Ball jokes and tension: The internets hottest takes over that U.S. vs Iran World Cup match
2023-03-19 01:24:08author：dointy.com
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Ball jokes and tension: The internets hottest takes over that U.S. vs Iran World Cup match
Soccer fans across the 50 states can finally take a breath after more than 90 minutes of tense World Cup action. Though, through it all, they never stopped posting.
Some background: The U.S. advanced past the group stage of the World Cup on Tuesday (Nov. 29), courtesy of a thrilling, nail-biting 1-0 victory over Iran. It was a wildly close game, with the Americans barely holding on for the final thirty minutes or so. The second-screen experience online was thrilling as well. The big takeaway, at least in the States? Holy crap was that scary. There were tons of tweets and jokes about sweating the game out.
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Before the actual game itself, most of the talk was about anything but soccer. The geopolitical implications and undertones of the game were striking. There have massive protests in Iran over its treatment of women, which has resulted in a reported hundreds of deaths(Opens in a new tab), as well as disappearances and arrests. The temperature surrounding the game was raised when the U.S. Men's National Team social accounts briefly altered images of the Iranian flag(Opens in a new tab) in an apparent effort to show support of the protests. So this was way, way more than a game.
In a pre-match press conference, U.S. captain Tyler Adams was even pushed by an Iranian journalist, who asked the player, who is Black, about discrimination in America and how he can represent a country with racism. The clip went viral after Adams deftly responded.
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The posts focused on geopolitics didn't necessarily stop as the game went on. Of course, normal folks — and pro athletes — often don't have much to do with the political leaders.
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On the complete opposite side of things, during the actual game, U.S. star Christian Pulisic got injured while scoring the game's only goal. He appeared to take a knee to the, erm, groin area at full speed. The jokes flew in, as they typically do.
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After the massive win, the U.S. will play Netherlands on Saturday in the Round of 16. Everyone get your Twitter fingers ready.
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An inside look at how Bidens campaign is winning the viral merch game
Joe Biden's campaign has mastered the art of making memorable merch.
As with any candidate's site, the vice president's online shop(Opens in a new tab) is full of apparel, accessories, and other unique ways for supporters to publicly show their Biden/Harris pride. But over the past two weeks — since the New York Times(Opens in a new tab) reported(Opens in a new tab) that Donald Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency and another $750 his first year in office — the Biden campaign has seriously stepped up its merch game.
After seeing people express outrage over Trump's shockingly low income tax payments, Biden's campaign released buttons(Opens in a new tab), stickers(Opens in a new tab), and shirts(Opens in a new tab) that said "I Paid More In Taxes Than Donald Trump." Then following the first presidential debate on Sept. 29, the team created "Will you shut up, man?" shirts to commemorate Biden's blunt reaction to Trump.
On Wednesday night, during the first and only vice presidential debate, the team once again had a pitch perfect response to the fly that landed on Mike Pence's head mid-debate: a Biden/Harris fly swatter featuring the clever pun, "Truth Over Flies."
The Biden team has been heavily praised online for so quickly responding to the news and finding ways to take part in viral moments. Mashable spoke with Zach McNamara, merchandise director for the Biden campaign, about the team's successful merch strategy and how they've managed to brainstorm, design, and sell these products in such a timely manner.
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McNamara gave us a little behind-the-scenes peek into how the merch gets made, explaining, "When something like the tax story comes up, or we have unifying moments during debates, like we saw last night […] there is a Slack channel where we come together and start to throw out ideas. And you know, like nine out of 10 them will not work. But a lot of times one of them will."
Once the now infamous debate fly started trending on social media and the campaign tweeted an old photo of Biden(Opens in a new tab) holding a swatter, everything fell into place merch-wise. The team found fly swatters that were union-made in the U.S. (like all items in the store), they came up with the pun that played off of Biden's "Truth Over Lies" quote (which is featured on other campaign merch(Opens in a new tab)), and they created the product mockup.
Within an hour of the fly landing on Pence's head, Biden's team had the fly swatters for sale on the site. Within 24 hours, the campaign had completely sold out of them. In the end, supporters snagged nearly 35,000 swatters, and though the product had some lighthearted inspiration behind it, Biden's team hopes people focus on the deeper message it carries.
Bye, fly swatter.Credit: store.joebiden.com
"Yes, the fly swatter thing is cute and of the moment, but what's printed on it — the allusion to truth over lies — I think is a key reason why it resonated and why we sold so many, because we consistently see that those products that feature those short, simple phrases are among our bestsellers always," McNamara said.
The "Will you shut up, man?" shirts, which featured Biden's quote atop an image of Trump's face, were also massively popular and sold out the day after the first presidential debate. But the clever merch isn't just there to make people laugh. It also helps drive current and potential supporters to explore the site, inspires them to learn more about Biden and Harris as candidates, and, of course, raises money for the campaign.
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The witty items that piggyback on viral moments clearly get a lot of attention online and are a big hit with supporters, but interestingly they're not the campaign's biggest sellers — not by a long shot.
"Biden-Harris yard signs are the most popular item on the store virtually every hour of every day, every week. And we've sold just an ungodly amount of those. Ever since we put them up the day Senator Harris's selection was announced," McNamara said.
"Lighthearted and fun is not something that we get a lot in Donald Trump's America."
The online store also features other items including apparel printed with Harris and Biden's go-to fashion accessories(Opens in a new tab) (Chuck Taylors and aviator sunglasses), virtual Animal Crossing merch, bottles of hand sanitizer(Opens in a new tab) with Biden's COVID-19 plan printed on the label, and several campaign collabs with professional designers(Opens in a new tab).
Though the team will be winding down rolling out new production as November draws near, supporters can expect a few more surprises to hit the shop before election day.
Ultimately, the goal is to strike the perfect balance between stressing the political gravity of this election and providing some much-needed comedic relief.
"It's a very, very serious campaign. Everybody knows that. There's possibly never been a more serious time for our country, certainly in all of our lives. But that doesn't mean that we can't have some lighthearted moments," McNamara said. "Joe and Kamala themselves, they are fundamentally lighthearted people. We don't only love them for their policies and their experience and what they've done for this country. They're good people. And lighthearted and fun is not something that we get a lot in Donald Trump's America."
Pete Buttigieg once again uses a Fox News interview to calmly dismantle the Trump campaigns logic
Pete Buttigieg is certainly making the most of his time on Fox News this week.
On Wednesday he was interviewed by Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier, and managed to completely turn around their question on policy differences between Senator Harris and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden using a simple comparison to the Trump campaign.
Then, on Thursday, he popped up on the network once again — this time chatting to Steve Doocy of Fox & Friends about Trump's refusal to appear in a virtual debate.
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"Well it's too bad, I don't know why the president's afraid to participate in a debate. All of us have had to get used to virtual formats," says Buttigieg, before attacking the president's decision directly in relation to safety.
"It's not something I think most of us enjoy, but it's a safety measure. And I think part of why the U.S. is falling behind, is badly behind the rest of the developed world on dealing with the pandemic is because every time there's been a choice between doing something that's more safe, or less safe, this president seems to push forward less safe.
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"Of course, the only reason that we're here in the first place is that the president of the United States is still contagious, as far as we know, with a deadly disease," Buttigieg concluded. "I don't know why you'd want to be in a room with other people if you were contagious with a deadly disease."
You can watch the full interview, which also includes some fairly scathing comments from Buttigieg about Trump's denial that he called fallen troops "suckers" and "losers,"(Opens in a new tab) below.
Spotify is coming for your perfectly curated playlists with Niche Mixes
Finally, there is a custom "Meme Mix" on Spotify.
Today (March 28), the streaming giant launched "Niche Mixes," its latest attempt to recommend more music to users. Every day Spotify will now serve you five to 10 playlists organized by wacky themes like "Angry Whistling" and "Egg Punk." What does "Egg Punk" mean? I have no idea.
To access these Niche Mixes, click on "Search," tap "Made for you," and scroll down to "Your Niche Mixes." My Niche Mixes include "Aggressive Heavy," which features a combination of artists I've never listened to (Slayer, Slipknot, and Poppy), and "Dark Moody," which appears to be more in line with my typical listening habits.
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Niche Mixes come after Spotify unveiled a new video-forward home screen that features snippets of songs, audiobooks, and podcasts and an AI DJ that also distributes algorithmically generated recommendations to users. It's part of Spotify's effort to double-down on being the go-to destination to discover new content.
You can also search for custom Niche Mixes based on the "activity, vibe, or aesthetic that describes the moment you're in" by adding mix to a search term. Some Niche Mixes that came up from various searches include "Goblincore Mix," "Murder Ballad," and "Extreme Pirate."
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However, the new mixes detract from some of the fun of the platform. I would hate to see users relying on Spotify's Niche Mixes instead of creating their own hyper-specific playlists. Previously, you might search a particular mood and be greeted by dozens user-generated playlists. User-generated playlists are at the center of modern music consumption and sharing. As a fellow user, they remind me that every silly little feeling I have someone else has had, too — and they've already chosen the perfect Taylor Swift song for it.
Personally, I would rather my abstract Spotify searches yield a playlist created by a 16-year-old girl than an algorithm.
Trump flagged by Twitter after tweeting false claim that hes not contagious and is now immune to COVID-19
Twitter has once again flagged one of President Trump's tweets for violating their rules on spreading misinformation about COVID-19. This time it was because of his false and dangerous claim that he is now immune to the coronavirus and can no longer spread it.
In the tweet, he wrote, "A total and complete sign off from White House Doctors yesterday. That means I can’t get it (immune), and can’t give it. Very nice to know!!!" The letter from the doctors he is referring to was issued on Saturday night and does not explicitly say that the president tested negative(Opens in a new tab) for the virus.
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A short time later, Twitter slapped a warning label on the tweet, which reads:
"This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible."
This is far from the first time the social media platform has flagged the president's tweets for violating their rules. These warning labels, which also make it impossible for the tweet to be retweeted, are a fairly toothless rebuke. They've also deleted videos and other people's tweets(Opens in a new tab) that the president has shared. Still, the platform has long resisted calls to ban the president entirely from tweeting.
While Twitter has stepped up their corrective actions against the president's habit of making false claims in recent months, they seem to be doling it out on an uneven basis. For instance, Twitter did not flag several videos Trump posted last week that claimed they now have "a cure" for COVID-19. (There is no known cure, and the drugs Trump was given by doctors at Walter Reed Medical Center are still highly experimental and not available to the general public.)
Facebook, which is also a massive stew of misinformation, has had a similarly haphazard approach to cracking down on the president's blatant lies. They've previously removed posts from his account, but as of publication the president's post claiming he's now immune to COVID-19(Opens in a new tab) is still up and getting lots of engagement.
Despite Trump's claims, the public still knows strikingly little information about his illness. We have yet to be told anything official about when he is believed to have been infected and how severe his illness really was, both of which could impact the length of isolation(Opens in a new tab) that's recommended.
Trump's condition does appear to be improving, and on Saturday afternoon he spoke publicly for the first time since being released from the hospital, at a rally at the White House. But that does not necessarily mean it's safe or advisable for him to end his period of isolation. He is scheduled to begin traveling to campaign events(Opens in a new tab) again on Monday.
What's most galling about his Sunday tweet is his claim of immunity to the virus now that he's been infected. For one thing, scientists do not yet have a complete understanding of how exactly immunity to this virus works or how long it lasts. Reinfections appear to be uncommon at this point, but experts, including Trump's own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recommend(Opens in a new tab) that those who have had COVID-19 behave as though they are not immune and continue to take precautions such as wearing masks and maintaining social distance.
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Since Trump did almost none of that before his infection — even hosting a now-infamous superspreader event(Opens in a new tab) at the White House on Sept. 26 — it's hard to imagine him starting now.
MSCHF has long been outspoken about their disdain towards the capitalist system, with games like Card V Card and stunts like rendering medical debt into art and selling it. Though MSCHF itself has raised at least $11.5 million(Opens in a new tab) in "outside investments" since the fall of 2019, according to the New York Times, it's undeniable that their biweekly drops often comment on our crumbling late-capitalist society.
Take, for example, their latest drop: Anti Advertising Advertising Club(Opens in a new tab) (the name a clear reference to Anti Social Social Club). MSCHF created nine TikTok sounds(Opens in a new tab) to "attack" different brands (including TikTok itself). If you make a TikTok using one of the sounds and it hits a certain view count, send MSCHF proof and they'll pay you cash.
If this sounds like the opposite of a sponsored post, it basically is. In its manifesto for the Anti Ad Ad Club(Opens in a new tab), MSCHF calls sponsored posts a "cringe-y ubiquitous evil of social platforms" and laments the rise of "sell out" culture.
The brands, view counts, and payouts are spelled out in this neat chart:
Credit: mschf
Some of the sounds are song parodies. For example, the Facebook attack sound(Opens in a new tab) — a $4,000 payout for over 2 million views — spoofs The Beatles' "Hey Jude" by replacing the repetition of "better" with "boomers." Others, like the hit on Comcast, are really just sounds (in this case, fart sounds):
@antiadadclub(Opens in a new tab) ♬ farty wifi - use this sound - get paid $$$$(Opens in a new tab)
"If every user's desire is to sell out, we'll happily enable that impulse if it means we can punch at the companies doing the buying," MSCHF's manifesto reads. Let's see if any 'tokkers succeed in killing brands and/or getting paid as they sell out.
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If you thought 2020 couldn't get any worse, you were obviously wrong.
On Monday morning, one of the last wholesome presences on the internet, Mr. Ryan Creamer, announced his retirement from doing comedy on Pornhub.
"Today, 2 years to the day from when I started it, I am ending my Pornhub career. These videos added so much fun to my life and I hope they did for you too. Thank you all for watching," Creamer tweeted. "Now, I leave you the way all porn must inevitably end."
Before Creamer bid Pornhub farewell, he posted one final video titled, "THE MONEY SHOT," in which he can be seen holding a $20.00 bill and saying, "I got you something. Don't spend it all in one place. Well, bye bye."
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Earlier this year, Creamer told Mashable that he started making wholesome Pornhub videos in 2018 after realizing how easy it was to create an account and get verified. After his first video(Opens in a new tab) — titled "I Tuck You In After You Have Cum" — received such delightful praise, he decided to keep the bit going and went on to make 83 videos, which received more than 11 million views combined.
Full disclosure: Ryan and I were Mashable interns together in 2016. When I texted him for comment, he asked that I share the following message with his fans: "A genuine thank you for watching — and though I may be gone I shall be in your hearts and incognito windows for the rest of time."
While you may miss seeing Ryan's giant smile, navy blue sweater, and admirable respect for boundaries on screen each week, you can always revisit some of his greatest hits — you might want to start with the forehead kiss compilation(Opens in a new tab), a hug(Opens in a new tab), or a warm shoulder to cry on(Opens in a new tab).
You can learn even more about Ryan's successful Pornhub career here. He also has a new comedy podcast, American Detour(Opens in a new tab).
Farewell, our sweet platonic porn prince. You will be missed.
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Trump gets roasted for dancing to the Village People
More than 214,000 Americans(Opens in a new tab) have died from COVID-19 in 2020, but Donald Trump feels it's a good time to dance.
On Monday night, Trump returned to the campaign trail less than two weeks after he and the first lady tested positive for COVID-19. He spoke for more than an hour at a rally in Florida(Opens in a new tab) where he bragged about being "immune" to the virus — even though repeat positive cases can occur(Opens in a new tab) — and said things like "I feel so powerful."
At the end of the rally, Trump was seen making some bizarre arm and leg movements (which several people online referred to as dancing) while the song "Y.M.C.A." by the Village People played in the background. It was a truly painful sight — and not just because the president's dance moves were dreadful.
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The fact that Trump could find it within himself to dance on stage while America is struggling to manage the deadly coronavirus that has already killed nearly 215,000 people in his country is tragic. It's bad enough that the president repeatedly downplays the danger of COVID-19 and tells Americans not to be afraid of it, but now, in addition to disrespecting those who died from the virus and their loved ones, he's celebrating his own survival in a way that comes across as gloating and insensitive.
Once clips of Trump's carefree rally dance made their way around Twitter, it wasn't long before people shared their reactions. Some expressed profound disappointment and disgust in the president's lack of empathy, while others simply mocked Trump for dancing to a song that's very much a gay anthem(Opens in a new tab). (Has anyone checked on Mike Pence?)
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Trump's little dance was a deeply tone deaf and gross stunt, but at least he didn't make his way into the audience days after being diagnosed with COVID-19 and kiss his supporters like he said he would(Opens in a new tab).
As reminder, the president had some of the best medical care in the world to help him recover from this deadly virus. That same luxury will not be afforded to the American people, so it's crucial that people take this virus seriously(Opens in a new tab) and continue to wear a mask and practice social distancing.
Women and horror movies make for strange bedfellows — yet also simultaneously one of the most fruitful marriages in all of film.
For a long time, horror across all mediums was very exclusionary, both in terms of gender and race. It most often still is, despite the fact that many marginalized people gravitate toward horror because the genre allows us to process trauma from the safe distance of fiction.
Increasingly, horror films are proving themselves to be a perfect genre for social commentary, to understand the Other rather than demonize them.
Until we allow a fuller spectrum of women to be both the creators and subjects of horror films, we cannot truly say that feminism has reclaimed the genre from all its gatekeepers.
So in the spirit of Halloween, we've compiled an exhaustive (though undoubtedly incomplete) guide to the best feminist and women-centric horror films of all time. But our comprehensive list comes with a million caveats.
Namely, giving these titles the moniker of "feminist" is imperfect at best when so many of them continue to marginalize queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, and other women of color's experiences — along with propagating ageist, fatphobic, racist, and ableist tropes.
Not only is the filmography of feminist horror dominated by straight, white, thin, cis able-bodied feminism, but a lot of the movies are still written and/or directed by men. To the genre's credit, though, it does often give more women and marginalized filmmakers opportunities than, say, more "respected" genres. Also, a lot of feminist horror, especially those directed by women, were held back by the Hollywood machine, sometimes resulting in more muddled messaging than creators intended.
That said, feminist films do not have to be perfect to do great things (nor should we expect them to be). Holding them to higher standards doesn't mean we can't appreciate what progress they do make, either. But until we allow a fuller spectrum of women to be both the creators and subjects of horror films, we cannot truly say that feminism has reclaimed the genre from all its gatekeepers.
1. Prevenge (2017)
This cheeky UK indie masterpiece is truly the mother of all horror-comedies. Ruth, a very pregnant and grieving single mom, commits violent murders at the behest of her killer fetus. With salient commentary on motherhood and society's misogynistic expectations of pregnant women, Prevenge has it all. Oh, and did we mention that writer-director Alice Lowe also starred in it when she was in her third trimester. Read our full review here.
Where to watch: Shudder(Opens in a new tab)
2. Us (2019)
As a seminal director of the modern renaissance in socially-conscious horror, Jordan Peele's Us simply had to make it onto our list. While less explicitly about feminist themes, experiences of womanhood are embedded in its protagonist's journey, with Lupita Nyong'o bringing endless layers of complexity to the character of Adelaide/Red. Read our full review here.
Where to watch: HBO Max(Opens in a new tab),HBO on Prime Video(Opens in a new tab), HBO on Hulu(Opens in a new tab)
3. Ginger Snaps (2001)
While this beloved classic shows its age more than others on this list, it would be a sin to exclude it. For many Gen Xers and millennials, Ginger Snaps was our awakening to what lady-driven horror could do. The werewolf-as-puberty metaphor is a well-mined one, but the iconic goth sisters of this film capture something undeniably relatable in using it specifically to explore experiences of girlhood.
Where to watch: Shudder(Opens in a new tab)
4. Raw (2016)
A girl’s gotta eat, but Raw takes the term “man-eater” to a whole new level. This striking art house coming-of-age horror from writer-director Julia Ducournau explores the complex relationships women have with sexuality, food, consumption, and each other. It's not for the faint of stomach, but it's more visually arresting than needlessly gore-y if you ask us. (Side note: If you're already starting to notice a running theme of cannibalism on this list, buckle up.)
Where to watch: Prime Video(Opens in a new tab)
5. The Stepford Wives (1975)
The quintessential horror-as-feminist-theory allegory, the original Stepford Wives was a seminal influence on socially conscious horror, with Jordan Peele naming it as a major inspiration for Get Out. The more shlocky Nicole Kidman reboot comes with its own fun, but you'll lose a lot of what made the 1970s one such a culmination of the second-wave feminist movement.
Where to watch: Included with Prime Video(Opens in a new tab)
6. Eve's Bayou (1997)
A groundbreaking, gorgeous southern gothic, the ever-present loom of sexism and racism haunt the women protagonists of Eve’s Bayou — though they find a way to embody Black girl magic anyway. Legendary writer-director Kasi Lemmons (who earlier won an Oscar for Silence of the Lambs) grounds the film in Black women’s experiences, particularly through the young (now Emmy-award winning) Jurnnee Smollett as she wrestles with memories and traumas, both personal and communal.
Where to watch: Prime Video(Opens in a new tab)
7. Revenge (2018)
The directorial debut of Coralie Fargeat, Revenge does not shy away from depicting the true horrors of rape and its aftermath. The horror genre is, if anything, the originator of the rape revenge fantasy, through titles like I Spit on Your Grave. But Revenge subverts the worst of its exploitative past. Read our interview with the director on what makes itan evolution in Hollywood depictions of rape here.
Where to watch: Shudder(Opens in a new tab)
8. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)
Writer-director's Ana Lily Amirpour's feature-length debut that she also stars in is described as, "the first Iranian Vampire Western ever made." But that doesn't begin to capture the heart of this exceptional, subversive, arresting masterpiece, which turns every genre trope it's in conversation with on its head. On top of everything, the vampiric protagonist gave us one of the best skater girl icons of our generation.
Where to watch: Shudder(Opens in a new tab)
9. We Are What We Are (2013)
One of the more unknown titles on our list, We Are What We Are is an American adaptation of the 2010 Mexican original (which we, unfortunately, could not get access to). Trading in biblical allegory, it tells the story of sisters Iris and Rose surviving the literally horrific abuses of their cultish, overbearing patriarch.
Where to watch: Included with Prime Video(Opens in a new tab)
10. Goodnight Mommy (2015)
The debut of Polish writer-director Veronika Franz walks a tightwire of tension, paranoia, and Freudian mommy issues. While the twin boys are technically the protagonists, it's their "monstrous" mother trying to recover in peace from reconstructive surgery that truly earns the empathy of moviegoers.
Where to watch: Hulu(Opens in a new tab)
11. Under the Skin (2014)
Despite Scarlette Johansson's highly suspect gender politics, we felt compelled to include Under the Skin as an oft-underrated piece of experimental cinematic horror, evolving the monstrous feminine trope with riveting subversion.
Where to watch: Showtime(Opens in a new tab), Showtime on Prime Video(Opens in a new tab)
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12. Autopsy of Jane Doe
Seemingly a more traditional coroner's office horror, this thriller flips the script on the beautiful female victim narrative in the most delicious way possible. We debated where to include a film where the woman with the most time on screen is dead the whole time. Ultimately, though, it's a cathartic and enjoyable experience that still wrestles with women's trauma — not to mention that the Jane Doe in question deserves an Oscar for Most Emotive Corpse Ever.
Where to watch: Netflix(Opens in a new tab)
13. Audition (1999)
This Japanese masterpiece is a mainstay of most GOAT horror lists, and we won't spoil any of the experience by saying too much on why. All you need to know is that it follows the journey of a man who auditions a bunch of women to find the perfect subservient wife — and he gets much more than he bargained for.
Where to watch: Shudder(Opens in a new tab)
14. Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror (2019)
Spotlighting exactly what is so lacking in the popular conception and understanding of horror, this essential documentary based on Robin R. Means Coleman's book lays out the centuries-long intersection between Blackness and horror. From the Black-made horror films that have been all but erased from public access to re-framing Birth of a Nation as part of the genre, it shows how Black people (especially women) are a much bigger part of horror's greatness than the white mainstream gives them credit for.
Where to watch: Shudder(Opens in a new tab)
15. The Love Witch (2017)
The "well, actually" horror fans will likely want to challenge characterizing Love Witch as a horror movie. But that might be because writer-director Anna Biller bucks any form of conventionality, presenting a sumptuous vision of the woman's gaze rarely allowed to flourish in film, horror, or otherwise. An homage as much as a subversion, Love Witch is also a more subtle example of comedic horror than others on this list. Read our interview with Biller on the film's feminist lens here.
Where to watch: Included with Prime Video(Opens in a new tab)
16. Under the Shadow (2016)
Mixed in with magical surrealism but set in the reality of post-revolution Tehran, Under the Shadow tells the story of a doctor who is suddenly forbidden from practicing under the new regime. As the world becomes more and more unrecognizable, she fights to protect her daughter from the constant threat of bombings as well as a more ephemeral monster hellbent on capturing her child.
Where to watch: Netflix(Opens in a new tab)
17. Drag Me To Hell (2009)
An early horror-comedy from the renowned Sam Raimi, Drag Me to Hell starts off with a Lean In workplace situation gone awry (lol). It's as much a delightful ride as it is scary, with hidden layers of meaning — including hints of battling an eating disorder — that make this supernatural creeper well worth your time.
Where to watch: Starz(Opens in a new tab),Starz on Prime Video(Opens in a new tab)
18. Suspiria (2018)
Opting for the Amazon Original reboot rather than the original will probably be considered a sin by most cinephiles. In all honesty, I haven't seen the original, but felt captivated enough by Luca Guadagnino's recent remake starring Tilda Swinton to include it as a wonderful ballet of the grotesque, beautiful, and feminine.
Where to watch: Included with Prime Video(Opens in a new tab)
19. Swallow (2020)
The psychosexual undercurrent of this movie is undeniable, with an oral fixation as great as its protagonist. Betty Friedan's seminal Feminine Mystique book absolutely drips off the screen, almost to the point where references are a bit overdone. But ultimately Swallow is saved by a spectacular performance from Haley Bennett, a fantastic sense of cinematic tension, and an abundance of visual sumptuousness.
Where to watch: Showtime(Opens in a new tab), Showtime on Prime Video(Opens in a new tab), Showtime on Hulu(Opens in a new tab)
20. Starry Eyes (2014)
2014's Starry Eyes is not revolutionary as far as horror tropes go. But it's certainly ahead of its time as a film about the systemic sexual abuse of women in Hollywood released years before the bombshell allegations against Harvey Weinstein brought mainstream attention to the Me Too movement.
Where to watch: Included with Prime Video(Opens in a new tab)
21. I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016)
This gothic arthouse ghost story is a masterpiece of uncanny disquiet. A live-in nurse arrives at a house haunted by the rot of feminine beauty. Visually stunning and tensely atmospheric, it's a slow burn straight to the heart. To quote our review, I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House is "one of Netflix's most daring experiments, and one of the most evocative atmospheric horror films exploring the female psyche since Polanksi's Repulsion... The film's dream-like narrative emerges through the disparate yet intertwined lives (and deaths) of three women, all colliding under the same roof." You can read our full review here.
Where to watch: Netflix(Opens in a new tab)
22. Teeth (2007)
One of many examples of early feminist horror that was at first maligned only to later become appreciated as a cult classic(Opens in a new tab), Teeth is considered seminal to the subgenre. Transforming the psychosexual Freudian concepts of penis envy and vagina dentata into rape revenge power fantasies, we honestly just love to see it.
Where to watch: Included with Prime Video(Opens in a new tab)
23. The Perfection (2018)
Let stars Allison Williams and Logan Browning take you on one wild, wild ride — and spoil yourself as little as possible with The Perfection. All you need to know is that this campy trip is all about two women seeking artistic excellence. They're also pitted against each other through the predatory systems that gatekeep said excellence.
Where to watch: Netflix(Opens in a new tab)
24. The Witch (2015)
Like many of the entries on this list, The Witch complicates the typical, trope-y feminist empowerment horror narrative. The more powerful feminist reading of it (in this writer's opinion(Opens in a new tab)) is not as a tale of empowerment, but surviving complete disempowerment, immersing viewers in the oppressive religiosity that is the origins of America.
Where to watch: Showtime(Opens in a new tab), Showtime on Prime Video(Opens in a new tab), Showtime on Hulu(Opens in a new tab)
25. Always Shine (2017)
Another exploration of the struggles of being a woman in Hollywood, writer-director Sophia Takal focuses on how the industry creates an atmosphere that makes female camaraderie nearly impossible. Again, some might argue it falls more under the "thriller" than "horror" category, but we don't really acknowledge those hair-splitting distinctions.
Where to watch: Included with Prime Video(Opens in a new tab)
26. Jennifer’s Body (2009)
Another largely panned movie after its original release in 2009, Jennifer's Body enjoyed a recent revival as an overlooked feminist horror classic. Through ahead-of-its time subversion of the male gaze, exploration of women's desires, a queer kiss, or metaphors for eating disorders, people have found a lot to love about writer-director Karyn Kusama's film. However, it's important to note that star Megan Fox has a complicated relationship to it as exemplar of all the films that hypersexualized her from this time.
Where to watch: Starz(Opens in a new tab), Starz on Prime Video(Opens in a new tab)
27. Carrie (1976)
Believe us when we beg you to watch the original Carrie over its 2013 remake. While Kimberly Peirce's reboot tries to imbue more overt feminist messaging into it, the result is a loss of so much of what made Brian De Palma's 1976 version a reigning masterpiece of women-centric horror power fantasies.
Where to watch: Starz(Opens in a new tab), Starz on Prime Video(Opens in a new tab)
28. Cam (2018)
From entertainment reporter Alison Foreman's full review: "Set in the cyber space of virtual sex work, CAM chronicles the nightmarish ordeal of Alice, an internet model or "cam girl," who one day logs on to discover she has been replaced by a mysterious doppelgänger. As her many fans obsess over the menacing substitute, Alice fights to regain control of her image, freedom, and physical safety... More than a disturbingly sexy Unfriended, CAM uses its adult setting to indirectly address feminist themes and motifs in a way that is not only nuanced, but also highly effective."
Where to watch: Netflix(Opens in a new tab)
29. The Craft (1996)
If you were young when The Craft came out, you either desperately wanted to start your own coven or have no business reading this list. While a modern-day watch brings some of its treatment of socioeconomic differences into question, it was surprisingly progressive for its time thanks to the iconic role of Rochelle. While being one of the very few feminist horror movies to bother including a Black woman's experience, though, that achievement is severely undermined by the IRL racist treatment of actress Rachel True(Opens in a new tab), who has been repeatedly left out and erased from its legacy.
Where to watch: Prime Video(Opens in a new tab)
30. Ready or Not (2019)
Ready or Not isn't winning any "elevated horror" awards, but it doesn't need to. It's well-written, cathartic fun with not only a feminist but also socioeconomic bent. Also, who can beat that torn-up wedding dress with an old-timey gun holster and black high tops look? You can read our full review here.
Where to watch: HBO Max(Opens in a new tab)
31. Midsommar (2019)
As much a cathartic break-up movie as it is a scary one, as joyful as it is terrifying, Midsommar is a gorgeous grotesquerie that thrives through contradiction. Like many on this list, it complicates the trope-y female empowerment horror film narrative by not painting it through rose-tinted glasses, and is relatable to any woman who's suffered through grief and dating a shitty dude. Read our full review here.
Where to watch: Included with Prime Video(Opens in a new tab)
32. The Babadook (2014)
The Babadook has become a staple of not only feminist but general best horror movie lists for a reason. The directorial debut of Jennifer Kent, it's not only brutally honest about the struggle of single motherhood, but produced one of our generation's greatest gay horror icons(Opens in a new tab).
Where to watch: Prime Video(Opens in a new tab)
33. Alien (1979)
Where do we even begin? Alien is feminist horror 101, leading to decades of scholarly analysis into its psychosexual undertones. All we'll say is that it essentially entails about two hours of Sigourney Weaver surviving like a boss while fighting to save her pussy (protect Jonesy at all costs). Aside from being revolutionary for its time, few other classics from the genre have aged quite as gracefully, making it as gripping and evocative now as it was in the 1970s.
Where to watch: HBO Max(Opens in a new tab)
34. You’re Next (2011)
Similar to Ready or Not, You're Next is a great (if not GOAT) horror movie that adds class commentary to the more typical female empowerment horror movie narrative. We dare you to watch it and not give out a guttural "FUCK YEAH!" at least once thanks to Sharni Vinson's stellar performance.
Where to watch: Peacock(Opens in a new tab)
35. The Descent (2013)
All-female casts are always a great start, but throw in a cave-vagina metaphor (complete with lots and lots of blood) and you've got yourself a bonafide feminist horror movie must-watch. Even without the allegory, though, The Descent is awesome horror because of how it gives those women characters and their relationships full personhood, which is rarer in this genre than you'd think!
Where to watch: Redbox(Opens in a new tab)
36. The Lure (2015)
Something about The Little Mermaid continues to enthrall our collective unconscious century after century, and it has a lot to do with its gender politics (for better and for worse). This Polish horror-musical genre-bender is closer to the darker original Hans Christian Anderson folktale than the Disney version. Depicting two mermaid sisters as carnivorous sirens rather than fantasies of the male gaze, director Agnieszka Smoczyńskait's inspired vision nails the monster sympathy film.
Where to watch: Criterion Collection(Opens in a new tab)
37. The Girl with All the Gifts (2017)
One of the few horror films in history to ever feature a young Black girl as the hero, The Girl With All the Gifts is a British zombie movie that bucks many of the subgenre's tropes. While the lead character was not written with any race specified, the captivating Sennia Nanua adds groundbreaking layers of social commentary(Opens in a new tab). After all, it is the story of an Other who is seen as a monstrous threat, and thus caged, abused, and made to conform to a social system built only to serve the more dominant population. Like a lot of nascent feminist horror film representations on this list, not every aspect of its Black feminist reading lands. But the film's raw power is inarguably elevated by the representation(Opens in a new tab) of a gifted young Black girl's desire to belong and struggle to survive an apocalyptic world hellbent on destroying her.
Where to watch: Netflix(Opens in a new tab)
38. Halloween (2018)
To quote our deep dive into the gender politics of the recent reboot, "With 2018's Halloween and the return of the most prototypical final girl, Jamie Lee Curtis' Laurie Strode has ushered in a new kind of slasher flick for the horrors uncovered by #MeToo... The timeliness of the new Halloween lies in how it speaks to a real-world moment of women coming together for a similar reckoning. As survivors everywhere seek to end decades of victimization, Laurie finally confronts her own predator, drawing strength from the solidarity and shared experience of trauma with other women in her life." You can read our full review here.
Where to watch: Prime Video(Opens in a new tab)
39. Hush (2016)
People with disabilities often get a really raw fucking deal in horror movies, appearing mostly through tropes that turn them into inhuman evil grotesqueries. While protagonist Maddie does not have a visible disability, she is deaf, and set up to appear as the perfect helpless victim for a predator. But as we and her assailant quickly learn, she certainly fucking is not.
Where to watch: Netflix(Opens in a new tab)
40. Relic (2020)
On its surface, Relic seems to deal in the misogynistic horror trope of older women's bodies as inherently grotesque, disgusting, or evil (looking at you, The Witch and more egregiously, The Shinning). But first-time writer-director Natalie Erika James' debut film brings a previously unseen tenderness that subverts it, exploring the true horror of aging as having little to do with a woman's body. With one of the best final scenes in any horror movie, we highly recommend checking it out.
Where to watch: Prime Video(Opens in a new tab)
Honorable Mention: Lovecraft Country (2020)
We know, we know. Lovecraft Country is a show, not a movie. That technicality is the only reason it doesn't qualify for our official list. But as one of the rare horror anything's to not only be spearheaded by a Black woman but that also centralizes Black women's perspectives across many ages and social circumstances, Misha Green's Lovecraft Country is a long overdue, vital leap forward in the feminist reclaiming of the horror genre we need to see much more of. Read our full review here.
13 best tweets of the week, including a crisp cow, wet tunes, a spoon, and a fence
We've successfully navigated through another week and that's something to celebrate.
Do you like good tweets? Of course you do! Who doesn't? We're going to round-out this week with some good tweets, which we've been doing here at Mashable for quite some time now.
So, yep, here they are: the 13 best tweets of the week. Enjoy!
1. This cow. THIS COW. Look at it.
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2. Relatable hating
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3. Wet tunes
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4. Spoon is cheaper than change the whole fence
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5. Malala!
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6. A gentleman
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7. All the time. All the time.
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8. Nietzsche was, in fact, a gamer
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9. I just(Opens in a new tab). This is great.
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10. Trust me, you do not want to go there.
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11. Just a solid civics joke
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12. Obligatory dril tweet
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13. And finally,
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How fantasy football exploded online and kept Yahoo relevant
InTales of the Early Internet, Mashable explores online life through 2007 — back before social media and the smartphone changed everything.
When's the last time you used Yahoo for...anything at all? Your answer might just depend on a simple question: Do you play fantasy football?
That's because even as Yahoo has faded toward internet obscurity, it remains an absolute powerhouse in fantasy sports.
Years ago, in the early-to-mid 2000s, fantasy football boomed in participation for a single reason: the internet. And back then, Yahoo was still a very big deal. So, here were are, millions of sports fans, glued to a Yahoo app in the year 2020. And that's likely not changing any time soon — the product is actually pretty damn good despite coming from a brand most don't use anymore.
"There's never been a conversation about, 'Hey, let's switch to another format," Todd Paonessa, a 49-year-old in California who has been playing in a Yahoo league for 14 years, told Mashable. "Yahoo does make it easy...We're a bunch of lazy old farts now and to actually adapt to another format would be inconceivable. I think we'd quit playing rather than switch to another format."
"I think we'd quit playing rather than switch to another format."
Before fantasy football went online it was an absolute chore to play. Not to get too far into the weeds here, but it was basically taking up math worksheets as a hobby. You had to parse through newspapers to get the previous day's box scores then manually score out a fantasy game — player X scored a touchdown, it was a rushing score, that's worth Y, give team Z those points, over and over again. It was for obsessives, not casual fans. It was like Dungeons and Dragons for those with jockish tendencies.
The internet — and, in part, Yahoo — brought the game to the masses.
When Yahoo was king
A quick history lesson: The initial fantasy rules were invented by Oakland Raiders staffers and a reporter, who then played the first season in 1963. By 1989, over a million diehards were playing in total, according to a report by the San Diego Union-Tribune(Opens in a new tab). Throughout the '80s there were lots of different rule-systems and it was, well, confusing, to play fantasy football(Opens in a new tab). It was when fantasy football moved online around 1997 — and a computer could do all the math for you — that things really took off. And Yahoo made perhaps the most important decision: It made its fantasy football product free in 1999.
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In the pre-Y2K world, there was hardly any tech company as important as Yahoo. It was the web's primary search engine, a major email provider, and the web's second-most visited site behind(Opens in a new tab), you guessed it, AOL. Those two stops were basically the internet's directory.
"Our company was five years old," Jeremy Ring, a Yahoo executive from 1996 to 2001, wrote in a memoir(Opens in a new tab), according to Fast Company(Opens in a new tab). "We were worth more than Ford, Chrysler, and GM combined. Hell, we were worth more than Disney, Viacom, and News Corp combined. Each of those great American brands could have been swallowed up by us."
So when Yahoo made fantasy free, it was a huge deal. It was a company worth some $500 per share(Opens in a new tab) giving away this fun, new thing.
But as the internet evolved, Yahoo didn't keep up. It suffered in the 2000 dotcom crash, then infamously passed on chances to purchase Google and Facebook in both company's infancies. Yahoo did lots well, as Fast Company noted, but never really stood out in one product or made the most of advertising opportunities. By 2016, it sold to Verizon(Opens in a new tab) for a (relatively) measly $5 billion. It's still a Verizon company now.
Even through those struggles, Yahoo's fantasy offering has persisted. That's partly because people who play fantasy football typically love it, so they're bound to come back year after year.
"I'm emotionally involved to a point that's embarrassing," Paonessa said. "And if I had spent [my] time with fantasy football [instead] playing a guitar, I'd be Jimi Hendrix right now."
Jim Pittman, a 57-year-old in Tallahassee, Florida, said he began playing fantasy back when you had to score by hand. That really took time. Back in the early 2000s, his league moved online to Yahoo. They've stuck with it ever since. Part of that reason is ease — why change if it works — but also, Pittman said, Yahoo has done a good job of making small, helpful changes over time.
"In particular, what I liked Yahoo for is, from a scorekeeping standpoint, it seemed like it was made for all different levels from beginner to advanced from the very beginning," Pittman said. "And then over the last 18 years that we've been doing it...they make improvements to that scoring system, but they don't make drastic improvements. They make small adjustments."
How Yahoo fantasy football lives
To understand why Yahoo fantasy football is still around, you also need to understand the fantasy boom.
The NFL is wildly popular. An average (Opens in a new tab)game(Opens in a new tab) gets 17 million viewers. Fantasy has become a way for fans to stay especially interested in games. According to the Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association(Opens in a new tab), roughly 46 million people play fantasy football.
In 2019, Fox Business reported(Opens in a new tab) Yahoo's fantasy football had some 7 million users. Yahoo declined to share exactly how many fantasy users it has in an email.
"It’s important that we continue to offer this experience for users, especially during these unprecedented times that have impacted so many facets of life, including sports," Brian Marshall, vice president of product management at Yahoo Sports, wrote to Mashable.
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Keep in mind, daily fantasy — a buzzy online betting competition that's grown in popularity in recent years — is different than Yahoo's general Fantasy offering. Yahoo does daily fantasy too, but it pales in comparison to the juggernauts in that space, FanDuel and DraftKings. (Daily fantasy is illegal in some states.) Yahoo's classic fantasy product has, in part, survived because friends created leagues years ago when Yahoo was a major tech player. Those leagues are pretty simple affairs: Each person makes a "fantasy" selection of players, which squares off against their pals' teams.
A big benefit of using Yahoo year after year is that it makes everything easy. Yahoo auto-renews your league, people can just sign right back in, and it's familiar. There's no fantasy provider that's considered leaps and bounds better than another, but lots of folks really prefer Yahoo.
Kate Rutkowski, a 32-year-old who lives in Portland, Oregon, joked that Yahoo fantasy football is the least of all evils, which includes competition like ESPN and the NFL itself. Rutkowski's decade-old, all-women league has been using Yahoo the entire time and prefers it to providers they use in other leagues.
"Every year you get together and you're texting like, 'We should switch, we shouldn't do Yahoo," she said. "And then the conversation just goes to how terrible everything else is and you kind of circle back and go well, I guess we should stick with Yahoo then, shouldn't we?"
From a personal standpoint: I play in one Yahoo league and another through ESPN. I vastly prefer Yahoo's fantasy website and app.
AOL might've fully migrated to the internet's graveyard, but its borderline remarkable that Yahoo still has something that updates in real time every Sunday for millions of people. And its product is better than companies most would likely describe as more relevant.
History matters
There's also one massive thing you'd lose if you switched out from Yahoo: historical data.
Yahoo has easy-to-use tools that let you look through the history of your league. You can see how many times each person has won, how Yahoo rates your performance over time, or the playoff scores from every season. If you've had a league going for a decade, you don't want to lose that history. You don't want to trash the results from back in the day.
Jason Bisnoff(Opens in a new tab), a 29-year-old staff writer(Opens in a new tab) at Forbes, has been in a Yahoo league with friends since middle school. He said they keep going back to it because it's the best site/app but also because they don't want to lose that historical data.
"I have a friend who is nerdy enough, he did a whole Excel sheet of who's been the best over time. And that data is readily available, which is good to have, especially because it's something that 12 of my best friends in the world spend six months of the year talking to each other about," Bisnoff said.
Nearly every person I talked with who played Yahoo fantasy appreciated having the historical data. Bisnoff's league has taken the historical data to another level, because, as he put it, they enjoy "chirping," or teasing, one another. That one friend who made the Excel sheet was determined to prove he was actually the best player, despite not winning.
"He's the quintessential guy who cares the most but hasn't won," Bisnoff said. "He needed to get to the bottom of how he's better statistically than a bunch of the champions. Which led all the champions to say, 'Well, you're not a champion.'"
The history of the league matters because, in many cases, it's a history of the group's friendship.
These sorts of fantasy leagues aren't about the money (like daily fantasy) or even football itself. They're usually about bragging rights, an excuse to pay attention to games on Sunday, and a reason to talk with your friends. The history of the league matters because, in many cases, it's a history of the group's friendship.
So what now?
Yahoo has tried a number of new things in the fantasy space: It streams NFL games, it has a feature where you can watch with friends, and it added daily fantasy.
"As a tech company we’re able to have a huge point of differentiation in building these products, which we will continue to reimagine with powerful technologies like 5G, AR and VR," Yahoo's Marshall said.
But its old-school fantasy product is what remains the most popular.
"One of the things that has helped Yahoo to remain relevant when it comes to season-long fantasy is how sticky season-long players are," Chris Grove(Opens in a new tab), a partner at Eilers & Krejcik Gaming(Opens in a new tab), a sports and gaming research firm, and founder of Legal Sports Report(Opens in a new tab), a website covering sports betting and fantasy sports, told me over email. "You don't want to have to learn a new system when it's time for your league to boot up — you just want to get to playing. Multiply that effect over the entire group that makes up a league and it's not hard to appreciate why season-long fantasy platform winners tend to stay winners: The hassle of getting the whole group to agree to migrate to a new platform is generally not worth whatever the benefit might be."
Grove added: "It's worth noting that Yahoo daily fantasy never caught on to any meaningful degree."
Yahoo isn't the tech behemoth it once was, but it still drives web traffic and its finance site(Opens in a new tab) is widely used by stock watchers. And yep, Yahoo also remains great for your fantasy league. But that's because it's a beloved relic; the fantasy love isn't signaling a general rebirth.
"I have a Yahoo mail account and I don't know how to get into it or anything," Rutkowski told me. "But you know when you're checking out at a store they're like, 'What's your email address?' In my head, I'm like, 'OK, if it's a store I really like I give them my real email address. And if it's a store I don't like, I give them my Yahoo.'"
We might not be able to help you get that coveted blue tick on Twitter, but we can get you verified on Tinder. And you'll be pleased to know, it's actually very straightforward.
So, what exactly does it mean to be 'verified' on Tinder?
Photo verification on the dating app is basically a security feature that allows you to self-authenticate and declare you are who you say you are. So being 'verified' helps to weed out fake profiles and catfishers so people can safely crack on with matching with someone they fancy.
How does it work? Swipers take a series of real-time posed selfies which are then compared to existing profile photos using human-assisted AI technology.
How do you know when someone's profile is verified? That's easy — you'll see a trusty blue tick after the name and age of the person in your feed while you're swiping.
Now, let's get your profile verified.
How to verify your Tinder profile
1. Open the Tinder app and tap the profile icon.
2. Tap the grey tick next to your name and age.
3. Hit continue when the prompt entitled "Get verified" appears.
Credit: screenshot: rachel thompson / tinder
4. You'll be shown a pose and then be asked to copy that pose by taking a selfie.
5. Next, confirm that your selfie matches the pose and click "Submit for review."
6. Repeat those last two steps one more time.
SEE ALSO:
Should dating apps have non-monogamy filters? It's complicated.
Now go forth and enjoy your blue tick!
Related Video: We asked over 1,000 people about their post-COVID dating plans
Trumps voter fraud hotline shut down after it was flooded with pranks calls
I mean, I'm not sure what the Donald Trump campaign expected.
They made a hotline to report voter fraud, it got flooded with prank calls, and it had to be shut down. Of course that happened. Ask stupid questions and you get stupid answers.
(Steps on soapbox.)
Because let's be clear here: Widespread(Opens in a new tab) voter fraud does not exist(Opens in a new tab). It's an idea invented and weaponized by Trump and others in the GOP to invalidate results they don't like and, importantly, serves as false evidence to suppress voters in future elections.
In short: The election is not getting overturned. President-elect Joe Biden beat President Donald Trump handily, and his margins in key states — Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin — are almost certainly too wide to be overturned. To win, Trump would need to magically flip multiple states.
(Steps off soapbox.)
Phew, OK, so that's why the whole voter fraud hotline thing is dumb. It's a last-gasp effort to call legit results into question, and a convenient direction to point Trump supporters' anger after their candidate lost.
The Trump team even went as far as to set up a conference room dedicated to the hotline before they had to shut it down on Friday, according to CNN(Opens in a new tab). They mostly got spam and mocking calls. A report from the (Opens in a new tab)Washington Post(Opens in a new tab) noted the phone line got calls about the Hamburglar, the plot of Diff’rent Strokes, and the profane lyrics of a certain rap by YG(Opens in a new tab). The creator of Gravity Falls got in on the fun. Eventually, the Trump camp made a website to report(Opens in a new tab) fraud instead.
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It shouldn't be a surprise the phone line was flooded with fake calls. And while Eric Trump suggested the Democratic National Committee was somehow behind the pranks, more than 77 million people voted against his father. It makes sense that a fair number of those people are going to mock the effort to gin up evidence of voter fraud.
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Despite a lack of evidence and his phone line being shut down, President Trump was still tweeting angrily(Opens in a new tab) (and falsely) about voter fraud on Saturday. Meanwhile, the U.S. raged toward 200,000(Opens in a new tab) daily new cases of coronavirus with precious little federal plan to slow the pandemic's deadly(Opens in a new tab) spread.
Related Video: Stacey Abrams on how American democracy hinges on the right to vote
Young people dont actually want a hot vaxxed summer
For single people, the last year has been a swirl of emotions. There's been loneliness; grief over the dates we'd hoped to go on, the sex we'd hoped to have; guilt about the dates we did go on and the sex we did have.
Now, as we near the middle of 2021, our outlook on the coronavirus is a lot different. (At least in the United States, though it's still raging in other parts of the world, such as India.) The vaccine is widely available to adults everywhere, and "The Great Thaw," as I call it, has begun. Spring is here and summer is rapidly approaching. Dating app users are happy to put their vaccine status in their bios. Many people, including myself, are dating in-person once again and are elated to be doing so.
Still, there's a hum of anxiety around dating that's impossible to ignore. It's so palpable that Hinge coined the term "FODA," or Fear Of Dating Again. While the pandemic has been more traumatic for some than for others, we've all been through a uniquely difficult time — and we've all likely been forever changed by it.
It makes sense, then, for there to a pervasive level of re-entry anxiety(Opens in a new tab). We spent a year isolating, hanging in the limbo of uncertainty, constantly asking questions like "When will we be able to touch other people again?" And even now we moving forth into the unknown, into "post-pandemic" life and toward "the new normal."
What will that look like for dating?
To help answer that question, Mashable conducted a nationally representative online survey of 1,081 adults (18 and older) in April. Respondents answered questions about their dating lives before and during the pandemic, their plans for the future, their COVID vaccine preferences, and more. We also gave them the opportunity to name the biggest way the pandemic has affected dating for them. We'll go through these results chronologically.
Dating before coronavirus
Even before the pandemic hit, most heterosexual couples met online(Opens in a new tab) as opposed to through family and friends: 39 percent according to a 2017 Stanford University and University of Mexico study, up from 22 percent in 2009. For several reasons (geography and tolerance being two), the internet has been the dominant way for same-sex couples to meet since 2000.
In our survey results, however, family and friends edged slightly ahead of social media and dating apps as the method for meeting new people prior to COVID: 52.7 percent for friends/family, 50.9 percent for social media, and 41.5 percent for dating apps.
Even more so than on dating apps, survey respondents said they met people at social venues or events — such as bars, restaurants, concerts — before the pandemic (48.2 percent as opposed to 41.5).
These in-person connections were the first to go by the wayside as COVID hit, and daters had to choose whether they would date online or not date at all. Several respondents expressed that the pandemic forced them to start online dating, such as one woman between 25 and 34 who wrote, "I have no interest in online dating but it's the only option now."
"[COVID] made me have to go online," another woman in the same age bracket said. "Before the pandemic I wouldn't have joined a dating app."
how people found dates before covidCredit: bob al-greene / mashable
From swearing off dating to learning from it
As COVID swept into the United States, our way of life shut down almost overnight. Nightlife disappeared, bars and restaurants were reduced to take out-only if not closed completely. We were discouraged from leaving our homes entirely and thus dating, unsurprisingly, came to an abrupt halt.
During the first six months of the pandemic (March through August 2020, as defined in the survey), the largest number of respondents, 37 percent, swore off dating and/or deleted their dating profiles. That makes sense given that only a bit above half of respondents (51 percent) used dating apps at all during this time.
In terms of the entire pandemic, around the same number of respondents — 36.4 percent — said they didn't go on any dates, in-person or virtual. People gave a number of different reasons for not wanting to be on apps, such as disliking the restrictions of dating under COVID or wanting to focus on oneself.
"For right now [the pandemic] has made me chill out on the dating apps," said a male respondent between 25 and 35 years of age. "I don't want COVID and I feel weird going on a date with a mask on."
Another male respondent in the same age range said he's been spending this time self-reflecting, which he believes will help his dating life later. "I have been focusing on myself more," he said, "and have become a more eligible dating candidate."
Of those who chose to keep dating, 27 percent switched to dating virtually only, while 22 percent kept dating in-person only. Fourteen percent had a mix of both.
"For right now [the pandemic] has made me chill out on the dating apps."
As for which dating apps people who wanted to meet new people turned to during the pandemic, Tinder dominated among our survey's respondents, especially for the younger crowd. Fifty-seven percent of overall users said they used Tinder during the pandemic, which includes 73 percent of respondents 18-24 and 62 percent of respondents 25-34.
Facebook Dating was the number two app overall (39.2 percent of overall respondents), and it was the most popular app for respondents 35 and up.
One constant both before and during the pandemic was respondents' feelings towards dating. Before the pandemic, more people (47.8 percent) were somewhat likely to call their dating experience enlightening or a learning experience than other descriptors listed such as stressful, unfulfilling, fun, awkward, and deceitful/misleading.
That remained the case for dating during the pandemic: more (44.6 percent) were somewhat likely to call dating enlightening/a learning experience than the other descriptors.
"The biggest thing the pandemic changed my approach to dating is it made me realize I need to be more selective and take my time," wrote a male respondent between 35 and 44.
A woman between 55 and 64 said that the pandemic slowed down her swiping and thus she got to know more people. "I've taken more time with profiles," she wrote, "and actually talking rather than meeting immediately and writing off someone."
The overall stress of the pandemic, however, can't be overstated enough — and it seeped into dating as well. More than 35 percent of those surveyed were somewhat likely to call dating itself stressful, while 38 were somewhat likely to call it awkward during the pandemic.
"My social skills have gotten worse," admitted a female respondent between 18 and 24 years old.
"I no longer have the self-confidence it takes to successfully date," said a man between 45 and 54. He believes this was caused by pandemic isolation.
Looking to the future of dating
Now that the we seem to have turned a corner and can once again safely meet in person, it does seem like respondents are largely optimistic about dating. Though they're also nervous, which is to be expected. Nearly half (48.3 percent) of respondents said they are hopeful about dating in the next six months. Excited, nervous, and anxious sparred for second place, with excitement just edging away at 38.9 percent. For the latter two, 38.5 percent expressed they feel nervous, and 38.2 percent said they felt its twin, anxiety.
This positive outlook translates to how people plan on dating in the next six months. Most respondents, 34.8 percent, plan on dating in-person only, while 31.3 will have a mix of online and in-person dates.
As opposed to around the 37 percent of respondents who swore off dating and apps last year, only 17.2 percent of people still plan on doing so from now until the fall. Lastly, 16.7 percent plan to only date virtually.
Hot granny summer?
While the narrative of a "slutty summer"(Opens in a new tab) is all over social media, the reality may look a little different. Most respondents, 40.7 percent, said they are looking for a serious relationship post-COVID. Young people ages 18 through 45 are searching for a serious relationship the most, while those over 45 are looking for something more casual.
To break it down, the majority in the 18-24 (37 percent), 25-34 (45 percent), and 35-44 (47) groups are looking to settle down. While there's probably some aspect of young people wanting to marry and start a family no matter what's going on in the world, this really goes against the "hot vaxxed summer" assumption that everyone is imagining will unfold. If anything, it'll be a hot auntie/granny summer.
"I'm way more open to [dating] and I am more committed," said a woman in the 18-24 age range.
These results match to what both Hinge and OkCupid found in recent surveys of their users. More than half of Hinge users (53 percent) said they are looking for a long-term relationship going into 2021, according to a press release. Even more OkCupid users (84 percent) are looking for a similarly serious relationship, per the OkCupid Dating Data Center(Opens in a new tab). Of those people, 27 percent changed their minds due to last year's experiences and now want something serious, which they didn't want prior to the pandemic.
We probably won't know the true extent of how the pandemic affected dating and relationships — and our feelings about the two — until we're much further away from it. What we do know, however, is that coronavirus disrupted everything we knew about meeting and connecting with one another.
Even though many of us are vaccinated at this point, we can't just go right back to pre-pandemic dating — given what we've experienced, that may be impossible. We already see how it's affecting people's methods of dating (such as sticking with virtual dating) and goals (wanting a long-term relationship).
We also know people are both anxious and excited about dating again. These are normal human emotions no matter our circumstances, but it's especially understandable that both are entangled after a global crisis. We can embrace all these emotions as we launch ourselves into post-pandemic dating; we may even find it enlightening.
Spotify Pie is the latest viral website that analyzes your Spotify data
If there's one thing we know about social media users, it's that they're always down to share what music they've been listening to. But with the most viral music sharing event, Spotify Wrapped, still six months away, they've turned to a new website, "Spotify Pie."(Opens in a new tab)
What is the Spotify Pie Chart?
Spotify Pie analyzes your Spotify listening and organizes it into a highly sharable pie chart of all the genres you've listened to in the last month. The website doesn't just reveal your most listened to genres but also lists your top artists of the month below the colorful chart. The website was created by UCLA student Darren Huang and the clever tagline reads, "Bake your monthly genre pie."
SEE ALSO:
Look to sound quality and battery life when shopping for new headphones
Spotify Pie takes advantage of how Spotify categorizes each song into very specific genres. My personal pie featured everything from "metropopolis" to "deep underground hip hop" to "boyband."
So many genres!Credit: Spotify Pie
Taste!Credit: Spotify Pie
Twitter users have been sharing their pies like nobody's business calling out their most obscure genres and judging others' top artists.
How to get your Spotify Pie
To use Spotify Pie you have to allow it to access your Spotify data, so if that's not something you're comfortable with, sit this one out.
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If you're OK with sharing your data, here's how to use Spotify Pie: Head to the website(Opens in a new tab), log in to your Spotify account, and agree to share your data with the website. And voila there's your big pizza pie!
Will 2022 be the year you finally put a (smart) ring on it?
Finger-worn wearables are so hot right now(Opens in a new tab). Smart rings, the lovechild of jewelry and fitness trackers, are designed for anyone who longs to log health metrics without the bulk and annoyance of a notification-happy computer on their wrist.
But in contrast to the many screen-based options in the fitness tracker space, smart rings have been thin on the ground so far. Your main choice as of December 2021 was the pricey Oura(Opens in a new tab) ($300 for the second generation model, plus a $6 monthly subscription for ongoing health insights). Celebrities such as Jack Dorsey(Opens in a new tab) and Gwyneth Paltrow(Opens in a new tab) are among Oura's devotees.
But as of January 2022, the smart ring universe is expanding. Health wearables company Movano(Opens in a new tab) just announced its first product, the Movano Ring, which will be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. (Yes, Omicron notwithstanding, CES is still going ahead.)
The Movano tracks sleep and activity metrics, and is working to gain FDA clearance to monitor vital signs such as body temperature — something even the latest Oura can't provide yet. Movano's companion app is focused on combining these metrics to predict how you'll be feeling on any given day. Tracking body temperature isn't just good for figuring out when you have a fever. It could also be useful for anyone who is trying — or not trying — to get pregnant.
Credit: Movano
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With the combination of a robust app and metrics with a ring that looks pretty cool (check out the bold arrow design and matte/metallic colors above), Movano looks like it could be real competition for Oura. When it actually comes to market, that is. Movano says the ring will launch in beta the second half of 2022, and hasn't released the price yet. All the company says is that it will be "priced competitively, aiming to be widely accessible and affordable" — presumably meaning it'll be less than $300.
Meanwhile, Oura went in the other direction with the launch of the $399 Oura 3 in December. (The company asked all reviewers to spend several weeks with the device before writing about it; Mashable's review will drop in January.) The main advantage of the new version is that it introduces heart rate tracking during the daytime, so you can finally see how your heart is doing during exercise. Oura previously avoided that metric, in part because it billed its device as more of a sleep aid than a fitness tracker.
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Oura and Movano aren't the only smart ring options. Walmart recently began selling a $299 "heart and blood oxygen wellness monitor" made by Prevention (a magazine and healthcare company) called the circul+ Smart Ring(Opens in a new tab). It's substantially more bulky, and one reviewer described it(Opens in a new tab) as "less smart than its rivals" thanks to a limited feature set. But if Walmart is getting into the game, you know something's up.
A number of other smart rings(Opens in a new tab), the crowdfunded kind, claim to be coming to market in 2022. There's the ArcX (designed for exercise, including a stopwatch), the Circular (more for sleepers, including circadian rhythm tracking), and the Go2Sleep (an odd design which will track the strength of your pulse). We'll believe them when we see them in production. There are also smart rings that aren't focused on fitness or sleep. Instead, they serve as fobs that you can use to lock or unlock(Opens in a new tab), or to pay for your sandwich(Opens in a new tab) at the store (like Apple Pay, but on a ring).
Don't bet on smart rings replacing smartwatches any time soon. But they are increasingly looking like a complimentary gadget for tech lovers and tastemakers with extra money on their hands. With 2022 shaping up to be a battle between Oura, Movano and a host of Hobbit-like underdogs, we could easily end the year with one smart ring to rule them all.
Theres a huge sale on cheap home stuff from Amazon Basics
Save up to 20%: As of Sept. 30, a ton of Amazon Basics(Opens in a new tab) items are on sale as a Deal of the Day, including a great selection of home items under $50.
Between the shift in seasons and the looming holiday season, your list of stuff to buy (and subsequently, your spending anxiety) is probably growing on a daily basis.
You may be able to check some items off of your list for cheap at this huge Amazon Basics sale(Opens in a new tab), running as a Deal of the Day ahead of Amazon's second Prime event of the year. Tons of home items — kitchen gear, bathroom towels, dumbbells, and more — are on sale, with many hitting the "under $50" or "under $20" cutoff.
Items under other Amazon private brands, from furniture to stainless steel wine glasses, are also strewn throughout the list of deals.
The official deal terminology says "up to 20% off," but savings are closer to 50% off on a lot of items, and finding 'em doesn't require digging to the eleventh page of the sale. Feel free to peruse the whole thing on your own(Opens in a new tab), of course, or take a quick glance at our favorite deals:
Amazon Basics 8-Piece Airtight Food Storage Containers(Opens in a new tab)
Organization TikTok, rise up. This set of eight round and rectangle food storage containers can take your pantry from chaotic to coordinated, and they'd make a great wedding gift, too. The airtight lid is ideal for keeping dry goods like sugar, coffee, and cereal fresh.
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Credit: Amazon Basics
Amazon Basics 8-Piece Airtight Food Storage Containers
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$32.94 at Amazon (save $9.43)
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Amazon Basics 6-Piece Nonstick Bakeware Set(Opens in a new tab)
The first step toward doing all of that fall baking you've been talking up? Having something to bake in. This nonstick bakeware set should cover your bases: It consists of six carbon steel pans (a loaf pan, two round 9-inch cake pans, a 12-cup muffin pan, a roast pan, and a baking sheet) that can go in the oven.
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Amazon Basics 6-Piece Nonstick Bakeware Set
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Amazon Basics Hanging Closet Shelf(Opens in a new tab)
Anyone living in a college dorm could probably use one of these bad boys. This sturdy fabric shelf has six tiers and can hang on a wall or on the back of a door, creating extra storage space for towels, shoes, or sweaters.
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Amazon Basics Hanging Closet Shelf
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#PeopleOverPrime: Gen-Z TikTokkers are organizing against Amazon
Prominent Gen-Z TikTok(Opens in a new tab) creators and influencers are organizing against Amazon in solidarity with the Amazon Labor Union, refusing Amazon sponsorships and the monetization of their individual platforms for Amazon.
The campaign, entitled "People Over Prime"(Opens in a new tab) and coordinated by advocacy group Gen Z for Change(Opens in a new tab), consists of 70 creators who have a collective following of 51 million users. The hashtag #PeopleOverPrime has gained traction not only on TikTok(Opens in a new tab), but across Twitter too(Opens in a new tab).
In a public letter(Opens in a new tab) addressed to Amazon.com, the coalition writes that they are "calling on Amazon to listen to their workers and make tangible changes to their workplace environment."
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These proposed changes, set by the ALU(Opens in a new tab) from the JFK8 and LDJ5 warehouses in Staten Island, include $30/hour minimum wage and better conditions for Amazon workers — such as better medical leave, additional paid time off, an hour-long paid lunch break, and ditching "productivity rates that require workers to pick a certain number of items an hour."
SEE ALSO:
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Gen Z for Change also demanded the halting of all anti-union tactics used by Amazon in the past, including threats of reduced pay(Opens in a new tab) and hosting compulsory anti-union meetings(Opens in a new tab).
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The group finished the letter highlighting the magnitude of TikTok as a platform, and in turn, the influence creators have: "TikTok has 1 billion monthly active users. Unless changes are made, we will prevent Amazon from monetizing one of the largest social media platforms in the world."
Elise Joshi(Opens in a new tab), the deputy executive director of Gen-Z for Change, told Mashable, "We have always known how essential creators are to the Amazon marketing model. Creators, especially TikTok creators, are Amazon's gateway to young people. Amazon knows how much power creators have, and People Over Prime is meant to take that power back and insist they listen to the demands of the Amazon Labor Union."
"Amazon isn't listening to the needs of workers, but they do care about their bottom line. That is what we hope to do with this pledge," she says.
The Washington Post(Opens in a new tab) first reported the story, pointing towards the rising trend of TikTok as a tool for pro-union advocacy. Earlier this year, Gen-Z for Change flooded Starbucks with fake job applications(Opens in a new tab), after the company actively opposed unionization efforts(Opens in a new tab) — efforts that are ongoing today.(Opens in a new tab)
The People Over Prime pledge was not organized by the ALU, but the union's president, Chris Smalls(Opens in a new tab), told WaPo that there is a natural alignment between the two communities. "It’s a good fight to take on because Amazon definitely is afraid of how we used TikTok during our campaigns," he told the news outlet.
ALU chairman Derrick Palmer also tweeted about the campaign, quote tweeting(Opens in a new tab) Joshi(Opens in a new tab). "Thank you for your support. Myself and @amazonlabor(Opens in a new tab) appreciate it #Solidarity(Opens in a new tab) ✊🏽," he wrote.
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Earlier this year, the ALU celebrated a victory when Amazon workers at a Staten Island warehouse voted to unionize.
Amazon has been attempting to forge stronger relationships with creators of late, pushing influencer coverage as a dominant marketing strategy. The company launched the Amazon Influencer Program(Opens in a new tab) in 2017, allowing creators to monetize their platforms by recommending Amazon products. More recently, they flew a select group of creators to a luxury retreat(Opens in a new tab) in Mexico, including TikTok stars.
The People Over Prime campaign could prove a roadblock in Amazon's mission to recruit scores of digital celebrities to promote the company online. TikTok is proving to be a replacement search engine and rising source of news for younger users, cementing its influence for the demographic. The pressure, for Amazon, is on.
UPDATE: Aug. 19, 2022, 4:42 p.m. EDT Included comment from Gen Z for Change representative.
Donald Trump killed his recently created blog and honestly thats a very blogger move
At least it lasted longer than Scaramucci.
Former President Donald Trump's recently created blog has been shuttered just one month after it debuted.
The outlet was dubbed "From the Desk of Donald J. Trump" — and it basically served as a platform for Trump to moan about his problems...so...it was a blog.
As so many blogs have, it fizzled soon after being started and now it is dead. The platform "will not be returning," Jason Miller, a senior Trump aide, told CNBC(Opens in a new tab).
"It was just auxiliary to the broader efforts we have and are working on," Miller said.
Trump only needed "From the Desk of" because he's been booted from nearly every major online platform after he inspired an insurrection at the nation's Capitol. In fact, the blog was created(Opens in a new tab) on May 4, just one day before the Facebook Oversight Board was slated to announce a decision on Trump's suspension from its platforms. The Board upheld the suspension but kicked the ultimate decision down the road.
Folks were quick to react to the news of Trump killing his blog because, honestly, it might be the most relatable thing he's ever done. Who hasn't hastily created a blog before spiking it a few weeks later?
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Of course, the former president might just be prepping for the launch of some new media venture. After all, the blogging world didn't seem to suit Trump in the same way as rage tweeting or doing Fox News interviews. Also an NBC News report(Opens in a new tab) last month found hardly anybody was reading "From the Desk."
An inside look at how Bidens campaign is winning the viral merch game
Joe Biden's campaign has mastered the art of making memorable merch.
As with any candidate's site, the vice president's online shop(Opens in a new tab) is full of apparel, accessories, and other unique ways for supporters to publicly show their Biden/Harris pride. But over the past two weeks — since the New York Times(Opens in a new tab) reported(Opens in a new tab) that Donald Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency and another $750 his first year in office — the Biden campaign has seriously stepped up its merch game.
After seeing people express outrage over Trump's shockingly low income tax payments, Biden's campaign released buttons(Opens in a new tab), stickers(Opens in a new tab), and shirts(Opens in a new tab) that said "I Paid More In Taxes Than Donald Trump." Then following the first presidential debate on Sept. 29, the team created "Will you shut up, man?" shirts to commemorate Biden's blunt reaction to Trump.
On Wednesday night, during the first and only vice presidential debate, the team once again had a pitch perfect response to the fly that landed on Mike Pence's head mid-debate: a Biden/Harris fly swatter featuring the clever pun, "Truth Over Flies."
The Biden team has been heavily praised online for so quickly responding to the news and finding ways to take part in viral moments. Mashable spoke with Zach McNamara, merchandise director for the Biden campaign, about the team's successful merch strategy and how they've managed to brainstorm, design, and sell these products in such a timely manner.
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McNamara gave us a little behind-the-scenes peek into how the merch gets made, explaining, "When something like the tax story comes up, or we have unifying moments during debates, like we saw last night […] there is a Slack channel where we come together and start to throw out ideas. And you know, like nine out of 10 them will not work. But a lot of times one of them will."
Once the now infamous debate fly started trending on social media and the campaign tweeted an old photo of Biden(Opens in a new tab) holding a swatter, everything fell into place merch-wise. The team found fly swatters that were union-made in the U.S. (like all items in the store), they came up with the pun that played off of Biden's "Truth Over Lies" quote (which is featured on other campaign merch(Opens in a new tab)), and they created the product mockup.
Within an hour of the fly landing on Pence's head, Biden's team had the fly swatters for sale on the site. Within 24 hours, the campaign had completely sold out of them. In the end, supporters snagged nearly 35,000 swatters, and though the product had some lighthearted inspiration behind it, Biden's team hopes people focus on the deeper message it carries.
Bye, fly swatter.Credit: store.joebiden.com
"Yes, the fly swatter thing is cute and of the moment, but what's printed on it — the allusion to truth over lies — I think is a key reason why it resonated and why we sold so many, because we consistently see that those products that feature those short, simple phrases are among our bestsellers always," McNamara said.
The "Will you shut up, man?" shirts, which featured Biden's quote atop an image of Trump's face, were also massively popular and sold out the day after the first presidential debate. But the clever merch isn't just there to make people laugh. It also helps drive current and potential supporters to explore the site, inspires them to learn more about Biden and Harris as candidates, and, of course, raises money for the campaign.
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The witty items that piggyback on viral moments clearly get a lot of attention online and are a big hit with supporters, but interestingly they're not the campaign's biggest sellers — not by a long shot.
"Biden-Harris yard signs are the most popular item on the store virtually every hour of every day, every week. And we've sold just an ungodly amount of those. Ever since we put them up the day Senator Harris's selection was announced," McNamara said.
"Lighthearted and fun is not something that we get a lot in Donald Trump's America."
The online store also features other items including apparel printed with Harris and Biden's go-to fashion accessories(Opens in a new tab) (Chuck Taylors and aviator sunglasses), virtual Animal Crossing merch, bottles of hand sanitizer(Opens in a new tab) with Biden's COVID-19 plan printed on the label, and several campaign collabs with professional designers(Opens in a new tab).
Though the team will be winding down rolling out new production as November draws near, supporters can expect a few more surprises to hit the shop before election day.
Ultimately, the goal is to strike the perfect balance between stressing the political gravity of this election and providing some much-needed comedic relief.
"It's a very, very serious campaign. Everybody knows that. There's possibly never been a more serious time for our country, certainly in all of our lives. But that doesn't mean that we can't have some lighthearted moments," McNamara said. "Joe and Kamala themselves, they are fundamentally lighthearted people. We don't only love them for their policies and their experience and what they've done for this country. They're good people. And lighthearted and fun is not something that we get a lot in Donald Trump's America."
We asked TikTok baristas about Riddlers question mark latte art in The Batman trailer
In the new trailer for the upcoming move The Batman starring Robert Pattinson, there are explosions, balls of fire, gritty voiceovers about retribution, and...latte art?
Yep, one of the most talked-about moments involves a cup of coffee. Specifically, an artisanal flat white with a foam pour that depicts Batman villain Riddler's (Paul Dano) calling card: A question mark.
"I think the latte art really stole the show," Rohan Cooke, a long-time Melbourne barista who runs the TikTok account(Opens in a new tab) for his coffee roastery, gear, and media company, Golden Brown Coffee(Opens in a new tab), said.
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The opening scene of the trailer shows (probably) Paul Dano, who plays Riddler, sitting at the counter of a grimy late night diner. The cops bust in, and he puts up no fight as he's taken into custody. The camera then pans to the coffee mug sitting in front of him, showing the message in the coffee, the question mark.
If latte art could ever be menacing, this is it.
Terror, thy name is latte art.Credit: Warner bros / screenshot by mashable
But, of course, the internet has questions. How did Riddler get this latte art? Did he specifically ask the server for it? Or is Riddler himself the artist working at the diner, which would make the man at the counter taken into custody a faker? How did he happen to have a perfectly formed, non-faded question mark latte art in front of him at the exactly moment he was hauled away by the cops?
"I like to think that the Riddler received his latte with just a circle of milk foam on top of his latte and then drew the question mark himself, perhaps with a spoon or utensil," barista Morgan Eckroth, a latte art pro who has 5.4 million followers on their TikTok, @morgandrinkscoffee(Opens in a new tab), said. "Or even with his finger, perhaps!"
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Yes, yes, the answer to most of these questions is Because The Movies. But we all know that's not good enough.
Mashable spoke with TikTok baristas Eckroth and Cooke for their takes on the mystery of the question mark latte art.
1) How is the question mark latte possible?
Eckroth: "The latte art that was shown in the trailer is probably not possible through a "free pour". Since the question mark is of a darker color and placed within a circle of milk foam, it would have had to be hand-drawn on top of the milk foam after adding it to the latte. It'd take a good amount of knowledge and steady hands to make something as crisp and precise as what was shown."
Cooke: "The one in the video looks fantastic. Whoever did that had a lot of skill. But for any other barista, you need to steam the milk, pour it into the center to create that big white circle, and then with another shot of espresso, you can spoon around the creamer to make that question mark on the top.
"The funny thing with this latte art, is that normally latte art would be a brown background with a white drawing. But obviously the director really wanted the question mark to stand out, so they've inversed the colors to really make it pop."
Spooky!
2) How do you think this latte appeared before the Riddler just at the right moment before his arrest? Good timing on the barista's part!
Cooke: "He must have been working in cahoots with the barista behind the bar for that coffee to arrive just at the right time.
"The other theory is that the Riddler was a barista in a past life. I can tell you as a barista, making hundreds of coffees a day, you can go a little loopy. So maybe there's a new origin story."
3) How long does latte art last before it starts to lose its shape?
Eckroth: "Latte art will generally begin to lose its shape after a few minutes. I'd say that it's a pretty safe bet to say that your latte art will begin to look very blob-like after five minutes, when the milk and air have really started to separate."
Cooke: "Latte art isn't necessarily going to lose its shape. But between 2-5 minutes, it's going to start to bubble, it's going to start to dissipate. So we can safely say by the latte art sitting on the counter, that that was fresh. That milk looks silky, and looks all one texture. So you know that that was definitely put down in the last 30 seconds or one minute."
Hmmm, Eckroth's finger drawing method is sounding more and more convincing... Unless the barista was in on it!
4) Did you find it odd that this latte art appeared in what seemed like a dingy diner?
Cooke: "That was my first thought, I'm thinking, do they have an espresso machine? Do they have the equipment to be pulling this? You'd think he was behind the counter at a Stumptown or Blue Bottle."
(Please enjoy this re-creation of the Riddler latte art by Rohan Cooke and the Golden Brown Coffee TikTok, posted on Instagram).
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5) As a master latte artist, how did it feel to see latte art appear in a trailer for a huge new movie?
Eckroth: "It was quite exciting! It's always fun to see an everyday part of my job appear in such a major way in pop culture. While not a traditional latte art pour, I think the shot of the question mark in milk foam was very clever."
Cooke: "If you had asked me beforehand, do you think latte art is going to appear in the new Batman trailer, I'd never think that that was going to be the case."
6) What would you do if a customer (the Riddler??) asked for a question mark in their latte?
Eckroth: "I'd absolutely oblige to the best of my ability! I've actually had customers request designs before and while they're not always possible, it's a fun challenge to do something out of the ordinary."
Cooke: "To be honest, I've been asked to draw a lot worse things. So probably wouldn't think twice about it. However, if the police raided my cafe, I probably think the question mark was a little suspicious. Careful for anyone who gets a question mark in their coffee. If you do, it's probably time to get out of there."
