Do you have a minute to catch up on all the internet discourse? Whether that’s Beyoncé revealing parts of her infamously private life, an article by The Cut on the subculture of women living in West Village or some celebrity’s panties, this month has been confusing as hell. Never fret, however! Daily Arts writers have got you covered. Sit down, maybe by an ocean, maybe with an umbrella and start reading!
— Ben Luu and Campbell Johns, Summer Managing Arts Editors
“It Must Be Nice to Be a West Village Girl” by Brock Colyar from The Cut
Journalist Brock Colyar’s “It Must Be Nice to Be a West Village Girl” has rocked the internet since its release. Colyar goes down an investigative rabbit hole in which they uncover what exactly is happening to the West Village of Manhattan. Specifically, they highlight the pervasive homogenization that is perpetuated by the so-called “West Village girl” — a subculture that has, according to Colyar, turned West Village into a bustling sorority house. Their inquiry led them to point to social media, along with the ebb and flow of culture, as the primary sources of this homogenization.
What I find interesting about the article is how oddly proactive this process is. When I think about cultural change, it is usually directly in reaction to something. Beatniks responded to the squares, and hippies evolved from beatniks. Punks responded to rock’s extravagance, and ironically, the straight edges responded to punk’s extravagance. Yet here, the subculture isn’t as localized or focused: The West Village girls aren’t responding to any specific New York subculture. Rather, the girls simply like New York as a playground for the excesses of post-grad youth, and they’ve chosen the West Village as their rendezvous.
On one hand, it’s a bit sad to see the vapidity of this subculture, but Reddit user Live-Art2939 brings up a good point.
“I mean who is actually more insufferable? Girls who are self aware enough to say they’re basic and own it? Pretentious self important artsy dickheads in Bushwick who pretend they don’t come from the same cloth?”
When it comes down to it, I’m more disheartened that the world is getting flatter, that everywhere is getting same-y. Who wants to go to the West Village and have it be like frat row? Then again, I’m not a West Village Girl, so I wouldn’t know how nice that must be.
Summer Managing Arts Editor Ben Luu can be reached at benllv@umich.edu.
Beyoncé is back!
Beyoncé just kicked off her summer-long “Cowboy Carter and the Rodeo Chitlin’ Circuit Tour,” and the internet is buzzing. Immediately after opening night, social media flooded with outfit inspo and merch reviews, setlist speculation and concert live streams. But Beyoncé isn’t the only thing fans are focused on. In fact, most online discussions of the tour have glossed right over Beyoncé and instead zeroed in on two surprise tour co-stars: her daughters, Rumi and Blue Ivy Carter.
Did I mention that these are Beyoncé’s daughters? That’s a big deal for fans. Beyoncé is a notoriously private celebrity. She’s a pro at protecting her personal life, never seen publicly unless she wants to be. The only time you can guarantee a Beyoncé sighting is when she goes on tour. Bringing her daughters on that tour blurs the line between her public and private life in a totally revolutionary way for the superstar. To be fair, neither of the girls have huge roles on the “Cowboy Carter” tour. Seven-year-old Rumi only comes on stage for the song “Protector,” where she stands alongside her mother while she serenades her. “Protector” is clearly about Beyoncé’s relationship with her children, so it makes sense to let Rumi soak up some of the applause alongside her mom. Clips of the performance have exploded online: The performance is gorgeous, and Rumi’s awestruck reaction to the crowd’s applause is undeniably adorable.
Discourse surrounding Blue Ivy has taken on a slightly different tone. She has joined Beyoncé on-stage before, appearing occasionally as a backup dancer for some recent Beyoncé performances. In these past appearances, she’s seemed like an uncertain kid. On the “Cowboy Carter” tour, she has become a full-fledged dance powerhouse, performing right alongside the tour’s professional dancers without batting an eye. TikTok and Instagram are filled with clips of her dancing, usually followed by praise for the 13-year-old’s flawless technique and impressive stage presence. It’s led to some pretty intense online speculation. Is Blue Ivy the next big thing? Is Beyoncé setting her up for a career of her own? Can she sing? Is she the only tolerable nepo baby? It’s a little uncomfortable to put this much scrutiny on a kid who mostly just seems to like dancing, but it’s also hard not to wonder what Blue Ivy and Rumi’s presence means for Beyoncé’s larger legacy.
By allowing her daughters on stage with her, Beyoncé has given fans permission to understand her as not just a performer, but as a mother. Suddenly, Beyoncé is not just Beyoncé. She’s a “Protector,” a parent, a champion of her children’s dreams. It’s provided an intimate window into one of the world’s most unknowable stars. As Beyoncé moves onto her second tour stop in Chicago, it’ll be interesting to see if Blue Ivy and Rumi continue to appear with her. Either way, the online chatter has started, and a new Beyoncé era has begun. She’s a mother now, and she wants to be publicly seen as one. Expect to hear lots more about Beyoncé, Blue Ivy and Rumi as they appear (or disappear) across their many upcoming tour stops.
Daily Arts Writer Lola D’Onofrio can be reached at lolad@umich.edu.
The Ocean Vuong of it all
It’s safe to say that Ocean Vuong is one of literature’s rising Gen Z darlings. His first novel, “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous,” was a hit on BookTok during the pandemic, and his breakout poetry collection “Night Sky With Exit Wounds” won him the T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry at only age 29. His latest release is a novel, “The Emperor of Gladness,” and in the wake of Andrea Long Chu’s scathing Vulture piece on the book, some users on X, as users on X tend to do, have confessed a mysteriously silent yet long-held contempt for the diasporic poet’s habit of packaging his culture for white audiences.
Long Chu discusses how the poet has taken on prose and crafting characters in this new novel, but what X users have latched onto is her lengthy background discussion about how most of his early work just fundamentally misunderstands and flattens the culture that he attempts to be an ambassador for. Users claim that his work wields a “self-orientalization.” Others defend the poet, describing Long Chu’s criticisms as more of a preference.
This discourse fits into a cultural dilemma a lot of Americans and descendants of immigrants face: It speaks not only to the awkwardness of finding your relatives and your reality at odds with each other, but also to how fast those descendants really become othered from the culture of their parents. It asks, when does this lens, intentionally or unintentionally, simply become another selling point?
I always love some guerilla arts criticism, even if it’s in the depths of my doom scroll — at least this time it feels a bit more insightful and reflective, less pitchforks and calls to cancel Ocean Vuong.
Daily Arts Writer Cora Rolfes can be reached at corolfes@umich.edu.
Saudi Arabia is ruining fighting games with the help of … Cristiano Ronaldo?
The announcement of FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves was received with open arms and widespread excitement — a new entry in the iconic Fatal Fury series, and a follow-up to the cult classic Garou: Mark of the Wolves to boot. The game looked amazing, and while I’m not normally a fan of SNK’s games, the recent beta won me over: It felt fluid, fun and mechanically complex, with cool, unique and legendary characters. It was a great mix of novelty and familiarity, and a game I couldn’t wait to get my hands on when it launched. Hell, I thought it might even be the game that gets me to drop Guilty Gear Strive.
All this crumbled when, soon after the beta period ended, SNK announced that Cristiano Ronaldo would be added to the game. Not a costume, not a gimmick — a full-fledged character, right next to Rock Howard, Mai Shiranui and the like — Cristiano fucking Ronaldo. Now, it’s not the first time that a real person has been added to a fighting game (after all, the last four entries in the Mortal Kombat series have been full of ridiculous, unbelievable crossovers), but it is the first time this has happened in Fatal Fury, a series that normally cares so much about its lore and characters. Needless to say, everybody was pissed off, and rightfully so. Instead of getting a new or returning character, we got a publicity stunt. It’s no coincidence that Al-Nassr, Ronaldo’s current club, and SNK are both owned by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman: Ronaldo’s addition was likely and chosen by SNK’s new ownership, the Saudi foundation, whose involvement we were assured wouldn’t affect the games at all. Besides, Ronaldo has absolutely no connection to fighting games (just watch his interview about the game — he does not give a singular shit), faces charges of tax evasion and credible allegations of sexual assault. It’s not a great look for the game or SNK as a whole.
While there was heavy backlash toward his inclusion, it at least made some sense to add a mega-celebrity that would likely boost the game’s sales. What made far less sense was the later announcement of Salvatore Ganacci, a Bosnian DJ with barely more than 700,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. Compared to Ronaldo, he’s a complete nobody; so why was he added? It’s actually quite simple: He worked on some original music for the game’s soundtrack. Oh, and he’s performing in Riyadh soon, which I’m sure has absolutely nothing to do with it — his connections to the Saudi royal family are surely coincidental, and SNK’s choice to include a random DJ over one of the hundreds of returning characters they could have chosen was a unique and justifiable artistic decision.
Unfortunately, the Saudi royal family’s hands aren’t just in SNK’s pockets, as they’ve also started to invest in fighting games more broadly. The Esports World Cup (10 guesses as to who is funding this event) has the largest prize pool in esports history, and in its huge pool of games for 2025 are City of the Wolves, Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8. Even worse, Capcom’s own tour is now fully integrated with the Esports World Cup, meaning that the Riyadh event is a central part of the circuit that keeps Street Fighter (and other fighting games) as viable, livable esports. With EWC joining the street fighting scene, esports organizations are looking to sponsor players to attend the event — organizations are only entering the fighting game space again because of the Saudi royal family’s involvement. I shouldn’t have to spell out why this is a bad thing. Players are being strong-armed into participating in this sportswashing project, and players that won’t or can’t go to EWC, while women and LGBTQ+ people that might feel unsafe in Saudi Arabia get fewer opportunities. There are still players and commentators that refuse to participate in this buffoonery, and for that I am extremely grateful — but the City of the Wolves crossover characters show that the Saudi royal family’s involvement in fighting games is only going to grow unless the community takes an even stronger stand against it, something that I highly doubt will happen.
Daily Arts Writer Ariel Litwak can be reached at arilit@umich.edu.
Met Gala 2025: More fucking umbrellas and Rosa Parks panties?
Every first Monday in May, Met Gala mayhem ensues. This year, Louis Vuitton has a lot to atone for after two major controversies involving musicians wearing LV. Before her Met Gala debut, American rapper and singer Doechii was caught on video cursing out her team to conceal her outfit — an LV suit set with knee-length shorts instead of classic slacks.
“I’m ready. No, stop. Give me another umbrella now — and another. I need more fucking umbrellas,” Doechii said.
Viral TikTok videos circulated the Internet, prompting comments like “Omg the attitude is like the mean pop stars in movies” and “who she think she is.” Keeping things on TikTok, Doechii responded with a lighthearted video with on-screen text reading “God forbid a girl needs more umbrellas.” Her caption added more insight.
“All jokes aside this was such an overstimulating night but I wouldn’t trade it for the world! This was the night we all dreamed of and my team killed it (umbrellas aside),” Doechii wrote.
I guess her anxiety got the better of her. As of now, no one has heard from the team members who were on the receiving end of Doechii’s outburst.
While Doechii’s behavior was a catalyst for gossip, K-pop star Lisa didn’t even have to utter a word to go viral (for the wrong reasons). Participating in the Met Gala theme “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” the BLACKPINK member adorned a suit jacket, bodysuit and tights, with the crotch area of the bodysuit revealed. The internet immediately pointed out the female portraits designed on the crotch area, claiming one in particular resembled Rosa Parks. With this design commissioned by Pharrell Williams, a Louis Vuitton creative director, and crafted by artist Henry Taylor, the world was indignantly wondering how a Rosa Parks-themed crotch could possibly be approved. However, this debacle was quickly proven to be a misunderstanding, as a representative for Taylor clarified.
“The faces seen on this look, as well as on previous LV garments featuring Taylor’s artwork, are all drawn from his personal life — family members, friends, and neighbors … None of the individuals depicted in any of the garments are Rosa Parks or other well-known figures from Black cultural history. They are all people from Henry’s own life,” the representative’s statement said.
Once again, the internet did what it does best — jumping to conclusions. Somehow, it assumed that a portrait of a bespectacled woman must be Rosa Parks. No, the world isn’t quite ready for a civil rights lingerie-themed Met Gala.
Daily Arts Writer Tara Wasik can be reached at tarawas@umich.edu.
