Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: tbh skincare's TikTok vs. Manosphere, Drew Afualo feuds with Pearl Davis + Aspyn Ovard news

Transcript

MINI SCROLL: tbh skincare's TikTok vs. Manosphere, Drew Afualo feuds with Pearl Davis + Aspyn Ovard news · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  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. I'm your host, Lauren Meisner,
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  the founder of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
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  Welcome back to Mini Scroll, everyone.
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  Happy Tuesday. We have another big episode
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  today. I imagine it will be a long one
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  again. Annabelle was saying today she
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  was like, I fear that mini scroll is veering into viral
• 0:32
  news territory and what she meant by that.
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  For anyone that has only just found the podcast, when I had my
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  Co host Jordy, we would do a viral news episode which was
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  similar to mini scroll but five stories from the week as opposed
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  to, you know, the day. And then we would do a deep dive
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  and the viral news episodes started as like, you know, 45
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  minutes to an hour, five stories.
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  And then as the weeks went on, they just got longer and longer
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  and longer. And that is what's happening
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  with mini scroll. But we're going to try and nip
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  it in the bud because we still do want this to be like a time
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  efficient option for you guys. OK, let's get into the first
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  story. So the first story that I have
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  for you guys is I wanted to talk about the TBH skin care TikTok
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  video that has sparked discussion about protecting
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  employees from viral content. So in case you don't know what
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  I'm talking about and I honestly have no idea how you could not
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  know what I'm talking about, but in case you don't, Australian
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  skin care brand TBH skin care is going viral for kind of the
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  wrong reasons after participating in the boots and a
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  slicked back bun trend. So this trend is essentially
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  like a personality reveal quote UN quote, where people, usually
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  women, stand in a circle and chant certain characteristics
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  about their outfit or their character boots.
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  And slicked back bun boots and slicked back bun cowboy boots
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  and a blowy cowboy boots and a blowy Sam's in a little red bag.
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  It's a very viral trend right now.
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  Like celebrities have done it. I think it was was it Amy
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  Poehler did it and he was Amy Poehler recently did it.
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  Like it's a big trend right now. So in their video TBH skin care
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  employees chanted phrases like Gen.
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  Z boss and a mini itty bitty titties and a Bob new Frank
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  Greene and a sneaky link. So you know they were doing this
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  in a circle chanting to each other.
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  The video has been viewed over 3.8 million times and has over
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  222,000 likes. So we all know that TikTok hate,
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  it's very common. I am no stranger to it for sure.
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  Centennial, we are on that train constantly, unfortunately.
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  So, you know, lots of people were like, this is fun, this is
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  flirty, this is cute, this is whatever.
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  But then of course, there were lots of people that were saying
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  like, this is so millennial core.
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  And there was a few comments that were like, we should make
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  marketing degrees more expensive or something, like just typical,
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  like, troll comments. And yeah, obviously that is not
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  uncommon. But things really spiraled out
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  of control after the video started circulating on Twitter.
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  As soon as the video was shared on the platform, thousands of
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  men started hating on these women for basically simply
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  existing. It even got so bad that King of
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  the bad men, Andrew Tate shared the video writing.
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  If you do not escape the Matrix, women like this will be your
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  boss. Zog Corp loves emasculating men
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  by forcing them to listen to semi sentient females.
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  If that doesn't motivate you to get rich, nothing will.
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  So off the bat this is horrifying.
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  Like Andrew Tate reposting something with these women's
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  faces in it. You know they were just
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  participating in a TikTok trend that is currently going viral.
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  It's such an innocent trend. It's such an innocent video.
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  So Andrew Tate reposting this could have obviously never been
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  taken into account. Like you could have just never
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  guessed this. It is such a crazy thing that
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  happened. So the brand responded to the
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  hate on TikTok, making several follow-ups in these same style
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  videos. In one of them they actually
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  read the hate comments. And I personally I think that
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  these responses are funny. I think they fit with the
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  zeitgeist of the app. You know, I think there's a lot
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  of criticism towards the brand right now of people saying like,
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  This is why you should not put your employees on TikTok.
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  And I'm going to talk about that in a second.
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  Or, you know, this is like an HR issue and things like that.
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  But we have no idea how they're dealing with this internally.
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  You know, they've kept the video up and they could have
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  collectively everybody who is in that video voted to keep it up
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  because, you know, they don't want to back down against kind
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  of the trolls. We have no idea if the women in
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  that video have been offered counseling services or whatever
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  to kind of deal with what comes with virality.
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  Because at the end of the day, going viral, even for something
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  as genuinely neutral as this video was, can be traumatic.
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  Like, full stop, it can be. And then I can't even imagine
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  what it would be like if someone like Andrew Tate reposted that
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  video, how scary that would be. So yes, I believe that the
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  people in this video, these women, they definitely need some
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  type of support from their employer because this was posted
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  on the employer's account. However, we don't know what's
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  going on behind the scenes, so I'm just going to leave that
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  there. However, this whole situation
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  has sparked a lot of discussion and one of the notable
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  discussions is about cross-platform virality and the
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  specific environments fostered by different platforms.
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  So despite the often siloed nature of today's viral space
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  where we are all kind of entrenched in our own
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  algorithms, it's easier than ever for content to achieve new
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  levels of virality on TikTok. Obviously that being said,
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  videos can be taken out of context and re shared across
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  various platforms amplifying their reach and impact, which is
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  of course not always the best. This is exactly what happened to
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  TBH skin care. No one could have predicted the
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  vitriol that came at this brand and these women from this one
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  clip. Like I said, so many people are
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  jumping on this trend. It's a very neutral trend.
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  However, one thing is clearer than ever.
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  The manosphere is more emboldened than ever before.
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  We've discussed this in so many episodes, such as our looks
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  Maxing deep Dive recently, but in Cell, language and insult
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  culture are seeping into the mainstream in a way that they
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  haven't in years past. And this reality is even more
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  amplified on platforms like Twitter, which has become a
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  haven for misogynistic, anti-Semitic racist rhetoric
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  under the guise of, you know, free speech ever since Elon Musk
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  took over. And I feel like it kind of
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  sounds like I'm a conspiracy theorist.
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  Like, I always want to be careful with how I present this
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  type of information to you guys because I never want you to
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  think that I'm like, falling down some rabbit hole or some
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  pipeline that is just unrealistic.
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  But I cannot stress enough how much more toxic and emboldened
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  the manosphere is now that it's like more socially acceptable
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  for men to be part of it. It's not that the manosphere,
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  when I say the manosphere, this is like, you know, the male
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  dominated corner of the Internet that promotes like toxic
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  masculinity and incel ideology and things like that.
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  It's not that that corner of the Internet has not always existed.
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  It absolutely has. But in the last few years, I
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  think COVID TikTok, like there's just so many different things
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  that have happened that have made it so that this corner of
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  the Internet is no longer fringe.
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  They are no longer hiding. They are emboldened to be out
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  there and loud and proud about this.
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  And the problem with that is that they are then recruiting so
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  many more men into this movement.
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  So those are things that we need to think about as business
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  owners, as founders, as managers who are in charge of teams that
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  might be having their face on social media on behalf of our
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  companies or the companies that we work for.
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  Whatever it is, you know, that's something that you have to
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  constantly consider is that the temperature of the Internet has
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  changed so much. And previously posting online,
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  anything online, you know, it still came with the risk of
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  ending up in these forums or ending up on the wrong side of
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  the Internet. I mean, just, I think it was
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  2016, I posted a vlog on YouTube and I'm still doing YouTube.
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  Obviously this was before TikTok.
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  This was before Andrew Tate was who he was before COVID, like
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  before all these things kind of came together and made this
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  ideology in this corner of the Internet more socially
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  acceptable and mainstream. One of my YouTube videos ended
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  up on an in cell forum and that was literally just like a
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  regular YouTube video. Like nobody tweeted about it.
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  Nobody was like, look at this girl.
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  Like whatever. Like this did not, it didn't
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  blow up. It was not a huge video and it
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  ended up on an in cell forum. I can't stress enough how
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  important it is for us to be educated on the temperature of
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  the Internet and the dark corners of the Internet and what
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  can really happen from this. You know, I, I know that there
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  are possibly threats against these women's safety now because
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  this video was tweeted out by Andrew Tate and that's just the
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  consequence of going viral. And we're all so obsessed with
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  virality and you know, a brand going viral, especially in E com
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  brands like this, you know, this is going to help their sales so
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  much. But at the end of the day, this
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  is also putting their employees in harm's way.
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  And I'm not specifically talking about TBH skin care because
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  obviously they are like clapping back and, you know, they
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  definitely seem to be like, OK with what's happened.
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  But I would still question if the employees involved and even
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  upper management really understands what could come of
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  this video ending up on the wrong corner of the Internet.
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  And then of course, the part of that conversation is like, well,
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  we don't want to back down. Like, so women are just not
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  supposed to post on the Internet.
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  Like we don't get a cut of that then because we're too scared to
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  post and go viral and end up on the wrong side of things.
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  And I would say that's definitely not the answer either
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  in my opinion. I think there just needs to be
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  more understanding and education.
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  Like we can use this case study as a lesson.
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  Like that video had nothing to do with the manosphere, andro,
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  Tate, toxic masculinity, women talking about literally anything
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  to do with gender roles. Like things that would typically
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  inflamed that side of the Internet.
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  It had nothing to do with that and it still pissed people off
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  enough that side of the Internet off enough that they somebody
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  sent it to Andrew Tate because he's not on TikTok.
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  He's been banned multiple accounts.
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  So somebody sent that to Andrew Tate and he tweeted that out and
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  now they are in harm's way. So this is not me saying like
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  TBH, skin care and whoever designed that video is at fault
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  because like, who could have guessed that this would happen?
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  It had nothing to do with anything.
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  It was not a controversial video at all.
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  But I think this is a lesson for us who do manage teams and who
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  do post our teams or ask people on our teams to post on social
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  media their faces, the consequences of going viral.
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  And while nothing has happened yet, I think the education piece
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  needs to be there. We need to have better education
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  in the workplace. I don't know if that needs to be
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  within like the HR department, the social team, probably just
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  across the board. Honestly, if you are a brand
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  that is targeting young people and using social media to do it,
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  particularly TikTok and YouTube, you need to understand the
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  corners of the Internet and where your team could end up.
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  And you know, with the threat like I, this sounds, I sound
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  like a conspiracy theorist, but I can't stress enough like how
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  real this is. These women are at risk now of
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  being doxed. They're at risk of threats,
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  harassment. They're at risk of their
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  likeness being turned into deep fakes.
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  Like they are at risk now because this went viral on the
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  wrong side of the Internet. And like I said again, it is not
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  any of their faults. It's not the brand's fault.
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  Like who could have guessed that this would happen?
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  But this is a lesson to all of us.
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  That's something that I think about a lot because I do the
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  Centennial World TikTok myself and I do want someone to take it
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  over from me eventually. And I've been kind of looking
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  like planting the seeds here and there looking over the last few
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  months. But it's a very, very big
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  responsibility to ask somebody to be the face of your TikTok
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  account. I mean, especially for us, we
• 12:21
  talk about like trending topics and creator news.
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  And sometimes those topics are controversial or opinionated,
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  you know, so that is a little bit of a different story.
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  But I think this is a lesson to all of us that, like, putting
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  your team on your TikTok account when they didn't necessarily
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  sign up for it or they don't fully understand what they're
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  signing up for, This could end up with really bad consequences.
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  I think there's not enough understanding of like the amount
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  of consent that should be required by companies to get
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  from their employees if they are going to post them on social
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  media and it is not part of their job.
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  It's something that could come back and bite us in the ass as
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  employers. And just from a human
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  perspective, like I can't, going viral is genuinely traumatic in
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  a lot of ways, like it actually is.
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  And you might not feel it in the moment, but it impacts how you
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  treat the Internet, how you think about the Internet.
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  I can't explain it it unless it's happened to you.
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  It's a very difficult experience in a lot of ways.
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  And you know, this could have real life tangible consequences
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  to these women. And I'm not, like I said, this
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  isn't about TBH skin care. This is just about us as
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  employers putting our staff on social media in general, just
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  like a lesson to all of us how far reaching the manosphere is,
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  how emboldened they are. Now we're kind of living in
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  hell. Like genuinely.
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  And it's not fair because women should be able to post this fun,
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  neutral video that is partaking in a trend.
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  And that's all it should be. You know, it should just like be
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  fun and cute and part of this TikTok trend.
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  But unfortunately, the reality is that a lot of things that
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  women are posting online are being taken and used against us
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  on this side of the Internet. And we need to be aware of that.
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  And that's what I'm trying to say.
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  Like this should bring hopefully broader awareness to that side
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  of the Internet. You guys know, I'm so passionate
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  about like, talking about the manosphere, covering it,
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  covering incel ideology. Like, I am in it because it is
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  like my mission to make this more well known and to help stop
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  this. I feel like I sound like the
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  opposite, like the flip side of how they talk about women, but
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  you know what I mean? Like that's it's, it's genuinely
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  a real threat to us and we need to take it seriously.
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  Also, who gets a cut of that? You know, if you go viral and
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  you get tons of sales now because of that, and these women
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  have been subjected to possible like, threats, harassment, you
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  know, bullying online, Do they get a cut of those sales?
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  You know, there's like, there's so many nuances involved in a
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  way that like, we just didn't have to think about before
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  TikTok because TikTok has changed the game for real.
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  OK. Speaking of the manosphere fun,
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  our next story is Drew Afwello is feuding with anti feminist
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  creator Pearl David, who wishes she was part of the manosphere.
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  But I don't think even they accept her.
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  OK so it all started on June 29th when Pearl tweeted a clip
• 15:26
  of Peach PRC being interviewed on Drew A Follows podcast.
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  The comment section in the clip Drew and Peach talk about how
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  basically men are the worst, which is fair.
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  And then a Pearl tweeted this clip.
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  Like the clip of them talking and she wrote The audacity of
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  fat women on a podcast to complain about men using the
• 15:45
  microphone men built in the building men built and more than
• 15:48
  likely being managed by men. If you guys don't know I'm sure
• 15:52
  you know we've covered Pearl before but like she is anti
• 15:55
  feminist. She is so vocally like pro men.
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  Her whole stance is like once you're over 22 I think as a
• 16:03
  woman you're like damaged goods. Women have no worth unless
• 16:08
  they're married with children. The irony here is that Pearl is
• 16:11
  over 22, not married, and has no children, which I think is why
• 16:16
  the manosphere like the men that she is trying to appeal to.
• 16:18
  I think that's why they don't really take her that seriously
• 16:21
  because she doesn't embody anything that she preaches for
• 16:24
  the most part. OK so Drew responded, she wrote
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  I haven't tweeted in over a year.
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  Cannot think of a better time to come back for a final bow.
• 16:32
  LMFAO. Watch this baby.
• 16:34
  Maybe it'll help clarify all of my fat bitch audacity.
• 16:38
  And then she linked to TikTok video.
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  So in this TikTok video, she showed Adm that Pearl had sent
• 16:43
  her two years ago asking Drew to go on a panel with herself,
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  Andrew Tate and someone else. And Drew said that Pearl offered
• 16:52
  to fly her out to Dubai for free, pay for her accommodation,
• 16:56
  and like everything involved so that she would go on this panel.
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  Drew didn't respond. So then Pearl's manager emailed
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  Drew when she didn't get this reply and basically offered the
• 17:04
  same thing. So Drew's whole point was like,
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  OK, you're going to sit here and call me a fat bitch and
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  whatever, but you were literally begging for me to come on this
• 17:13
  panel. You were going to pay for it for
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  me like just two years ago. OK so all of this like I said
• 17:18
  was like at the end of June and then yesterday Pearl randomly
• 17:22
  replied to Drews tweet saying that she sent that message to
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  1000 other women for this panel. So this ended up turning into
• 17:29
  this back and forth between the two.
• 17:30
  I won't read all of the tweets but Pearl basically just kept
• 17:33
  throwing jabs at Drews body. Other blue check mark losers on
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  Twitter were getting involved and Drew was responding to them
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  and it turned into this like snowball of like Drew kind of I
• 17:45
  wouldn't even say defending herself, like just like taking
• 17:47
  them down and the amount of body shaming in these tweets that is
• 17:51
  like all these people had to say to her because they actually
• 17:54
  don't have anything of meaning to say to her because what can
• 17:58
  they say? Drew is super wealthy, super
• 18:01
  successful, super talented, super well liked.
• 18:05
  She gets all these amazing opportunities.
• 18:08
  She's doing red carpet interviews.
• 18:10
  She has a Spotify exclusive podcast.
• 18:12
  Like she is doing the thing. Like she is truly the epitome of
• 18:17
  like a successful influencer. So they don't have anything of
• 18:21
  meaning to say to her in rebuttal.
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  So I wanted to talk about the situation because even though I
• 18:27
  am contributing to this right now and I fully support Drew
• 18:32
  defending herself and giving Pearl that attention, like we
• 18:35
  need to stop giving Pearl the attention.
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  Like, we just need to, we need to.
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  I mean, she's definitely not as culturally relevant as she was
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  even like a year and a half ago. I think we all kind of learned,
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  you know, that if we just ignore her, she might kind of go away.
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  And I think that's just like what we need to stick with.
• 18:53
  Because in my opinion, I actually don't think that Pearl
• 18:57
  really believes everything that she spews online.
• 19:00
  I think she does it. She takes these stances and she
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  says the things she does and she aligns with who she aligns with
• 19:06
  because it's like the path of least resistance.
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  Like she knows that this will get her views and attention,
• 19:11
  which converts to money. And I think that's truly the
• 19:14
  reason why she does it. I don't think she believes what
• 19:17
  she says. And I think if we just ignore
• 19:21
  her, then we don't give her what she wants.
• 19:24
  And then hopefully she will stop spewing all of this rhetoric
• 19:27
  because even though I think a lot of people on her side of
• 19:31
  things, like where she's trying to align, I think a lot of them
• 19:33
  don't take her seriously. I still think it's incredibly
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  damaging for a woman to be saying the things she does
• 19:39
  publicly on such a big platform. So I think if we just ignore
• 19:42
  her, then hopefully she will just go away.
• 19:45
  OK. And the last story that I have
• 19:46
  for you guys is a light hearted one.
• 19:48
  OK? We needed some like levity.
• 19:49
  I mean, it's like kind of light hearted, but like it is.
• 19:52
  Aspen Ovard has announced that she is moving to California.
• 19:56
  So yesterday OG YouTube, Aspen Ovard announced that she bought
• 19:59
  a house in California after living in Utah, I believe her
• 20:03
  whole life, at least her whole adult life.
• 20:06
  So Aspen started posting on YouTube in 2010 and she actually
• 20:09
  made a very solid and like successful transition to TikTok.
• 20:12
  It's really not easy like a lot of the OG Youtubers.
• 20:16
  Did not easily move to TikTok but she has done a great job of
• 20:20
  that and she really creates like beauty, fashion, lifestyle
• 20:23
  content. Aspen made headlines in April of
• 20:25
  this year when it was revealed via media outlets that she had
• 20:29
  filed for divorce from her husband Parker, and this was
• 20:33
  also announced on the same day that she delivered their third
• 20:36
  baby. However, on May 1st, 2024, it
• 20:40
  was reported that they were putting their divorce on pause.
• 20:43
  Aspen married Parker in 2015 when she was just 19 years old,
• 20:47
  and their relationship was a huge part of her online
• 20:50
  presence. The couple also have three
• 20:52
  children together, and in 2023, Aspen announced that she would
• 20:55
  stop showing their faces for privacy reasons.
• 20:58
  Anyways, in a new video, Aspen revealed that she bought a house
• 21:01
  in California and many fans are like, OK, this is kind of like
• 21:05
  the first step of this next chapter.
• 21:08
  She did say that she will still have a house in Salt Lake, but
• 21:11
  given the news of her relationship and possible
• 21:13
  divorce from earlier this year, it definitely seems like she is
• 21:17
  entering this new phase of her life and I think that's
• 21:19
  exciting. I am excited for this new
• 21:21
  chapter for her and I feel like California is where she needs to
• 21:25
  be. Anyways guys, that's it for Mini
• 21:28
  Scroll today. Thank you so much for listening.
• 21:31
  Please remember to rate, review and subscribe.
• 21:33
  It helps me so much. It helps me grow.
• 21:35
  I love you guys and I will talk to you tomorrow.
• 21:38
  Bye.