ISSUE FIFTEEN | 15: ISSUE PROVOCATEUR

SPRING 2023

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Editor- Clay Morris

Associate- Joey Marmaud

CREATIVE DIRECTION

Associate- Riya Jayanthi

Associate- Thomas Moody-Jones

ARTS

Co-editor- Jane Durden

Co-editor- Casey Mentch

Co-editor- Caroline Kaynor

Katelyn Crespo

Valeria Cloes

Anna Donahoo

Hannah Noel

Ashley Daniel

Ashley Burnette

BEAUTY

Editor- Sophia Alem

Megha Iyer

Reece Tuggle

VIDEO

Director- Emma Claire Lisk

WEB

Ava McPartland

Leonard Shearer

Ce'Niyah Ellison

GRAPHIC

Director- Naomi Burns

Director- Niha Kanumuri

Associate- Sanvi Korsapathy

Deja Boone

Bonnie Zhang

Anna Thomas

Mya Hulse

Elinor Kelly

Mia Dewitt

SOCIAL MEDIA

Director- Elshaddai Daniel

Sarah Groce

Bevin Adams

Megan O'Connor

Nike Anifowoshe

Mallaury Pageau

Campbell Atterbury

Savannah Gallis

Adolfo Alvarez

OUTREACH

Director- Olivia Rojas

Director- Emory Keel

Associate- Sinclair Kirk

Cassidy Loeffler

Alexandria Sanchez Maldonado

Taylor Jones

COPYEDITING

Chief- Adithi Reddy

Associate- Sarah Monoson

Associate- Eliza Benbow

Grayson Franco

Em Welsh

Makayla Santos

Tianyi Wang

Mila Mascenik

HEALTH

Editor- Cameron Shaw

Editor- Stephanie Momanyi

Associate- Koby Boyter

Olivia Dela Cruz

Henley Younts

Nina Wozniak

Caroline Piersall

Isobel Matsukas

Mary Claire Haldeman

Morgan Taylor

FEATURES

Editor-Ashley Quincin

Editor- Nicole Moorefield

Editor- Sara Raja

Associate- Annie Gibson

Olivia Dela Cruz

Sydney Brainard

Sinclair Holian

Emmeline Berridge

Lauren Fichten

Indigo Laibida

Michelle Seucan

PHOTOGRAPHY

Director- Lauren Cmiel

Director- Ira Wilder

Director- Ketaki "Sonali" Upasani

Director- Alexandra Peeler

Calli Westra

John Ratkowiak

Vivien Liebler

Brooke A. Lester

Natalie Peoples

Alzahraa Al Bayati

Kush Shah

Savion Washington

John Gove

Allyson Rabon

Sophie Hughett

Sara Johnson

Katelyn Crespo

Angie Tran

Annika Duneja

Heather Diehl

STYLE

Editor- Monique Gandy

Associate- Loulie Olson

Associate- Maile Maldonado

Honor Knapp

Hannah Gogal

Rose Calnan

Chloe Russell

Katrina McLean

Story Oliver

Mira Mohan

Livia Lovers

Emma McDaniel

Elizabeth Comer

Alexandra Johnson

David Attar

Anna Souhan

MODELING

Director- Gabriella Torres

Connelly Miller

Diannah Abdel Halim

Emma Cooke

Brynna Miller

Shania Mastan

Guadalupe Gonzalez-Rodriguez

Halima Hasan

Uredoojo Agada

Christina Farag

Justin Pfeifer

Luke Francis

Rhea Jayaswal

Anna Souhan

Cynthia Tran

Lauryn Fairley

Nadeen Atieh

Ce'Niyah Ellison

Sanvi Korsapathy

Jessica Pelaez

Denasia Pegues

Ashley Gonzalez

Niharika Ghoshal

Joshitha Leo Charles

Safa Tonuzi

Nathan Poesel

Aliyah Carrion

Leai Means

Mariam Ali

Nadia Samah

Reece Tuggle

Izzy Richie

Krystal Donovan

Victoria Bowman

Alayna Fennell

Benjamin Stefan Pascu

Sophie Pinkston

Sanyukta Lamsal

Anna Jin

Jaden Esquivel

Ashley Habig

Katrina McLean

Eden Obodum-KusiAppiah

Savannah Gunter

Jenna Gartland

Courtney Cahill

Bayan Abulabda

Kathryn Chao

Megha Iyer

Jania Richards

Emiley Gurganus

Ember Penney

Omar Webster

Anna Wesley Dubach

Adolfo Alvarez

Anna Jin

Nadia Samah

Izzy Richie

Krystal Donovan

Victoria Bowman

Alayna Fennell

Benjamin Stefan Pascu

Sophie Pinkston

Sanyukta Lamsal

Anna Jin

Jaden Esquivel

Ashley Habig

Katrina McLean

Eden Obodum-KusiAppiah

Savannah Gunter

Jenna Gartland

Courtney Cahill

Bayan Abulabda

Kathryn Chao

Megha Iyer

Jania Richards

Emiley Gurganus

Ember Penney

Omar Webster

Anna Wesley Dubach

Adolfo Alvarez

Anna Jin

SPECIAL THANKS TO Advisor- Dana McMahan

MEJO 572- Art Direction in Advertising

COVERS BY Front- Savion Washington Back- Calli Westra

LETTERS FROM

the editors

DESIGNED BY NIHA KANUMURI | PHOTOGRAPHED BY JOHN RATKOWIAK; JOEY MARMAUD

What value is in controversy for controversy’s sake? That’s been the foremost question for the past decade of fashion weeks as the gimmicky nature of the industry has led to controversy large and small (at the nefarious end: Balenciaga; at the sartorially affronting one: Pharrell at LV; somewhere in the middle of an almond farm: Bella’s spray–on Coperni).

Until recently, Alessandro Michele and Jeremy Scott were exemplars of the industry: loud, kitschy, Instagram-facing. Certainly a circus for the eyes. Both visually provocative, a trend we expected to throughline the waning of the pandemic as a kaleidoscope of social gatherings and frenetic color—out of our sweats and into the streets! In hindsight, the crystal ball in trend forecasters’ laps may have been cloudier than we’d thought.

When Rihanna released “Rated R” in 2009, she unveiled it knowing everyone would have something to say. The intense end to her relationship with Chris Brown a year prior had made controversy compulsory for the Barbadian rockstar, and any and every opinion about her had been printed, broadcasted and pressed. Aesthetically and sonically, the album was mettlesome and intransigent, with Rihanna donning what she described as “military couture” and melting genuinely into lyrics such as “I see you aiming at my pedestal.” The translation of this new image and sound? Say it and say it to my face — because you were going to talk behind my back anyway. Listening to the album, you can hear that it’s laced with Rihanna’s humbling of the idea that a 21-year-old singer is only as good as the things said about her and not the things she says about herself. And yet, she’s left a hint that perhaps she’d rather her feelings about the world’s perception of her agency be left open to the listener’s interpretation. That’s because regardless, she’ll still be “the hottest bitch in heels right here,” and her music, her art will remain a vessel for provocation. There’s a reason why the grit of “Rated R” became my personal musical score when creating this issue.

The two main inspirations for my final edition of Coulture, the late editor of Vogue Italia Franca Sozzani and the incomparable fashion photographer Steven Meisel, have both created images that speak to Rihanna’s predilection for intellectual agitation. During Sozzani’s tenure at Vogue Italia, the photographer-editor duo were frequent collaborators and used fashion as a prism for parsing the world’s most apprehensive and consequential topics. And repeatedly, they

received backlash from readers and pundits who considered couture commentary on the Gulf Oil Spill, drug rehabilitation and mariticide (to name a few of the issues they editorialized) inappropriate and fashion an inapt medium for examining sociocultural maladies. In short, fashion wasn’t serious enough to have an opinion and it was souring to use clothing to elicit cogitation.

In my time at Coulture, I’ve noticed that several people have assumed the opposite of our pages. That the magazine is, for all intents and purposes, fun and games because it is not a news serial, an academic journal or a collection of stultifying essays about politics. The problem, however, is that Coulture is precisely all of those things. And it is only because that same caliber of depth is delivered via garments that Coulture, and most fashion content, is typically perceived as bereft of gravity.

So in conceptualizing the editorials and articles in issue 15, we sought to pick up on delicate pieces of the contemporary condition, such as reproductive justice, HIV and colonialism, in ways that were simultaneously blatant and insidious. We wanted to make sure our readers thought. Whether it’s overthinking, barely thinking or thinking concentrically, our desire was that UNC come away from this issue craving an internal dialogue inspired by fashion imagery and writing. Yet, truthfully, both Coulture and fashion have always been acute. It just depends on whose definition of acute we’re going to use and how sweeping that person’s comprehension is. As in a fashion image, it is not so much about where the wind is coming from, but instead about recognizing that because it's a fashion image… the wind must be blowing. Catch

my drift?

I am immensely proud of all of the work in this maze of thoughts and how the writing, such as Forbes Fowler and Olivia Dela Cruz’s sibling articles on religion and culture, and imagery, like the blazing Serena Williams inspired shoot shot by Ira Wilder, Savion Washington and Calli Westra, deliciously catch this issue’s thesis. There were certainly a few ideas for this issue that internally (and wonderfully and rightfully) were met with skepticism and concern about the taste with which they’d be executed. But in having meetings to ensure quality met intention, I recognized that we ourselves were validating and confirming that fashion will eternally be mental nourishment.

I’m certainly no Franca Sozzani, and while Coulture does have a gaggle of Meisels in its photography team, I’m confident that I’m leaving my time with the magazine on a Herculean note (and not just because this is the magazine’s biggest issue). As there is no way that you’ll be able to close the pages of this book without grasping that the best opinion is to have an opinion. And the best thoughts require you to think.

Much love, always.

“We can’t all agree; if we all did, where would controversy be? If there is no controversy, there is no opinion.” -

Franca Sozzani

I was reminded of this when strolling through the cashmere jebels dotting the showroom of the moment’s hottest brand at the Via Tommaso Grossi, Loro Piana, which catapulted to the front of the zeitgeist with the success of characters like Kendall Roy; the “ludicrously capacious bag” polemic is certainly of its time.

Paradoxically, the conspicuous lack of logos and branding harkens to an equally loud conversation being had, a provocation itself. What do we say of our anxiety about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the cost of living crisis when the financially fortunate trade logomania bucket hats for $500 plain baseball caps?

When Daniel Lee’s Burberry foray eschews its eponymous check altogether? This isn’t totally due to yearning for a return to the essence of alta moda; the 180 from lurid to leaden is a reflection of everything that is happening all around us. If you’re only seeing the black coat procession as just that, you’re not looking wide enough. Such discomfort is what we tried to harness in Issue Provocateur. So many of us look to fashion as a respite from the world around us; the fantasy of it all is often the genesis for so many of our interests in the industry to begin with, including myself. The most common criticisms of fashion regard its supposed vapidness and frivolity, but it’s often fashion visuals that spark the most visceral conversations about the world and our values. Many do not believe that the two belong together at all, reflecting a larger unease we feel about fashion and the role it has in our lives. No one played on this tension more dexterously than Franca Sozzani.

The late Vogue Italia editor deviated from her contemporaries by thrusting the social dialogues of the day inextricably into the themes of her shoots, engendering more controversy than Condé Nast’s c-suite was often comfortable with. Examples include her July 2008 all Black issue calling out the lack of diversity in the industry and July 2005’s “Makeover Madness” shoot featuring an anesthetized Linda Evangelista taking a post-op stroll through the St. Regis, commenting on the exponential rise of plastic surgery. She didn’t always hit the mark, but she always made you think.

Sozzani’s fashion ethos informed much of Issue Provocateur and its pages exploring everything from the British royals to academic burnout. As some of the most controversial shoots Coulture has explored, we realized many readers would not agree in consensus on how they perceived its contents, and could even completely misconstrue their theses, and that’s completely okay. If nothing else, we hope to start a conversation through the language we speak best.

Sozzani is one in a canon of indelible Italian and Italian-American creatives who have toed the line with their artistic endeavors in a country that is deciding its place in history among vast internal dichotomies, much like the rest of the world. I am reminded of this every time I pass “PACE” pride flags among headlines regarding Meloni’s legislative agenda to hamper the ability of gay parents to adopt. May this letter be a paean to them.

While in Milan, I have been fortunate to discover Italy’s beauty despite the surrounding socio-political climate. I make note of the grocers

who walked out of László paintings while buying pastries; women accessorizing their Sunday best with pooches and cappuccinos. It feels very full circle, authoring this from the park across Hotel Principe di Savoia after watching Somewhere. My forebears, who fled the heel of this country as shoemakers, could have never predicted this sartorial ouroboros. How serendipitous?

More grateful than I am to have this experience is to have those across the pond holding up this magazine. Special thanks should be made to Clay; Monique, Loulie and Maile; Thomas; Olivia; Sophia; Naomi; Diannah; the works. These people and so many others I do not have the word count to name are les petites mains at work snapping, editing, and writing this magazine into existence in a year when we transitioned from a semester to annual calendar with editorial ambitions to match. It’s a beautiful thing to have so many people care about and believe in Coulture in the midst of college and life and figuring it all out. To them I say: Grazie mille!

I hope you enjoy Issue Provocateur as much as we did making it . or maybe I want you to feel uncomfortable. Or melancholic. Or bastardized. Or enabled. Or silly. I just hope you feel something.

PHOTOGRAPHED BY CLAY MORRIS

BBEAUTY

Beauty Trends

UNC

WRITTEN BY CAMERON SHAW | DESIGNED BY ZORAH DAVIS AT

2023 is all about simple looks with fun accessories. Whether it’s a clean makeup look with goth elements, natural hair with bold clips or headbands, or nude nails with bright accents, people are loving the basics and playing around with pops of color and sparkles. By now I’m sure you’ve heard that the 90s and 2000s are back, and UNC is no exception. Although students can be spotted sporting a wide variety of styles, there are a few trends that stick out. Here’s a collection of UNC students’ favorite beauty trends.

CLEAN GIRL AESTHETIC

Simple, glowy, natural makeup with slicked back or seemingly effortless hair is all over your social media feeds.

I like dewy makeup over matte and I think that’s been popular recently,” says Natalie Torres, a UNC student. Cream and liquid makeup and lip tints and glosses are UNC staples. Students are mainly using neutral, brown eyeshadow and natural-looking brow products.

Simple hair styles are dominating such as slicked back buns, natural waves, heatless curls and claw clips. Almond shaped and neutral colored nails are more popular than the coffinshaped neon nails of the 2000s.

SHIMMER

“I’m only wearing sparkles right now,” says Mary Barbour, a sophomore at UNC, gesturing to her face. “I love shiny stuff.”

Shimmery, metallic looks are in this year, a throwback to the early 2000s. Expect to see sparkly highlighter, eyeshadow and body glitter all over campus.

Makeup isn’t the only thing shimmering this year. Glazed donut and chrome nails are trending as well as sparkly hair clips.

CLEAN BEAUTY BRANDS

Students are being more conscientious with their beauty choices whether out of concern for the environment or their own health.

“Clean brands are in right now,” Barbour says. People are choosing brands based on their cute, simple packaging and environmental impact as well as the ingredients list.

“My friends are really into organic makeup, cruelty free, paraben free, no chemicals,” Barbour says. From skincare to makeup to hair products, green products are filling up the shelves and are here to stay.

SOFT GOTH

A grunge 90s makeup look is back with a modern twist largely in part to the hit Netflix original “Wednesday.”

Pair some dark eyeshadow or eyeliner with a clean, natural makeup look and you’re ready to go. The rockstar girlfriend looks combines this trend with other makeup trends by adding sparkles.

“I love the rockstar girlfriend look because I think it brings back the 80s and the 90s,” says Sarah Brooks, a UNC student. A dark eyeshadow look or lip paired with light or no makeup has been super popular around campus this year.

ILLUSTRATION BY ZORAH DAVIS USING ADOBE STOCK

CATALOGUE MODEL

S STYLE

ANTI-

FASHION dead?

WRITTEN BY INDIGO LAIBIDA | DESIGNED BY EMILIE HOFELE

Anti-fashion. It’s a term that gets thrown around a lot in discussions pertaining to modern cultural phenomenons. Similarly to many concepts discussed in the fashion world, it can be difficult to create a tangible, concrete definition that no one objects to. Fashion from an academic perspective is frustrating; the more you attempt to define concepts, the larger the required syntax becomes. Oftentimes it’s nearly impossible to explain certain elements without experiencing examples firsthand. In other terms, it can create more questions than answers. For a long time, anti-fashion had a simple meaning as long as you

One could make the argument that anti-fashion has existed as long as fashion itself has existed. That doesn’t mean clothing, but specifically the idea that a person styled themselves in a way dictated by society and meant to appeal to it. Although fashion is generally associated with clothing, anything that could be synonymous with orientation of oneself is, by definition, fashion. Separating these two makes it easier to understand anti-fashion and its current state today. In America, the easiest area to pinpoint the start of widespread anti-fashion would be in the greaser subculture of the fifties. Up to this point there were only two different age groups clothing was designed for, children and adults. The greaser subculture rejected this expectation, and many teenagers began to emulate the look of motorcyclists and people perceived to be in street gangs, who had more relaxed looks and wardrobes compared to the typical dress of adults. In each following decade, appearances considered anti-fashion continued to be a method of expression used to reject the popular idea of fashion.

So what about the current state of the industry makes it more difficult to call something anti fashion? One of the major impacting factors is the change we’ve seen in power. Historically, fashion would be determined by key cultural figures or essentrics often selected with bias for their wealth and influence in the fashion industry in some way. Despite that, many of the most fondly remembered designers in recent history are those who went against the current trends, often because their work helped them stick out from what everyone else was doing. Some of

fashion profitable, even if they themselves did not operate with that intention. As these designers gained acceptance and acclaim in the global fashion zeitgeist, it became clear that utilizing fashion to go against the status quo was a concept that wasn’t going away. There was a lot of appeal being found with the idea of wearing what you wanted, which as a concept, is one of the foundations of anti fashion. This growing celebration of individualism has shifted the ability to determine trends less on a select few and more to a general population of people, who are considered by an even more general population of people to be fashionable (in some way or another).

point. Much like anti fashion, postmodernity has been questioned on its relevance and current place in theoretical discussions. If we were to claim the grandiose of postmodernism is no longer possible to sustain in a way that isn’t immediately assimilated into trend forecasts for the next coming seasons, where can the anti exist?

understood current trends. Anti-fashion could be most generally defined as whatever the current trend was not. This didn’t necessarily mean antifashion was whatever people were wearing that wasn’t on the runways, it implied a conscious effort to go against the status quo. Nowadays, it’s more difficult to end the conversation there, with many powers at play determined to make anti-fashion itself, fashion.

these designers were driven by certain political movements such as Vivienne Westwood and Rick Owens. Others focused solely on their craft so much to the point their work is considered more timelessly classic and impossible to place in any specific period, including but not limited to Yohji Yamamoto and Raf Simons. In a trend driven industry, these latter designers were seen as anti-fashion because they were considered oppositional to what usually made

Yet, what happens when going against the status quo becomes the status quo? In 2023, it’s never been easier to buy the things we see online. Most fashion influencers have links to purchase every part of their outfit whenever they make a post, regardless if their outfit is from Zara or a small indie brand you’ve never heard of. In the realms of what we considered anti fashion, designers once revered for being alternative are cataloged with fashion search engine tag-walk in the exact same way as Dior and Valentino. Technically speaking, these anti fashion brands have become accepted as fashion, even if they attempt to go against the current trends. The fashion world has learned to adapt to every move a designer can make, and it’s never been quicker and easier for a brand doing something different to immediately become accepted (if the demand is there). If you are not the current trend, the current trend knows how to become you. This leaves anti fashion at an awkward crossroads. Anti fashion has historically been a way to identify the undercurrents of the fashion world, but now these same undercurrents are seen as the fashionable mainstream. What’s the alternative?

The last couple decades of anti fashion have seen a large interaction with postmodernity. In art and fashion, postmodernity can be characterized as larger than life absurdism designed to deconstruct preconceived notions of necessary power structures. If modernity was a straight line, postmodernity would be a big mess of scribbles with no discernable stop and starting

I would say anti fashion will always continue to exist in the complete disregard for brands. Anti fashion is thrifting- not buying a gently used Forever 21 top from a couple seasons ago, but finding an unassuming pair of cargo pants with no discernable tags. It exists in the spontaneous leg warmers you made out of the sleeves of your shirt. Anti fashion now has to contend with algorithms and round the clock eyes and ears on the lookout for the next new, innovative thing. But there will always be something completely unpredictable waiting around the corner, whether it’s a Joan Jett shirt you bleached beyond recognition or a slip dress that got cut to smithereens.

"ITBECAME CLEARTHAT UTILIZING FASHIONTOGO AGAINSTTHE STATUSQUOWAS ACONCEPTTHAT WASN’TGOING AWAY."

"DESIGNERS ONCEREVERED FORBEING ALTERNATIVE ARECATALOGED WITHFASHION SEARCHENGINE TAG-WALKINTHE EXACTSAME WAYASDIORAND VALENTINO."

PHOTOGRAPH BY UNSPLASH

PHOTOGRAPH BY UNSPLASH

love! or whatever they say in tennis

In September 2022 Tennis megastar and fashion icon Serena Williams announced her retirement. With 23 grand slams, 4 Olympic Gold medals and more prize money than any other female athlete — Williams’ legacy is indelible. Here’s how the combination of her style and athletic prowess were the perfect doubles partners at Cary Tennis Park.

DESIGNED BY NAOMI BURNS

PHOTOGRAPHED BY SAVION

WASHINGTON, IRA WILDER, CALLI WESTRA

MODELED BY CE'NIYAH ELLISON, EVELYN MOSES, SAFA TONUZI, UREDO AGADA, ALAYNA FENNELL, BRYNNA MILLER

STYLE BY MONIQUE GANDY, LOULIE OLSON, MAILE MALDONADO

SHOT AT CARY TENNIS PARK

The Rich Auntie

Gold in East African Culture and Fashion

WRITTEN BY ELLE DANIEL | DESIGNED BY COLBY TEX

mines, their economy would fail. Gold in East Africa has a lot of meaning both in an economic and traditional sense. It can be the basis of economic depletion or familial inheritance depending on which countries in the region you decide to speak to and learn more about. The cultural meaning of gold in East Africa can also be found in North African and Middle Eastern societies. Many people within these ethnic groups can say that we share more than just subtleties in our

helps us have another outlook on the lives our families led. Many of them were not fortunate to have this lifestyle growing up, yet they built it for themselves. There are no major physical constraints to the Rich Auntie aesthetic in East Africa, they only have to be dripped in gold jewelry and have great fashion. It takes not only a certain personality but also a fashion sense, to be deemed a Rich Auntie in the eyes of the diaspora and abroad. Many of my Rich Aunties are wearing those Netellas and Kemis (specifically the traditional Ethiopian mosaic pattern dress) along with multiple gold

increased indulgence in gold jewelry have also made their way into mainstream fashion and runways. and the Middle East. The mosaic pattern and increased indulgence in gold jewelry have also made their way into mainstream fashion and runways.

Gold pieces in East African style and

TONES..."

jewelry cannot be considered randomly chosen as traditionally and culturally significant. Meanwhile, other jewelry metals like silver tend to wash us out and look more jarring. This is

ethnic background in modeling, especially being a supermodel during a time when black women in general were not given the respect they deserved in the industry. She is known for her daring looks and stylish ways, one of her famous moments being from the 2021 Met Gala, where she was in an all-gold ensemble that has a striking resemblance to the natural gold-tinted beauty of her heritage.

This image is one for the history books. The look of the gold upon her skin tone not only blends and makes this an incredible look, but it also plays into the multiple roles of gold in East African culture. As mentioned, there are multiple meanings to what gold means to people of the culture, but from looking at this photo, it is hard to not see Iman as royalty. Even though everything has a very

MEANING IS TRANSVERSAL ANDWILLSTAND THETESTOFTIME."

having trend leaders like Iman push it forward.

One of the most influential pieces of East African fashion and style is their jewelry.

Many of us who grew up in the culture, including myself, know at least one auntie who will not leave the house without a few rings and necklaces to compliment her outfit. These jewelry pieces usually contain one important piece of refined metal: gold. Gold is a staple piece in East African culture and fashion. It is on our headpieces during weddings and on our everyday necklaces. It is most notably worn as a religious piece, such as a cross necklace, which I have worn almost every day of my life since it was gifted to me as a child. The striking yellowish-gold color can be found on almost any jewelry piece to any article of traditional or non-traditional clothing in this part of Africa. It has a significance that changes depending on the region you are in and the cultural differences of that region.

Gold jewelry in many parts of Africa (and around the world) represents more than just wealth; it is also a sign of prosperity and spiritual health. It dates back as far as the Axum Empire (100-940AD), where not only was gold jewelry significant, but gold art pieces were too. The usage of gold in everyday life gave meaning to a number of families in the region and it made many of the pieces generational heirlooms. Countries like Tanzania are known for their gold mines where this precious metal had strong economic and political meaning. Without their

make this style and fashion sense important from the beginning, our Rich Aunties. Without this familial style that was transcended by our own

aunties paved the way for so much of this and it can never be fully expressed with gratitude. We once joked about their overindulgence in gold jewelry, but now we also cannot leave the house without multiple gold rings and necklaces on. It is crazy how something as simple as a family turn a culture into a style icon. Gold has seeped away from just jewelry to also having a place in clothing and in design pieces that give the piece a sense of timelessness and beauty that we have seen in our aunties for decades. . There is no

"GOLDON WARMERSKIN

"GOLD’S

be so for real.

People are using BeReal to BeFake. And what better way to play on the faux-rawness of the app by taking you behind the scenes of a Coulture shoot with a gaggle of models who seem to have struck just the right pose at just the right moment.

DESIGNED BY NIHA KANUMURI

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SOPHIE HUGHETT; VIVIEN LIEBLER,; LOULIE OLSON

MODELED BY ADITYA UCHIL; CAMPBELL ATTERBURY; IZZY RICHIE, KIRA RANIERI; LUKE FRANCIS; MEGHA IYER; NADIA SAMAH; NATHAN POESEL; SAFA TONUZI; SOPHIE PINKSTON

STYLE BY MONIQUE GANDY; LOULIE OLSON; MAILE MALDONADO; AASHNA SHAH

H HEALTH

I U D

The appeal of IUDs is crystal clear: long-term and reversible — you can forget about taking those pesky pills every night. According to Planned Parenthood, IUDs, small pieces of flexible plastic shaped like a T, are more than 99.9 percent effective at preventing pregnancy. Depending on which kind you get, you are constantly protected from pregnancy for 3 to 12 years. Planned Parenthood reports that since 2009, their health centers have seen a 57 percent national increase in the use of IUDs. But what does getting an IUD feel like, exactly? The Mayo Clinic compares the pain of insertion to “mild cramping,” but depending on who you ask, it can reach levels of blinding agony.

“A lot of the worry concerning IUD insertion is about the unknown and anticipation of what it might be like. Having a good understanding of the process can be really helpful,” Dr. Jes Morse, associate professor at UNC-CH’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology specializing in complex family planning, said. “I often tell my patients that we’ll spend more time talking about it than with the actual insertion.”

The first step of the IUD insertion process is

IN OR OUT?

WRITTEN BY ASHLEY QUINCIN AND HENLEY YOUNTS DESIGNED BY KAYDEN HUNT

For Cam, a 20-year-old UNC-CH student who’d like to remain anonymous, the worst part of the process was the measuring of their uterus.

“It had me almost off the table in pain,” she said. “After the IUD was inserted, the instrument that was holding open my cervix got a little stuck, and they had to essentially wiggle it around to get it out. That experience was extremely uncomfortable.” So if inserting IUDs can be so painful, why is there no standard protocol for controlling the pain?

According to Morse, it is because there is minimal data to support one single method for reducing discomfort. Although the entire IUD insertion takes less than five minutes, according to Planned Parenthood, Cam’s experience is not unusual.

Although there is no standardized method for pain management during IUD insertion, many OB-GYNs suggest taking over-thecounter medication before an appointment to ease cramping. Some doctors will prescribe Valium or Ativan for anxiety, offer ibuprofen or acetaminophen for pain or misoprostol to soften and open the cervix before the procedure. Under more severe circumstances, doctors might inject local anesthetic to numb the cervix, administer

“My heart was racing. I was definitely kicking myself for not taking any pain meds before coming,” Liz said. “Up to this point, nothing had been very painful — just uncomfortable — but the pain came during the insertion for me. The opening of the IUD inside me was comparable to being thrust into the worst day of your period.”

There are a lot of non-pharmacological ways to manage pain too, like music or meditation. Many patients find that simply talking about the procedure is enough to ease some discomfort. For others, the language surrounding IUDrelated pain is enough to deter them from the process altogether.

“It seemed like for every one good insertion story, there were 30 talking about how it was the worst pain of their life,” Liz said. “I talked myself out of an IUD for months by convincing myself that a little bit of nausea, weight gain and a higher chance of accidental pregnancy would all be better than an IUD insertion.”

But with the 2022 Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the constitutional right to abortion, many feel their future access to contraceptives and birth control

post-Dobbs is notable. More importantly, it does not have to be a painful experience.

“It is pressure and uncomfortable, especially to a cervix that has never opened or relaxed to allow a baby through, but the muscles and tissue of the pelvic floor can stretch a lot,” Morse said. “To put in an instrument that is pretty thin and small is nowhere near maximizing the potential of the vagina.”

There are two types of IUDs to choose from: hormonal and non-hormonal. The hormonal IUD works by releasing a tiny amount of progestin — a form of the hormone involved in pregnancy and the menstrual cycle — into the body over several years, which can stop the ovaries from releasing eggs and thickens cervical mucus to prevent sperm from reaching an egg. As for the non-hormonal IUD, a copper wire coiled around the frame disrupts the process of conception.

“The biggest difference between the hormonal IUD and the copper IUD is changes to the menstrual cycle, which for many is quite welcome, but some people like the reassurance of getting a period every month,” Morse said. “It’s all patient-driven.”

The hormonal IUD can make periods lighter, and some people stop getting their period altogether. In contrast, copper IUDs can make periods heavier and increase cramping intensity, especially during the first three to six months. Since getting the hormonal IUD, Liz has noticed that her period is practically nonexistent. She will only cramp the first two days her period would normally come. For Cam, who got the copper IUD inserted in late August, it is still too early to discern any side effects.

hormonal IUD. “Others feel like they’re getting frequent yeast infections or bacterial vaginosis, but there’s not great data to support that that’s caused by the IUD,” Morse adds. “Some people might come in with concerns about weight gain, although IUDs are not typically associated with that either.”

Despite the presence of certain side effects not being supported by clinical research, affected IUD users may hold to their belief that the device is causing their symptoms.

“A lot of women feel ignored, diminished, or written off, or they are told ‘It’s in your head,’”

Morse said. Throughout medicine’s long history of gender bias, women as medical patients have encountered dismissal and discrimination.

Personally, I had many complications with my Kyleena IUD, one of the hormonal options. Getting it inserted was the worst pain I had felt in my life. I had never felt my cervix before, but lying on parchment paper with an ice-cold speculum between my legs, I quickly became aware of it. It was a foreign, piercing discomfort, like the worst cramp I have ever had multiplied by ten.

Although my insertion was miserable, I did not have the typical cramping and spot bleeding that follows for most people. In fact, for the first couple of months, my IUD went largely unnoticed. My period disappeared, and the deplorable pill-caused headaches, mood swings and weight gain that had defined the three years prior were gone.

Then came the pelvic floor muscle spasms. It felt like getting my IUD inserted all over again, only this time, I was not prepared. The spasms happened daily — sometimes multiple times a

my IUD? If I went through the trouble of getting it removed, only to find out that the problems persisted, I would have to go through the pain of getting another one inserted. I tried everything I could, but eventually decided I had had enough.

IUD removal is simple. The provider lightly pulls on the string, the arms fold up and the IUD slides out. For the first time in six years, I was birth control-free. I felt a wide range of emotions. I felt freedom from having my hormones artificially regulated, finally completely in control of my body. At the same time, I was scared of an accidental pregnancy, my period cramps and headaches returning in full force and what might happen to my body with such a sudden change.

On birth control, the body’s natural reproductive processes are repressed. When birth control is taken away, the body may experience withdrawals from these exogenous synthetic hormones, or hormones that are not produced by your own endocrine glands. This can result in Post-Birth Control Syndrome (PBCS).

similar to a pelvic exam or a pap smear, according to Morse. To put the IUD in, the provider will insert and spread open a speculum — a medical tool for investigating body orifices — in the vagina to see the cervix, the entry point to the uterus. The provider will then use a slender, long-handled instrument called a tenaculum to stabilize the cervix. Next, what Morse describes as a “really thin straw” will be used to measure the length and direction of the cervical canal and uterus. Finally, a tube containing the IUD is inserted. The IUD is pushed into place, and once it is in the proper position in the uterus, the arms spread open into a T-shape. A string attached to the IUD will hang a couple of inches out of the cervix, felt by inserting a finger into the vagina. This is how an IUD user knows their device is in the right place.

nitrous oxide for conscious sedation or general anesthesia for full sedation.

“We’re able to use lidocaine gel that the patient inserts themself. The provider can also place numbing medicine around the cervix,” Morse said. “Both of those things are shown in studies to help with pain. We also talk about using relaxing medication, like Ativan. Pain is all about perception, so if you’re loopy or dopey, your sense of pain is a little different.”

When former UNC-CH student Liz, who’d like to remain anonymous, got her IUD inserted three months ago, she was running late and forgot to take any pain medication that morning. During the procedure, Liz’s doctor smeared lidocaine gel — one type of local anesthetic doctors might administer for IUD insertion — on the inside of her cervix. Similarly, Cam was given a suppository of lidocaine to insert herself.

hangs in the balance, and are turning to IUDs for long-term protection from pregnancy despite the horror stories.

After the Dobbs decision, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a concurring opinion that the justices should reconsider “all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents.” This includes the case of Griswold v. Connecticut, which ruled a ban on contraceptives unconstitutional. As of September 2022, 12 states already allow some healthcare providers to refuse contraception-related services, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

It is still too early to see any data concerned with future access to contraceptives and abortion care, according to Morse, but in her clinical experience, the rise in IUD insertion

“I have not had any cramps yet, but I have irregular spotting and bleeding, which I was told is normal for the first 6 months,” Cam said. But what if you need the IUD removed?

Off Birth Control

When it comes to discontinuing this method of birth control, the tiny device comes with its own set of complications. For example, if you are taking a birth control pill and start to experience troubling side effects, you can take a break from using it to figure out the cause of your symptoms. With an IUD, this is not the case. The only way to combat bad side effects is to get the entire thing removed. An IUD user might get their device removed for a plethora of reasons. According to Morse, a popular one is the continuation of irregular or heavy bleeding, although this is incredibly rare with the

day — without any warning. It was a blinding but manageable pain for about a minute, and then it was gone.

What was not manageable was an imbalance in my pH. Although there is limited research to support the notion that IUDs can cause frequent yeast infections or bacterial vaginosis, IUDs can throw vaginal pH off kilter — or at least make it nearly impossible to rebalance it — according to the National Institutes of Health.

I saw multiple doctors, tried five different medications and still felt like I was not being heard. The pain got to the point where I was taking three medications weekly and still was not comfortable. I knew that my IUD was causing these problems, but this idea was devalued by the people that I was going to for help.

In the back of my mind, I was thinking: what if the problems actually were not being caused by

“It’s not a medical condition that many doctors would be familiar with,” Morse said. Due to a lack of research in postcontraception, PBCS falls under the domain of naturopathic medicine, according to Healthline, and is subject to controversy surrounding its legitimacy as a “syndrome.” Regardless, there is anecdotal evidence to support a collection of symptoms that can arise and persist for months after discontinuing birth control. Symptoms can include complications to the menstrual cycle — like heavy, infrequent or absent periods — but are not constrained to just the reproductive system. Hormonal alterations can also lead to digestive issues, hair loss, migraines, acne and weight gain.

For a long time I did not know why I was getting frequent headaches and breaking out, why all my hair was falling out and my period had never regulated with an IUD. No one told me these side effects could occur after such a large hormonal change. Then again, many people can relate to the frustration that comes with not being clinically heard or validated.

“Are there some women who experience this ‘syndrome’ after birth control? Absolutely,” Morse said. “Women’s health doesn’t get the attention it needs. Many are frustrated about the lack of clinical attention to and research of their experiences. Birth control grants women autonomy over their sex lives and actual lives. That’s a pretty powerful thing.”

call the call the PAPS! PAPS!

Here lies true celebrity culture. Cause of death: the social media age.

Niharika Ghosal strolls around Franklin Street, allegedly a new sight of interest for Hollywood paparazzi.

PHOTOGRAPHED BY LAUREN CMIEL DESIGNED BY SANVI KORSAPATHY

WRITTEN BY CLAY MORRIS

STYLE BY MONIQUE GANDY; LOULIE OLSON; MAILE MOLDANDO

MODELED BY NIHARIKA GHOSAL

delusions of glamour

DESIGNED BY NAOMI BURNS

PHOTOGRAPHED BY SONALI UPSANI, SOPHIE HUGHETT, ALEXANDRA PEELER

For college students especially: burn out is more than a buzzword. And the idea of “rotting in Davis” is closer to reality than causal exchange of the phrase suggests. But what happens when you ignore all responsibility and procrastination becomes inspiration?

Glamour, of course!

MODELED BY DIANNAH ABDEL HALIM, SHANIA MASTAN

MAKEUP BY SOPHIE FAPPIANO

STYLED BY MONIQUE GANDY, MAILE MOLDANADO SHOT AT DAVIS LIBRARY

A ARTS

MINDYOUR BUSINESS

HOW TV IS SUFFERING UNDER CORPORATE CONTROL

WRITTEN BY SARAH MONOSON DESIGNED BY MIA FERRARI PHOTOGRAPH UNSPLASH

On Aug. 2, my social media feeds were bombarded with disbelief as news outlets announced the cancellation of the movie “Batgirl.” The Warner Bros. project — set to be released exclusively on HBO Max — was already filmed and in post-production, simply to be discarded without even a heads-up to its creators. And why? Why was a movie with a star studded cast and a preexisting loyal fanbase thrown away? It did not fit the company’s new business plan, according to an official statement. Since Warner Bros.’s parent company, WarnerMedia, was acquired by Discovery Inc., in spring 2022, there has been a push to center theatrical releases over direct-to-stream, consolidate content and cut costs. Sources speculate that Warner Bros. would rather take a tax write-down than release “Batgirl” anyway. Nevermind the actors and crew who want their work seen, or the audience who wants to see it. Instead, the suits in a boardroom play judge, jury and executioner. The backlash from consumers was compounded when, soon after, HBO Max removed 36 titles with no forewarning to creators. Although these series are still available for digital purchase, some are indefinitely unavailable to stream because they were Max Originals. Those belonging to Cartoon Network have had any mention of them stripped from the channel’s social media. Again, this move was part of corporate strategy to make HBO Max into a leaner product — specifically to remove children’s programming to change the image of the service. While this makes sense from a business perspective, it means less options for consumers and less exposure for creators. There has always been a question of profitability when producing television and film. The business side of media is intrinsically tied to its creation, with the exception of truly indie content. The only job of the suits in a boardroom is to make their company profitable. However, this position has come with the added title of “Arbiter of Art” as society’s main methods of entertainment lie in the hands of big businesses. The mediums of TV and film are suffering under corporate control, where what is culturally valuable may be stifled for what is monetarily valuable. This is not a new phenomenon, but is becoming more egregious with the rise of streaming services who have complete control over production and distribution of their own and licensed content. This vertical monopoly, along with the horizontal monopoly of buying out competitors, puts more power into the hands of the money-driven few. It is understandable that corporations must carefully choose what will be the most successful project, but that does not give them a pass to “play it safe.”

These media companies have a reputation for shunning more unique undertakings in favor of content they know will be popular, like franchise material. For instance, Amazon will reportedly spend over $1 billion on the premiere season of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” in production, marketing and legal costs. The series is set to run for five seasons — a deal

made before the first episode even aired. On the other hand, the tech conglomerate cancels shows like “The Wilds,” which cost much less and still perform well, but are seen as disposable. Netflix has its own string of series canceled prematurely, usually after only one season and on a cliffhanger. These cancellations have been attributed to low viewer-completion numbers, but also coronavirus-associated production costs. Fans and creators have blamed poor marketing for their shows’ lackluster numbers. What is important to note is that all of these shows have audiences. They may not garner the same attention as a “Lord of the Rings” project or a blockbuster starring Ryan Gosling like “The Gray Man,” but they have the freedom of creativity to appeal to more niche demographics. In several instances, these smaller shows that were cut off were quite representative in terms of storytelling and characters. The aforementioned “The Wilds” and Netflix’s “First Kill” both centered marginalized identities in their narratives. “Infinity Train,” one of the cartoons culled from HBO Max, innovatively explored mature topics of personal growth tailored toward a younger audience. While larger-scale projects can and do experiment creatively and portray representation, smaller passion projects are where these efforts tend to shine. That is, before they are canceled.

When taking into account the business

periods of time, they create original content to bolster catalogs with movies and shows that will belong to the service forever. Currently, half of Netflix’s U.S. library is original content. This model affords streamers greater opportunity to produce riskier projects because the more popular endeavors create room for potential missteps. While there are certainly instances where they take chances, content is still judged by the lofty, perhaps unachievable criterion of whether it will garner new subscribers instead of by its general entertainment merits.

This method of prioritizing more financially safe material extends to other corporatecontrolled mediums. Barnes and Noble, the world’s largest retail bookseller, is limiting its hardcover stock to books with proven sales records. This disadvantages new authors who are denied a space to prove their work’s worth, similar to how series and movies with poor marketing fall victim to underperforming numbers.

The book-publishing world, like television and film production, is dominated by a handful of companies. One of them, Simon and Schuster, is a subsidiary of Paramount Global which also owns various movie and television studios, networks and streaming services, to highlight the monopoly across media. In November 2022, a federal judge prevented Simon and Schuster from being acquired by Penguin Random House, the largest English language book publisher. The Department of Justice stated in a deposition that the acquisition, which would form a publishing company far larger than any of its competitors, would give “outsized influence over who and what is published” to Penguin Random House. These companies, in the publishing and producing worlds, already hold enormous influence over what is made, marketed and distributed. Of course, they are contributing their own resources to create this content, so it is justified for them to control what projects to support. Again, a business is expected to put its own desires over anything else.

model of streaming services, this aversion to taking chances on smaller series becomes more baffling. Unlike films in movie theaters or series on cable television, content on streaming platforms do not make money from ticket sales or ad revenue. Netflix, HBO Max and the rest — although some do have ads — do not profit based on clicks or watch-throughs, but instead on subscriptions. Therefore, the success of individual shows or movies does not directly impact profit. The more important aspect is whether a consumer deems the streamer’s catalog worth the price. While streamers also license material for limited

However, a company making hard decisions to save needed cash is different from one swinging at the chopping block to amass more wealth. Consistently, it seems like these moneysaving moves fall into the latter category, cutting costs for the sake of greed and to fix problems that do not exist in a successful service. There comes a point where companies play such a large part in the cultural zeitgeist that there must be some accountability. Corporations have a responsibility to their consumers to make entertaining, meaningful products — not just profitable ones. They also have a responsibility to creators to highlight innovative and representative work. Until corporations fully embrace this mission, consumers and creators alike should continue to advocate for their media of choice and support indie endeavors.

"THEREHAS ALWAYS BEENA QUESTIONOF PROFITABILITY WHEN PRODUCING TELEVISION ANDFILM."

DESIGNED BY NAOMI BURNS, SANVI KORSAPATHY PHOTOGRAPHED BY JOHN RATKOWIAK

In 1985, the FDA placed an “indefinite deferral” on blood donations from men who had sex with men starting in 1977 and onward. Then in 2015, the deferral (really a lifetime ban) was lifted and the agency shifted to requiring that gay men abstain from sex a year prior to donating blood. With blood shortages due to the pandemic the required period of abstinence for

gay men seeking to give blood was shaved down to three months. And in January, the ban was lifted entirely for gay men in monogamous relationships. To some this seems like a shaming of the casual sex culture prevalent among LGBTQ people, and simply a reframed declaration that many would rather have no blood than receive “gay blood.”

SPECIAL THANK YOU TO RUMORS BOUTIQUE

MODELED BY JOHN SWINEA STYLED BY MONIQUE GANDY, LOULIE OLSON, MAILE MOLDANADO SHOT AT COULTURE STUDIO

Religion inMusic

One thorough listen to Ethel Cain’s “Preacher’s Daughter” would be enough to convince anyone, regardless of adherence to ideology, of the extraordinary effects religion can have on one’s psyche, art and life. To borrow from writer Flannery O’Connor, the best term to describe the work is ‘Christ-haunted.’ Religion has been explored in music throughout history, but not so interestingly as women are doing now. In a time when artists have the ability and bravery to delve into how their religious upbringing and experiences have negatively influenced their identities, singers such as Cain weave stories of abuse, femininity and queerness into narratives marred with trauma and struggle. At the same time, others are striving to create spaces of grace and peace.

In her 2022 album, “Hold the Girl,” Rina Sawayama freely renounces her Christian upbringing while searching for forgiveness and acceptance. Similarly, Beyoncé’s collaboration with gospel group The Clark Sisters on the song “Church Girl” in her album “Renaissance” emphasizes the lyrics on the empowerment of Black women both within and outside of the church. Women in music are beginning

acceptance. Similarly, Beyoncé’s collaboration with gospel group The Clark Sisters on the song “Church Girl” in her album “Renaissance” emphasizes the lyrics on the empowerment of Black women both within and outside of the church. Women in music are beginning to explore their personal relationships with religion and identity, and they are unafraid to highlight the ugly aspects of this interaction. What makes this pattern of religious questioning so provocative is the wide range of creative purposes and emotions the music holds, sometimes within a single song or album.

Sawayama’s journey through anger, defiance and repose on “Hold the Girl” recounts the singer’s Christian upbringing and subsequent

“Preacher’s Daughter” is a sharp contrast to Sawayama’s happier ending. Cain’s conceptual album follows a girl through imperfect relationships, desperation and her own murder at the hands of someone she once loved. Whereas “Hold the Girl” overcomes the adverse impacts Sawayama’s religious past has had on her sense of self, Cain falls victim to them. Despite the abuse they inflict on her, the men in the character’s life take on a god status, until the ultimate betrayal leads to her death and what comes after.

In her 2022 album, “Hold the Girl,” Rina Sawayama freely renounces her Christian upbringing while searching for forgiveness and

As if taking on the unfiltered version of what it is to be a transgender woman in the Christian South was not enough, Cain weaves in themes of what femininity means in the context of being religious and queer. Exploring these ideas does little in her attempt to escape them, as the album’s closer, “Strangers,” paints a gruesome

NOBODYCANJUDGEMEBUT

ME,IWASBORNFREE”

acceptance. Similarly, Beyoncé’s collaboration with gospel group The Clark Sisters on the song “Church Girl” in her album “Renaissance” emphasizes the lyrics on the empowerment of Black women both within and outside of the church. Women in music are beginning to explore their personal relationships with religion and identity, and they are unafraid to highlight the ugly aspects of this interaction. What makes this pattern of religious questioning so provocative is the wide range of creative purposes and emotions the music holds, sometimes within a single song or album.

picture of the girl’s dead body in her former lover’s freezer. Despite the deterioration Cain sings about, “Preacher’s Daughter” is a revelation of how profoundly religion can penetrate one’s identity, with a shameless portrayal unlike much else that has tried to do the same.

As a proud Christian, Beyoncé’s combination of femininity and religion takes a much different approach than Cain’s story of mistreatment and desperation. Among the no-skip album of 2022’s “Renaissance,” the track “Church Girl” featured a sample of the Clark Sisters’ “Center of Thy Will,” a 1981 gospel song that asks God to ground them in “thy holy will.” Beyoncé abandons this narrative immediately, letting the listener know that it’s okay to go to church while still owning your femininity.

to explore their personal relationships with religion and identity, and they are unafraid to highlight the ugly aspects of this interaction. What makes this pattern of religious questioning so provocative is the wide range of creative purposes and emotions the music holds, sometimes within a single song or album.

In her 2022 album, “Hold the Girl,” Rina Sawayama freely renounces her Christian upbringing while searching for forgiveness and

struggle to reconcile with how her past interacts with her current identity. Reflections on the predatory nature a godlike figure can have in a young person’s mind transition to Sawayama’s proud acceptance of her queer identity in the face of a culture, family and religion that rejects her. In this case, the artist finds space to look for peace in songs like “Forgiveness,” where she subverts a core Christian value in her search for her own acceptance of her past. While Christianity preaches forgiveness of the sins of others, Sawayama is desperate to forgive the religion for the pain it has caused her. Ultimately, Sawayama’s story is one of individual triumph.

Sawayama’s journey through anger, defiance and repose on “Hold the Girl” recounts the singer’s Christian upbringing and subsequent struggle to reconcile with how her past interacts with her current identity. Reflections on the predatory nature a godlike figure can have in a young person’s mind transition to Sawayama’s proud acceptance of her queer identity in the face of a culture, family and religion that rejects her. In this case, the artist finds space to look for peace in songs like “Forgiveness,” where she subverts a core Christian value in her search for her own acceptance of her past. While Christianity preaches forgiveness of the sins of others, Sawayama is desperate to forgive the religion for the pain it has caused her. Ultimately, Sawayama’s story is one of individual triumph.

“Preacher’s Daughter” is a sharp contrast to Sawayama’s happier ending. Cain’s conceptual album follows a girl through imperfect relationships, desperation and her own murder at the hands of someone she once loved. Whereas “Hold the Girl” overcomes the adverse impacts Sawayama’s religious past has had on her sense of self, Cain falls victim to them. Despite the abuse they inflict on her, the men in the character’s life take on a god status, until the ultimate betrayal leads to her death and what comes after.

The lyrics and the liberating tone of the song speak to the repression Black Christian women often face in their faith, expected to be demure and obedient to be closer to God. “Church Girl” is a celebration of freedom within religion, and Beyoncé acknowledges the challenges women must overcome in the church while instructing them on exactly what they need to do to break free. The song is purposefully bordering on ridiculous and nonsensical as Beyoncé encourages other Black women of faith to be as liberated as she is, without taking themselves too seriously.

With so many women in music feeling liberated in their art, these songs are only scratching the surface of the stories being told about religion and the way it plays into artists’ past and present. Narratives that have not previously been explored are being played out for audiences to hear, undoubtedly relating to many people who have not heard their experiences in lyrics before now. The struggles and celebrations of finding individuality within something as structured and historically oppressive as religion is a story all women need- and deserve- to hear.

WRITTEN BY OLIVIA DELA CRUZ

DESIGNED BY ARIANNA DARDEN

“LISTENINGTOTHECHOIR SOHEARTFELT,ALLSINGING GODLOVESYOU,BUTNOT ENOUGHTTOSAVEYOU."

“WALKAMILEONTHESE COALS,BUSYCLEANSING MYSOULGETTINGREADY FORTHENIGHTDAMNED FORETERNINTY,BUTYOU'RE COMINGWITHMEINTOTHE AFTERLIFE (WOW, THAT'S HOT)”

“BABY,IFITFEELSGOODTHEN ITCAN’TBEBAD WHEREICANBEIMMORALIN ASTRANGER’SLAP”

"I'MWARNINGEVERYBODY, SOONASIGETINTHISPARTY I'MGON'LETGOOFTHIS BODY,I'MGONNALOVEONME

ILLUSTRATION BY ARIANNA DARDEN

Relatability Bubbles

ANDTHE SUSTAINABILITY OFINFLUENCE

WRITTEN

Influencer culture has shifted social patterns in the consumer world. From the way we relate to each other in online spaces to the way companies relate to their customers, the advent of influencers as prominent figures has started a new era of marketing. Companies save money, influencers are able to make money and the consumer is being reached by a figure that they feel as though they can relate to on a more personal level due to the parasocial relationships generated by the influencer’s online presence.

Recently there has been backlash with influencers reaching a level of success associated with the idea of celebrity that has its legacy left over from the early 2000s. Celebrities are figures that seem unreachable, while influencers gain popularity because of their closeness in connection with their audience. The rise in popularity experienced by these online figures seems to stand in direct confrontation with this “relatability” that gave them an audience in the first place. As influencers become more prominent, they begin to generate income, resources and opportunities that make them less relatable to the average consumer.

Online culture has encroached on certain physical spaces as well. Influencers tend to reside in metropolitan areas in the United States, such as Miami, New York City, Los Angeles and Washington D.C.. These cities are plagued with influxes of people moving into neighborhoods that are traditionally low-income, taking advantage of less expensive rent prices.

Their spending power causes developments in the area which make the locations so expensive that locals end up being pushed out. This process is also happening online, and this newfound sense of “virtual gentrification” ends with transplant creators generating wealth based on a location that they do not have genuine ties of authenticity to. This pushes out other

individuals who would be able to give more realistic takes of what life is like in these places.

Maggie Wong is the managing director of 1893 Brand Studio, a marketing solutions agency in Chapel Hill, and a senior at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media. She was born in China, but grew up and went to school in New York City and has seen influencer culture alter her hometown. The things that Wong remembers fondly about growing up in NYC are the abundance of community programs and opportunities for children in the city to experience dance performances, art shows and Broadway musicals.

“I went to a middle school where it was

predominantly Upper East Side students who had doctors for parents,” said Wong, “their Instagram feeds were filled with weekend Zara trips or going to the Hamptons.” Even at this young age, the social media era ushered in a distorted perception of life in the city compared to what many others who live there had experienced.

According to a study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, their results suggest online influencer behavior has a significant correlation with effective rents of retail real estate in the case study area of New York.

“From our estimation results, we find that the effect of influencing value is significant for both spatial and num-spatial models, which means influencers have an economically significant impact on effective rents of New York’s retail rental market,” the report says.

When discussing New York influencers specifically, Wong said, “I’ve seen a bunch of them come in, they’re almost worse than tourists.” Seeing these figures post about their brand deals and hopping around to the most sought after restaurants in the city has further progressed the idea that social media is portraying an unrealistic idea of life in NYC.

“They live very secluded lives in the sense that their experience is very different than most New Yorkers' experience is.”

Wong grew up in Chinatown, a neighborhood in lower Manhattan that is close in proximity to Soho, a popular area for influencers and young people. When asked specifically about gentrification, she discussed Soho specifically, saying, “I watched it become what it is now. It really just means that people come in, they don't care about the local communities who have been living in these areas for pretty much generations and they just displace them.”

When it comes to the business of influencing itself, there are disparities within, too. According

to a report done by MSL, reveals a pay gap between white and BIPOC influencers.

Some of the key findings included:

77% of Black influencers fall into the nano and micro influencer tiers (under 50K followers) where compensation from brands averaged $27,000 annually (versus 59% of white influencers). Conversely, only 23% of Black influencers (versus 41% of white influencers) made it into the macro influencer tier (50K+

influencers.

TikTok influencer Victoria Paris has utilized her platform and spoken about this issue in some of her videos. She discusses how there’s systemic racism in influencer gifting and receiving PR packages and

“What I’ve experienced is that a lot of the girls who run the social media for brands are white women. Why are they white women? Because there is tons of prejudice in fashion, in fitness, in food … So when you think about who sends out the PR, you have to think about the people at the companies who’s deciding the influencers to get PR and you have to think about their prejudices, what their For You Page looks like, the people they follow. There is so much inherent prejudice, racism whatever in even getting PR.”

When it comes to the market today, the total BIPOC market represents $4.8 trillion in buying power. Further, 48% of Gen Z and 43% of Millennials are BIPOC. Together these two generations account for the largest sector of the consumer market today, and, by the middle of the next decade, they will be the most economically advanced generation with a record number of disposable income than ever before. This translates over directly into influencing, meaning half of what will soon be the most valuable consumer generation in history will be reachable through BIPOC influencers and content creators.

followers), where earnings averaged upward of $100,000

Nearly half (49%) of Black influencers report that their race contributed to an offer below market value. Widen out to include BIPOC influencers, and 36% reported the same

The majority (59%) of Black influencers (and 49% of BIPOC influencers) reported that they felt negatively impacted financially when they posted on issues of race versus 14% of white

“We want to lift up influencers of color first and foremost because it is the right thing to do, but also because it’s what influencer media is – a representation of communities with shared experiences and interests,” Bryan Pedersen, chief innovation officer at MSL, said.

BY SOPHIA ALEM AND OLIVIA ROJAS DESIGNED BY CHRISTINA LAI

''THEY LIVE VERY SECLUDED LIVES IN THE SENSE THAT THEIR EXPERIENCE IS VERY DIFFERENT THAN MOST NEW YORKERS' EXPERIENCE IS.''

"I'VESEENA BUNCHOF THEMCOMEIN, THEY'REALMOST WORSETHAN TOURISTS.''

PHOTO BY AGNESS LAP

PHOTO BY NATE JOHNSTON VIA UNSPLASH

eARThtones

WRITTEN BY ASHLEY QUINCIN DESIGNED BY RACHEL MOK

If you’re an artist at UNC-Chapel Hill, you probably know about the Art Studio on the first level of Morrison Residence Hall or the 17,686 square-foot Art Lab of the Hanes Art Center. If you’re an artist of color on campus, you also know that these spaces can be very white.

Earthtones aims to correct that.

The brainchild of its sophomore founder and co-creative director Aisha Baiocchi, Earthtones was created in the spring of 2022 as a collective for artists of color of all skills and mediums to grow and practice their craft together, in an atmosphere responsive and flexible to their needs.

“Our goal is really just cultivating and building whatever type of community artists of color on campus need,” Baiocchi says, whether that be through biweekly general body meetings at the Campus Y Anne Queen Lounge — which Baiocchi admits tend to run way longer than they’re supposed to — brainstorming sessions, sip-and-paints or collaborations with other artist groups on campus.

Baiocchi knows the label of an artist can be scary. Art is culturally associated with art school, fancy supplies and studio classes, which rely on financial security and access. But for people of color — Baiocchi included — art is simply a way to cope, express and be.

You might see Baiocchi on campus, carrying around a sketchbook full of poetry and narrativestyle personal essays. Or Anant Malpani, co-head of Earthtones’s music committee, curating playlists for his friends with The Bill Evans Trio, Vince Staples, Japanese violinist Midori and composer Brahms; co-creative director

Ama Boahen, crocheting the next piece of her clothing brand, Hooked.AA; or Safa Tonuzi, head of Earthtones’s multimedia department, getting inspiration for a jacket design from the black spikes of a caterpillar.

“To be an artist of color, it feels like a lot of the time we are locked out. The crazy part is we’re locked out of spaces, communities and groups that our art has created,” Baiocchi says. “Like style of writing: so much of that is traced back to different groups of people of color. At the same time, despite all that history, it’s still really hard to get into the rooms where it’s written.”

A self-proclaimed voracious reader, the originally Spanish-language novel Mona by indigenous Argentine writer Pola Oloixarac — a “bizarre and violent” novel about a Latine woman on a writer’s retreat — goes highly recommended by Baiocchi. And thanks to the support and community of Earthtones, Baiocchi now shares some of her own artistic writings with others — a personal introduction to Earthtones’s first published summer zine, for example.

“Sharing that was terrifying because people only saw it when we started publishing the zines. I had people come up to me afterwards and be like, ‘Damn, I didn’t know you did that type of art, too.’ It was like, ‘Ah, you see me,’” Baiocchi says.

That very same zine launch party in September of 2022 was Boahen’s introduction to Earthtones, which she now describes as her “little family.” A crocheter herself, art for Boahen is a stress release, coping mechanism for depression and anxiety, and the basic essence of happiness — and if you ask her, even more so when it looks right and fits right. Her favorite

piece is a brown cowl-neck top and ruched skirt set she crocheted in Ghana.

Like Baiocchi, Boahen attributes her newfound confidence in her crochet work to Earthtones. She even plans to implement workshops for students who are interested in learning to crochet.

“I can just walk up to someone and be like, ‘Hey, you like crochet pieces, I crochet. Do you want to get some?’ I could never do that before,” she says.

For Tonuzi, who has been head of the multimedia department since Earthtones’s founding, art means a sense of validity. Being able to share her fashion and textiles work with Earthtones is something that she considers “intimate.”

“Especially when it comes to street fashion and shoe customization, I feel like I really get to express myself and my culture — Black culture — and then even trying to get into representing the other part of me: Albanian,” Tonuzi says. “I don’t even really like sharing my art like that, but it’s like you really get to be in my mind.”

Art has always been a part of Tonuzi’s life: as a child, arts and crafts and Rainbow Loom bracelets were omnipresent. Her goal now is to host a sustainable fashion show at the end of the Spring 2023 semester, but she doesn’t feel pressured by Earthtones to constantly create.

“I felt like one thing that I was lacking on campus was space to find motivation and inspiration. Being a part of Earthtones, it gives me that space, and also holds me accountable,” Tonuzi says.

Malpani, as a music leader within Earthtones, believes that his job isn’t to enforce rules or impose certain musical styles, but to facilitate ideas and encourage members to express themselves.

He, along with co-head Lokumo Eteni, is responsible for planning events around music-

making and promoting musical artists of color in the Triangle area.

Malpani himself has been a classical violinist since he was five years old. He tells the story of going to a music shop with his parents, wanting to play the drums

—“They were like, ‘Absolutely not.’ A five year old just banging around all day?” — seeing a violin on the wall instead, and thinking it had a “really cool shape.” 10 years later, Malpani made his Carnegie Hall debut as a solo violinist, describing the experience as “kind of surreal.”

“What I really love about violin is it’s a really great way to represent my artistry as an individual. There’s such a complex level of interpretation you can use the violin for,” Malpani says. “In the last couple of years, I’ve been getting more immersed into using the violin in non-traditional or non-Western classical settings.”

A lover of sharing music and playlists, Malpani recommends French Impressionist composer Debussy, who’s “such a great artist” and “very easy to get into” if you aren’t very knowledgeable of classical music.

But if that’s not your style, the Earthtones Spotify playlist for early January features songs from the likes of Solange, KAYTRANADA, The Internet and Kali Uchis.

In Earthtones, there’s something for everyone.

“Everybody’s coming from the heart, no matter the technique level, or experiences that you may have had; everyone’s coming with the same goal that they’re there to work with other people,” Malpani says. “They want everyone to have a collectively good experience. I think that kind of encapsulates Earthtones as a whole.”

Which is why Baiocchi stresses that Earthtones is not an organization, and as a former member of the Young Lordes — an artistactivist collective fighting for equity in NYC —

the distinction is important to her. While some decisions might be delegated to individual heads of subcommittees, every member of Earthtones has equal say and importance.

Especially voices of color, says Tonuzi. “Part of our collective is that while we are inclusive, we also hold the responsibility of uplifting minority voices,” she says.

“WEWERE JUSTKIND OFWORKING TOGETHERTO TRYTOCREATE ASPACEWHERE ALLSTUDENTS OFCOLORFEEL REPRESENTED, WHEREWECAN CREATE—NO JUDGMENT,NO PRESSURE”

PHOTO OF SAFA TONUZI

PHOTO OF ANANT MALPANI PHOTO OF AISHA BAIOCCHI

FreeTheNipple

THEEVOLUTIONOFBRALESSNESSINMEDIA

WRITTEN BY SINCLAIR HOLIAN | DESIGNED BY CLAIRE WALSH

MODELED BY FASHION MASH EDITORIAL

Bella Hadid slinks onto the runway, wearing nothing but a nude G-string and short, white heels. Her right arm is draped across her breasts. Two men approach, each armed with spray guns trailed by long black tubes.

As Hadid stares ahead, the team begins to spray her body with a white liquid substance. She raises an elegant arm to the sky, exposing her bare chest to the audience. For the next 15 minutes, she poses as the artists encircle her body, completing their work. When the team stepped away, what remained was a bright white spray-on dress, clinging to her once-bare body.

The sprayed-on garment was a display from Parisian fashion brand Coperni’s Spring Summer 2023 show during Paris Fashion Week. The dress and the showcase of Hadid’s figure is representative of the larger trend.

TOHYPER SEXUALIZE,OR TOCOVERAND TRYTOIGNORE."

At Valentino's haute couture fall-Winter show in July, actress Florence Pugh wore a hot pink tulle gown with an entirely sheer front. Schiaparelli crafts boob-focused looks featuring golden nipple motifs. Boobs are back. The looks have bled off the runway and into street style. In naked dresses, sheer tops, baby tees and corsets, boobs are having a fashionable moment.

But watching as fashion embraces a freed nipple on and off the runway, I can’t help but notice that there seems to be only one shape deemed socially acceptable: perky and small.

I am a woman with bigger boobs. And despite fashion’s recent wave of welcome for freed nipples, it is clear that bodies and breasts like mine are still far from the runway. Despite larger acceptance of bigger bodies in fashion, bigger breasts are rarely seen in high fashion. Society seems to have adopted one of two approaches to big boobs: to hypersexualize, or to cover and try to ignore.

For women with big boobs getting dressed is a constant state of interrogation: How does the world see me when they see this body? For people with small breasts, wearing a tank top on a hot day might not elicit a second thought. For women with bigger boobs, everyday cleavage is sexualized,

regardless of etting or environment. In workplaces, women with bigger breasts are conditioned to believe their natural bodies are unprofessional.

My own breasts have made my experience in my body feel entirely out of my control. No matter which bras I bought, or how many layers I wore, I always had a creeping feeling that the moment I stepped out of my house, everyone would know about and look at my body and breasts.

For a woman who finds joy in clothes and style, this particular loss of control was particularly harmful. The clothes I wore were meant to cover my body, and never seemed to fit right. Either clothes were bulky, or tight enough to bring unwanted sexualized attention to my body. Nothing was meant for me.

Unlike for the runway models and big-name celebrities baring their breasts, the explosion of boob-positive fashion never seemed attainable to me. Small breasts seemed to be an essential factor of sheer garments, micro-tops and the ever-cool little white tank. Exposed nipples and emphasized busts that might be considered chic would be deemed vulgar or obscene if larger breasts were involved.

I couldn’t imagine a world in which my figure could be celebrated the same way. In December 2021, I got a breast reduction for

back and shoulder pain. As boob-focused fashion continued to explode, I was just getting used to a huge change in my body. Post-surgery, while my breast size wasn’t as extreme, they were still much larger than those of the models at the forefront of a breast-positive movement.

In the spirit of chasing the ever illusive “cool girl” look, I purchased a white tank top.

Looking to the past in the world of fashion, it is clear that the industry has progressed a great deal. Plus-size women walk runways now, and

big name brands are being held accountable for holding a full range of sizes.

But fashion continuously falls short, too. In the case of “body positivity” the radical embrace of all types of bodies has not been fully enacted.

As fashion signals its embrace of breasts and feminine figures, it must be held accountable for accepting all breasts. Boob-positive fashion cannot simply be positive about one shape of body.

I keep telling myself that. A few months ago, wearing a sheer top would be unimaginable. My

thoughts would be flooded by all the ways people might perceive me based on my breasts. Leaving the house in a white tank top might not come close to a Bella Hadid Coperni runaway moment. My breasts and body will never look anything like hers.

But for me, it means something.

INTHECASEOF“BODYPOSITIVITY”THERADICAL EMBRACEOFALLTYPESOFBODIESHASNOTBEEN FULLYENACTED.

BOOB-POSITIVEFASHIONCANNOTSIMPLYBE POSITIVEABOUTONESHAPEOFBODY.

"INNAKED DRESSES, SHEERTOPS, BABYTEES ANDCORSETS, BOOBSARE HAVINGA FASHIONABLE MOMENT."

"ICOULDN’T IMAGINEA WORLDIN WHICHMY FIGURECOULD BECELEBRATED THESAMEWAY."

"SOCIETY SEEMSTO HAVEADOPTED ONEOFTWO APPROACHES TOBIGBOOBS:

DESIGNED BY BONNIE ZHANG

royal

HEIST

The death of Queen Elizabeth II was the catalyst for intense dialogue and online division about how the British Monarchy ought to be remembered (and whether it should continue to exist.) Questions and commentary about jewels from Britain’s destructive history of colonialism took center stage placing the Queen’s death in the background and putting the monarchy’s perceived immorality on full blast.

For many, the Queen’s death was a reminder of everything Britain has stolen… and how it ought to be taken back.

PHOTOGRAPHED BY JOHN RATKOWIAK AND KUSH SHAH

WRITTEN BY CLAY MORRIS

MAKEUP BY SOPHIA ALEM

DIANNAH ABDEL HALIM STYLE BY MAILE MOLDANDO LOULIE OLSON

MONIQUE GANDY

EMMA MCDANIEL MODELED BY ANNA JIN

BAYAN ABULABDA

JADEN ESQUIVEL PRITHVI ADIGA

SAVANNAH GUNTER; TAFT STEVENS UREDO AGADA

TAMILORE KOLAWOLE: UNSUNG STYLE STAR

WRITTEN BY JOHN DOE | DESIGNED BY ELIZA HART | PHOTOS BY JOHN DOE

Oluwatamilore Kolawole is a senior from New Jersey majoring in neuroscience with a double minor in Chemistry and French. And according to our editor-in-chief Clay Morris, Kolawole is an unsung style star around campus with outfits that stand out amongst the school’s 30,000 students. The three words Clay would use to describe her style is: chic, flavorful and personal.

Here’s a conversation between the two about Kolawole’s style and relationship with fashion.

CLAY MORRIS: Tami! How are you today?

TAMILORE KOLAWOLE: I’m good — unexpectedly busy! But I’m chilling! How are you?

CM TIRED. But this conversation is an energy force because I’ve wanted to talk to you about your style for a while now. I notice people who dress well and I think you’re one of those people on campuses who dresses exceptionally well. We kind of go to a school where it’s really easy to, I think, fall into a rhythm of not getting dressed or dressing like everybody else because it seems like the thing to do. And that may be true nationally, and some would even say globally, but I think there are certain schools where people feel more comfortable dressing how they’d like and showing some individuality. That’s not here. But you’ve committed to being Tami. And I love that. So why are you committed to style and why do you get dressed every morning?

TK At my high school, my boarding school, we had a dress code. So you know, you had certain things that you weren't allowed to wear. It was just restricted, it wasn’t a full uniform, and I had worn a uniform previously, before that. So it was a new level of exploring your own fashion.

So in high school, I definitely kind of stuck to the dress code, but I was still gonna break the rules. Like I was gonna wear that crop top with the skirt, or with the low rise, khaki colored pants. Like I was gonna wear it and they were gonna accept it because I was a good student. But through that, I started to learn how to dress like my first year, it was definitely a lot more corporate like the, it was business casual. So definitely a lot more corporate. And then after that first year, I was like, ‘Okay, let's try playing around with….’ And I started developing what I liked. But I will say it wasn't until the end of my first year here that I started to actually take a genuine interest in my personal style and my closet. Prior to that I definitely dressed according to what society knew was good on girls with a little bit of curves. So I was wearing the high rise skinny jeans from Topshop, you know, the crop tops and vans, like that was the statement look every time. And it worked and it looked good. But the way I was dressing wasn't necessarily according to my style or what I wanted. I felt like I was dressing more for gratification or like validation of others instead of myself.

CM Mmm. She’s deep, honey!

TK After we got kicked off the campus and I had to like downsize my closet quite literally, like go through everything… I started picking things out like “I've had this for four years and I've never worn it and it's just not my style, like.” And then from that I was also like, “I don't want to wear skinny jeans anymore.”

To be fully transparent, I gained maybe like three pounds. I was like, “Okay, what fits this body.” I filled out my freshman year, which was nice. But the things that I had before weren't fitting the same. And so it's kind of another question like, “Okay, let me dress for myself instead of dressing in general BBL fashion.” In terms of exploring new clothes, I was always a Pinterest girl ever since high school, like I made

a Pinterest for everything. And I made Pinterest boards for my friends, as well for certain events. So I just went to my Pinterest and I looked at the things I had been collecting over the years that I necessarily wasn't wearing, but I definitely had always aspired to dress like. So one of them was like baggy jeans, like looser fitting pants, which is something that has stayed consistent since like my rebirth in fashion. I have not gone back to skinny jeans and I don't look back at it and feel sad at all. Like I'm very much happy with the loose jeans. I feel freer. And skinny jeans are hot and tight. Let's be honest. So that was definitely a major shift for me. Because I used to wear skinny jeans all. the. time. Skinny jeans and leggings down, like I was that girl. I had like 17 pairs.

CM: Mmm. Fix it Jesus! No, I’m just playing!

TK: [Laughter] From Pinterest I went to thrifting. So I thrifted a little bit my first year before we got kicked off the campus. But during this rebirth at the beginning of my second year, I had a lot of time to myself, because I was living alone on campus. So I used to just go to the thrift store all the time, and just explore new things, try on new clothes, and it just became such a release of stress for me. I felt like whenever I'm stressed, and I still do this to this day — I feel bad for my

“LETMEDRESS FORMYSELF INSTEADOF DRESSINGIN GENERALBBL FASHION”

"WHATDOYOU THINKSTYLEIS?"

wallet but I still do this to this day — whenever I'm stressed and like overwhelmed with things: I go to the thrift store. Just being able to look at things and imagine with your mind what they could look like maybe if you pin it here, or if you reconstruct it, break it down and just allowing that creativity to flow outside of your other responsibilities has truly been a peaceful space and a healing space.

CM That you think that way about garments makes a lot of sense to me. You’re very thoughtful and considered. You’ll wear things and I'm like Tammy has taste. I'm like this is somebody who has done this with some strategy, some élan, so I'm always impressed with how you put your pieces together. And I didn't even know about the whole evolution.

TK [laughter] Sophomore year I was a

different girl. The idea always stayed the same. But after freshman year I really started to care more about what I was putting on. And dressing because Tamilore Kolawole likes this outfit and it represents her personality.

CM So, this may be backtracking, but: what do you think style is?

TK In the most general sense… I mean, I feel like it's the essence of how you dress. Like, if you could put the way you dress into three words. That’s your style. But I think style changes over time as well. So it's really just what does your outfit say?

CM Okay! Now, I wasn't sure if I was gonna ask this. It's not written… but I want to ask it. So I think everyone has style. Do you think everyone has good style?

TK [Silence.]

CM [Silence. Laughter]

TK I think we're all a work in progress.

CM Good night! Enough said. That’s diplomatic. Anyway, when you're trying to decide what you're going to wear, is there one garment that you usually consider first, like, I know, you just talked a lot about pants and jeans. But is there a particular item that you begin your outfits with?

TK Oh, it depends on the day. Usually, if I'm not inspired by something that I see on my phone or around me, I'll start with an article of clothing that I've either been staring at and haven't been able to wear yet because I haven't been able to style it. That's usually how it goes. Like, I could go, “Oh, my gosh, I haven't worn that green crop snake jacket in forever. That's what I'm gonna wear today.” So I build my outfit around that. I make sure that I'm making a conscious effort to make use of all my clothes, because if I'm not wearing it, then it can be given away. It can be donated, or it can be resold. I'm trying to work on my overconsumption.

CM That's a good mindset to be in. And something my mom says that always sends me is “If I don't wear some of my items, they yell at me and they say, ‘Hwy, you've already worn her!’”

TK Your mom is speaking facts!

CM Yes, you need to give everybody a chance! So is there a certain garment or style that you just don’t like?

TK Pleated skirts. I wouldn’t say I do not like them, but I just don't know how to style them to fit my aesthetic and I want to so badly. They’re so cute. And especially as a skirt over pants.

CM Hmm.

TK Hey! People are making it work. But pleated skirts are a tricky one for me because I feel like it's really feminine. Which is something that I don't necessarily like, look for because I’'m not necessarily a very feminine person when it comes to my outfits. Other than when I dress up, but it always has this edginess to it or a bit of darkness to it. So pleated skirts. Every time I put it on I'm like… honestly too girly for me.

CM Right. Okay, so on the flipside of that: what's your favorite garment?

TK Absolutely a low rise cargo pant. You can't go wrong with a cargo. You really can't. They are my safety. I have worn them, they have been through it all. Especially a green or a camo green low rise cargo pant that’s loose fitted at the bottom. Chef’s kiss. Selfishly I'm wearing a pair right now.

CM Can you describe one of your favorite outfits you've ever worn? Take your time. I know you have at least 800 to pull from.

[Laughter]

TK Off the top of my head, the outfit I wore to attend Africa night. The cream silk top with the green cargo pants and the pink and brown Adidas sneakers. Just because that silk

top is not how it originally looked at before I did my manipulation.

CM Well what did you do to it?

TK It was like a size 12 top and it obviously needed to be fitted, but I was like, “Okay, I don't have time to resew it. I gotta be out the door.” So I took some safety pins, and fashion tape and my little needle and thread, and I just started sewing and pinning and creating ruches and pleats wherever I could to make it more interesting and to also make it better. It took maybe 20 minutes.

CM So before we started the interview I said you were an unsung fashion hero and you said “no, no” and now you’re sitting up telling me how you've basically done a whole collection of your own clothes. So the truth has come

out. That's wonderful! And you know I did see you that night and I was like… This is giving a custom Tami.

TK Yeah, no, absolutely!

CM Right? So who is your style crush?

TK Sierra Rena, @sierrerenas on Instagram. And I just love the way she plays with shapes and the way she plays the pattern. And that's something I'm really trying to teach myself is to be more adventurous in my styling. And just experiment more.

Like, a bad outfit only tells you what you do and do not like. So I just enjoy the way she's like, extremely playful with her outfits, plays with proportions and everything. And she makes some of her own clothes as well.

CM Well, I was gonna ask you for a one sentence style tip, but I feel like “a bad outfit only teaches you what you do and do not like”... that's fashion iconery. That's an amazing quote. Because I think a lot of people are afraid to even try something that may not work for fear of how they look. But if you never try it: you're never going to know. And sometimes after a mistake you’ll be able to say, “Well, wait a minute, if we had flipped it this way, it would’ve ate.”

TK Precisely.

CM Well thank you so much! I’ll let you go so you can keep giving us diva.

TK It's always a good time to talk to you. Bye, my love!

Tamilore’s Instagram: @tamilore_k

The Unrelenting Spirit

UKRAINE of

AS TOLD TO NICOLE MOOREFIELD BY SOFIIA KHALIK DESIGNED BY SUSANNE THOMAS | PHOTOGRAPHS BY SOFIIA

It’s been over a year since Russia officially invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Ever since, international headlines about Ukraine have been filled with stories of destruction and despair. Those stories are an important reminder of the suffering inflicted on the people of Ukraine, but there is more to the picture than the damage of war. Ukraine is a beautiful and flourishing country with a resilient spirit that refuses to be stamped out during this trying time.

Sofiia Khalik is a first-year student at UNCCH studying psychology and German. Born in Ukraine, her very first time coming to the United States was in August, just prior to attending new student orientation. She shared her experiences of life in Ukraine before and during the war, highlighting the enduring spirit of the Ukrainian people.

NICOLE MOOREFIELD: Tell me about your hometown.

SOFIIA KHALIK: I spent my entire childhood in Novopillya, a little town in central Ukraine. It is close to the highly industrial city of Kryvyi Rih, where my parents work and where I studied and attended extracurriculars. At 16, I started attending an international high school in the country of Georgia, so I visited my hometown only for several months for two years.

The climate in my hometown is quite moderate, with hot, dry summers like North Carolina and cold and sometimes snowy winters like D.C. My town is rural, and a lot of people are either farmers or have vegetable and fruit gardens, so I was raised in quite a green neighborhood. Our part of the country is especially known for fertile soil, so we have a lot of fields, especially wheat fields. If you look at them, you’ll see a big yellow part that goes up to the blue sky — a landscape depicted on our national flag. Because of its fertile soil, Ukraine is one of the world’s major grain producers. So a lot of fields, like in my area, became a target of Russian missiles in a futile attempt to block the exports and halt sanctions imposed on Russia.

A lot of my immediate relatives still live in that town and in Kryvyi Rih, but my family migrated in the first days of the full-scale invasion to the West, as Russian troops advanced from

the south and east. But their offensive was stopped some 50 kilometers (31 miles) to the south last March.

NM What are some of the most interesting places you’ve visited in Ukraine?

SK With my family, and later by myself, I traveled a lot across Ukraine, to many regions and major cities — and it’s impossible to describe with just a few words.

Ukrainian geography is quite diverse, with mountains on the West, steppes in the central part, two seas and even a small desert on the East. Some of my most vivid memories are from my time spent in the Carpathian Mountains,

KHALIK

visited the beautiful western city of Lviv several times, I could see its exciting transformation through the seasons. From summer to fall, Lviv is a tranquil city of coffee, diverse street music, Gothic/Renaissance European architecture and Greek statues. In the winter, its streets fill with the sound of Christmas carols, the smell of mulled wine and many goodies from street fairs. Kyiv is more of an industrial city, which also has a rich historical and cultural background. Walking through the city, you can see massive churches and historical European buildings smoothly flowing into high-rise offices or residential buildings. This fast-paced city attracts crowds of young students seeking an education and life in the capital. Therefore, it is a place where many political and social movements are born and largely developed. Cultural life also flourishes here — besides numerous museums, theaters and public buildings, there are historical sites and many festivals, national holidays and celebrations occur here on a large scale.

are hubs of innovation. Growing up, I, like many other children, was aware of this diversity, and it is quite hard to describe all the nuances of these differences.

One of the major differences between the eastern and western regions is language. Coming from a central part (closer to the east), I grew up in a predominantly Russian-speaking area, while some of my friends from western regions were raised in more Ukrainian-speaking cities. However, this wasn’t an obstacle in our friendship and communication, as we know both languages. It might be assumed by some media that this aspect can divide us, but most people truly want to live in Ukraine as an independent state and not some Russian province. This is our deliberate choice, as we have our own distinctive culture, history and traditions that many believe should exist within a sovereign land. With a Russian full-scale invasion, this idea was even more supported, as Russians started to attack civilian objects, including thousands of cultural sites and living houses. In fact, for the majority of people, this was the last straw to cut connections with Russia. The decision to speak Ukrainian rather than Russian on a daily basis became one of the ways to do that.

NM: Do you have any Ukrainian traditions or cultural practices that you continue to participate in here in the United States?

created in dense forests and traditional woodenhut villages, now transformed into museums open to tourists and showcasing a variety of Ukrainian traditional delicacies, clothing and other items.

But if you travel to urban cities, your experience will be drastically different. Having

NM While there are some cultural differences between the eastern and western parts of the country, there is now more than ever a unity among all Ukrainians in response to Russia’s attacks. Could you explain some of the differences and, more importantly, the similarities between the regions?

SK: Cultural practices across different regions of Ukraine vary significantly. While some regions are predominantly rural or industrial, others serve as tourist attractions presenting the uniqueness of Ukrainian culture, and some

SK We continue to participate in various Ukrainian customs, whether it is daily practices or holidays. For instance, we sometimes prepare borshch or varenyky, dishes with a long-standing history in our culture, and wear traditional items to school or work. In Ukraine, we even have a holiday called Vyshyvanka Day, where people wear traditional embroidered shirts, indicating their Ukrainian heritage. Also, during Easter, we make pysanky, a centuries-old tradition of decorating eggs using natural colors and wax.

NM: What makes the spirit of the people of Ukraine unique, and how is that spirit reflected in the Ukrainian response to the war?

SK Personally, I think of the aspiration of people for an independent nation, recognizing its diversity and the ability to have the freedom to influence its course. We seek democratic values, human rights and freedom, which is just the opposite of what Russia wants for us in this war. The resistance happens in many ways, like switching to Ukrainian from Russian, creating songs of resistance commemorating the stories of brave people and cities or volunteering. My experience last summer in Ukraine, like many other people my age, was making masking nets (a form of camouflage) for the front. It continues to be an unspoken rule to donate to the Armed Forces, volunteers or places where people are in

need of resources. And these fundraisers close quite fast.

Abroad, many Ukrainians also continue to help. Here in Chapel Hill, I volunteer with the Ukrainian Association of North Carolina — a nonprofit that fundraises for humanitarian aid. Recently, we also established a student-led club called Friends of Ukraine and organized our first fundraising concert on March 25 to get a truck for a mobile medical unit rescuing wounded first responders in Bakhmut.

The war should not be romanticized, knowing how much people have lost in it, but humor was especially significant to cope with trauma during the first months of the invasion and continues to be important today. Some funny but real stories went viral. In Kyiv, a woman knocked down a Russian drone from

a balcony with a jar of cucumbers. One video shows a farmer stealing a Russian military tank with his tractor. This image later became a meme, as well as a popular image on tote bags, t-shirts and pins.

Traveling through Lviv during wartime, I could definitely see its traces embedded in each corner of the city. But even the signs of war showed resilience and strength. Many cafes turned into volunteer centers, feeding territorial defense members or delivering food to the front lines and to liberated towns for those in need. I saw sandbags covering the windows, doorways and architectural monuments, but I also distinctly remember those statues covered and surrounded with banners stating, “We will admire the original after victory!”

"WESEEK DEMOCRATIC VALUES,HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOM"

LOOK! DON'T TOUCH

DESIGNED BY NAOMI BURNS

PHOTOGRAPHED BY HEATHER

DIEHL, LAUREN CMIEL, KATELYN CRESPO, ANNIKA DUNEJA

On June 24, 2022 the Supreme Court released its opinion on the case of Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women Health Organization, deciding that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. This decision overruled Roe v. Wade as well as Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey, and unraveled decades of reproductive justice work in the United States. By placing the rights and bodies of women and people with uteruses on display while denying them autonomy, the decision has ushered in an era where agency appears to be no more than a prop.

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STYLED BY MAILE MOLDANDO, LOULIE OLSON, MONIQUE GANDY SPECIAL THANK YOU TO UNIQUITIES

BALANCINGPRIVACY AND SURVEILLANCE darkness

virality's

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We’ve all been there. You see something absolutely bizarre in public, and your first instinct is to pull out your phone. We don’t take a second to think about the implications of our careless consumption and posting. All we do is justify our impulsive actions by thinking “if they did it in public, they must be okay with it being on social media.” Wrong. In the digital age of leaked sex tapes and outrageous presidential tweets, humans are conditioned to think there is no longer a clear line of what to post and what not to post on the internet. There is a breaking down of boundaries across social media platforms as people are willing to post anything they think the algorithms will favor and ultimately give them a taste of the quick digital spotlight. Whether you posted it yourself or someone posted it of you without your consent, the motivation to become viral has created a dark side of the internet that requires exploration.

When it comes to the impact of virality, it is important to recognize that a range of intensity exists, from filming art without artists' consent to popular influencers spreading misinformation.

The major pitfalls of this social phenomena include misinformation on such subjects as politics, health and financial planning, all of which impact one’s personal choices. In addition, cruel attacks on people’s character and blatant hate speech have become the norm on the internet. This leads to an increased pressure to conform, increased potential for physical harm and increased theft of content on the internet.

Before measuring the ways in which virality has invaded personal privacy, it is important to know the media ethics behind recording another human being. The United States Federal Wiretap Act was created in the 1960s to prevent the United States government from recording phone lines and invading the population’s privacy. The act makes it “illegal for anyone to record electronic, telephonic, or oral communication secretly in settings where other parties can reasonably expect the settings to be private.”

There have been many rules and exceptions to the rules as we navigate through the new digital age. Michale Chen, the head of growth of Notta, a speech to text online converter, investigates the murky ethical dilemma of recording people

you don’t know. “The short answer to whether it’s illegal to video record someone without their consent is it’s typically okay to record others in public, but not in private without their consent,” Chen said in a June 2022 article for Notta. However, even if it's legal, it's important to consider the potential invasion of privacy and ethical implications of recording people without their knowledge or consent. Posting content of someone without their consent and having it go viral can lead to a range of negative consequences, including damage to the person's reputation, public shaming, cyberbullying and even potential legal action.

Generation Z, or people born between the years of 1997 and 2013, grew up during the emergence of Apple products and the introduction to mass social media. We learned how easy it was to post funny videos of our siblings on Vine or write poorly written fanfictions on Wattpad without a care in the world about our personal safety. We were told by our parents that as long as our last name and home address weren’t included in our social media content, we were free to post any Tumblr

stock image or “fierce” selfie our heart desired. As we grow up and enter the workforce, Gen Z has collectively become very strategic and performative about what we post and what the world gets to see. The idea of someone catching me casually singing Blink-182, like Halsey did in a random mall in 2016, makes me physically cringe. There is a new psychological fear of being weird or being your authentic self in public because you don't want to add anything to your digital

the Harvard Kennedy School’s Misinformation Review flagged Trump’s tweets between November 2020 to to January 2021 to see how much of his social media content related to election misinformation. “Twitter announced that it had labeled roughly 300,000 electionrelated tweets as disputed and potentially misleading,” as a result of Trump’s online presence, according to research published in the Misinformation Review. The effect of Trump’s

women shouldn’t be allowed to drive, and claiming that men have ‘authority’ over their female partners,” according to a January 2023 Guardian article by Das Shanti. The controversial influencer was recently arrested for rape charges and connections to a human trafficking operation in Romania; however, tweets from his account are still being posted regularly.

Tate’s misogynistic influence on the younger male population introduces the concept that

footprint that doesn’t fit within the parameters of your curated self. “We’re living in sort of a self-induced surveillance state, where no longer is it necessarily the government panopticon, but it’s now everyone else getting their phones out and filming and surveilling, constantly,” said Jenna Drenten, an associate professor in the Quinlan School of Business at the Loyola University Chicago, in a February 2023 Buzzfeed article by Clarissa-Jan Lim. At the same time, it has occurred to all of us that fame is fame. The Halsey mall video did ultimately help her launch her career. Sure, she became a meme, but a meme is a sign of influence and social relevance. Gen Z battles their conflicting feelings towards social media often: If I post whatever I want, I increase my chances to accidentally become famous, but if I post whatever I want, I risk being made fun of and my future job recruiters stumbling across a very embarrassing TikTok where I’m oversharing. Since the popular emergence of TikTok in 2019, these two feelings control our behavior both in public and on our social media accounts, ultimately leading to group conformity. One of the major threats of virality promoting unethical behavior on social media is the spreading of misinformation and hate speech. The state of journalism and fact checking are under threat because of high status politicians and celebrities using various social platforms to spread misinformation and disinformation to the population. The best example of this can be seen with the former US president, Donald Trump. Before Trump got suspended on Twitter,

careless and deliberately misleading tweeting doesn’t end there. After tweeting that the 2020 election was rigged and that there would be a “big protest in D.C. on January 6th” and telling supporters to “be there, will be wild,” more than 2,000 people stormed the U.S. Capitol. A single tweet from a political actor prompted a day where the future of democracy was urgently threatened.

The January 6th Capitol Riot unveiled the danger of Trump and the

anyone can become viral for posting extreme content and recruit a following regardless of how incorrect or harmful their information is. The performative act of posting certain

power he has to create mass hysteria among his followers. Trump is not the first or last high-status person to spread misinformation in hopes of sparking reactions from their numerous followers. Andrew Tate is a British-American former professional kickboxer that is known by his followers as being the “king of toxic masculinity.” Tate rose to fame by offering advice to mostly male fans in the age range of 11 to 18 on how to “improve their life” and become the men they are entitled to be. Tate is a “self-described misogynist, comparing women to dogs, saying

content for your viewers or fans is nothing new. However, performative posting can go too far and be considered a threat to mental and physical safety. When I think about clout chasing and performative posting, my mind immediately goes to David Dobrik and his YouTube “Vlog Squad” of paid friends. Over the past 8 years, Dobrik has made videos of everything from filling his giant pool with elephant toothpaste to harming his “friends” as collateral for the sake of views.

Dobrik “plays the role of the approachable guy who is buddies with all the popular kids but still

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"THEMOTIVATIONTOBECOMEVIRALHASCREATEDA DARKSIDEOFTHEINTERNET"

world” wrote Rebecca Jennings in a March 2021 article for Vox. He has built the ethos of being one of the few Youtubers that is a “good guy.” Dobrik has gone to great lengths to increase his views, leading to him endangering his squad of quasi-famous friends.

Dobrik’s videos include “pranks” such as tricking his “friends” to kiss people without consent for the sake of views, which; this starts begging the question if the “pranks” Dobrik and his crew pull start seeming more like exercises in stretching the limits of consent. Many Vlog Squad watchers reached their limit when Dobrik was accused of being a part of a sexual assault scandal in which a 20-year-old woman went with a group of her friends to an apartment to film with Dobrik and friends. She and a friend went into a room with one of the Vlog Squad members, Dom Zeglaitis, where he allegedly had sex with her while other members of the Vlog Squad listened outside. The woman said that she “became so incapacitated with alcohol supplied by Vlog Squad members that she could not consent to sex.” The resulting video was titled “SHE SHOULD NOT HAVE PLAYED WITH FIRE!!!” and portrayed the scene as a threesome plot. The video was later deleted after she objected to it but not before it reached 5 million views, according to Jennings.

Dobrik’s power-hungry posting highlights the inability of content creators to obtain explicit and enthusiastic consent from all parties involved in the creation of their online content.

The line of consent online is tampered with often in the developing digital world. Another ethical dilemma involving consent can be seen with the tendency of parents to publicize their children’s lives on social media. While some family vloggers feature their children in some of their content, other accounts are devoted to being all about their children, leaving them vulnerable to things like exploitation and digital

reasons, including actors’ safety and intellectual

internet platforms, often without consent as the kids may be too young to give it or understand the full scope of what they're consenting to,” the CBS article stated. While there are minimal short-term effects of posting your child’s image on social media, the long-term effects are daunting, as “studies estimate ‘"sharenting’" will play a role in two-thirds of identity fraud cases

"PERFORMATIVE POSTINGCANGO TOOFAR"

facing young people by 2030,” according to CBS. For the sake of followers and profile engagement, parents are unintentionally exposing their children to the risk of hacking, facial recognition tracking and pedophilia, wrote Aria Mallorca in an April 2022 article for PR Values. The idea of posting your child without giving any thought to consent because of their age, creates a new ethical argument about when consent starts for a person and what rights a child should be guaranteed.

When Lea Michele first got the role of Fanny Brice, it was all over TikTok to the point where I was convinced I’d seen most of her performance through my TikTok feed alone. Michele is not the first —, and will not be the last —, actor to experience her scenes being recorded and put online for personal fame and social media interactions. Posting content on social media without proper attribution to the original creator and achieving viral status not only violates the intellectual property rights of the original creator, but can also lead to loss of credibility and trustworthiness. Playbill reveals that recording Broadway performances is forbidden for many

platform, TikTok, has increased the chances of a performance being recorded as people have realized how easy it is to make money on the app. According to a March 2023 report from Next Gen Personal Finance, “TikTok pays around $0.02 and $0.04 for every 1,000 views.” If a TikTok of Michele belting a high note gets enough views, TikTok users can make a significant amount of money for simply recording a performance.

The desire for virality has led to a breakdown of previously respected boundaries and a disregard for privacy and security. It's necessary that we pause and reflect on the implications of our actions online and strive towards a more responsible and ethical use of social media. Although it's difficult to quantify the extent of viral harm caused by social media because it is constantly evolving, it's crucial to highlight the significant risks to privacy and security stemming from the widespread desire for online recognition. The pervasive influence of this social phenomenon contributes to numerous adverse outcomes that are serious enough to warrant our scrutiny and, where possible, the introduction of new regulations and legislation.

WRITTEN BY FORBES FOWLER

DESIGNED BY LESLIE GUZMAN

PHOTOGRAPH BY UNSPLASH

Praying ForAesthetic

Your altar is wherever you kneel. What does it mean to pray for aesthetics?

Let's set the scene. You open Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest. Your perfectly tailored algorithm feeds you just the right posts to keep you always hungry-but never full-on digital content. You open the "explore" page and see an image that sticks in just the right grooves of your digitally massaged brain. It's a cryptic, pale-toned image of a soft bed in a dilapidated, vaguely eastern European building with a crucifix hanging over it. The caption? Something vaguely religious, vaguely insane and inevitably the result of a victim of serotonin syndrome. These accounts are often diaphanous and purposely indecipherable by nature. The captions seem to spin some narrative, the truth of which is impossible to discern. The posts string together a cohesive aesthetic of ashed cigarettes in a pearl bowl, a rosary necklace, washed-out pale color palettes, grainy images of "Jesus Saves'' billboards, lips brushed with Dior lipstick, Burberry miniskirts, Saint Laurent tights (inevitably worn by Lily Rose Depp) and Miu Miu tops. Key music includes Lana del Rey, Ethel Cain, Emma Ruth Rundle and Gregorian chants. Girl Interrupted, Black Swan, Buffalo '66 and The Virgin Suicides are required viewings. The Secret History, Lapvona, Prozac Nation, My Year of Rest and Relaxation and The Bell Jar are seminal texts. Before reading any further: make sure to genuflect and light your votive candles, then come with me as we explore the rise of "godposting," where it's from, where it's going and who's perpetuating it.

To trace the full lineage of the modern-day Joans and Johns of Arc, I'm tempted to take us all the way back to Golgotha, but for the sake of brevity, we'll fast forward approximately two thousand and twenty-three years from the crucifixion. Many modest internet historians (like myself) generally agree that the rise of personal religiosity mixed with autofiction, the ubiquitous feature of all femcels, waifcore and tradcath godposting accounts, initially began with Nick Land. In the early 2000s, Nick Land was a prolific writer, publishing many essays and his magnum opus Fanged Noumena, a study of the internet landscape as he saw it, a prosaic diagnosis of present and future. Many credit him as the "father of accelerationism" (a term recently co-opted by the far right). Put simply, accelerationism functions as a secular eschatology, a live study of the last rites of western society. At any rate, Land's more subtle influences include the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit (CCRU), and being the mentor to many of the foremost British philosophers of the early 2000s, such as Mark Fisher (see Capitalist Realism and k-punk). The CCRU was a cryptic collective that churned out writings steeped in numerology, angel theory and demonology, all mixed with contemporary internet culture. These writings form the basis for godposting

ground 0: Angelicism01.

Angelicism01 is by far the most prolific godposter. This cryptic account has a ridiculously convoluted aura, first appearing in the online sphere in 2020 via Twitter, then Instagram and TikTok. Now it runs a Substack with writings about topics such as Simone Weil and Donald Trump. One of the more novel aspects of Angelicism01 is its diaspora, as it has spawned about a thousand clone accounts across Instagram, Twitter and Youtube, each of which is impossible to discern if they are the real thing or not. The original account almost certainly began with reading the CCRU and vomiting out the core tenants (as quotations often appear in long, pseudo-academic captions). Unfortunately, primary sources on the matter often are deliberately obtuse probably to give the impression of depth. What's important is the aesthetic change it heralded: long, liturgical-esque captions with language ripped straight from the old testament, vaguely incoherent ramblings with references to events both real and imagined, social fractionalization due to abstract thought and huge text-based images so steeped in performative post irony that you'll never be able to determine whether they're actually serious or not. Angelicism01 percolated a bit more, being mentioned by podcasts like Red Scare and Wet brain, until the vibe shift of 2021— a term that actually originated with this account, in their own words, "a transition in the global consciousness." If the godposting vibe shift began with Angelicism01 in the summer of 2021, it reached its zenith with Addison Rae's Praying post. For those unfamiliar, Addison Rae posted a fairly provocative photo in a Father, Son, Holy Spirit bikini from the brand Praying, igniting the fires of Sodom and Gomorrah and eventually taking down the photo. I'm tempted to claim that microcultures are only affirmed when monetized, solidified and sold to a wider audience. Indeed, godposting's capitalist culmination can be found in the brand Praying, whose Times New Roman tops emblazoned with "God's Favorite," the Hail Mary and other religiously charged imagery sold out instantly. Of course, Angelicism101 claims Praying stole from the vibe shift they initiated, without due credit. The Praying event marked the culmination of Angelicism01's hyper-conscious posting at the speed of thought, and now the account holds far less sway. However, its presence is perpetuated in a contemporary comedown of dispersed accounts more concerned with the aesthetic curation, personal religiosity and fictitious narratives that Angelicism01 popularized. It's time to look at resurgences, small and large. Admittedly, my personal relations with Angelicism01's diaspora began on a casual late Saturday morning post-wakeup pre-get-outof-bed scroll. You know how it goes, endlessly flitting through digital spaces but always

alone. I stumbled upon a few blurry images of a dilapidated church captioned "head empty no thoughts only the wordless ecstasy of divine love," and a few neurons began to fire at abnormally high levels. Who was this person claiming, "I live outside of God's light and by consequence his love" (@waifcigs)? It was just specific enough to provoke intrigue but vague enough to leave me unsatisfied. I had to know more and thus began the rabbit hole. As I clicked on suggested account after suggested account, I noticed a pattern. Each one I encountered had a certain ability to transmit and receive and then apply layers of affection, longing and doubt through seraphic religious imagery. It started to make an alarming amount of sense. In our daily scrolls, we put ourselves into a digital fugue state, heightening the already somnambulant motions of daily life and subsuming ourselves into a trance to achieve "divine" knowledge in the network. What better form to represent the digital age other than the embodiment of the network itself? Another key feature was the narrative aspect of the accounts, with many posting Whisper app confession screenshots, ambiguously rambling in captions ending with "I will always land on my feet because I am blessed and cherished by the lord," or through full-blown Substacks. Pivotal to each account was the use of autofiction, a genre that plays up the mundane to provide a thin veil of elusive yet compelling meaning. Perhaps because of the recent cancel culture, these users opt to escape their digital watchdogs via auto-fiction to write about intimate and possibly damaging personal experiences. Autofiction's allure is that you can never quite ascertain the borders of truth from rambling. The rise of autofiction is exemplified by the proliferation of Substacks, which can simultaneously intrigue us and satisfy our voyeuristic impulse to get inside the heads of others. Clearly, I'd stumbled on a full-blown phenomenological movement.

To get close to the source, I reached out to a friend, Len Thomas @everymessinvested, who I'd noticed rubbed digital elbows with some godposting accounts to ask about what drew them to the aesthetic. "I know I've used a lot of religious imagery to write things before, and a lot of my friends are super influenced by the writing in the Bible,” they wrote. “With all the grandiose and esoteric explanations, you can talk about your emotions or even the most mundane boring things but use religious imagery and make them so fantastical." In captions like, "Medieval femcels, anchorites, we are the modernday Julians of Norwich," godposters craft personal scriptures using incredibly powerful language from the old testament in the spirit of Christianity itself (@honoraryeldestdaughter). In a sense, the godposters of today form one more link in an unbroken chain from past to present of Christianity's syncretism, weaving

it all into performance and hypercuration of the self. And it isn't just language, as accounts like these with large amounts of followers deftly mix highly alluring images (such as mentioned in the opening paragraph) with scraps of theory and theosophy (a belief that knowledge of God can be obtained through personal spiritual events), providing a potent aesthetic which many are beginning to catch onto.

Artists of the moment like Ethel Cain, written about beautifully early in this issue by Oliva Dela Cruz, are reclaiming the age-old and immensely powerful symbolism of the crucifix and God in a grand reverse-apostasy of the western image cannon. New generations come forth to confront the past, flipping the script on traditional Catholicism's intolerance and oppression. Godposting offers the alluring draw of thousands of years of charged symbolism to break old narratives for positioning yourself as interesting online. The answer is simple: Convene with God through the machine. Perhaps philosopher Byung-Chul Han puts it best: "As a modern-day devotional object, the smartphone acts as a rosary, and to 'like' is to pray digitally."

"THOUSANDS OFYEARSOF CHARGED SYMBOLISM TOBREAK OLD NARRATIVES FOR POSITIONING YOURSELFAS INTERESTING ONLINE"