Vox: All Posts by Kate Mooneyhttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/52517/voxv.png2019-07-26T14:30:00-04:00https://www.vox.com/authors/kate-mooney/rss2019-07-26T14:30:00-04:002019-07-26T14:30:00-04:00What it means when the women of Big Little Lies go running
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<img alt="Celeste, Jane, and Madeline running along the beach in Big Little Lies." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0N_6lWomJK2UIBc9KMwdUMmTUeE=/93x0:2366x1705/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/64834663/ac1e74289c79fcc8da9d31a49eb8f3c7e6bf927c8077f7f79b38c4f3b070adef12514a331d8f6d80e135372ad94f5b45.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>HBO</figcaption>
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<p>There’s an aspirational appeal to women running on screen.</p> <p id="V2HpQ4">Among <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/3/30/15129914/big-little-lies-hbo-reviews-recaps"><em>Big Little Lies</em></a>’ many motifs — waves crashing along the Monterey coast, Leon Bridges crooning, Laura Dern (in her role as maniacal rich lady Renata Klein) shrieking — is sending its female characters for a run. HBO’s melodrama, which concluded its second season on July 21, loves to depict its female stars in motion — a signifier of their refusal to yield to the forces conspiring to control them. </p>
<p id="mqkEX1">The women of <em>Big Little Lies</em> live in a state of constant conflict, dealing with abusive, or recklessly feckless, husbands, and meddling mothers and mothers-in-law, all while attempting to shield their children from the fallout from all the bad behavior (which they’re guilty of, too!). </p>
<p id="TI4Yli">But they never acquiesce to their opposition, whether that means standing up to a vile mother-in-law in court, taking a baseball bat to the man cave, banding together to say that Perry “fell” on trivia night, or hiding an affair with the theater director. When the women are shown running, strong and swift and determined, the viewer is meant to recognize their persistence as a testament to their spirit and stubbornness and commitment to moving forward, no matter the cost. </p>
<h3 id="NvrdBh">A physically strong woman onscreen is an agent of resistance</h3>
<p id="mAhmJl">An active woman onscreen is a powerful image, and one that is inherently resistant, even radical. We’re more inured to watching men exert themselves physically onscreen as an expression of their power, whether it’s Rocky scaling the steepest steps in Philadelphia while clad in full sweats, or a blond, gaunt, and cocky Jared Leto <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXyh4dAuZl8">smoking the competition </a>in the three-mile in <em>Prefontaine</em>, the biopic about middle-distance track prodigy Steve Prefontaine. These are memorable moments within sports-centric films that nonetheless set us up for them.</p>
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<p id="jty8OM">When it’s a woman showing impressive endurance, however, it comes across as subversive, and more empowering for it. Take <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yAXNOsEo80">Jennifer Lawrence charging after Bradley Cooper</a> in <em>Silver Linings Playbook</em>, a moment that makes literal the attempts by Cooper’s lovelorn Pat to run from his feelings for Lawrence, while Lawrence’s empowered Tiffany propels herself toward him, making her thoughts plain as she moves. And the entirety of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz2-D4lY2qg"><em>Run Lola Run</em></a> is based around a woman, Lola, running against the clock. She is an action hero without a weapon; Lola is armed only with an incredible amount of stamina. Both characters command our attention through their endurance, emotionally and physically. </p>
<p id="POlsp5">“If a female character is jogging — rather than, say, sitting and moping in her kitchen or a bar — she is actively resisting victimhood,” says <a href="https://ece.columbia.edu/people/faculty/annette-insdorf">Annette Insdorf</a>, a professor of film at Columbia University, and author of <em>Cinematic Overtures: How to Read Opening Scenes</em>. “The more active the heroine is onscreen, the more control she is likely to maintain. Mobility is both literal and figurative — the opposite of stasis, which suggests entrapment.”</p>
<p id="fJ0mZM">Watching women move across the screen with grace and power is as aspirational as it is cathartic. “They’re maintaining their physical health in a manner that the camera loves: we watch movies or TV because they are, after all, motion pictures<em>,” </em>Insdorf says. </p>
<p id="eZB1e6">Whenever there’d be a running scene on <em>Big Little Lies</em>, I’d get a craving to lace up my shoes and head out the door. This is partly because I’m a running addict, and partly because I’m incredibly impressionable. But I’m also drawn to the controlled chaos of the way they run, how they harness that raw emotion and use it to propel them forward, and fast. Knowing that I can channel a spiral into something that seems productive makes being an emotionally erratic person feel more manageable.</p>
<p id="8X8ScA">In Netflix’s political drama <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/9/5/17823098/house-of-cards-season-6-teaser-preview"><em>House of Cards</em></a><em>,</em> scenes featuring Machiavellian babe Claire Underwood (Robin Wright) jogging became so iconic, they inspired <a href="https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2017/5/30/15711662/netflix-house-of-cards-season-5-running-playlist">Spotify playlists</a> and <a href="https://www.womenshealthmag.com/style/a19954209/carrie-underwood-workout-outfit/">workout outfits</a>. Other shows that pair a covetable look with physical prowess, like <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/6/29/17516064/glow-review-season-2-netflix"><em>GLOW</em></a> (glam 1980s women body-slamming in the ring, sporting big hair and neon polyester and glitter) and <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/3/9/17097384/jessica-jones-review-marvel-13-episodes"><em>Jessica Jones</em></a> (Krysten Ritter as a bad-ass, leather jacket wearing, emotionally damaged superheroine-turned-PI lifting cars and shooting whisky) have a similarly inspiring effect: We, too, want to perform these feats of strength, and look cool while doing it. </p>
<h3 id="HjSr8j">Running isn’t just stress relief — it’s a way to process trauma</h3>
<p id="dgH4Fp">As powerful as these women appear while in motion, their exercising, and running in particular, is often used as a coping mechanism. In <em>Big Little Lies</em>, Jane Chapman (Shailene Woodley) runs for the mental and physical catharsis, in an effort to process the trauma of her sexual assault by Perry (Alex Skarsgard). As she races down the sand, or charges at bluffs overlooking the sea — moving too fast, she stops short of going over — the drama of the Monterey landscape is a fitting backdrop for her heightened emotional state. </p>
<p id="A2SdYL">Her mind races with flashbacks to the night of the incident, and revenge fantasies in which she tracks down her abuser and shoots him dead. When she comes home, she’s out of breath, but temporarily relieved, dancing and singing along to the music out of her headphones (in one vivid scene, to “Bloody Motherfucking Asshole” by Martha Wainwright). </p>
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<p id="sLUeyY">In season one, there’s a great montage of Madeline (Reese Witherspoon) and Celeste (Nicole Kidman) joining Jane on a run together. Their fierce expressions and vigorous strides convey that they’re each mentally engaging with their respective conflicts (for Madeleine, what to do about her infidelity; Celeste, what to do about her abusive husband, Perry; Jane, whether she’s going to hunt down her abuser and kill him). We see them run up to the end of a pier and stop short at the water — pushed to the edge, at the limit of what they can handle. </p>
<p id="UD9qSw">Jogging as a method of exorcism has appeared in other shows of late, too; it’s become a trend. In the first season of the British tragicomedy <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/9/17/12934782/fleabag-review-amazon-season-one"><em>Fleabag</em></a>, Fleabag (show creator and writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge) <a href="https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/fbf870f3-bcb9-454f-b6a9-f5e74dfe3ce8">runs every day in the graveyard</a> where her mother and best friend are buried. It’s the perfect analogy for how Fleabag deals with her grief: Yes, she’s mourning, but she keeps moving forward. Fleabag is something of a spirited goth, too, and her choice of running spot speaks to her sense of humor and her disregard for social norms. When her uptight sister Clare tells her that “it’s really inappropriate to jog around a graveyard,” Fleabag merely looks bemused. She wears her depression (<a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/6/10/18659673/fleabag-phoebe-waller-bridge-haircut-jumpsuit-red-wrap-dress">and stylish outfits</a>) without shame.</p>
<p id="a1dGK8">Hulu’s new season of <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/7/19/20700152/veronica-mars-hulu-review-season-4-revival"><em>Veronica Mars</em></a><em> </em>also plays with the running trope. Veronica runs early in the morning, before it’s even light out, an attempt to get some space and blow off steam over her strained relationship with her boyfriend Logan. She turned him down after he proposed to her, and now they’re stuck bickering and resentful in a cramped apartment. While jogging, she gets jumped, but easily tasers the guy and nabs his knife, stolen wallets, and cell phones, yelling, “Go on, get! This is my alone time!” Veronica has always been a stubborn loner, but the season’s grown-up version, while still flawed and reluctant to address her issues, is more self-assured than we’ve ever seen her before. </p>
<p id="w5aGiW">What unites all of these depictions, though, is their connection to emotional and psychological trials that the women are fighting against. According to <a href="https://www.mindbodymentalhealth.com/">Katrina Anderson</a>, a trauma specialist and psychotherapist practicing in Manhattan, running can be a tool to reprocess trauma.</p>
<p id="pfTPIm">“Because the physiological response that happens with running is similar to an activated trauma response — increased heart rate, difficulty breathing, muscle tightening, pumping of adrenaline — if patients go back into the environment they were in visually, while running, they can use the running to complete the trauma response,” Anderson explains. “The body is no longer hanging onto this material, and has released it in a mindful and therapeutic way.” </p>
<p id="R6zHoE">Anderson compares the left-to-right footfalls of running to <a href="https://www.emdr.com/what-is-emdr/">EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)</a>, a trauma reprocessing tool that uses bilateral stimulation to change the way trauma is stored in the body and memory. Exercising, and exorcising, out your demons isn’t just spiritually satisfying, then; its positive effects are physiological.</p>
<h3 id="pgZxx1">But TV shows must remember that running is a short-term fix, not a long-term solution</h3>
<p id="lun819">With the literal outrunning of traumatic pasts at the show’s core, <em>Big Little Lies</em> regularly puts its characters in therapy through fitness, and they find relief through keeping themselves active. But running isn’t a silver bullet; it can be draining on the body and mind. We see this in the latest season of <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/6/12/17451298/billions-season-3-finale-recap-showtime-explained">Showtime’s <em>Billions</em></a>, as Wendy Rhoades (Maggie Siff) begins running compulsively at night to cope with her agita over power struggles with both her husband, Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti), and her abusive boss, Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis). When she runs, it’s with the intention of clearing her head of the hurt, but instead, she ends up exhausted and crying in the dark. </p>
<p id="b1bhff">“Exercise is a short term fix, a quick hit of endorphins,” says <a href="https://twitter.com/ajshults">Anna Shults Held</a>, a longtime runner based in San Francisco. “Running helps me be a person who can manage my mental health, but it’s never solved a problem for me or made any trauma go away.”</p>
<p id="ARYd3P">In <em>Big Little Lies</em> season two, as Jane begins to recover from her PTSD, she doesn’t seem to need those runs like she did before. Since his death, Perry’s memory doesn’t haunt her in a way that requires daily confrontation; instead, we see her dancing on the sand, or surfing, or drawing on her couch. </p>
<p id="N1pzmi">This shift away from running could be a natural progression on the path to healing, according to Anderson. While initially, “sometimes people have more body stress that’s stored, and need a more immediate active release,” she says, in time, running might not provide the same sensation, because they’ve already processed some of the PTSD. “Stillness might become more available to them, when that might not have been accessible during the early stages of trauma, when sitting still can be quite uncomfortable,” she says. </p>
<p id="XKwv4A">Instead of Jane, in season two, it’s Bonnie (Zoe Kravitz), the ever-controlled, chilled-out yogi, who requires more than the mat to grapple with her guilt and panic over killing Perry. She hits the trails in the woods near her house, wandering with a lost expression on her face, replaying the night of the murder in her head. Running is also a way for her to hide from the reality of her situation, and to further withdraw from her husband Nathan (James Tupper), in whom she can’t confide. In a desperate attempt to connect with her (and probably also to keep her close), he buys her a treadmill. In the season finale, she tells him she doesn’t love him anymore, and maybe never did: All of those hours running and ruminating in swift solitude propelled her to action.</p>
<p id="LPMGPA">Running in real life can feel cinematic, especially when you have a soundtrack in your ears and an awe-inspiring view ahead of you. When we see it modeled for us by complex heroines on screen, it starts to seem possible that we, too, can use running to regain control of our own narrative — even if it’s only for the half-hour or so that we’re out tromping around; even if we’ll have to lace up again and again to face the emotional challenges of each new day. I call that a big little win. </p>
https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/7/26/8931800/big-little-lies-running-scenes-women-tvKate Mooney2019-07-26T07:00:00-04:002019-07-26T07:00:00-04:00Crowded shelves and melting skulls: why so many vape stores look the same
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<img alt="a man standing in vape shop with crowded shelves of e-liquid behind a glass counter" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/o4g50iwxgX38IZ13J-PRWp7kGOQ=/167x0:2834x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/64830733/GettyImages_890546204.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Shelves crowded with e-liquid is a common sight at vape shops. | Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>E-juice brands and the stores that carry them often share an overstocked, cartoonish nightmare aesthetic. </p> <p id="uPSwtx">Brian Allen, a freelance illustrator based in State College, Pennsylvania, has always worked for an eclectic range of clients, doing design and branding work for everyone from Harley-Davidson to the Philadelphia Flyers. But about six years ago, his work caught the eye of an industry that felt niche even to him. <a href="http://www.vapingsisters.com/">The Vaping Sisters</a>, an e-cigarette company in Pensacola, Florida, reached out to him to design zombie-themed labels for its line of e-juice flavors. </p>
<p id="9PP85b">E-juice, also known as e-liquid or vape juice, refers to the liquid substance —<strong> </strong>made up of nicotine, propylene glycol, glycerine, and flavorant —<strong> </strong>inside vaping devices. Today, 10.8 million Americans vape, <a href="https://annals.org/aim/article-abstract/2698112/prevalence-distribution-e-cigarette-use-among-u-s-adults-behavioral">according to</a> a 2018 national survey published in the <em>Annals of Internal Medicine</em>. There are thousands of e-liquid flavors on the market, as well as a diversity of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), including hundreds of types of vape pens, mods, advanced personal vaporizers, and pod vapes. This has all turned out to be good news for Allen, who does not vape himself.</p>
<p id="ytteK6">The look of Allen’s drawings, which he describes as “’80s, heavy metal, Ed Hardy, tattoo shop, loud,” resonated with the industry, he says. “So many people were hiring me to do just that. They didn’t say tone it down, or do this nice clean style.” For a few years, vaping clients made up the bulk of steady business for his graphic arts studio, <a href="https://www.flylanddesigns.com/">Flyland Designs</a>. </p>
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</div></a><p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BrnVFZ6B1JK/" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">A post shared by Brian Allen (@flylanddesigns_brian_allen)</a> on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2018-12-20T15:40:49+00:00">Dec 20, 2018 at 7:40am PST</time></p>
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<p id="9PVtcA">When you start to pay attention to the imagery associated with a certain subset of “vape lyfe” — the culture of the connoisseurs of e-juice, the Juul enthusiasts who hang out in the lounges or stream videos of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVXR7xttUeo">vape trick masters</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMXcCdG-Fo4">“cloud chasers”</a> on YouTube — the aesthetic, from the store signage down to the brightly labeled glass bottles, is surprisingly consistent anarchy: the same boardwalk/strip mall vibe, with some ska/punk/hardcore elements and, at times, a nightmare cartoonishness. In fact, it calls to mind Allen’s arguably best-known work, which would come years later: Gritty, the beloved orange, googly-eyed, unhinged mascot of the Philadelphia Flyers. </p>
<p id="bt1xw2">Vaping has grown in popularity since the mid-2000s, when the first generation of e-cigarettes — thin, sleek devices meant to look like cigarettes and literally called <a href="https://vaperanks.com/what-is-a-cigalike/">cig-a-likes</a> — were introduced to the market as a smoking alternative and a harm reduction model. While e-cigs have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/30/health/ecigarettes-nicotine-smoking-quit.html">proven effective</a> at helping smokers quit traditional cigarettes, they’ve also hooked a younger generation, who are now more likely to try e-cigarettes than cigarettes, <a href="https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/infographics/teens-e-cigarettes">according to</a> the National Institutes of Health. In particular, Juul, the Silicon Valley-born, sleek, USB-looking pod vape, which accounted for nearly 75 percent of e-cigarette sales in 2018, has <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/1/25/18194953/vape-juul-e-cigarette-marketing">lured the teens through its advertising</a> and its selection of fruity flavors, leading the Food and Drug Administration to demand the company revise its marketing approach and <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/13/fda-tightens-restrictions-on-flavored-e-cigarettes-to-curb-teen-vaping.html">restrict sales</a> of flavored pods in stores. </p>
<p id="rWfatA">Still, an aesthetic that might appeal to teen boys is the trend: loud, bold, and cartoonishly edgy. Philly’s <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Shopping---Retail/Sadboy-Vape-Lounge-323703061728117/">SadBoy Vape Lounge</a>, the brick-and-mortar location opened by the founders of SadBoy E-Liquid, displays its shop name in large yellow letters, with dripping, curly edges like fuzzy clouds, next to a graphic of a grinning skeleton inside a smiley-faced lemon — a blown-up version of the design on the e-juice bottles. </p>
<p id="ysJ6PX">“We wanted it to look goth,” explains founder Eddie Myers. “A lot of the other e-liquid brands are colorful, or look like a bottle of wine. We wanted to stand out.” He says he opened the store to create a community space for Philly Vape Society, a Facebook group he started to organize events, like cloud contest and vape trick competitions, for local e-cig enthusiasts. </p>
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</div></a><p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw4b-HjF8GK/" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">A post shared by Sadboy E-Liquid (@sadboy_eliquid)</a> on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2019-04-30T13:45:03+00:00">Apr 30, 2019 at 6:45am PDT</time></p>
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<p id="SiNYwG">Dr. Robert Jackler, a professor of neuroscience and surgery at Stanford who has done extensive research on e-cigarette marketing, puts it plainly: “Packaging of vapor products lack subtlety,” he says. “They’re not terribly sophisticated — either very bright colors, which depict the sweet and fruity flavors within, or, a bunch of weird stuff, like smiling clowns, skulls, and unicorns.”</p>
<p id="4Py0EG"><a href="http://zackfurness.com/">Zack Furness</a>, an associate professor of communication at Penn State University and editor of <em>Punkademics</em>, an anthology of essays about the intersection of punk culture and academia, finds the aesthetic of e-liquids “odd,” comparing them to “Hot Topic, mall-emo, Juggalo” subcultures, rather than actual punk. He says, “It’s rebelliousness, but it’s cheeseball — a weird, amorphous signifier of teen rebellion.”</p>
<p id="c6GV1w">Despite the apparent dominance of pod-based vape pens like Juul, which earned $1 billion in revenue in 2018, <a href="https://www.vapewild.com/mods/">mods</a> are projected to be the fastest-growing segment in vaping products, according to a <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/e-cigarette-and-vaping-market-size-worth-47-11-billion-by-2025-grand-view-research-inc--876278791.html">2018 report</a> by Grand View Research, a San Francisco-based market research and consulting company. Mods are larger, battery-operated vaping devices that allow users to refill them with any variety of e-liquid, which come in a wider range of flavors and nicotine levels than pods. And there’s seemingly no end to e-juice: Walk into any smoke shop, be it a lounge, suburban warehouse, or glorified bodega, and you’ll see glass cases packed with tiny glass bottles. </p>
<p id="Rd9xR0">The overabundance of products might have to do with the fact that starting a vape company is easy and fairly cheap, according to Jackler: You just need to buy propylene glycol, glycerine, nicotine, and the flavorant chemical of your choice, then mix it, design labels, and print them on little bottles, he says. And printing a wacky, colorful label is one way to stand out. “Because there are so many purveyors of liquids, they’re all using their packaging to catch the eye of the consumer.” </p>
<p id="pIa3BI">There’s a technical aspect to the design choices too, according to Allen. “When you’re designing something for such a tiny thing — an e-juice label ends up being not even an inch tall — the graphics have to be with bold colors and thick line art, just to be able to print and show up,” he tells me, likening it to tattoos: “A lot of that artwork has to be bold and loud so it will stand out on skin.”</p>
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<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/G4pYhy9nP31pRLYGjGjCBlyoWX0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/18326651/GettyImages_1158295591.jpg">
<cite>Justin Sullivan/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>CBD e-juice on a San Francisco vape shop shelf. </figcaption>
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<p id="V5v2i0">Furness is unimpressed. “It strikes me that if I were way into the Insane Clown Posse, it would appeal to me, but it doesn’t.” </p>
<p id="yZX3fb">There may be something to that conceit. In a scene in director Joshua Gordon’s <a href="https://www.nowness.com/series/scenes/juggalos-insane-clown-posse-joshua-gordon">short film</a> about the Insane Clown Posse’s annual Gathering of the Juggalos in Ohio, filmed for Nowness, a bearded man hits a mod and exhales it from behind a red-and-black face mask, to a voiceover saying, “Sip something sweet, and inhale deep. Now is the time for the souls of the dark carnival to gather.” A <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/juggalo/comments/4s0wf0/juggalo_vapers_i_have_a_question_for_you/">Reddit thread</a> from three years ago asks “Juggalo Vapers” for advice on which vaping devices to bring to the Gathering that won’t get ruined by Faygo showers, an ICP tradition of spraying the crowd with the retro soft drink during concerts. </p>
<p id="KrEG1G"><a href="https://www.baruch.cuny.edu/wsas/academics/anthropology/gsnyder.htm">Gregory Snyder</a>, a professor of sociology at Baruch College and author of <em>Skateboarding LA: Professional Street Skating in Public Space</em>, agrees that the aesthetic around vaping is a bit confused and corny, and may be a result of marketers “searching for a cool that they don’t know. Yes, it’s not up to date. ‘Hey, the kids love the mean clown. Hey, the kids love skulls.’” </p>
<p id="Nu4GnT">And this attempt to create some sort of “prepackaged cool” often misses the mark. </p>
<p id="VxZIAI">“In the attempt to facilitate, create, and codify a subculture, it seems to me there are groups of people searching for ways to find the aesthetic accoutrements of their identity in a confused and fractured world,” he continues. “I’m not judging anyone’s shtick, but it’s kind of disturbing that you can get people to start a subculture around an addictive drug.”</p>
<p id="JuEuLJ">Even though vaping is legal, it retains some of the counterculture aesthetic associated with the old-school, hippie-fried style popular in head shops, stores that sell smoking paraphernalia for tobacco but that’s also commonly associated with marijuana. This look persists now that cannabis is legal in many states, and even extends to smoke shops that only opened in recent years to cash in on the rise of vaping tobacco. It’s understood that plenty of clientele purchase vape pens to fill them with THC or CBD cartridges, and there is some research showing an <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5409866/">overlap </a>among adults who vape cannabis as well as tobacco. </p>
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<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0gkoe_NQPQJC1vAPEYpsoDocteI=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/18326564/GettyImages_1158295575.jpg">
<cite>Justin Sullivan/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>A vape shop in San Francisco, shelves packed with e-liquid. </figcaption>
</figure>
<p id="BEFWbJ">While safer than cigarettes, e-cigarettes come with their own set of <a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/electronic-cigarettes-good-news-bad-news-2016072510010">health concerns</a>. Nicotine is extremely addictive, increases heart rate and blood pressure, and can have adverse effects on the developing adolescent brain, such as making young people more susceptible to developing other addictions, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While the aerosol vapor that users inhale doesn’t contain the tar or carbon monoxide found in cigarette smoke, many e-liquids contain a chemical called diacetyl, which, when heated, can damage the lungs. Moreover, there’s a risk that the propylene glycol and glycerine, when heated, can be converted into formaldehyde. Because e-cigarettes are so new, we lack sufficient data on their long-term effects on users. </p>
<p id="PQYqnh">Even if the best-sellers are Juul and mods, from a business perspective, “you can’t open a vape shop without accessories,” says Ahmed Ahmed, owner of the <a href="https://www.yelp.com/biz/vape-n-cloud-brooklyn">Vape N Cloud Smoke Shop</a> in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood. “To have everything under one roof is very good. You have to sell the other stuff.” He says there’s still enough customer demand to warrant lining the walls of his store with glass cases filled with cigars, bubblers, hookahs, rolling tobacco, rolling papers, and more.</p>
<p id="FBlxVZ">The trashy, hardcore-lite vibe of e-juice calls to mind some <a href="https://www.pepperexplosion.com/blairs-after-death-hot-sauce-w-skull-key-chain/?cmp_id=1405802159&adg_id=54990215666&kwd=&device=c&gclid=CjwKCAjwvJvpBRAtEiwAjLuRPQDXD1DaBBoyyH2ULlxPor81cVadDEgsNbWntBYJLDW1Q_h7QdH9tRoCv34QAvD_BwE">small-batch hot sauce brands</a>, which feature imagery of ghosts, skulls, and devils to match the searing, masochistic heat of whatever pepper’s inside. The difference is that e-liquid is notoriously sweet and fruity, like candy perfume. Legitimate health concerns aside, and despite whispers of popcorn lung and vape tongue, how hardcore can you really get about blowing clouds of cotton candy-flavored juice? When I jokingly ask Allen if he thinks Gritty would be a vaper, he laughs and says, “I bet he’d be into something much harder.”</p>
<p id="jnDZdT"><a href="http://vox.com/goods-newsletter"><em>Sign up for The Goods’ newsletter.</em></a><em> Twice a week, we’ll send you the best Goods stories exploring what we buy, why we buy it, and why it matters. </em></p>
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https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/7/26/8906261/vape-store-aesthetics-juul-e-juice-design-grittyKate Mooney2019-06-21T07:30:00-04:002019-06-21T07:30:00-04:00Why so many beers have retro-looking cans
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/yZMJOY7kvchxPvcuE1f_aMaxwlk=/273x0:4626x3265/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/64056755/Gansett_Lager__IRL_.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Narragansett, a lager from Rhode Island, comes in cans with a retro feel. | Narragansett</figcaption>
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<p>Tecate, Miller High Life, and Narragansett are some of the companies hoping throwback labels will lure nostalgic drinkers.</p> <p id="NbccUE">While out drinking this summer, you may have noticed a new, old can at your neighborhood watering hole. Like cheap, cold ones from Miller Lite to Narragansett before it, Tecate — a tried-and-true pick for a beer-and-shot-of-tequila combo, perfect in a Michelada, refreshing on its own with a single lime — has gone with a retro redesign for the summer. </p>
<p id="i1Lcy4">To commemorate the brewery’s 75th anniversary, the Baja, Mexico-brewed lager released a limited-edition can proudly labeled “edicion retro” and “orgullo de Mexico” with green and red stripes after the Mexican flag, available through August 2019. </p>
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</div></a><p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BytZP5kF4a1/" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">A post shared by BeerAffair (Cat Wolinski) (@beeraffair)</a> on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2019-06-14T23:52:24+00:00">Jun 14, 2019 at 4:52pm PDT</time></p>
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<p id="b5pM7z">It seems silly, or surface-level, but something about the “same beer, classic can” gimmick works on the thirsty masses.</p>
<p id="4Wyomo"> “We’re victims of it even when we know it’s happening,” says Cat Wolinski, who recently enjoyed a bucket of Tecates at the Brooklyn Barge, a popular summer drinking destination docked in Greenpoint’s East River.</p>
<p id="zgHtei">Wolinski admits that when she and her workers at wine, beer, and spirits publication VinePair met for drinks, she was going order the Mexican lager anyway.</p>
<p id="XmMbQ7">“But when I saw the retro label, I was even more excited about it,” she says. “It’s eye-catching and it connects the consumer, however briefly, to the history of what they’re drinking. When we’re reminded that a brand has history, American drinkers especially relate to that sense of nostalgia, and we respect it more, we see it in a different light.”</p>
<p id="TwXEfD">According to Kate Wolff, an executive at RQ Agency, which focuses on experiential and influencer marketing, the retro marketing trick is also a way for legacy brands to compete for cultural relevance. “These beers have been the same forever, and they probably haven’t changed the recipe, but they might not be top of mind because they are no longer relevant in marketing or culture,” she explains. “Attaching them to the trend of nostalgia is going to surface them very quickly to a younger generation that will evangelize them and make them part of the culture again.”</p>
<p id="lf3HEX">In 2013, Miller Lite <a href="https://time.com/41995/the-resurgence-of-cheap-old-school-mass-market-beer/">released</a> a limited-edition retro can with the original ’70s logo, timed to the movie <em>Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues</em> (which featured product placement of the beer). It did so well that MillerCoors decided to adopt it as their regular, permanent can. </p>
<p id="G8doew">“I think people are very simple and if you put Miller Light in a snazzy new [old] can, that’s enough to seduce people,” says Aaron Goldfarb, a beer and spirits journalist and author of <em>Hacking Whiskey. </em>“They look great on Instagram and the companies pretend that these are fairly limited-release packaging, but of course there’s zillions of bottles and cans everywhere.” </p>
<p id="qjsXTH">Today, when you look at the actual numbers, beer sales are down, cute throwback labels be damned. Beer consumption has dropped 2.8 percent since 2015, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-03-01/are-beer-sales-declining-carbs-push-drinkers-to-wine-tequila">according to</a> Bloomberg. The fastest growing alcohol segment is flavored malt beverages, particularly spiked seltzers, such as White Claw and Truly Hard Seltzer, according to <a href="https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2019/this-memorial-day-americans-will-substitute-summer-cpg-staples-for-alternatives.html">data from Nielsen</a>. Americans might be drinking less, in general, perhaps due to piqued interest in cannabis, or trends in health and wellness, such as <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/6/18/18677895/sobriety-influencers-sober-curious-instagram">the rise of sober-curious culture</a>. </p>
<p id="ZT6d2j">But the retro campaigns don’t let up. </p>
<p id="iz5h9w">Take the New England classic, Narragansett. In the summer of 2012, the lager brought back its 1975 vintage label, resurrecting the look from the beer’s alleged golden era. This nostalgia play was pegged to the <em>Jaws</em> 37th anniversary, a nod to the beer’s cameo in the film, and was marketed as a limited-edition run. But the campaign <a href="https://www.boston.com/food/food/2015/06/18/narragansett-once-again-revives-retro-jaws-can">proved so popular</a> that every summer, the yellow cans, with their old-timey ship icon and quaint cursive lettering, return, and likely will in perpetuity, for as long as <em>Jaws</em> has an anniversary, or until waters rise and we’re all swallowed, beer cans in hand, by the sea.</p>
<p id="bmaYLt">Steven Grasse, founder of <a href="http://quakercitymercantile.com/work/narragansett">Quaker City Mercantile</a>, a Philadelphia-based creative agency that handles Narragansett’s branding, likens its retro refurbishing to “restoring a Model T Ford: We cleaned it up and brought back the luster it deserves.” </p>
<p id="356yid">“When you’re dealing with yellow beer, not craft, there’s not a lot of taste difference. So you want to take some of the assets the brand has, which is an amazing history and provenance,” he says. “With beer or with anything, people like a good story and they like to feel like they’re in touch with something authentic. A good way to tell the story is on the can.” </p>
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</div></a><p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BkHJ1eXAbys/" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">A post shared by Sarah (@sooooclutch)</a> on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2018-06-17T04:07:04+00:00">Jun 16, 2018 at 9:07pm PDT</time></p>
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<p id="FUyERk">This approach certainly works on New England locals and fans of classic cinema. Sarah McClutchy, a marketing manager, tells me she attends an annual summer screening party of <em>Jaws</em> at the Jane Pickens Theatre in Newport, Rhode Island, which Narragansett supplies with their retro cans. “At the point in the movie when Quint crushes his can, the whole audience applauds and crushes their retro cans too,” she says. “In that sense, the retro can represents this community tradition and a little piece of cinematic history.”</p>
<p id="PcWDxO">And Narragansett’s cachet certainly extends beyond quaint Northeastern towns. Tall-boys of the lager, often paired with shot combos, seem to have <a href="https://nypost.com/2015/07/16/what-cheap-beer-lovers-are-now-guzzling-instead-of-pbr/">surpassed PBR</a> as the “cheap beer” of choice ($4 to $6 a can) at trendy Brooklyn bars and restaurants. Even at craft beer havens, like <a href="https://www.thewilkybedstuy.com/">The Wilky</a>, Narragansett is often the token cheap can option among a menu otherwise devoted to heady microbrews. On its own, the regular can of Narragansett has a vintage-cool label, too, which Grasse tells me is actually a mash-up of different Narragansett designs among the years, including the kitschy slogan “Hi Neighbor! Have a ‘Gansett,” which originated during a post-WWII ad campaign. </p>
<p id="5V2uhJ">The truth is, many of us love the simple, cheap stuff, even the people who Know About Beer. </p>
<p id="0GF3aM">“The dirty secret in craft beer is that a lot of craft beer drinkers and especially a lot of brewers, after they’ve spent all day around really alcoholic IPAs and stouts, when no one else is around except other brewers and other beer industry people, they’re crushing MHLs or Coors Banquets or Genny Cremes,” Goldfarb says. “They’re light and they’re chuggable and they’ll be able to wake up again at 8 am and start brewing.”</p>
<p id="Z1a90F">In some cases, a brand just imprints on you: the design, the story, the price point, the taste conspiring in a way that feels like it’s targeting you, specifically. I like to say I was weaned on Miller High Life. I drank it since I was a teenager, growing up in New Orleans, where it was cheap and abundant. The sleek, retro bottle has always looked cool to me, “The Champagne of Beers” slogan always cracked me up, the slightly-bubbly liquid hits the spot, and I always fancied the “Girl in the Moon” on the label (even dressed up as her one Halloween).</p>
<p id="llJUu2">It turns out, the Girl in the Moon was an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/09/business/media/millers-high-life-man-makes-room-for-the-girl-in-the-moon.html">advertising campaign</a> launched by Wieden & Kennedy in 2005, as part of a rebrand to shift Miller High Life away from its uber-masculine, blue-collar aesthetic, appeal to a younger generation of female drinkers, and tap into nostalgic elements in the brand’s story (the girl in the moon is said to be based on a daughter in the Miller family). </p>
<p id="xd6Jcp">We want what we consume to mean something to us — to have an “emotional tie-back”, as Wolff puts it — and sometimes the aesthetic of a product gives us the visual marker of connection we’re craving. “I think there is some sort of value in feeling like you’re drinking something special, even if it’s just packaged in something special,” Wolff explains. </p>
<div class="c-float-right"><aside id="c2NUP3"><q>Brands use techniques she calls “fauxstalgia” and “newstalgia” to market to consumers.</q></aside></div>
<p id="cs00lx">In an <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/326174">article</a> for Entrepreneur, Wolff says that brands use techniques she calls “fauxstalgia” and “newstalgia” to market to consumers. While the former works by making consumers nostalgic for an experience they never had (i.e., liking “Stranger Things” despite never having experienced the ’80s), the latter takes something brand new and makes it feel old, “like a beverage company putting out a new line of beer and making it feel throwback,” she explains. Instagram does this as well, by allowing users to apply vintage filters to smartphone photos. </p>
<p id="3ORSNt">Even if the numbers suggest that overall beer consumption is flattening out in favor of cannabis, or carb-lite malt quenchers, or a craving for a less buzzed lifestyle, anecdotally, plenty of youngs are thirsting for the classics. </p>
<p id="kVqjaW">“I think what you’re uncovering is there are a lot of brands that have struggled nationally that are looking to make retro plays to offset some of that, and having some success in Brooklyn,” Benj Steinman, president of trade publication <a href="https://www.beerinsights.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6&Itemid=6">Beer Marketer’s Insights</a>, tells me over the phone (essentially owning me). </p>
<p id="1O7yPs">For the diminishing number of us who want to crack open crisp, cheap cold ones all summer long, the golden oldies are still a hit. </p>
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https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/6/21/18693073/retro-beer-can-design-tecate-miller-high-life-narragansettKate Mooney2019-06-10T12:30:00-04:002019-06-10T12:30:00-04:00Why we’re all obsessed with looking like Fleabag
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<figcaption>Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Fleabag (right) with her sister Claire (Sian Clifford). | Steve Schofield</figcaption>
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<p>First Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s two-season show inspired lipstick and jumpsuit purchases. Now fans are getting her haircut. </p> <p id="lunRDI">All over the internet, women are declaring their desire to look and feel like a character whose self-given nickname calls to mind crappy motels. Fleabag, the titular character of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s one-woman-show-turned-two-season-TV-program, has captured the imagination of fans, who are expressing their infatuation with all things PWB by copping her look. Some obsess over her fourth-wall-breaking arsenal of expressions, or her anxiety and her energy and her sadness and her desire, but just as many are eyeing her bangin’ jumpsuit, slutty-demure short red floral dress, and perfect, shaggy haircut.</p>
<p id="Pmqw2z">After season one came out, Katie Heaney <a href="https://www.thehairpin.com/2016/10/the-perfect-lipstick-phoebe-waller-bridge-wears-on-fleabag/">wrote for the Hairpin</a> about her quest to find Fleabag’s “perfect” lipstick. When viewers learned that the black jumpsuit she wears in the first episode of season two was available online for only $50, it <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/apr/12/fleabag-effect-sees-surge-in-sales-of-jumpsuits-and-red-dresses">sold out</a> in a day; a search for “Fleabag jumpsuit” on Twitter pulls up an army of Fleabag clones, clad neck-to-toe in sleek black polyester. And, as with Natasha Lyonne’s <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2019/02/curly-bangs-natasha-lyonne-hair-russian-doll.html">curly bangs</a> in <em>Russian Doll</em>, women are extremely tempted to chop their locks à la Phoebe: </p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">*extremely creative brunette voice* I just think if I got this haircut I’d be hotter and more talented???? Will run by therapist.... <a href="https://t.co/tIJAW6KySi">pic.twitter.com/tIJAW6KySi</a></p>— Alana Hope Levinson (@alanalevinson) <a href="https://twitter.com/alanalevinson/status/1133861782504607744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 29, 2019</a>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">cant wait to get back to LA and sprint to my hair guy with a picture of phoebe waller bridge in hand, another painful loss for bangs but a win for my wellbeing</p>— crissy (@crissymilazzo) <a href="https://twitter.com/crissymilazzo/status/1133761429398609927?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 29, 2019</a>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">On top of everything else contributing to my <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Fleabag?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Fleabag</a> obsession (helllooo, hot priest), now have PWB hair goals. Except she is tall with a graceful neck and I am not with not that. Still might just take her picture with me to the salon next month. <a href="https://t.co/6idH7wYl29">pic.twitter.com/6idH7wYl29</a></p>— Gwen Ihnat (@gwenemarie) <a href="https://twitter.com/gwenemarie/status/1133732553163268098?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 29, 2019</a>
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<p id="dx4s4m">Count me among the last group. Last week, after a second round of watching the whole series, I found myself in front of the mirror, scrunching up my semi-wavy dark brown hair until it just grazed my chin, wondering, <em>Can I pull it off? </em>It speaks to me, on a personal level, as a messy-haired brunette with issues. Around when I was in the sixth grade, Winona Ryder, another dark-haired, approachably moody heroine I admired, got a pixie cut, and I followed suit. </p>
<p id="Iz4j8d">Now that I’m no longer an impressionable preteen (although, clearly, still quite impressionable), I’m wondering why I, and my fellow grown-ass women, still want to play dress up.<em> </em>Is it because Waller-Bridge is super hot and funny and talented, so we figure, if we can look like her, then maybe we can be like her? Also: Do we want to be like messy and complicated Fleabag, or the hyper-successful writer-creator-actress Waller-Bridge, or a little of both?</p>
<p id="kdyqfv">To help answer these questions, I tracked down <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2523791/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cr30">Pippa Woods</a>, hair and makeup designer on Fleabag, and asked for her take on the <em>Fleabag ’</em>do.</p>
<p id="E2puYc">“Fleabag’s hairstyle has a certain freedom about it,” she tells me over email. “It’s something that we all want. Her curls are allowed to do what they want, they can’t be forced into shape, they just are. Giving her hair that movement and fluidity echos her free-spirited personality: something that will always do what it wants and is beautiful while doing it.” </p>
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<cite>Steve Schofield</cite>
<figcaption>Fleabag (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) in her iconic jumpsuit. </figcaption>
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<p id="8WAi9N">Addison Peacock, a Los Angeles-based voice actor who <a href="https://twitter.com/Addison_Peacock/status/1133560689186942976">tweeted</a> about wanting to cut her curly hair shorter after watching the show, agrees that the Fleabag cut has a certain self-possessed quality to it, which adds to its appeal.</p>
<p id="PakUN8">“For me it’s basically that, as someone with a lot of insecurities about the way I look, there’s something magnetic about PWB’s shamelessness in Fleabag. Obviously she’s working through plenty of guilt and baggage as well, but she’s routinely Feeling Herself and I love it,” she says. “It’s just nice to see gals with some curl or wave in their hair rocking short styles; she owns it and it makes me want to try and own it too.”</p>
<p id="n8OfCC">According to Megan J. Clary, a clinical psychologist in Brooklyn, “If you see yourself in a character, or identify with something a character is going through, taking on their characteristics, like a haircut or a style of dress, can make you feel closer to them.”</p>
<p id="EbpgaT">Clary cites<em> Reality Bites</em> as an example. Everyone wanted Ryder’s haircut — Winona forever, what an icon! — which, when you look at it now, is pretty much the Fleabag cut, Gen X edition. “Everyone was identifying with the [movie’s themes of] young love and angst,” she recalls. “It makes you feel less alone when you see a character who’s working out the same things you’re working out.”</p>
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<cite>Steve Schofield</cite>
<figcaption>Fleabag and her Priest (Andrew Scott).</figcaption>
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<p id="BtXDE4">Evelyn Price, a writer who lives in Pittsburgh, acted on the impulse and actually <a href="https://twitter.com/EvelynPryce/status/1134551735492653057">got the Fleabag haircut</a>. Her motivation to pull the trigger? “Nothing more than that I liked it! I regret nothing, I chose God,” she says. “I think in some sense it was freeing because I didn’t give a shit what anyone else was going to think of it, only that I wanted it. Fleabag would approve, I bet.”</p>
<p id="aY7vFs">Radically changing your hair can also kickstart an inner desire for change, or help you work through emotional turmoil by externalizing it (i.e., breakup haircuts, agita over the decision to get bangs, etc.). That’s certainly the case for Fleabag’s buttoned-up sister, Claire (Sian Clifford). In season two, she has a meltdown over the unforeseen outcome of a risky new coif, which is really disguising a meltdown over how she wants to leave her douchey husband for someone else. Fleabag comes to her defense, ranting to the stylist about how <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2245146479147387">“hair is everything,”</a> in one of the season’s most quotable scenes. The stylist’s retort: “If you want to change your life, change your life. It’s not going to happen in here.” Okay, so hair<em> isn’t</em> everything, but it really is like that sometimes.</p>
<p id="E5M5Xs">But, notably, Fleabag’s hair doesn’t mirror her distress. It always looks the same, perfect, whether she’s love-sick, or grieving her best friend, or punching and getting punched in the face by her brother-in-law. In a flashback to her mother’s funeral, there’s a running bit that Fleabag looks exceptionally stunning, as though it’s rude, or unfair, to be attractive while in mourning. </p>
<p id="xDuRYg">The essence of Fleabag lies in this combination of messy, but still put together; emotionally raw, yet confident and composed. Her aesthetic could be summed up as, “If you’re gonna be depressed, at least be hot and fun about it.” Which is not to say, deflect your grief and angst by getting drunk and sleeping around and making a scene. But acknowledging your pain, and that sometimes you make mistakes, also means you’re doing your best. You’re not going to let hardship beat the life and the capacity to love out of you. </p>
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<cite>Steve Schofield</cite>
<figcaption>Fleabag (right) looking uncomfortably stunning at her mother’s funeral, with sister Claire.</figcaption>
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<p id="wUHZdd">In season two, Fleabag is actively trying to do better. Her cafe is thriving; she extends an olive branch to Claire, despite Claire’s steadfast animosity towards her; and she at least attempts to resist the temptation of going after the wrong person. But Fleabag’s always gonna Fleabag. She’ll never fully abandon her impulsive tendencies, because they’re part of what makes her great. Her father, the hot priest, and a therapist all tell her some version of “I don’t think you want to be told what to do” and “you already know what you’re going to do.” Similarly, Claire says to her, “You’ll always be fine, you’ll always be interesting, with your quirky cafe and your dead best friend.” </p>
<p id="L8bAu8">We want to be fine, and interesting, and hot, too! Donning the Fleabag uniform won’t magically transform us. If I’m being honest, I’m committed to having bangs for the rest of my life, and I’d rather spend $50 on my dog, who is also named Phoebe. But in striving for the Waller-Bridge spirit and swagger, we’ll be well on our way. </p>
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https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/6/10/18659673/fleabag-phoebe-waller-bridge-haircut-jumpsuit-red-wrap-dressKate Mooney