High Low Brow

We're at the end of Pride Month and wow, what a Pride Month it has been. The U.S. Supreme Court justice just overturned Roe vs Wade and there are rumblings that same-sex marriages are next. 👀😡 Wow, we hate it here, officially.

So perhaps to get our minds off things, it's time for our latest episode. It's our next installment in this month's all Pride-related content! 🌈✨🌈 This week's episode focuses on why millennials (specifically queer millennials) are so obsessed with astrology. We decided to invite on to High Low Brow one of our favourite writers and astrologers, Jeanna Kadlec.  The creator of the newsletter, Astrology for Writers and author of the upcoming novel, Heretic (to be released in October 2022) - we chat with Kadlec about astrology as a form of social, cultural currency in the queer community.

Throughout the episode, we try to unpack the good, bad and the ugly when it comes to the cosmos: 

• The power of astrology and how in some instances it is replacing religion
• How do some people use astrology as a crutch to replace their problematic behaviour  
• How can astrology be political
• Are astrological memes and other social media tropes hurtful or harmful to those looking for guidance?
• Is there a reason why traditional astrology is so fucking gendered?
• Are tarot, astrology, and witchcraft the same? Why do people often get these confused?
• Then we take a quick break for a segment where Ama chats with Mecca Woods, a New York City-based astrologer, and horoscopes and astro-guidance have appeared in places like Bustle and Essence, as well as on TLC. Mecca chats with Ama about the ethics of astrology and why we need to respect it. 
• Finally, we play a game where we take a Buzzfeed quiz to figure out if it can ACCURATELY figure out what our astrology sign is based on random questions it asks us. The answers may shock you! 

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Further Reading on this Topic!

1. The Rise of the Queer Astrology Movement - VICE
2. Meet the Queer Skeptics Who Hate Astrology - THEM
3. Queer Astrology: Why LGBTQ People Seek Answers in the Stars - LOGO
4. Astrology is booming, and it's queerer than ever -Mashable
5. The importance of astrology in online queer communities - Hello Giggles 

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June is Pride Month – a chance for the LGBTQ+ community to celebrate the progress that's been made, and this season on High Low Brow, we are dedicating the month of June to all Pride-related content! 🌈✨🌈

For our very first Pride-related episode, we're exploring how corporations prioritize profit over the LGBTQ+ community in our exploring Rainbow Capitalism with Toronto-based sober trans journalist Niko Stratis, who also just recently launched their own podcast V/A Club. 

As Pride month rolls around each June, big brands put out Pride merchandise seemingly as a sign of solidarity, so we use the episode to unpack with Niko how brands and individuals approach marketing during Pride month. We use this episode to unpack the following with Niko: 

• Why is rainbow capitalism so harmful to the queer community?
• Since we all know it's pandering, how exactly can brands/corporates show up for marginalized communities throughout the year (or ever)?
• Reminding people that Pride Month was originally about progress and protest.
• Who gets left out when brands and corporations control the narrative of Pride Month.
• Then we take a quick break for a segment where Ama chats with Muslim queer artist and writer Hana Shafi aka Frizz Kid about how individuals need to support queer artists 365 days a year, rather than one month.
• Finally, we play a game and we use an AI Generator to make our own Pride "merch" - you'll die laughing hearing the results and you need to check out what they look like on our Instagram.

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Further Reading on this Topic!

1.  How Marketers Mess Up Pride Month - Fast Company
2. The Best Part Of Pride Is Making Fun Of Rainbow Capitalism - Refinery 29
3. After Pride, corporations will "ditch these gays" but the harm will already be done - Salon
4. How LGBTQ Pride Month became a branded holiday - VOX
5. What Is Rainbow Capitalism, And Why Is It Bad - Defiant

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The summer is here and things are starting to get hot 💦 For our seventh episode of the season, we were so happy to chat with Toronto-based writer, performer, and sex worker advocate Andrea Werhun about the art of thirst traps. These sexually suggestive selfies are posted on social media by celebs and everyday folks to attract attention. We use this episode to unpack the following with Andrea: 

• How empowering taking a thirst trap can be
• Is there anything that can be risky when sending these photos, such as revenge porn?
• How are celebs currently weaponizing or capitalizing off thirst traps for their own gain?
• Can thirst traps be feminist or are they all rooted in misogyny?
• Then we take a quick break for a segment where Ama chats with Gwen Adora, 2022 PornHub Top BBW Model, to give their best tips on taking thirst traps, gaining confidence in your body, and posting images that won't get you banned.
• Finally, we wrap up the episode by playing a game rating some of the best of the worst thirst traps on the Internet from celebs

Please purchase Andrea Werhun's brand new memoir, Modern Whore, out now at local bookshops! 

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Further Reading on this Topic!

Thirst Traps are Body Positive, Too - The Root
Quit Worrying and Embrace the Thirst Trap - The Cut
Thirst Trapping: The Good, the Bad, and the Likes - Greatist
11 Ways to Take the Perfect Thirst Trap Photo - Cosmopolitan

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Not only has another two weeks gone by (so quick!) but we're happy to be celebrating our 1 year anniversary of podcasting! 🥳 For our sixth episode of the season (and our mid-way point of season two), we're happy to bring on two guests we've been looking forward to all season: Natalie Franklin of everyone's favourite Instagram parody account, Nori's Black Book. But if we were getting into who is behind the curtain of these parody accounts and making a living from living and having a blast living the life of these "celebs", we had to ask the one and only Jordan Ross Meyers behind the Twitter handles of Donn Gunvalson and Lee Radziwill and co-host of the Pretty Corrupt podcast.

To take us through all the twists and turns and social media wizardry of being a parody account, both Natalie and Jordan walk Ameema and Ama through the good, bad, and ugly of parody life.  Throughout the episode we also discuss: 

• What research and time go into maintaining their accounts?
• How often do people confuse their accounts with real individuals?
• Are there any risks involved when portraying celebs or have they had any celebrity encounters?
• Do they have to step back to realize how powerful their voice can be sometimes - why or why not?
• Then during our very first segment, Ama took a minute to interview Jill Krajewski, a freelance journalist based out of Toronto, who started the Kids in the Hall No Context Twitter account during the pandemic. The account just recently hit 12k followers, and Jill talks to us about how the show has found a new audience via the No Context account, how KITH is super queer and why accounts like these matter! 
• Then Jordan and Natalie give us their tales of legal woes, celebrity encounters, and what boundaries they've had to make while maintaining these accounts. 
• We then wrap the episode up to where Ama, Ameema, Natalie, and Jordan play a game discussing what parody accounts they would have loved to make.

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Further Reading on this Topic!

Nori’s Black Book creator opens up about Kim Kardashian sliding into her DMs and getting blocked by KUWTK stars - Metro
The parody accounts that make Twitter bearable in the era of Trump - Mashable
Why Twitter parody accounts should stay anonymous - The New Yorker
Spoofs, lies, and re-tweets: is it safe to make parodies online? - BBC
Parody accounts cause laughs but have a shady side - Desert News

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Oh hi, we're so happy to see you're back! We are dropping episode 5 of S2 today, and it's a fun one! For this week's episode, we are exploring the gay history of wrestling and how it's really a form of athletic storytelling or heck, performance art akin to drag. To take us through the history and make a case for why this matters, Nova-Scotia-based winner of Masterchef Canada and pro wrestler Jennifer E. Crawford talks us through everything and shares with us their story of how they developed Moon Miss, their wrestling persona. Throughout the episode we also discuss: 

• How wrestling is the purest iteration of camp
• How wrestling can foster a deep curiosity about our bodies and their relationship to them
• OK, but are drag and wrestling really that similar?
• Then to follow up with that, Ama has a segment with Eric Shorey aka DJ Accident Report, a Brooklyn-based freelance pop culture journalist who is one-third of The Nobodies, a supergroup with a penchant for pro-wrestling, and we discuss how wrestling has become queerer
• Just how safe can the wrestling community be for queer folks?
• Finally, all three of us play a game where Ama and Ameema try to create their own wrestling personas and Jennifer helps them create a backstory

If you liked what you heard, maybe think about rating us!  You can also find all our social links by visiting our Lnk.Bio page. Heck, if you want - leave us a voicemail. We love to answer questions from our listeners or take suggestions about what you'd like us to cover. Maybe we'll even feature it in a future show!  Hell, if you even want to support us (we're a small team and a lot of work goes into what you hear today) then we would love it if you send us a few bucks via our Ko-Fi! All the money helps us with production costs and creating the podcast you hear today.

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Further Reading on this Topic!

1. Pro Wrestling Is Super Gay Now - them
2. Queer Performers Making Space in Wrestling - KALW
3. What Do Drag and Wrestling Have in Common? More Than You Think! - VICE
4. Wrestling's Gay History and Optimistic Future - Pro Wrestling Stories

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Support the show (https://ko-fi.com/highlowbrowpod)