The Out-of-Touch Adults’ Guide to Kid Culture: What Did Lizzo Do, Anyway?

The world’s younger people are entering August by pretending to fly like fairies, enjoying a video of a policeman being injured, and showing off their weird Barbies.

Lizzo accused of sexual harassment, fat-shaming, and more

Pop star Lizzo, well-known for her songs of acceptance and empowerment, was accused of sexual harassment in a lawsuit filed by three of her former backup dancers this week. The suit alleges that Lizzo’s tour was a hostile work environment. The accusers say that Lizzo and others at her production company pressured them into sexual situations at Amsterdam nightclubs, made comments meant to fat shame a dancer, and worked the dancers so hard that one soiled herself during a rehearsal. There’s a lot more, and it all sounds pretty awful, assuming it’s true.

Lizzo posted a response on her Instagram denying the accusations, writing, “Usually I choose not to respond to false allegations but these are as unbelievable as they sound and too outrageous to not be addressed. These sensationalized stories are coming from former employees who have already publicly admitted that they were told their behavior on tour was inappropriate and unprofessional.”

If the allegations are true, the suit exposes the often demanding and demoralizing world of professional show business. But on other hand, one of the former dancers, Crystal Williams, got the gig after appearing on Lizzo’s reality show, so a cynical person might see the suit as a person joining the circus and then complaining that the zebra shit stinks.

What is #Fairyflying? And why is it controversial?

Fairy flying is TikTok’s newest meme format. The #fairyflying hashtag is populated with videos of users flying like fairies. Before you learn how it works, check out a couple of fairy flying videos to see if you can figure out the simple-but-genius special effect.

(Spoiler: The “fairies” are standing on their toes on tables or chairs with their shoes on the backs of their ankles, giving the illusion of levitation.)

A sane person might think, “that’s kind of cool” and move on with their day, but these are extremely dumb times, so some mental health experts (well two, at least) are very concerned about the negative effects of this trend.

“The #fairyflying trend could be triggering or bring about negative emotions for people who have experienced suicidal ideation or have loved ones who’ve attempted or committed suicide,” Dr. Josh Stein, a child and adolescent psychiatrist for Newport Healthcare told The New York Post. “Even in its most innocent form, videos that depict people hanging could be disturbing to some.”

Except these videos don’t depict people hanging. They’re fairies! You know, flittering around with their gossamer wings?

“What is the appeal here and why does this resonate with people?” Dr. Danielle Roeske, vice president of residential services for Connecticut’s Newport Healthcare, told the Post. “What does this type of content say about our society and how we’re trying to connect? Must we shock to connect with one another?”

To answer your questions, Dr. Danielle Roeske, the appeal here is that they’re fun videos made by creative children who should be encouraged instead of shamed. It resonates with people because we like looking at things that suggest life can be magical.

Rise of the AI sex chat bots

TikTok influencer Imsimplynessa, who’s known mainly for telling innocent stories about her life, posted a video recently that points to a disturbing new trend online. Nessa says a company approached her with an offer of up to $70,000 a week to make an AI version of herself to interact with fans. According to Nessa, the company failed to tell her that they really wanted to license her image to turn her into an AI sex-bot.

“They were pitching it as if, ‘oh we would love to create an AI version of you so your subscribers can talk to you, ask you for advice, go to you for random story times,’” Nessa says. But when she looked into the company, she found a company they’d compared themselves to had “cloned” another online star for use as a sex-bot on Telegram.

Nessa seems to be referring to Caryn Marjorie, who licensed her likeness to be an AI girlfriend, but became more like an AI prostitute for users who paid $1 a minute.

Nessa turned down the offer, and Marjorie’s company is working to put guardrails in place to keep things from getting explicit, but you have to wonder whether it matters. Will the AI of six months in the future even need anyone’s permission to impersonate them? Maybe legally, but I doubt the kinds of people clamoring for this sort of thing care.

TikTok shows off their “weird Barbies”

The blockbuster movie Barbie inspired many TikTokers to show off their “weird Barbies.” Weird Barbie, if you haven’t seen the movie, is the Barbie you’ve given a crewcut to and drawn all over—the Barbie missing limbs and dressed in rags. The real-life versions of these misfit toys are much weirder than Kate McKinnon. There’s these bald, terrifying Barbies, or these Barbie abominations, or this Barbie/beer mash-up.

The messed-up Barbies are hilarious, but in the movie, Weird Barbie represents the end of innocence, and some of these “weird Barbie” videos are surprisingly poignant.

Viral video of the week: Cop Slide

A short video of a Boston cop sustaining a minor head injury after sliding down a playground slide is delighting the entire internet this week, racking up over 42 million views in a couple days.

It’s one of those “gets better every time you watch it” things, and it raises important questions like “why is he sliding down head-first?” “why is he sliding at all? Did Boston run out of poor people to terrorize?” And maybe most intriguingly, “how is he sliding so fast?” Here are a bunch of people coming down the same slide at a normal rate, so did the cop grease himself up or what?

The video is hilarious enough that Boston Mayor Michelle Wu couldn’t resist dunking on the nameless cop like the rest of the internet: “We want all of our public spaces to be beloved and if looks like we need to make sure there’s more signage that this is for children or something, we can do that, too,” Wu said.

Just when you think you’ve watched the Cop Slide video enough times, someone reversed it, so the cop is inhaled by the slide! I could watch this all day. (I’m easily amused.)