High School Girl?
Spoilers ahead, watch the video first ;)
If you watch the ad again, you can appreciate the quiet subtlety with which it shows its hand: It’s less of a reveal than a call to be more attentive. The opening scene, for example, focuses not on the teacher but on what she is holding: An image of a piece of art depicting a woman. This image is flipped at the end to reflect how easily we can be fooled once we’ve looked at something, decided what it is, and moved on.Here’s the making-of video:
Model Monday *39
Erin Mommsen
The vast gap between how the US and Europe think about teens & sex
Eighth Grade is a highly-acclaimed coming-of-age movie about a 13-year-old American girl enduring the trials and tribulations of modern adolescence. But while teenagers in the US might well relate to the movie’s heroine, they won’t be able to see the movie in theaters—unless they’re at least 17 or accompanied by a parent or guardian. That’s because the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) gave the film an R rating for “language and some sexual material.”
There aren’t many other ratings to compare that against. The movie has only been shown overseas in two countries–the United Kingdom and Canada. But in Canada, Eighth Grade was given a 14A rating, meaning that everyone older than 14 can see it without an adult. Meanwhile, the movie played at the London Sundance film festival, but hasn’t yet been released for commercial viewing in the UK. The British equivalent of the MPAA, the British Board of Film Classification, hasn’t yet rated Eighth Grade, but it’s a good bet that, when it does, the movie will be rated more leniently.
Scene from the Swedish teen film The Ketchup Effect
The discrepancy in Eighth Grade’s Canada and US ratings is symbolic of the difference between the US and the rest of the world, according to the movie’s director Bo Burnham. “There seems to be a strange double-standard between sexuality and violence,” he tells Quartz. “It’s a little weird how much violence you can have in a PG-13 movie.” That’s because, as Charles Bramesco argues in a recent piece for Vox, movie ratings reflect what a culture deems acceptable content for children. And the US and Europe are on very different pages about what they view as child-appropriate.
Periodical Political Post *69
Queer News
- Costa Rica supreme court rules for marriage equality
- Many trans Americans may be prevented from voting
- Gay-hating pastor looked for sex with teenage boy
- Poll: public support grows for anti-queer businesses
- Turkey boycotts Eurovision over queer performers
Other News
- Italy’s government approves dangerous anti-vax law
- Heatwaves will kill a lot of people in coming years
- The gender pay gap actually starts at age 14
- Conservative think tank finds that “medicare for all”
would cut health care spending, raise wages. Oops.
Some Good, Some Meh!
This is just a quick followup to this post. The RSS feed and comment editing should both be working again. The performance of the site should, while not perfect yet, be significantly better again.
It turned out that the problem was you guys ;) The new server was actually too small to handle the number of visitors. I switched to the new server last week hoping that I could save some money because the ads barely do anything anymore (most people use ad blockers so many won’t even see them, let alone click on them and actually buy porn :P) and while the number of Patreon supporters is pretty stable, the amount of pledges not going through because of declined credit cards goes up every month.
I’m not blaming anyone here of course, I know many people need every cent they earn, donating to a place like this is a luxury and I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who did in the past.
I’ll try to figure it out somehow. I’m still happy about every new supporter of course (and now you even get some extra content out of it over at juiceboys!) but I’m sure we’ll find a way, we always did after all <3
Ryan Beatty writes Pop about Boys
If we didn’t already know that pop songwriter Ryan Beatty (interview) is “proud to be a raging homosexual” (according to his Instagram), his finally released debut album, Boy in Jeans, would definitely confirm it ;)
Once dubbed “Justin Bieber 2.0″ — probably because he came up on YouTube, looks like a clean-cut twink and has a penchant for modern R&B — the California native is equal parts middle-of-the-road pop tart and hip-hop outlier (he sings the hook on Brockhampton’s Bleach). Though Boy in Jeans has its sights set on the charts, Beatty isn’t afraid to get a little freaky from time to time.
Ryan abandons his prom date to get busy with a guy in Bruise while, pretty much like everybody else, he gets high to Pink Floyd while searching for the dark side of the moon. He likes money and foreign guys (mais oui) on Euro and worries about his reputation throughout the single Camo. And he isn’t coy about sex. God in Jeans celebrates the beauty of his partner and the joys of sleeping “naked with the radio on.”
In other words, it’s business as usual for a young, healthy, hot-blooded American male who just happens to be gay. In a world where Troye Sivan and Years & Years are breaking glass ceilings everywhere, Ryan Beatty is what pops out.