Girl Interrupted, White Feminism & Virtual Influencers: Issue 17
Substack has a new app for iPhone, yay!
Kia ora everyone, đ
I have exciting news to share: You can now read Grab a Slice in the new Substack app for iPhone. Get ittttt!
With the app, youâll have a dedicated Inbox for Grab a Slice and any others you subscribe to. New posts will never get lost in your email filters or stuck in spam. Longer posts will never get cut-off by your email app. Overall, itâs a big upgrade to the reading experience.
The Substack app is currently available for iOS. If you donât have an Apple device, you can join the Android waitlist here. Yay!
Right, housekeeping over and now on to why youâre here.
This week Iâm watching, reading and listening tooâŚ
Iâve been rewinding the clock on films and music BIG time this week đ°ď¸ First up, was Girl Interrupted (1999). With gals like Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, Whoopi Goldberg, Brittany Murphy and Elisabeth Moss itâs no wonder this film blew up in the late 90s.
I highly recommend watching it if you havenât already OR rewatching it, even if itâs just to fall in love with Whoopi Goldbergâs character or to cringe at Angelinaâs peroxide blonde âbarely-thereâ fringe.
I finally had the time to watch âHouse of Gucciâ (2021), a film all about Patrizia Reggiani who married into the Gucci family - and ultimately, ended up unravelling parts of it through her strong ambition for the brand.
I enjoyed watching it, and I think the fashion + music score was well done, but I couldnât stop thinking the whole time about how the real Gucci family werenât happy at the way the film portrayed them. I think it would be quite strange as an actor, to be portraying someone in a film, who is still alive to watch it? (or their family members). Surely Iâm not the only person who thinks itâs a bit odd?
It got me thinking about film and TV shows portraying real people and the drama around accurate information versus stories that can be harmful or detrimental to real lives. Itâs that fine line between a juicy story (that ultimately sells) and complete fiction. Iâve seen this particular topic quite a bit recently with âPam & Tommyâ - a 2022 Disney+ series about the release of their unauthorised sex tape online.
When in fact, Pamela Anderson (the real one) has come out lately and wasnât impressed at all with the recent show. How distressing and painful having to relive that AGAIN? Itâs just a bit weird to me.
Oh, the irony.
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I donât usually share relationship advice in this newsletter, but reading this piece about someoneâs boyfriend who only enjoys three sex positions was a good read! I do love occasionally skimming through those âAgony' Auntâ types of content in magazines. It reminds me of Womanâs Day mags where you can send in your current problem in a tiny paragraph and hopefully have a stranger answer it publicly for you.
Rachel Elizabeth Cargle (@rachel.cargle) wrote this fantastic body of work about feminism and the problem with âwhite feminismâ (which is very much a thing). Have a read, I liked this paragraph in particular.
âAllyship means using your sphere of influence whether it be your dining room table or the boardroom of your company to call out racist actions and ideals. Allyship means uplifting the voices and experiences of people of colour so that we are not continuously drowned out and ignoredâ.
This article by Ensemble about the effects of long-covid, as well as bed rest and actually ârestingâ on a sick day, was an interesting angle and got me thinking about what a âsick dayâ is now. With many people working from home if youâre sick, are you resting? Or are you feeling the pressure to still work, when you should be getting better? Oh, how the times have changed.
This week I was asked in my Instagram DMâs to participate in an interview about virtual influencers and while Iâve often thought about this topic before, I never thought about writing it all out to help myself understand it better. If you havenât heard of virtual influencers like Lil Miquel - head along and read this. During my interview, we chatted about all sorts of things: the ethics behind virtual/fake influencers, topics they should & and maybe shouldnât be talking about i.e. mental health and politics. Itâs a strange topic to dive into but a very worthwhile one.
I have a recipe for you this week and itâs for Kung Pao Chicken, but get this⌠the sauce takes TWO WEEKS to make! I honestly DIED LAUGHING when I found this recipe because while I know good things can take time, I wanted something new to cook for âthatâ night.
Anyways, I laughed a lot when I read this, but also how goooood? I kinda wanna test it and make the recipe to see if the two-week timeframe is worth the wait. What do you think?
Iâve been revisiting Beyonceâs album Lemonade, which is essentially her album about Jay Z cheating on her. I know, I know⌠why do I torture myself? Itâs just a REALLY good album.
Call her Daddy did an episode with Anna Delvey, on a video app, while she is currently in Rikers Prison. I chatted about the show âInventing Annaâ in a previous issue, and Iâve linked the episode below if you want to listen.
As always, your curated March public playlist, from yours truly! đ§ Linked below and let me know if you have artist suggestions for me.
Another week, another newsletter and every time I sit down and write this I wonder where the last seven days have gone?
Thanks so much for reading, have an amazing week and Iâll chat with you later!
MÄ te wÄ (see you later)
Charlotte xx