stewing in uncertainty 🇺🇲🫠☑️

A Cool Shiny Culture Election Special

Cool Shiny Culture

Kaley Mullin

, and

Megan Collins

Nov 05, 2024

Hey… hey… how y’all doing? 🥴

Anybody wish we could've jumped ahead a week rather than an hour yesterday?

Join us in this feeling of holding our breath, waiting to see whether culture is about to take a sharp right turn or carry on, drifting a tiny bit left of center.

We're all consuming information but not gaining any clarity - and it feels terrible! The lingering shock of Trump's surprise win in 2016 and our increased awareness of the algorithmic bubbles we’re siloed into has us unwilling to trust what we’re observing online or seeing in our lives. Basically we’re experiencing this feeling, and we’re seeing it pervade a broad swath of the culture.

This is a relatively unusual moment, where we’re all aware that history is just about to be made, one way or the other. Where the final score will rewrite all the game analysis that came before. Where the outcome will forever color the runup.

We don't know what will happen tomorrow, but if it goes well, we‘re ready to…
💚 Replace Pepe the Frog with “Kamala is brat” as a historically important meme (& not just because “brat” is the Collins Dictionary word of the year)
🎶 Have a truly joyous dance party to Dance Party With Beyoncé
🚺 Actually discuss and celebrate the historical nature of Kamala’s candidacy
🥹 Put down our protective shields of cynicism and distrust to feel the bubbling sense of hope, for at least 1-3 days…?!

This week in Cool Shiny Culture:

🥥 Kaley’s Cool: Kamala's surprise cameo on SNL comedically emphasized the pronunciation of her name, in what I assume was an intentional and very smart choice. Take my palmala and pronounce it, comma-la.

🦚 Kaley’s Shiny: Gunnar Deatherage designed Chappell Roan’s SNL look. Obsessed with this beautiful peacock-colored burlesque-inspired lampshade-shaped look on my favorite artist of 2024.

🎙️ Megan’s Cool: One of my favorite podcasts ICYMI covered The Internet’s Favorite Fictional Presidents & I couldn’t help but wonder… did the cultural profile of Olivia Pope helped prime us for a world where a black woman is president?

🌈 Megan’s Shiny: While I didn’t purchase the infamous Harris Walz Chappell Roan-inspired hat, I do frequently purchase political (but aesthetic) merch from Sassed Studios. A few of my favorites include the “only fascists burn books” holographic sticker and the “buck the patriarchy” glitter pony sticker.

The opposite of cynical: Jubilee is giving CNN

Secretary Mayor Pete expertly debated undecided voters on Jubilee’s viral “Surrounded” series.

🔮Predicting It 🔮 Jubilee hosts a presidential candidate in a “Surrounded” debate in 2028.

Must See TT: Bob the Drag Queen memes Elon

Bob the Drag Queen is roasting Elon with a simple stitch. Bob did a spin on the “I Don’t Think I’m Having a Good Time at [INSERT PLACE]” meme to point out the childishness of Elon Musk’s gold capped appearance at a Trump rally.

Marketing We Just Wanna Talk About 🤨

Watch a pair of ads from Vote Common Good messaging that “what’s happens in the booth stays in the booth”:

To be honest, the female targeted version of this ad made me uncomfortable. This isn’t the first election where wives will diverge from their husbands and it won’t be the last, but the explicitness of the ad worries me. It brings the idea of secret vote switching to the forefront of men’s minds rather than keeping it in the context of women’s whisper networks.

Implicitly, one of these ads is about intimate partner conflict and the other is about your bros not thinking you’re cool. They are not the same.

These ads and the associated discourse seem to have struck a powerful current, one that I felt at my polling location. While waiting for my turn in the booth, a male election worker pointed out to a woman with her male partner standing behind her that her vote was secret and was “none of her husband’s business.” While I’m sure the election worker had good intentions, the proclamation felt both patronizing and potentially endangering. I much prefer the trend of Pennsylvanian women discreetly posting sticky notes with the same messaging inside bathroom stalls.

Keep calmala and carry onala,

Megan & Kaley