Good morning, kids!
Welcome to my experiment. I decided to FCK around with Substack, so here we are.
What is MUTHR, FCKD, you ask? As a grown-ass woman and breeder, I literally “mother” my way through everyday, yet I always feel so FCKD. Woman of a “certain age” FCKD. Greta Gerwig snubbed from the Oscars, FCKD. Margot Robbie snubbed from the Oscars, FCKD. $500 for work that paid $1500 20 years ago, FCKD. 2024 election, FCKD. Pitchfork folding and the state of music journalism, FCKD. LA Times layoff, FCKD. There’s a lot of FCKRY around and we need a safe place to celebrate our wins and bitch about myriad ways we still go unseen.
At MUTHR, FCKD, you’ll find some expository thoughts on pop culture and the things that plague womanhood, and round-ups of such things because, apparently, the only person around my age who gets to pop off on these topics is Andy Cohen.
Because I interview and write about writing, art, TV, film, music, and women, you’ll get news and opinions about that too. Basically, I’ll shoot the shit with you about the week’s events the way I would in my kitchen over a poor-man’s speedball of espresso and weed. I know your attention span is already taxed so I promise not to whack off at length.
Here’s a taste:
WINS
Anne Hathaway walked off a Vanity Fair shoot to respect unionized Condé Nast workers who walked off the job for better layoff policies. Even pretending to be in publishing once gave her a sense of how devalued journalists and staffers are.
Style icon Patricia Field did a Balenciaga campaign, with Nicola Peltz (Beckham) and Kim K. At the ripe young age of 82. Salute!
Are you an unapologetic dog person? Do you follow dogs on IG or TikTok? If you haven’t seen The Dog House UK on Max, grab a box of tissues and get to weeping. At an idyllic dog rescue in the English countryside, people are thoughtfully matched with rescue dogs, and we get the backstory on both. Animals! Soothing British accents! Kindness! Love! The perfect balm to our impending apocalypse.
LOSSES
I was listening to a Zennial podcast after a shower recently and the hosts referred to films as “content” and actors kissing as “pop culture moments” and felt like I needed to bathe all over again. This philosophical difference about “art” as “content” is what divides the GenXer from the Zennial and I’m not sure I’m down with reducing the incredibly complex art of filmmaking to a salable clickable product, equal to a TikTok or a banner ad. I can’t!
I had higher hopes for RHOSLC rabble-rouser Monica during the final RHOSLC reunion episode. Her defense for trolling the other housewives as a traumatized Jen vigilante didn’t add up, considering she had yet to suffer through working for Jen when she started stalking her and the gig two years prior. But, we have to give her kudos for penetrating the Bravoverse and bringing income disparity and the fourth wall into the conversation. According to People, she’s OUT for it’s 5th season as of right this second. GUARANTEED you’ll see her shady social skills on the next season of The Traitors, Big Brother, or Ultimate Girls’ Trip. Her star has only just begun to rise.
As mentioned in the intro of this ersatz blog, in yet another case of art meta-mocking life, both Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie were shut out of Oscar noms for their work in Barbie—a travesty in the face of the film’s message. Vulture’s Jen Chaney summed that bullshit up best. Thankfully and rightfully, America Ferrera got a nom for her wonderful performance but both she and even Ken himself, Ryan Gosling, felt compelled to publicly express his disappointment. MUTHR FCKD indeed.
TOSS-UPS
There’s a full moon in Leo this week that T-Squares Sun and Pluto in Aquarius and Jupiter in Taurus. Which means you’ll either be moved to gloriously and spectacularly party your ass off or gloriously and spectacularly lose your shit. Perhaps both! That’s my plan. I can feel the pull of the cosmos already.
MUTHRFCKRY OF THE WEEK
According to a New York Times article written by columnist Callie Holtermann, Gen Z thinks they’re “aging like milk” (worse than Millennials) due to stress. Raised in the era of fillers and Facetune, the kids are obsessed with looking youthful FOREVER whilst, ironically, worshipping Real Housewives and other “mothers mothering” who can afford the kind of dermatologist that can, visibly anyway, keep mortality at bay.
In the piece, Oldster’s Sari Botton attributes this anxiety to the quarter-life crisis, and I completely agree. When you’re 18, you think you have a handle on how the world works until you turn 25, when the bottom of your best laid plans fall out and you realize you know jack shit.
Granted: There are all these image-driven pressures Gen Z has that we didn’t have; making mistakes online for all the world to critique, having to conjure up a personal brand to get hired and live up to their potential, putting forth the best version of their swipeable face on dating apps. They see how ageism works and, even if they feel it’s wrong, would rather perpetuate it by paying into the illusion of its prevention than fall victim to it.
When I was in my 20s, the last thing I cared about was aging. I was too busy trying to survive and have a good time to care how the city miles I was putting on my visage might make me feel in 5, 10, 20 years. When I look at photos of myself back then, I see a gal about town who may have been struggling, but was fully engaged in that struggle without being paralyzed by how it may look to others.
At my age now, would I be down with spending a grand or two at the derm to look like I slept more? Fuck, yeah! But I’ve lived long enough to earn that privilege. It bums me out these kids feel compelled to plunk down so much of their hard earned money trying to fix something that isn’t broken. Yet.
I look forward to reading more about FCKRY in general 🎉
So thrilled you’re writing this! Kudos hilarious lady!!!