Wow, I just stayed up until midnight reading this. I don't understand Natalie's point of view. Does she think she deserves credit for Caroline's fame? If so, I'm not convinced.
Caroline is a selfish person, and her Creativity Workshop for $165 sounds like highway robbery. But it definitely seems like she's the creative genius of the two. And I agree with her on this: "She was a self-made woman exploiting a new form of media. 'Women spend too much time apologizing for promoting their work,' she told me."
Caroline's kinda badass, actually. Maybe. I kinda want her to keep winning.
The words "real" and "fake" fell through a black hole of non-meaning over the course of the last decade. Are Kim and Kanye "real" celebrities? If so, why not Caroline? Tons of people cheat the system. Only some are called "scammers."
Totally. It's all about hype. Caroline and Kanye have many things in common, but the most obvious is the singular (and unapologetic) quest for attention and fame. Morals, convictions, and principles are not a part of the equation. (Trump fits the bill, too.) None of these people care how or why they get noticed, they just respond to public opinion and tweak themselves accordingly. More attention = good. Less attention = bad. I think it's a pathology very unique to this time in history.
"Caroline" and "Kanye" are brands, businesses, and art projects.
The use of "promotion" is problematic in that quote because she wasn't just "promoting herself" per se, she was buying fake followers. Whether you're a woman or a man, you might have to apologize for that - or at least expect to get flak for it.
I think Natalie's point of view is: "Nevertheless, I prevailed!" And yeah, she's a great writer and this story is very well told. She lived through (and did) something interesting. It's a little piece of internet history. Publishing this on The Cut is the cherry on top.
The boys from our classes were churning out different versions of Fear and Loathing in Bushwick, but I believed Caroline and I were busting open the form of nonfiction. Instagram is memoir in real time. It’s memoir without the act of remembering. It’s collapsing the distance between writer and reader and critic, which is why it’s true feminist storytelling, I’d argue to Caroline, trying to convince her that a white girl learning to believe in herself could be the height of radicalism (convenient, as I too was a white girl learning to believe in herself).
Wow, I just stayed up until midnight reading this. I don't understand Natalie's point of view. Does she think she deserves credit for Caroline's fame? If so, I'm not convinced.
Caroline is a selfish person, and her Creativity Workshop for $165 sounds like highway robbery. But it definitely seems like she's the creative genius of the two. And I agree with her on this: "She was a self-made woman exploiting a new form of media. 'Women spend too much time apologizing for promoting their work,' she told me."
Caroline's kinda badass, actually. Maybe. I kinda want her to keep winning.
The words "real" and "fake" fell through a black hole of non-meaning over the course of the last decade. Are Kim and Kanye "real" celebrities? If so, why not Caroline? Tons of people cheat the system. Only some are called "scammers."
Did you really just compare Kayne to an fake Instagram fraudster?
Totally. It's all about hype. Caroline and Kanye have many things in common, but the most obvious is the singular (and unapologetic) quest for attention and fame. Morals, convictions, and principles are not a part of the equation. (Trump fits the bill, too.) None of these people care how or why they get noticed, they just respond to public opinion and tweak themselves accordingly. More attention = good. Less attention = bad. I think it's a pathology very unique to this time in history.
"Caroline" and "Kanye" are brands, businesses, and art projects.
Incredible writing - right??
The use of "promotion" is problematic in that quote because she wasn't just "promoting herself" per se, she was buying fake followers. Whether you're a woman or a man, you might have to apologize for that - or at least expect to get flak for it.
I think Natalie's point of view is: "Nevertheless, I prevailed!" And yeah, she's a great writer and this story is very well told. She lived through (and did) something interesting. It's a little piece of internet history. Publishing this on The Cut is the cherry on top.
Oh my god. UNREAL.
Gimme all the Scout points.