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MINI SCROLL: Rhode event influencer diversity backlash, Shrek as a "cautionary tale" + ReallyRapunzel wraps it up · Mini Scroll

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  Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
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  culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
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  media, the creator economy and the digital space every Monday
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  through Thursday and sometimes Fridays.
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  I'm your host Lauren Meissner, the founder of the Australian
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  youth digital media brand Centennial World.
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  Welcome back to Mini Scroll everyone.
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  Happy Monday, I hope you all had a good weekend.
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  I am back. I'm feeling refreshed.
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  I was down the coast with my family, which was so nice.
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  My parents are still here in Australia, which has been
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  amazing. They actually don't leave until
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  the end of March, so I have lots of time with them, which has
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  been so nice because obviously they live very, very far away
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  normally. All right, I have a pretty big
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  episode for you guys today. The stories are just like 2 of
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  them are pretty meaty, so I want to get straight into it.
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  OK, let's get into it. The first story that I have for
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  you guys today is the Sydney Road Beauty event continues to
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  spark discourse online, this time for a lack of diversity
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  among influencers invited. So last week I covered the
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  Sydney Road launch event and how a random UGC creator went viral.
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  She wasn't even invited, but she kind of stumbled upon the event
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  and documented herself, like finding the event and what the
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  event was like on the outside. And that went pretty viral.
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  Well, over the weekend, discourse about the event has
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  continued because there's now been a lot of criticism about
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  how white the event was in terms of attendees.
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  There was an obvious lack of diversity and influencers
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  invited. And there's lots of people
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  online saying they knew exactly who was going to be invited to
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  this event because it's the same influencers that are invited to
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  every Aussie brand event. We all saw the Rd.
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  Sydney launch, we all saw who was there.
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  We knew what the guest list look like before we even opened a
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  single video, right? There's a two-part situation
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  here, OK? It's on one, the onus of the
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  public and who we follow and champion.
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  But also it is on these PR companies and these influencer
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  relation girly pops. I cannot beg you enough to widen
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  your horizons to other creators, smaller creators, people of
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  color creators, curvy girlies, the lot.
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  Like you need to champion these women because they are putting
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  out some content. Pan out there?
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  I keep seeing tik toks of everyone being like, I'm so
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  bored of seeing the same influences at every event.
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  Yeah, I made a similar video a couple months ago talking about
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  calling out to brands about they should take different influences
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  to things like Coachella. So I've seen the road event
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  today in Australia. I know I'm not the only person
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  seeing this. First of all, what did you guys
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  get? Let me know.
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  Second of all though, this is actually not a critique on road
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  at all because this is not their fault at all.
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  More so I think the event managers that maybe do the PR
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  for these kind of events to another girl talking about this
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  actually, but it really is the same group of influencers that
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  go every time and I love that for them.
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  I but I think we would all really love to start seeing some
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  smaller creators going to these events, creators that are of.
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  I'm. Really trying not to be a
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  Habeah, but I already know who's going to these Rd. events
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  because you've gone to every other event this year and last
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  year and the year before. What I'm trying to say is I'm a
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  little bit bored. Like girl, I already know you're
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  going to go meet Hailey Bieber and Margaret Robbie and Jake
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  Bellary and like I already know who's going.
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  It's the same people that go to every event.
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  OK so before I get into it, no one is saying that these white
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  influencers shouldn't be invited or shouldn't go to events that
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  they're invited to. It's more so that the Australian
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  fashion beauty influencer space, those industries at large have
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  very deep rooted systemic racism and discrimination problems.
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  And these brands and PR agencies can continue to get away with
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  invite list like this despite us having this conversation every
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  few months. Like this is absolutely not the
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  first time that we've had this discussion.
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  And that's a thing, right? Like the Sydney Road event was
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  presumably an event for elite influencers because Haley
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  herself would be there. But the quote UN quote elite
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  influencers in in Australia, most of them are white.
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  And the people with the power to change who is viewed as elite
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  within the industry, obviously outside a follower count, are
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  those in charge of gifting lists and PR invites.
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  There's a lot of people being like, you can't control who has
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  the most followers and all of that.
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  But I actually do think a creator's status can be elevated
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  by how the industry perceives them and what experiences they
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  are invited to and aligned with outside of follower count.
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  However, the people who are in a position to elevate someone's
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  status, they are also largely white, so there isn't
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  necessarily a conscious effort made to ensure that they're
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  keeping diversity top of mind. Also, as we know, algorithms are
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  really racist, so they will suppress content by creators of
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  color, they will push content by white creators.
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  So if we're not making a conscious effort to keep
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  diversity top of mind, then the quote UN quote elite rung of
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  influencers within the industry will continue to be majority
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  white. It shouldn't take effort to
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  diversify your feed, but it does because of so many of the
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  systemic barriers that prevent creators of color from breaking
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  into the mainstream with the same ease that white creators
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  can. And I also wanted to highlight a
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  point made here by a creator named Mulan.
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  She noted the pressure that's put on the few creators of color
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  who are invited to these events. In my experience and what I've
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  seen from a lot of PR events recently is that a lot of brands
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  are only concerned about diversity as far as optics go.
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  And what I mean by that is that they're very happy to have like
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  1-2, maybe 3 POC creators there. And I know to a lot of people
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  you're probably like, well, that's like a lot 2 or 3, isn't
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  that what you want? Just want a handful of POC
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  creators there. The issue with that is when you
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  only have like 3 or 4 POC creators in a room of like 5050
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  girls, it is tokenization. Like those girls are just there
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  to be tokenized and just for the brand to say, hey, we care about
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  diversity. Those are the girls that get
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  rolled out for a couple of pictures so they can claim
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  diversity. And it means that for those POC
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  creators that are invited to these events, it puts a lot of
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  pressure on them because now they can't just be themselves.
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  Now they have to be the representation in the room.
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  They have to represent not just themselves, but the entirety of
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  their like minority group. So when you have only like 1-2,
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  maybe 3 POC people there, it puts a lot of pressure on them
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  because they're like, fuck, I need to turn it out.
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  I need to be going above and beyond.
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  I need to be showing face serving looks as they would be
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  anyway. But there is now this more added
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  pressure because it's not just themselves they're representing,
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  it's the collective. But if you are a creator,
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  especially an Aussie creator who is feeling burnt out on this
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  conversation or discouraged by what we saw at the road event, I
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  did want to leave you with this piece of advice from the
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  Cambino. She's one of Australia's most
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  influential fashion creators and she's also a woman of color.
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  She posted this on her Instagram stories yesterday.
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  I see so much discourse around the influencer space in Sydney
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  and like, I just want to give one piece of advice.
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  Banking your entire career goal and trajectory on making it in
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  Australia slash Sydney is a huge mistake and disservice to
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  yourself. Aim higher.
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  Do you want to sit with me at Chanel or do you want to go to a
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  Mecca event? Stop feeding into shit that
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  doesn't service you. I have my moments too where I'm
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  like wow why did NGV in Melbourne extend an invite?
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  And then I'm like babe you just did Chanel couture, you saw
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  Peter's last Alya show. Everything's so fine.
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  And look at not everyone is going to be able to make that
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  kind of career happen for themselves.
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  But if there's one thing about the Kimbino, it's that she has
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  been at this for so long. And Australia has absolutely, I
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  mean, for years they still do, but they did for so, so long
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  just completely ignore her. Even though she was doing this
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  amazing work, amazing commentary on fashion.
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  Celebrities were flying her out to LA to consult on their lines.
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  She had a list followers and people reposting her and sharing
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  her commentary. And she was getting recognized
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  globally, but here in Australia, a lot of people in the industry
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  wouldn't give her the time of day.
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  So even though, yes, the career that she has built for herself
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  is phenomenal and it might feel so out of reach, but I think her
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  advice still rings true. Aim higher, shoot for the
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  fucking stars and don't get bogged down in the details of
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  like the local who's who who's invited here.
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  You know, the Internet is global, social media is global.
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  And at this point, budgets in a lot of cases are also global.
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  All right, the next story that I have for you guys today, we need
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  to talk about the Shrek cautionary tale discourse going
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  on on TikTok. I'm sure you guys have seen
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  this, but a creator named Amber Akila has gone viral for her hot
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  take about how the movie Shrek is a quote cautionary tale for
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  women. Amber is a DJ and a music
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  producer who uses her TikTok largely to discuss cultural
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  commentary, pop culture analysis and content for women around
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  decentering men in their lives. Five days ago, Amber posted a
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  video that's reached nearly 8 million in views in which she
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  said that Shrek is a cautionary tale about how a woman can't
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  turn an ogre into a man, but he can make an ogre out of you.
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  I just posted on my Instagram story about how Shrek is not a
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  fairy tale, it's a cautionary tale.
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  An example of how a woman cannot turn an ogre into a man, but he
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  can make an ogre out of you. Because she started as a
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  Princess, she had generational wealth.
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  She could have had a pet dragon. And because she was stuck up
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  there, no hobbies, no friends, the first person she meets is
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  this Moody ass stubborn ogre that basically nags her.
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  She takes that as a sign to like get him to like her, and she
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  falls in love with him. He manages to get a Princess to
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  settle for him. An antisocial outcast lives in a
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  swamp. Isn't he also unemployed?
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  She's thinking Oh my God I got the loser to love me.
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  Alienates herself from her family to live with him in a
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  swamp. Gets baby trapped.
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  She's also an ogre now, so if she ever wanted to leave him,
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  she's severely limited her potential dating pool.
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  He's not willing to change anything about himself all the
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  way he lives or to level up in order to provide for her and
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  their family. Did I mention she lives in a
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  swamp when she could have lived in a castle?
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  People try to trick women into not caring about material
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  things, but there really is a level that you need to care
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  about when you're going to raise children.
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  OK, men can go their whole lives sleeping on the floor, but how
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  are you going to raise children in that kind of environment?
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  You could be the prettiest and richest girl in the land, and if
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  you don't have a hobby and some friends, you'll end up in the
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  swamp with an ogre and you'll become an ogre too.
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  OK, so this video is incredibly divisive.
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  There are millions of people that agree with her, but there
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  are, I would argue, more people that disagree with her.
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  There is massive criticism around this take for several
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  reasons. And yes, I am about to analyze
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  Shrek. OK, 1st, the main criticism is
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  that this take is a fundamental misrepresentation of the actual
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  story of Shrek and is an example of the MIDI and is an example of
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  the media literacy crisis that we keep hearing about.
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  I think it's a bit reductive to say that this is an example of
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  the media literacy crisis. I think we'll throw that term
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  around like a little bit too loosely here, but that is kind
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  of the first take care. So Fiona did not turn into an
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  ogre for Shrek. She was always an ogre.
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  She turned into an ogre every single night, which is why she
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  did not want to be seen at night.
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  He didn't turn her into one. She became an ogre for like,
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  true Love's kiss, whatever. And she thought she was going to
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  turn into a Princess. But it turns out that like, what
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  she actually was was an ogre. And in ignoring that major plot
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  point, the argument falls apart. But one of the most liked
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  comments on this video reads. I'm pretty sure if Fiona had
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  been an ogre from the very beginning of the movie, he
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  wouldn't have been interested in her.
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  She was. She was you guys.
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  She was. That was the point.
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  She was an ogre. Shrek loved who she really was.
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  And that was the message that being different makes you
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  special. Not letting other people's
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  opinions define you, not subscribing to what society
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  wants you to be. Because obviously, you know, her
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  family wanted her to be a Princess, which is why they
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  locked her in a tower because they were like, oh, you're
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  disgusting. We need this curse to be broken.
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  And they thought that if she found true love or whatever, she
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  would become a Princess. And she became ogre.
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  So here's a clip from creator Lizzie for every time.
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  Shrek is a cautionary tale about settling for a loser.
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  Shrek is a cautionary tale about the dangers of overvaluing
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  wealth, material goods, and a physical beauty.
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  Her other option was Lord Farquaad, who was an evil,
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  useless piece of shit who only wanted to marry her because she
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  was a Princess. The second he found out he was,
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  she was an ogre. At night he freaking started
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  shitting on her. He jilted her.
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  The whole point of the movie is that she could not be herself
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  around Lord Farquaad Shrek like who she was not the imaginary
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  Princess of. That was like beautiful and
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  rich. OK.
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  Second, another major criticism is this take definitely has some
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  fem cell adjacent messaging around transactional
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  relationships and the provider narrative.
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  I know some of you guys might be like, is literally not that
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  deep. Sometimes it is that deep and
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  you know, she's making it that deep, so we're going in, Amber
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  says. The main take away is Fiona
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  could have had generational wealth living in a castle but
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  she didn't have hobbies or friends and so she ended up in a
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  swamp with an ogre. Fiona didn't have hobbies or
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  friends because she was locked in a tower and what her family
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  and society wanted from her was for her to be a Princess.
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  And the focus on Shrek being unemployed.
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  First of all, he's an ogre, OK. But second of all, it really
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  does feel like it threads that like sprinkle sprinkle messaging
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  throughout this video. Like the value of a relationship
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  comes from the transactional nature of it.
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  So this is the clip from Amanda just vibing.
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  Calling Shrek broke guy propaganda and saying that Ariel
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  gave up her life for a man give off the same energy.
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  You fundamentally misunderstand both stories.
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  You fundamentally misunderstand both female character.
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  You have a very narrow view of the world.
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  You have a very narrow view of narratives.
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  It's giving bio essentialism the overemphasis on appearance and
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  finances, the overemphasis on societal power.
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  Basically Woking yourself into a circle, tying yourself into a
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  knot, and slingshotting yourself down the tunnel of conservative
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  values. The girl bossification of
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  fiction is not as feminist as you think it is.
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  Dumbing something down to she gave everything up for a man is
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  not the take that you think it is.
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  Discounting things like acceptance and love and acting
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  like finding someone who meets you where you're at is entirely
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  impossible is not the take that you think it is.
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  And the thing that I really hate about these takes is that it
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  completely abandons what these characters have told us from the
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  beginning. Fiona turned into an ogre every
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  night. And Fiona was not the pretty,
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  pretty Princess that everybody thought she was.
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  She knew how to throw hand. She barked loudly, she talked
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  back. She was an autonomous and
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  independent being before, during, and after Shrek.
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  Her electing to be with someone who saw her for who she was was
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  not a failing. She did not change for Shrek.
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  She elected to be who she already was and he elected to
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  love her the way she already was.
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  What is wrong with? That it's also been interesting
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  to see in the comment section how people have interpreted
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  Fiona's showing Shrek that she's an ogre.
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  Lots of people are saying it's obvious watching back as an
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  adult now, that Fiona didn't want to be an ogre, she wanted
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  to be human. But Shrek convinced her to stay
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  an ogre when she didn't want to and she could have had it so
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  much better. Again, the point of the movie
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  was is that she was an ogre in her true form.
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  She wanted to be a Princess because she thought that's what
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  society and suitors and her parents wanted from her and it
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  was more desirable. And then she found someone who
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  loves her for who she truly is. This is a clip from Corin XV.
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  There is 1.3 million people who like that video who do not
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  remember what Shrek was about or what happened in these films and
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  it is crazy to see my boy Shrek get slandered this hard.
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  She says that the Shrek films are not fairy tales and ignoring
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  the fact that like these movies literally are not fairy tales,
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  they were created to make fun of fairy tale tropes.
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  She frames the first movie as Shrek being like some type of
• 16:58
  broke bum, but because he rescued Fiona and she he's the
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  first man that she's seen in years, she falls in love with
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  Shrek and ends up becoming an ogre.
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  That's not what happened. Shrek owned land.
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  He owned his own swamp. And then one day he wakes up and
• 17:13
  there are thousands of fairy tale creatures at his home, you
• 17:16
  know, on his property. So he goes to Lord Farquaad and
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  in the process he proves that he's the most capable champion
• 17:22
  at fighting. So Lord Farquaad says you will
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  be my champion. You will rescue the Princess.
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  And Shrek's like I don't want to do that.
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  I just want these people out of my home.
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  So Lord Farquaad says I'll cut you a deal if you go rescue the
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  Princess then I'll make sure your home's exactly the way it
• 17:37
  was before all these creatures came.
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  When Shrek rescues Fiona, they don't like each other.
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  Shrek doesn't like her because he doesn't like people at this
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  point in the story, and Fiona doesn't like Shrek because she
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  feels like she's getting cheated out of the fairy tale that's
• 17:50
  been told to her since she was a little kid locked in the tower.
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  They only start having feelings for one another as they're
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  traveling because they start to find out that they have a lot in
• 17:59
  common. Because a big aspect of Fiona's
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  character in the first movie is that she does not fit the mold
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  of a traditional Princess. She's not a damsel in distress.
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  We find out that she's a very capable fighter.
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  She was really in the tower by choice.
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  She could have escaped anytime she wanted to.
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  She was just waiting for a Prince Charming.
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  She knows how to survive in the wilderness.
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  She's not like, you know, traditionally girly or anything
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  like that. Then we get the big reveal that
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  she turns into an ogre at night and through her conversation
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  with Donkey we see that this bothers her so much because she
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  feels like she has a societal standard to uphold.
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  She literally says how could anyone love me if I'm ugly?
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  Ugly and Princess don't go together.
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  She feels like she has to break this curse that her being an
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  ogre is bad. That her you know being ugly is
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  wrong because that is what was pushed onto her since she was a
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  little kid, which we find out in the second movie specifically
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  her dad pushing that on her. So at the end of Shrek one when
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  they confess to one another and the curse is broken, she ends up
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  as an ogre. That's not because of what Shrek
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  wanted that's because at her heart that's who she always was.
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  She never identified with the fairy tale Princess side that
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  she was pushed onto her. It's also crazy how that
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  original video frames Shrek as if he downgraded Fiona's life.
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  Like the original person went on to say that like oh, Fiona used
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  to be a Princess, she used to be rich.
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  She's literally still all of those things.
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  That's it's literally the entire conflict of Shrek 2.
• 19:20
  So I know that film and art, it can be interpreted in many ways,
• 19:24
  and I'm not trying to say that there's like a right or wrong
• 19:27
  way to interpret the messaging in Shrek.
• 19:30
  But in my opinion, this take does twist Fiona's entire story
• 19:35
  and ignores ginormous plot points that were served to us,
• 19:38
  that were given to us, and therefore the argument doesn't
• 19:42
  hold up. We also do need to consider the
• 19:44
  context of the media that we're analyzing.
• 19:47
  And in this case, it's a children's movie.
• 19:50
  So we have to assume that the messaging is going to be more on
• 19:53
  the nose and explicit for that reason.
• 19:55
  And that's my analysis of the Shrek is a cautionary tale
• 20:00
  discourse. Please let me know what you guys
• 20:02
  think. Those are my opinions, but of
• 20:03
  course, as always, share yours. If you feel like I'm totally off
• 20:07
  base, let me know, OK? And the last story that I have
• 20:09
  for you guys today, creator Really Rapunzel is leaving
• 20:12
  TikTok after six years of collecting her hair.
• 20:16
  So really Rapunzel started her account in 2020 where she
• 20:19
  documented herself collecting hair that had fallen out of her
• 20:22
  head. She would stick the hair to a
• 20:24
  line of tape on her wall. And over six years, she's
• 20:27
  basically collected like a wig's worth of hair.
• 20:30
  Over the weekend, she posted that she's ending this chapter
• 20:33
  and leaving TikTok. It doesn't seem like for any
• 20:35
  particular reason, and it really seems like she's just kind of
• 20:37
  like over this chapter. And I know there are very mixed
• 20:41
  opinions about her content. A lot of people find it gross.
• 20:44
  I am definitely somebody who finds rogue hair kind of gross,
• 20:48
  and I know that this is niche, but I wanted to cover it for two
• 20:50
  reasons. First, because really Rapunzel
• 20:52
  represents this type of creator that I really believe we will
• 20:55
  never get again. There were all of these creators
• 20:59
  who were doing really specific projects or like niche sticks
• 21:03
  that went so viral in 2020 when we were first all discovering
• 21:07
  TikTok, and they entertained us during lockdown and they set the
• 21:10
  tone for what to expect on the app.
• 21:13
  Another one of those creators that comes to mind, like,
• 21:15
  literally just top of mind for me is Willy Wonka.
• 21:18
  He is like a relic. But yeah, watching content from
• 21:20
  these creators, especially really Rapunzel, who hasn't
• 21:23
  changed her content since then, almost feels like getting
• 21:26
  transported back to a time on TikTok before people started
• 21:30
  using the app for news, for commentary.
• 21:32
  It really just at the time was a place for people to experiment
• 21:36
  during lockdown. We were like, all in lockdown
• 21:38
  together, you know, it felt very like community oriented.
• 21:41
  It was like weirdos showing off their projects and making silly,
• 21:45
  harmless content and teenagers dancing, and it was just a
• 21:48
  totally different time on the app.
• 21:51
  And that's really noticeable in the comments section.
• 21:54
  Her comments are filled with people being like, Oh my God,
• 21:57
  how have I been watching you do this project for six years?
• 22:00
  Like please don't stop. I started watching you on day
• 22:03
  one and I was in this place in my life.
• 22:05
  And now it's six years later and I'm in this place in my life and
• 22:07
  like you've been such a constant for me.
• 22:09
  Watching you do this project has been a constant for me.
• 22:12
  Like please don't go. So let me read you some of these
• 22:14
  comments. This comment says, wait, you're
• 22:16
  leaving. No, I've been here since the
• 22:18
  first strand of hair. Don't go.
• 22:20
  I've left an abusive relationship, gotten married,
• 22:22
  had a baby all while following this journey and this comment
• 22:26
  has 522.2000 likes. Another comment reads Girl I
• 22:32
  have graduated high school, left a 2 1/2 year relationship, met
• 22:35
  the love of my life and had two kids Don't go.
• 22:38
  And this one has 60,000 likes, another reads It is insane to me
• 22:42
  that I've been watching a stranger collect their hair and
• 22:44
  tape it to a wall for six years. That has 330.6000 likes and
• 22:50
  another reads I beat alcoholism, got married and had two boys and
• 22:53
  I'm about to go back to school. What do you mean this is over?
• 22:56
  That's the other reason why I want to cover this.
• 22:58
  I don't think I got to a #2 Her comment section shows the power
• 23:02
  of consistently showing up online for your audience and how
• 23:06
  we can develop this attachment to it.
• 23:09
  A parasocial relationship almost to like a style of content.
• 23:12
  Because we don't know, as far as I know anything about really
• 23:15
  Rapunzel. We literally watch her stick
• 23:17
  hair to her wall and that's it. And seeing how people can mark
• 23:20
  life events and passages of time through, you know, consuming
• 23:24
  this content and consider their own life milestones in it.
• 23:29
  It's so fascinating. And it really shows the power of
• 23:33
  an app like TikTok and how social media has changed and how
• 23:36
  we consume content in our relationship to content and
• 23:38
  creators over time and styles of content that we never really
• 23:41
  consider. We think a lot about parasocial
• 23:43
  relationships and knowing a lot about different people.
• 23:45
  But this is an example of, you know, a connection to a style of
• 23:49
  content, which I think is really interesting and a project people
• 23:52
  love seeing through a project. Anyways, guys, that's it for
• 23:56
  many scroll today. Thank you so much for listening.
• 23:58
  I love you guys. Please remember to rate, review
• 24:00
  and subscribe. Please Spotify star rate US,
• 24:03
  subscribe to us on YouTube and our Patreon and newsletter if
• 24:06
  you so wish. I love you guys and I will talk
• 24:09
  to you tomorrow. Bye.
• 24:10
  Centennial World Podcast network operates on Gadigal land.
• 24:13
  We would like to acknowledge the Gadigal of the Aura Nation, the
• 24:16
  traditional custodians of this land, and pay our respects to
• 24:20
  elders both past and present.