty in the world again. No, seriously – I've read it like eight times, and each time I feel more triumphant. “(Dyer) is all of East London, distilled crystalline into one single utterance of the word ‘slags”, Golby writes. ‘You're reading ‘slags’ in his voice. You always do.’ And my god, it’s true isn’t it?” – Dominique Sisley, Editorial Assistant (@DominiqueSisley)
AT 18, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER IS STILL REVOLUTIONARY
“Eighteen years, 18 years! It’s been 18 years since Buffy first staked a vamp in Sunnydale, California, and made our streets that much safer to walk on. Yeah, she fought demons, sure. But she also had to tackle the real succubuses haunting the halls of Sunnydale High. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was both of its time and ahead of it with such a strong, well-rounded heroine (where are they now?) and with its placement of the fate of the world in the hands of a high school student. Just don’t watch the movie.” – Trey Taylor, Film Editor (@TreyTylor)
“It's pretty fucked up when you think about it: why does a novel about a paedophile who abducts and projects his fantasies onto a 12 year old girl always come with a sensual, almost softcore cover? Especially considering a) the current media hysteria surrounding the sexualisation of children, and b) Nabokov's revelatory 'emphatic opposition' that the cover should depict 'any kind of representation of a little girl'? Ok, So we can blame Kubrick (or his photographer Bert Stern) for the lollipops and heart shaped sunglasses, but this blog post does a good job of breaking down what's really going on here.” – Emma Hope Allwood, Fashion Features Assistant (@EmmaHopeAll)
WHY DO MOST OF BRITIAN'S PUBLIC TRANSPORT RACISTS SEEM TO BE WOMEN?
“As Wilkinson says, the archetypal ‘racist' in this country is a white man draped in a St George's flag. So why is it always women in these viral phone videos? Interesting and thought-provoking analysis goes beyond the knee-jerk reaction of ‘a mouthy woman is less threatening to film than a violent man’ – did you know that the number of women self-identifying as having ‘some level of prejudice’ is the highest it’s been since 1983?” – Natasha Slee, Social Media Assistant (@TashaLouises)
MY BOYFRIEND ‘SORT OF’ RAPED ME. BUT I DIDN'T BREAK UP WITH HIM
“Everyone at some point will experience being in what I've come to call sexually precarious positions. These are the times where you take a second to go through the events in order to consider if what happened was ok and how you feel about it. Sometimes, situations that may mortify and scar some are disregarded as less harmful accidents by others. This nuanced piece on a woman's experience with what she deems a ‘sort of’ rape starts a conversation centred around how an individual may define their own experiences as harmful or not before labels are forced onto them.” – Jonathan Walik, Editorial Intern (@JonnyWalik)
“I’m sure most people are sick to death of reading about London’s housing crisis. I however, am not one of those people. This article from Huck magazine seemed to perfectly distill the feeling of disgust I have about, what it describes as, a “fully fledged aesthetic assault on London’s identity on behalf of the international wealthy.” It may be my disenfranchised paranoia but these goliath glass high–rises, that pop up like malignant tumors on the city, seem to just confirm that I am forever doomed to live in a shitty bedsit flat. That is, until I am inevitably evicted to make way for some multi-million dollar luxury housing complex.” – Andrew Gale, News Intern (@AndyGale123)
