It’s been 23 years since Sony launched the PlayStation 2, and a whole lot has changed in that time. While console warriors clash on social media over the merits of Starfield and Spider-Man 2, the PS5 and Series X|S generation has gotten off to a relatively sluggish start. Although Sony has managed to sell a whopping…
As of Oct. 27, you can score a $100 gift card when you buy a Samsung Galaxy S23 FE at Amazon.
GET A $100 AMAZON GIFT CARD: As of Oct. 27, Amazon is offering a $100 gift card when you purchase a Samsung Galaxy S23 FE in any storage capacity (128GB or 256GB).
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Get a new phone plus a little something extra at Amazon while this deal lasts.
In an all hands call with employees, Elon Musk shared his vision of X/Twitter becoming an all-encompassing finance hub.
Elon Musk plans to turn X, formerly Twitter, into an all-encompassing financial hub that will fully replace the need for banks. And he plans to do it in a year’s time.
Musk shared his ideas in an all-hands call with employees on Thursday. The Verge heard the call’s audio recording and was the first to report it.
Musk shared his ideas about offering several financial services on X before. In fact, he said it in his very first meeting with Twitter employees, but it looks like his ambitions have continued to grow.
“If it involves money. It’ll be on our platform. Money or securities or whatever. So, it’s not just like ‘send $20 to my friend.’ I’m talking about, like, you won’t need a bank account,” he said on Thursday. “It would blow my mind if we don’t have that rolled out by the end of next year.”
It’s no secret that the somewhat hasty rebranding of Twitter harkens back to X.com, Musk’s online banking project that merged with Confinity in 2000, which later became PayPal. And Musk believes his original vision for X.com is still feasible.
“The X/PayPal product roadmap was written by myself and David Sacks actually in July of 2000,” he said. “And for some reason PayPal, once it became eBay, not only did they not implement the rest of the list, but they actually rolled back a bunch of key features, which is crazy.”
In other words, loans, debit cards, savings – as well as the ability for users to send money to each other regardless of where they are – may all be under X’s umbrella one day.
In a recent blog post, CEO Linda Yaccarino briefly mentioned payments. “We want money on X to flow as freely as information and conversation. We have already secured first money transmitter licenses in several states, and we are moving toward launching a global payment system – more soon,” she wrote.
Musk’s ideas don’t sound that otherworldly when you consider services such as WeChat, a China-based social media platform that also offers money transfers, payments, and other financial services. But it might be a tall order given that X’s daily active users are reportedly plummeting. Additionally, convincing users to switch to its paid tier has been challenging.
X claims that Premium subscribers spend three times longer on the platform than non-subscribers. Perhaps tellingly, the company doesn’t mention how many Premium subscribers have signed up so far.
Sexual wellness brand Unbound made ads for a fake male-focused company, Thunderthrust. Meta approved Thunderthrust’s ads.
For years, online and offline spaces have rejected ads for products to help make sex better for women — but approved ones for men. In 2019, sex toy brand Dame sued the MTA over rejected subway ads (which they eventually settled). That same year, Dame and fellow brand Unbound pointed out this discrepancy with a quiz on what ads are blocked versus which are approved. When the ad centers a women’s sex toy, it’s rejected; when it’s about an erectile dysfunction product, it’s approved.
It’s sad to say that in 2023, the case is still the same. Now, Unbound tested whether Meta would approve its product ads if they were targeted to men — and it did.
When Unbound submitted ads for products like its Ollie wand vibrator, Bandit cock ring, or Cuffies handcuffs as they are, Meta rejected them. These ads feature the bright-colored products alone or with hands, usually in front of a colorful or sky backdrop.
“We want as many people as possible to have the best sex possible,” Unbound’s CEO and co-founder Polly Rodriguez said in a video on Twitter. “But the problem is that we cannot reach them.”
Unbound’s senior content manager Maddy Siriouthay went on to explain that many advertising platforms write their compliance policies through the lens of family planning — products that assist or prevent pregnancy. Here is a snippet from Meta’s Adult Product or Services ad policy:
Ads must not promote the sale or use of adult products or services. Ads promoting sexual and reproductive health products or services, like contraception and family planning, must be targeted to people 18 years or older and must not focus on sexual pleasure.
In practice, however, Unbound found a plethora of ads to improve erectile dysfunction and “male” sexual performance. Some of these ads contained explicit language and body parts.
As an experiment, Unbound edited their products to be in stereotypical dude colors (gray), changed the target audience, and created a name for a fake male fitness and performance enhancing company, Thunderthrust. The toys themselves stayed the same, and Unbound submitted Thunderthrust ads for approval.
Meta approved these male-targeted ads.
This is a long-standing problem that companies like Unbound are fighting against. Earlier this year, these brands along with the Center for Intimacy Justice filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requesting that the FTC take action against Meta’s rejection of female-focused ads. This comes after Meta’s policy change in October 2022 to allow sexual health, wellness, and reproductive health ads — but, judging from this experiment, there’s still more to be done.
The Center has an ongoing petition to #StopCensoringSexualHealth, which Unbound workers encourage people to sign in its Thunderthrust videos.
“These policies are discriminatory in the way they are written, because they only allow one gender identity access to the tools and information that support a holistic definition of sexual wellness,” said Rodriguez in a second Twitter video.
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“We’d love to talk to Meta about improving the policies so that they are less gendered in how they are written and applied, and we’d welcome any conversation at any point in time,” Rodriguez told Mashable, while commenting that Meta has historically not been willing to come to the table.
Mashable reached out to Meta for comment and will update this story if received.
“Vibrator ads might seem a tedious hill to die on,” said Siriouthay in Unbound’s video, “but companies like Meta which own social media networks like Facebook and Instagram have major influence in what we see every day, which can then influence our subconscious beliefs, and the choices we make, and the opportunities we have.”
What is a girl’s girl? Is Taylor Swift a girl’s girl? Does the girl’s girl trope stem from internalized misogyny?
Have you been called a “girl’s girl” yet? If pop culture is any proof, winning the title of girl’s girl is quickly emerging as the highest level of a compliment. So what exactly is a girl’s girl? She checks on you at a party. She holds your hair back when you’re sick. You can depend on her to be honest with you if your partner is cheating. She’ll never hate you for how you look and will always tell you if there’s something in your teeth. She’s your absolute ride or die. Side note: she exists in a primarily heteronormative society.
On TikTok the hashtag #GirlsGirl has 646 million views, but the phrase isn’t just ubiquitous online. IRL too, celebrities (and celeb-adjacents) have been throwing the term around. But, what does it really mean? And does it really matter if we don’t fit the girl’s girl bill?
Recently, in a cover interview with Variety, Ice Spice told the magazine that many rappers pretend to be girls’ girls. “People want to be all ‘I’m a girl’s girl,’ but then behind the scenes being bitches. I feel like the competition is what keeps us all excited because I think we all secretly enjoy competing and seeing who puts that shit on better and who’s gon’ get the most views,” the singer said.
At the tail end of September, when rumors of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce dating first surfaced, Kelce’s ex Maya Benberry told the Daily Mail that the footballer had cheated on her. In an attempt to warn Swift, Benberry added, “Taylor seems like such a fun girl with a beautiful spirit so I wish her the best of luck but I wouldn’t be a girls’ girl if I didn’t advise her to be smart.” This is hardly the first time that the term girl’s girl was used in the context of a celebrity relationship.
In July 2023, when the unverified rumors and blind items of Ariana Grande and her Wicked co-star Ethan Slater allegedly dating first emerged, Slater’s estranged wife Lilly Jay told Page Six, “[Ariana’s] the story really. Not a girl’s girl. My family is just collateral damage.” This comment stirred chaos on the internet; several fans posted videos theorizing about why Grande isn’t a ‘girl’s girl’. In some ways, this glorified use of the girl’s girl phrase feeds into the patriarchal system that vilifies women, making them the sole bearer of blame while absolving men of any responsibility. The shame and scrutiny that Grande faced was grossly disproportionate to Slater.
Clearly, there’s a lot of pressure to be seen as a girl’s girl and flak abounds when you appear to fail to do so correctly. But why does it matter?
“Throughout popular culture, women and girls are positioned as being in ‘competition’ with one another.”
At its core, being a girl’s girl means being a reliable friend, someone you can count on for honesty and support. You may wonder: doesn’t this just mean being a decent person? For the most part yes, but there’s a reason why the category is gaining steam in the present day. Think back to the early 2000s when trends demanded women denounce their femininity. The cool girl – who loved hanging out with the boys and hated pink – ruled the zeitgeist. Today the internet calls this person the “pick me” girl: she thrives on being different (read: better) from other girls and seeks male validation. According to Dr. Amelia Morris — lecturer in media and communications at the University of Exeter who studies the relationship between pop culture and socio economic imbalances — this system of women being pitted against each other forms the fabric of a heteronormative society.
“Throughout popular culture, women and girls are positioned as being in ‘competition’ with one another…The term ‘bitchy’ is itself inextricably gendered, conflating femininity with malice (see the plethora of online articles advising parents on how ‘not to raise bitchy girls’), whilst it is assumed that men enjoy ‘relaxed’ and ‘easy going’ relationships,” Morris explains. In contrast, the 2020s are (so far) a decade of peak girlification. Greta Gerwig’s Barbie brought pink and hyper-femme solidarity to the forefront while online trends like girl dinner, hot girl walk and girl math position similarities among women as a celebration.
“Within the heteronormative context the term ‘girl’s girl’ speaks to a femme solidarity that recognises platonic friendships as being as important as a romantic partner, creating space for navigating life under patriarchal capitalism,” Morris says. Today, nothing is cooler than hanging out with your girlies. Guides on TikTok tell you how to reach this cult status while other creators warn you of people pretending to be supportive: they behave differently in front of men, point out your insecurities, or greet your boyfriend before they greet you.
In a video, TikToker Kelly Kim says if an acquaintance adds your love interest to their close friends list within 48 hours of meeting them, they are not a girl’s girl and “have to go”. She tells Mashable, “At the start of the trend, if someone said they were a girl’s girl I instantly trusted them more, it made them more approachable. But now, the phrase has become an easy way to talk about someone who isn’t a girl’s girl and who you should be wary of.”
Another post with the caption “girl’s girls 101” shames women for saying that they’re hot and have their shit together. In the video, the creator said “in the kindest way possible, it’s the most pick me shit ever.” This is where the categorisation gets tricky. In theory being a “girl’s girl” is positive: it’s women supporting women. But it also leaves a vast gap in defining what a supportive woman looks like, especially when digital cultures are so diverse and include different understandings of solidarity.
As the term gains popularity, it’s being weaponized to condemn women for not fitting a rigid, often arbitrary idea of what a “girl’s girl” should look like – as in the case of Ariana Grande and the hate that was unleashed in the wake of the unverified rumors or the TikTok videos that slut shame women. In positioning itself as an antithesis to the “pick me” girl, the “girl’s girl” trend sets itself up for failure. Through overwhelming patterns of “othering” and looking down upon a certain brand of women, the trend embroils itself in the very misogyny that it was hoping to dismantle.
Psychologist Eloise Skinner explains, “The phrase is being used to pull apart women who behave in a way that is considered to be the opposite of the ‘girl’s girl’ whether that’s wanting male attention, disassociating themselves from traditionally ‘girly’ traits or being competitive with other girls. This can leave women feeling isolated and shamed.”
Using the phrase also exerts a certain amount of pressure and responsibility to return the favor.
For instance, Benberry publicly warning Swift under the guise of being a girl’s girl also lays a liability on the singer. It leaves the ball in her court suggesting that a fellow girl’s girl would never date a man who has treated another woman “poorly” – however this is defined.
Through her decades-long career, Swift has been seen as a girl’s girl (think of the early squad), criticized for being one (think of how White the squad was) and been relentlessly slut shamed, so much so that she’s written songs about it. Still, every time Swift allegedly dated a controversial man (Matty Healy), the blame impacted her disproportionately.
Similarly, while Grande and Slater are consenting adults, popular media has placed the onus of the relationship on Grande alone, holding her accountable for the end of Slater’s marriage as well as her own. Flag bearers of the ‘girl’s girl’ trend that hold women to unrealistic standards contribute to this bias.
“Some aspects of the ‘girl’s girl’ trend (such as women not ‘knowing/realizing’ that they are attractive) is reflective of the virgin/whore dichotomy, wherein women have historically been positioned as either ‘good’ (read: sexually ‘pure’ and modest) or ‘bad’ (sexually ‘promiscuous’ and self-assured, particularly regarding their appearance),” explains Morris. This internalized misogyny seems to shape the shame and guilt that some girl’s girls use in their critique of other women.
But instead of canceling the girl’s girl’ or placing it on a moral pedestal, the trend – just like countless others – should be viewed with nuance. In the face of everything that’s wrong with the world, romanticizing female friendships, having snacks for dinner or going on long walks is a welcome relief. It should be seen as just that, a momentary, feel-good trend, not an instructive, idolized cult.
“We’re constantly encouraged to define, identify and project ourselves so it’s not surprising that a trend based on categorisation of behavior is popular,” says Skinner. “It’s important to remember, though, that we’re all much more complex and nuanced than a minute-long TikTok video would allow us to capture, and we should prioritize figuring out who we are (away from the public lens of social media, perhaps), and allowing others the space to do the same.”
Meta’s X rival, Instagram Threads, is copying a couple more X features today with the launch of support for polls and GIFs. The update comes in rapid succession […]
Which is better? PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X? Most people don’t care, but for a certain type of online poster it is everything. Gaming consoles aren’t cheap. Buying into one platform or another is an investment. And as the companies behind those platforms work to turn those consumer choices into branded lifestyles…
