Our weekly recap highlighting the best feature stories from around the internet.
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The Meta-Politics of Westworld – by Emily Nussbaum, The New Yorker
“Westworld is explicitly, and often wittily, an exploitation series about exploitation, full of naked bodies that are meant to make us think about nudity and violence that comments on violence. It’s the kind of trippy conceptual project that would be unbearable if it weren’t so elegantly made. So far, it works, mostly—not because it’s perfect but because it gets under your skin.”
Kesha, Interrupted – by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, The New York Times Magazine
“Kesha is no longer the artist we met in the late aughts: blazing dollar sign in her name in place of the S, gold Trans Am that she said she wanted to have continuous sex in, 24-7 party girl, dredged in oil and breaded like a schnitzel in glitter. Now she is someone in suspended animation, unable to release new music pending contract litigation, touring small clubs to make some money to help fund her lawsuit and to make sure her fans don’t forget her; now she is someone who wants to work and make music, just without the man she says raped her; now Kesha is a cause.”
Tumblr’s Depression Connection – by Rachel Premack, The Ringer
“This Tumblr subculture began to flourish in 2013, according to a flurry of thinkpieces. It developed from an aesthetic called “soft grunge,” which paired beauty and intelligence with a loner aesthetic. Posts are marked by pop culture mainstays like Skins, Lana Del Rey, and Marina and the Diamonds, who are sort of like the community’s antiheroes. Sometimes, you find refuge in a place that accepts your sadness — but other times, the constant rumination and idolization of certain images, quotes, and celebs is just negative reinforcement.”
A few words with Moana Maniapoto – NZ Herald
“I love playing overseas because no one knows us from a bar of soap. They don't have issues around te reo Maori or my politics - in fact, I think that's part of our charm. When you go in with a clean slate, you stand and fall on your performance and that's quite liberating.”
The Truth About Photoshop Shame – by Aimee Cliff, The Fader
“We are all taking photos of ourselves all the time and posting them online for approval. You now not only need to have flawless makeup but still look natural; be thin but also and have curves like Kim Kardashian; inject chemicals into your lips but put the right kinds of nutrients in your body and go to the gym every day. It’s almost as if being naturally beautiful also means being successful and healthy and popular. If anything, it almost feels like the standard of beauty is now so conflicted that it has extended to something even more unachievable.”
Vince Staples and Eric André Discuss the Future – by Sean Evans, Complex
“If Donald Trump becomes president I’m gonna join fucking ISIS. I’m gonna be the first Jew in ISIS. I think that we put too much weight on who the president is. The president is the country’s scapegoat more than the country’s leader; the president has as much power as we think the president has. Whoever has the most money is the puppet master.”