In The Buzz Cut, we bring you a round-up of all the weird, controversial, and wonderful stories we’ve been reading all week.
An MTV reality dating show, Are You The One, sends eager singles out to Hawaii to compete in a contest to find their “perfect match” and split a $1 million prize. For the first time ever, the eighth season of the show will host 16 contestants, all of whom identify as sexually fluid. Finding the perfect match now has no societally-imposed gender stipulations on love, or whatever the reality show equivalent is.
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In response to the wave of oppressive abortion laws being imposed in some U.S. states, corporations like Disney and Netflix have said they are considering taking their revenue elsewhere. But this seemingly progressive and ethical stance seems to dim in their foreign markets.
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Indian athletes are following in the footsteps of a global wave that celebrates barefoot running, which they say increases running form and speed. The sneaker industry had some thoughts.
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Human fat was apparently an incredibly sought-after and hoarded medical commodity, traded in underground black markets to treat ailments, from sprains to broken bones. How did it all come about?
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Most of the museums in India are derelict, dysfunctional or dying. Advocates attribute it to a lack of museum-going culture amongst Indians. Here’s how a few collectives are attempting to pique Indians’ interest in the institutions that conserve the country’s history and culture.
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We’ve come a long way from keeping dream journals. Scientists are now trying to build technology that can replicate the images we see in our dreams, and turn them into movies we can watch.
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The plastic surgery industry for those involuntarily celibate, or incels, is a lucrative one — as more incels are attributing women’s lack of interest in them to their own appearance, the more visits they’re making to plastic surgeons willing to entertain their every whim. To whom does it fall to tell incels it’s not their appearance that’s the problem?
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The Modi-led BJP government retained its power in the elections this month, and with the win came Indians’ acceptance of a divisive rhetoric that favors old patriarchal traditions and encourages male pride. What place do women hold in this politically-charged environment?
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Disney is going all out trying to brand itself as the next most progressive media brand, especially with recent remakes such as Aladdin, which seeks to rework the original 1992 film’s Arab exoticism. Can inclusive do-overs, however, replace the originals’ problematic rhetoric in our mind, or do they simply bring out what the movies got wrong initially? It might be time Disney stops trying to correct past sins, and create new content that hopefully won’t need to be remade in the next 50 years.
