Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Cockroach Janta Party, Allie Rose Co. "Hot Girls Read" backlash + Karlie Kloss x Taylor Swift news

Transcript

MINI SCROLL: Cockroach Janta Party, Allie Rose Co. "Hot Girls Read" backlash + Karlie Kloss x Taylor Swift news · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  Coming up today on mini scroll, the AI cockroach taking over
• 0:04
  Instagram, Ali roseko trademarks hot girls read and gaylors are
• 0:10
  freaking out over Karlie Kloss allegedly being invited to
• 0:14
  Taylor Swift wedding. Hi everyone, welcome to mini
• 0:18
  scroll, the daily Internet culture podcast bringing you the
• 0:21
  biggest stories from social media, the creator economy and
• 0:24
  the digital space. Every Monday through Thursday
• 0:26
  and sometimes Fridays. I'm your host, Lauren Meisner,
• 0:29
  the founder of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
• 0:34
  Welcome back to Mini Scroll, everyone.
• 0:37
  Apologies that there was no mini tech yesterday.
• 0:39
  I did say this again at the end of the episode on Tuesday.
• 0:42
  I keep doing that. I'm giving you guys updates at
• 0:43
  the end. I forget to give them.
• 0:45
  And then I'm like, oh, yeah. So Annabelle, she couldn't do
• 0:48
  mini tech yesterday, but I'm back today for a regular mini
• 0:51
  scroll, and I'll be doing a mini scroll tomorrow.
• 0:53
  And we have been applying for this grant.
• 0:55
  We have been like heads down, like knees deep in.
• 0:57
  This grant is due today at 5:00 PM.
• 0:59
  And then I'm speaking on a panel at 5:30 to 85 industry people.
• 1:04
  And then tomorrow I'm going to be celebrating the end of a very
• 1:07
  big and stressful day with a Friday mini school with you
• 1:10
  guys. All right, let's get into the
• 1:12
  stories for today. So the first story that I have
• 1:15
  for you guys today is this AI cockroach is Instagram's fastest
• 1:19
  growing account right now. The Cockroach Janta Party, CJP
• 1:23
  for short, is an Instagram account launched as a student
• 1:26
  movement two weeks ago by Boston University student Abby Dipke.
• 1:30
  It's a parody political party account that takes a shot at the
• 1:34
  Hindu nationalist party that's been in charge in India since
• 1:38
  2014. And under this party, a lot of
• 1:40
  groups have said that press freedoms and civil rights have
• 1:43
  allegedly declined. So this is directly from the BBC
• 1:47
  quote. The cockroach was thrust into
• 1:49
  the spotlight after controversial comments made by
• 1:52
  India's Chief Justice Surya Kant during a hearing.
• 1:55
  He allegedly compared unemployed young people drifting towards
• 1:58
  journalism and activism with cockroaches and parasites.
• 2:03
  He later clarified that he was referring specifically to people
• 2:06
  with fake and bogus degrees, not India's youth more broadly.
• 2:10
  OK, so that's obviously diabolical and it makes sense as
• 2:14
  to why this account is fronted by an AI generated cockroach.
• 2:20
  However, This is why Internet culture journalists are so
• 2:23
  important, especially when reporting on like digital
• 2:26
  culture movements like this. Because all of the mainstream
• 2:29
  media articles that I read about this entire situation, they
• 2:32
  point did to those comments as the catalyst for the account and
• 2:36
  the movement. But when I looked at what
• 2:38
  Internet culture experts were saying about the account, I got
• 2:42
  some deeper insight. So this is from Ryan Broderick
• 2:44
  for Garbage day, he writes quote In India, the driving force of
• 2:48
  the student movement has actually been standardized
• 2:50
  tests. Earlier in May, the government
• 2:52
  canceled all results from its year's NEAT test after the
• 2:55
  answers were reportedly leaked, forcing 2.2 million students to
• 2:59
  retake the exam. The protests only got louder
• 3:01
  after another exam. The CBSE, gave students
• 3:05
  suspicious results for its new digital grading system.
• 3:08
  One student went viral on X after posting the official
• 3:11
  answer sheets for his unexpectedly low marks, claiming
• 3:14
  he had been graded for another student's work.
• 3:17
  So yes, while this account uses the image of a cockroach, which
• 3:21
  obviously stems from the earlier comments made about India's
• 3:25
  youth who are getting these useless quote UN quote degrees
• 3:30
  being cockroaches and parasites, it seems this was brewing for
• 3:34
  much longer, right? And that is why this account has
• 3:37
  been able to absolutely take off.
• 3:39
  So this is actually what the movement's founder wrote on
• 3:41
  Instagram. He wrote this on May 19th.
• 3:44
  So literally just as the account had started quote.
• 3:47
  Many journalists have been asking me whether this Gen.
• 3:49
  Z movement will turn into what happened in Nepal or Bangladesh.
• 3:52
  Let me make this absolutely clear.
• 3:54
  Do not insult or underestimate the Gen.
• 3:55
  Z of India by making such comparisons.
• 3:58
  The youth? I feel like that's a bit shady.
• 4:00
  The youth of this country are far more mature, aware, and
• 4:03
  politically conscious than many give them credit for.
• 4:06
  They understand their constitutional rights and will
• 4:08
  express their dissent through peaceful and democratic means.
• 4:12
  And please do not demean them. Many of these young people are
• 4:15
  far more educated and informed than those currently running the
• 4:18
  government, that's probably for sure.
• 4:20
  So in two weeks, this account has amassed over 22 million
• 4:24
  followers, making it currently the fastest growing account on
• 4:27
  Instagram. And like, this is what everybody
• 4:30
  said Gen. Zed was going to do back in 2020
• 4:33
  when all of those like generational insight reports
• 4:36
  were coming out and Gen. Zed was becoming the new really
• 4:39
  influential generation on the Internet.
• 4:41
  Like coming of age, all of that kind of stuff.
• 4:43
  They were being labeled as like the generation that was going to
• 4:46
  change the world. They're so socially and
• 4:47
  politically conscious. And since then, I would say
• 4:50
  there's been a bit of like, backtracking on that sentiment
• 4:53
  given the rise of things like conservativism.
• 4:55
  I can't say that word. Conservatism.
• 4:58
  Why do I always say conservativism?
• 5:00
  I don't know. Conservatism and all of that,
• 5:03
  which we have discussed many times on this podcast.
• 5:06
  So seeing Gen. Zad create a movement like this
• 5:09
  and it immediately takes off on social media, as someone who
• 5:12
  operates in this space, it is satisfying.
• 5:16
  OK, the next story that I have for you guys today, our long
• 5:18
  time listener Ash sent me the story.
• 5:20
  So he wrote about it on his own sub stack, the picture of
• 5:23
  romance. The picture of romance is the
• 5:26
  name of the sub stack, but it's also the name of Ash's social
• 5:29
  media agency. And the social media agency is
• 5:31
  specifically for romance novels. So if book talk is your vice,
• 5:35
  definitely subscribe to the sub stack.
• 5:37
  Anyway, so Ash sent me the sub stack and their sub stack is
• 5:40
  popping off right now and also sent me a bunch of their primary
• 5:43
  sources. So thank you, Ash, because that
• 5:45
  is honestly so helpful to telling the story and doing my
• 5:48
  job. So let me breakdown what's going
• 5:51
  on. This is some like book related
• 5:54
  threads news. You guys, what is going on on
• 5:56
  threads? I say this every time I report
• 5:57
  on threads, but like another viral situation happening on
• 6:01
  threads and almost everything I feel like that I report on from
• 6:04
  the book community, like the online book community.
• 6:07
  I always want to say book talk, but I know that's like specific
• 6:09
  to TikTok, but like the online book community, it's almost
• 6:13
  always happening on threads. The Reds are so influential in
• 6:16
  that space. OK, so here's what's going on.
• 6:19
  Yesterday, a popular book apparel company called Ally Rose
• 6:23
  Co, founded by a girl named Ally, announced that they had
• 6:26
  trademarked hot girls read under several categories, bookmarks,
• 6:31
  stickers, notebook and book covers, notepads, sweatshirts,
• 6:35
  T-shirts and hooded sweatshirts. So Ally Rose wrote this on
• 6:39
  Instagram stories quote. This is a celebratory, of
• 6:41
  course, of course, of course, but I also want to very gently,
• 6:44
  with peace and love, say that I officially have the trademark
• 6:47
  for hot Girls read in the following categories.
• 6:49
  List of categories. I've seen hot girls read on lots
• 6:52
  of items from other businesses that follow me, so if that is
• 6:55
  you, please remove those listings from your site as soon
• 6:58
  as possible. With love.
• 6:59
  OK, So yeah, that final line sent people off given so many
• 7:05
  people in the industry online use that phrase.
• 7:08
  Like that is a very popular phrase, and it has been for
• 7:11
  about a decade. But I would say especially with
• 7:13
  like the rise of TikTok, everybody, I'm going to get to
• 7:16
  it, but everybody has these like hot girls do this, like the hot
• 7:20
  girl thing. I fear it will age really badly.
• 7:22
  It will be very reminiscent of like the mid twenty 20s.
• 7:25
  But the whole like hot girls read thing like that is a very
• 7:28
  popular phrase. So there is like genuine concern
• 7:30
  that this may lead to copyright infringement notices and things
• 7:34
  like that. And she's already telling people
• 7:36
  who are selling with that phrase to please stop selling with that
• 7:40
  phrase. And this is actually something
• 7:41
  that happened back in 2018. I'm not going to go into all the
• 7:44
  details Ash does and his sub stack.
• 7:46
  So go read that if you guys want more information.
• 7:48
  But basically in 2018, an author who had been publishing books
• 7:52
  using the word cocky in the title for the past like couple
• 7:55
  of years decided to trademark or copyright the word cocky
• 7:59
  specifically when used in romance novels.
• 8:02
  And was this huge deal in the industry.
• 8:04
  All these authors had to like change their book title names
• 8:06
  and all this kind of stuff. So this is like reminiscent
• 8:10
  people are saying of that situation.
• 8:12
  But another reason why this has rubbed people the wrong way is
• 8:16
  that Ali has been very public about entering the book
• 8:18
  community and like starting up reading again only around 2023.
• 8:23
  And the phrase hot girls read has been around for well before
• 8:27
  then, of course. And like I was saying before,
• 8:29
  I've been thinking about doing some type of like deep dive or
• 8:31
  something related to the hot girls marketing trend.
• 8:35
  I feel like it's very girl boss V2 around like female
• 8:39
  entrepreneurs and corporate baddies using like hotness as a
• 8:43
  way to market their products and services.
• 8:45
  It feels incredibly like TikTok era specific.
• 8:49
  Obviously being hot has always helped sell products, that is no
• 8:54
  surprise. But using hotness as almost like
• 8:57
  a descriptor or a label like this is for hot girls XYZ type
• 9:00
  vibe that feels much newer to me.
• 9:03
  And like I said before, I feel like it's something that is
• 9:05
  going to age badly. It feels very like mid twenty
• 9:08
  20s. And Ash actually notes something
• 9:11
  similar in his sub stack, saying that the origins of the hot girl
• 9:15
  trend come from Megan the Stallion quote.
• 9:18
  Although bookish business owners and readers alike have been
• 9:20
  using the phrase hot girls read for well over a decade, it is
• 9:23
  also important to acknowledge that the current linguistic
• 9:25
  trend of using hot girls phrases originates from Megan the
• 9:28
  Stallion song. And marketing around the release
• 9:31
  in 2019, it's not a surprise that once again, a white woman
• 9:34
  is trying to capitalize applies on a phrase that in its modern
• 9:37
  linguistic iteration was popularized by a black woman.
• 9:40
  And it's important that we acknowledge this fact during the
• 9:42
  larger conversation around Ally's actions, especially since
• 9:46
  in trademark issues like this one, it is often business owners
• 9:48
  of color that are the most impacted both professionally and
• 9:51
  financially. All right then.
• 9:53
  Ash and other sleuths on threads found other instances where Ally
• 9:57
  allegedly was selling items over the years using presumably
• 10:01
  trademarked phrases like Cher's iconic quote.
• 10:05
  I said mom, I am a rich man. So she used to sell T-shirts
• 10:09
  that had this phrase on it back in 2020.
• 10:11
  And she was also selling a variety of bookmarks that had
• 10:14
  book titles on them, like Colleen Hoover book titles and
• 10:16
  stuff. And apparently it is actually
• 10:18
  complicated to trademark book titles.
• 10:21
  But these bookmarks were in the style of Panton swatches, which
• 10:26
  I believe were trademarked to an extent.
• 10:28
  So Jules, looking cute on Threads, wrote, wondering if
• 10:31
  these bookmarks from Ally Rose Co are licensed.
• 10:34
  Referencing the Panton bookmarks would be pretty hypocritical to
• 10:37
  be selling unlicensed merch after trade marking a common
• 10:40
  phrase like hot girls read. All right, so Ally's Threads
• 10:43
  mentions and Instagram comments have been flooded with people
• 10:46
  criticizing her for this trademark situation.
• 10:49
  Like, she has hundreds of thousands of followers across
• 10:51
  social media. So she has a pretty big presence
• 10:53
  in this space. And people are now calling on
• 10:56
  her to lose her business and for people to report her.
• 10:59
  And like, there are, of course, a lot of people being like, OK,
• 11:02
  should we really be going after this very small business like
• 11:04
  this? Like, we need to chill out.
• 11:07
  But now Ali has responded to all of the hate she wrote on
• 11:10
  Instagram stories. I've seen and read a lot of
• 11:12
  people's anger about me trademarking Hawk Girls Read, so
• 11:15
  I want to chat about it and clear some things up the best I
• 11:17
  can. I filed this trademark to
• 11:19
  protect my products from others copying it, which is common to
• 11:22
  do when selling products. I was advised to trademark it
• 11:25
  when it initially started to gain traction from the bookmarks
• 11:28
  and sweatshirts in 2023. At that time, I didn't see
• 11:32
  anyone with apparel or bookmarks that said Hawk Girls Read,
• 11:34
  although I'm not at all denying that they existed.
• 11:37
  Since the trademark went through, I haven't come after
• 11:39
  any small businesses and bookstores that sell products
• 11:41
  saying Hawk Girls Read, asking them to take anything down
• 11:44
  directly. I did post a story outlining the
• 11:46
  categories I have the trademark in, giving a heads up that those
• 11:49
  items are included, and I asked if you have Hawk Girls Read
• 11:52
  items in those categories to take them down from your site.
• 11:55
  There have been businesses that copied my work in its entirety
• 11:57
  and the message was for them. I see why it seems like it came
• 12:00
  from a place of aggression or malice towards other small
• 12:03
  businesses that I was not referring to.
• 12:06
  My message wasn't clear and I don't like the way it sounded.
• 12:09
  The goal is and was not meant to come after small businesses.
• 12:13
  I don't intend to do that whatsoever.
• 12:15
  This trademark was simply to protect myself.
• 12:17
  Now author Michelle Khalil has set up a petition raising money
• 12:20
  to file to get the trademarks canceled and has also applied to
• 12:24
  trademark Ally Rose Co herself, which is Ally's business name.
• 12:29
  And I guess she has not trademarked that, like Ally has
• 12:31
  not trademarked that. So yes, like I said, go read
• 12:34
  Ash's sub stack. It's very in depth.
• 12:36
  It's so well written and I'm so happy that he sent it to me
• 12:40
  because this is big T and he's like, I know that you hate
• 12:43
  threads, so I'm going to send you this and I think you should
• 12:46
  cover it on mini. So so thank you, Ash.
• 12:48
  But yeah, this is literally a cautionary tale on the
• 12:50
  consequences of trying to like capitalize on a community based
• 12:54
  term, community based language, aesthetic or like a movement in
• 12:58
  general for personal gain. OK, the last story that I have
• 13:01
  for you guys today is the Gaylors are freaking out because
• 13:04
  several entertainment outlets are reporting that Karlie Kloss
• 13:08
  landed an invite to Taylor Swift's upcoming wedding.
• 13:11
  This is the extent of the info that we have on this.
• 13:14
  We still don't even really know when her wedding is, which is
• 13:17
  for the best. Apparently.
• 13:18
  It's maybe June 13th, maybe July 3rd.
• 13:21
  I imagine it will be some random day.
• 13:23
  Like I imagine those dates have been thrown out to like throw us
• 13:26
  off course, you know? But the Gaylors are losing their
• 13:29
  mind over this tidbit. So I thought it was a good
• 13:32
  opportunity to give you like a brief summary on the Gaylor lore
• 13:36
  or like the Karlie Kloss Taylor Swift lore.
• 13:39
  Please know I am not a Taylor Swift historian, so if there is
• 13:43
  parts that I'm missing or anything that is incorrect, I
• 13:46
  mean I don't think it's incorrect, but I might have some
• 13:48
  missing pieces. Comment down below and let us
• 13:50
  know. All right, so the reason why
• 13:54
  everybody is freaking out about this Taylor Swift and Karlie
• 13:57
  Kloss, they became close around like 20/12/2013.
• 14:01
  The origin story is that 2012 Vogue profile where Taylor Swift
• 14:06
  seeing a photo of Karlie Kloss said that she wanted to bake
• 14:09
  cookies with her. And then Carly replied on
• 14:12
  Twitter saying, your kitchen or mine.
• 14:15
  Then they were first publicly seen together at the 2013
• 14:18
  Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. And they became near inseparable
• 14:22
  for years after that. During Taylor's like, infamous
• 14:26
  Girl Squad era, the friendship became such a phenomenon that it
• 14:30
  earned its own portmanteau. Kaylor.
• 14:32
  And Kaylor was not just like, oh, they're besties.
• 14:34
  Like this is where kind of the Gaylor questions I believe
• 14:39
  started because there was a subset of fans who became
• 14:41
  convinced that they were romantically involved.
• 14:44
  Now there was some evidence during this time.
• 14:46
  OK, so in 2014 this is referred to as like Kiss Gate.
• 14:51
  So a fan at the 1975 concert claimed to have a photo and a
• 14:55
  video showing Taylor Swift and Karlie Kloss kissing.
• 14:58
  Although Taylor Swift and her publicist Tree Pain have both
• 15:01
  shut that rumor down and people are always dissecting her lyrics
• 15:05
  and clues across the reputation era and some later eras.
• 15:09
  Apparently she has changed lyrics to her from him or his.
• 15:14
  And people are like, oh, what does that mean?
• 15:16
  I'm sure there's so much other evidence and sleuthing and you
• 15:19
  guys can let me know, like, what I've missed.
• 15:21
  Those are just some of the main ones that I could find in like,
• 15:23
  very archaic articles that I was reading.
• 15:25
  Then around 2018, they stopped being seen publicly together and
• 15:30
  feud rumors started. So for the people that didn't
• 15:33
  believe they were in a relationship, it was like, oh, a
• 15:34
  feud. And then the people that did
• 15:36
  were like, oh, they just like, broke up.
• 15:37
  OK. So Taylor's friendship with
• 15:38
  Karlie Kloss set the tone for rumors that Taylor is possibly
• 15:42
  queer. So gaylors are like the subset
• 15:45
  of her fandom who believe that she's gay.
• 15:47
  Gaylors believe that Taylor's music contains coded signals
• 15:50
  about a hidden sexual orientation and interpret her
• 15:53
  public relationships with men as like PR stunts or beards to
• 15:57
  distract from her secret relationships with women, Karlie
• 16:01
  Kloss included. So her being invited and Taylor
• 16:04
  didn't go to Karlie Kloss's wedding to Jared Kushner, but
• 16:08
  she was, I believe, in Australia for the Reputation tour when it
• 16:11
  happened, so she couldn't have gone anyways.
• 16:13
  So people are like, Oh my God, what does this mean in terms of
• 16:16
  their relationship if she's invited to Taylor's wedding?
• 16:19
  I would say over the past couple of years, though, there has been
• 16:21
  significant pushback on the gaylor narrative.
• 16:24
  There's a lot of queer people specifically that have come out
• 16:27
  and explained that it is damaging for basically millions
• 16:30
  of people who don't know Taylor Swift to speculate on her sexual
• 16:34
  orientation. So that is why if you log on to
• 16:38
  Tiktok and start scrolling and people are being like, Oh my
• 16:41
  God, Karlie Kloss is maybe invited to Taylor Swift's
• 16:45
  wedding. I'm losing my mind.
• 16:46
  Like that's why that's why people are freaking out.
• 16:48
  Anyways, guys, that's it for mini school today.
• 16:50
  Thank you so much for listening. I love you guys.
• 16:52
  Please remember to rate, review and subscribe.
• 16:54
  Please Spotify star rate US. It helps us so much.
• 16:56
  It helps us grow. And I will talk to you guys
• 16:58
  tomorrow for a Friday mini scroll when all of my tough
• 17:01
  stuff is done. Centennial World podcast network
• 17:03
  operates on Gadigal land. We would like to acknowledge the
• 17:06
  Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of this
• 17:09
  land, and pay our respects to elders both past and present.