A tale of sibling rivalry
My aunt has a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of San Diego. My mother has always been jealous of this. How do I know? Well, once, when I was complaining to my mother about my brother’s popularity in high school, compared to my relative anonymity, she said,
“Well, my sister has a Ph. D. in Physical Chemistry. But I never let that bother me.”
By telling me this, she conveyed the exact opposite. My mother had never specifically mentioned my aunt’s degree until that point. Everyone in the family knew Aunt Marie as the “smart one,” an unspoken…
They’re too scared
During quarantine, I have gone back into the closet. Not literally: everyone still knows I’m gay. But instead of hanging out with people who understand me, due to the proximity limitations imposed by quarantine, I have mainly been hanging out with people I went to high school with after moving home. My “pod” acknowledges my sexuality, but they only know a version of me in which that sexuality had been suppressed.
One of the pod members is my best friend- and he will always be my best friend. I have known him since I was five. But that does not…
And was crowned as an immortal meme
Donald Trump has no principles. This has been abundantly clear since the beginning of his political life, and well beforehand. But his recklessness and lack of a coherent platform, never mind his disregard for democracy, contaminated the GOP.
In addition to Trump’s many personal flaws (far too many to list here), his politics lack an organizing principle aside from hate and bias. Trump ran as a Republican: a party platform characterized by bias. During his time in office, Trump pleased some of his fellow Republicans by cutting taxes and pulling out of the Iran Nuclear Deal. He cozied up to…
Is he lost in a maze?
For a while there, Dylan O’Brien seemed like the next up-and-coming white boy in Hollywood. Making his acting debut on the hit series Teen Wolf (2011–17), where he played Tyler Posey’s sidekick for seven seasons, O’Brien made a strong impression with fans who appreciated him as an honest and funny foil to the show’s stoic lead. Unfortunately, staring in the teen rom-com The First Time in 2012 failed to launch O’Brien’s career to new heights, and he simmered on Teen Wolf for a few more seasons until The Maze Runner (2014) came along.
She’ll be selling albums forevermore.
Taylor Swift’s second surprise album of 2020, December’s evermore, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Its lead single, “Willow” debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, making Swift the only artist in history to attain a number one album and song debut at the same time twice. (The first time was for “Cardigan” and folklore in July 2020.) However, as far as album sales, it doesn’t take much to dominate the charts in the streaming era. Swift has been a selling giant for her entire career. …
After all the drama, he’ll be needing stitches.
When Shawn Mendes guest stared on The Late Late Show in December 2020 host James Corden asked him to rank three of his past musical collaborators- Camilla Cabello, Taylor Swift, and Justin Bieber- or eat a Bull’s penis.
The producers of this show are very smart. They know that Shawn has a complicated history with each of these musicians, as they do with each other. Let’s start with Camilla Cabello. There is probably the most history there. Staring in the present and working backward, Shawn and Camila started dating in May of…
And America put her on trial
Taylor Swift has never been the most racially sensitive person. Sure, maybe not a racist, but saying someone isn’t “racist” is really just a way to avoid owning up to intentional and unintentional acts of racial insensitivity.
Take Kendall Jenner’s infamous Pepsi commercial. The ad involved her leaving a photoshoot to join a protest she saw on the street. (What a good citizen!) Weaving to the front of the crowd, she cracked open a can of Pepsi in front of the police officers surrounding the protestors, and the “power of Pepsi” made everyone get along.
This commercial trivialized protestors with…
And the love Trump never got from his father
Trump has always been a narcissist. That’s how he originally succeeded in life. You have to be at least somewhat narcissistic to build a reality TV empire. And you have to be incredibly narcissistic to assume you will succeed in a business you have no aptitude for, and pursue it only because your father handed you an empire.
Trump never cared about politics, the Republican party, or even real estate. He only cares about his brand, power, and fame. He threatened to run a third party if he lost the 2016 Republican primary, which shows he has no regard for…
Don’t even get me started on Armie Hammer…
“The hardest thing to be nowadays is a straight white male,” bemoan conservative blogs. Oh, the humanity! But for every self-pitying cisgender male, there’s another one who has figured out how to use the progressive movement for his own agenda.
Take Timothee Chalamet. In his breakout role, he played seventeen-year-old Elio Perlman in the adaptation of the hit novel Call Me By Your Name (2017, Sony Pictures). This Oscar-nominated role catapulted Chalamet into the spotlight but raised some concerns. The movie tells the love story of young Elio and his father’s graduate student assistant, Oliver (Armie Hammer). Elio and Oliver…
It will happen when you’re not looking
Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a sneaky mental illness. It’s not sneaky in its presentation: the incessant barrage of thoughts an individual cannot control. However, we often rationalize OCD to avoid confronting an obvious diagnosis. The misguided public perception of OCD makes this possible.
Many people view OCD as obsessive hand-washing or tics, such as turning off a light switch a certain number of times before leaving a room. While these compulsions certainly indicate OCD, the disorder can manifest in subtler ways. We can rationalize these ways to downplay our illness. …
Matt Dwyer
Recent college grad. I write about pop culture, politics, travel, mental health, and more
