In The Buzz Cut, we bring you a round-up of all the weird, controversial, and wonderful stories we’ve been reading all week.
Scarlett Johansson, infamously known as the actress who loves to play roles nowhere close to her ethnicity or sexuality, came under fire in 2018 when she accepted, and then later gave up, the role of a trans man in the upcoming movie Rub & Tug. In a recent interview with Variety, ScarJo departed from her usual defensive stance and agreed she had been “uneducated” about trans issues, had no idea how trans people felt about her, a cisgender actress, taking up the role, and accepted she had not been sensitive in the past. As far as apologies go, it’s not bad.
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There’s a new wellness trend in town — anus tanning. Recently, an Instagram image of a naked woman laying down on the ground with her legs spread up in the air went viral, with the caption reading “perineum sunning.” Now whether that is to cleanse your body’s energy through the butthole, or simply tan the little guy, is up to anyone who tries. Happy sunbathing.
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The Mandalorian, a new fantasy-action television show based on Star Wars, has become people’s favorite topic to fawn over — not for the plotline or the cinematography, but for a tiny, little, green character affectionately dubbed “Baby Yoda.” How did the creature manage to win the hearts of so many?
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With Victoria’s Secret slowly going out the window (along with their longstanding oppressive beauty standards that society), a new underwear obsession is in town — shapewear. Can women’s undies just exist, without being turned into multi-million dollar franchises, or political battlegrounds?
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Bill Cosby, convicted sexual predator, says he would rather serve the three to 10 years of prison time he is sentenced to than repent for sexually assaulting multiple women. “When I come up for parole, they’re not going to hear me say that I have remorse,” Cosby, still salty he got caught, told a local news website.
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The Wing, marketed as a modern workspace only for women, has come under fire for its exclusivity and high membership prices. Feminism for the 1%, you say?
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Harry Styles, former member of pop band One Direction, has been unequivocally accepted by many in the queer community for his queer-friendly proclamations, self-expression, and music. However, Styles has never explicitly said he’s queer. Is Styles queerbaiting, or is he demonstrating plain and simple allyship?
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When Kevin Hart’s homophobic tweet was unearthed on Twitter, he was asked to step down from his Oscars-hosting gig. But Ricky Gervais, British comedian of The Office fame, has been openly transphobic for many years — and still gets called to host the Golden Globe Awards. What gives?
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Arundhati Roy explains to the world the complexities of the religion and caste war in India — where one northern state is in a state of digital lockdown and full of people who don’t want to be called Indians, another eastern state is full of people being stripped of their citizenship privileges. One common thread among all is an unapologetically nationalist, right-wing government. What will become of India’s social landscape?
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Jane Fonda, American actress and climate activist, recently announced she won’t buy any more clothes. Increasingly around the world, Fonda’s sentiment is being echoed by corporations, who have taken a chunk out of the sharing economy and established renting frameworks for clothing — from the affordable every day to the high-end cocktail party. But is an economy where we don’t own any clothes the best for us, or will it just make our mindless consumption worse?
