the propagation of teenage girl music as the antidote to american capitalism
the propagation of teenage girl music as the antidote to american capitalism
olivia rodrigo for u.s. senate
i spent so many years reading the news, arguing about ideology, struggling to define myself according to made up political concepts, and basically just accumulating information for the purpose of becoming a “serious person” (never achieved this lol).
but in the last two months here on substack, i have stepped into a different world, a world i always knew existed (thanks to immersion in music): a world of feeling, and to me this world of feeling seems so much more real, so much more beautiful than the world of information, the world of seriousness, the world of professionalism.
this is why i always say that the ultimate antidote to the mindless materialism of american capitalism is the relentless propagation of teenage girl culture: not only because teenage girl culture is already a prevalent element in the west, but also because to me teenage girl culture represents the world of feelings, and capitalism represents the world of material, material which is already decaying into nothingness.
and this is why the men who control international capital want you to take teenage girl culture “seriously” enough to spend lots of money on it: but they do not want you to actually integrate teenage girl culture into the workplace, the church, the university classroom, the chambers of the government, the grocery store. some of these men were even upset when i changed my instagram name in july to sparklygoldengoddess. i discovered that my teenage girl interests were unwelcome to some even on fucking instagram! they don’t want their pastors dressing up as teenage girls or their priests wearing bikini kill t-shirts. they do not want to see teenage girls in the board room or in the cubicle or at the think tank conference. and it does not matter to them if you are a woman: they want you to keep your inner teenage girl within certain contained spaces.
they say that teenage girl culture is “unprofessional.”
they say that teenage girl culture is “inappropriate.”
they say that teenage girl culture is “immature.”
and as i understand them, this is basically the extent of their criticisms.
as a result of their attachment to these completely meaningless concepts — “professional,” “appropriate,” “mature” — these people actively oppose the propagation of teenage girl culture.
they do not believe it would be good for society if our senators and presidents dressed up like teenage girls. they do not believe it would be good for our universities if professors showed up to teach dressed up like chappell roan.
they think that teenage girl culture should be contained within bedrooms, high schools, concert venues, and certain corners of the internet (last week i learned that they also do not want to see teenage girl culture on linkedin — several people recently have attempted to teach me the “true purpose of linkedin”).
it’s obvious why these men do not want to see teenage culture in their board rooms.
teenage girl culture to me, at least in the musical setting, is a world of feeling, an opportunity for self-exploration and self-discovery, a world of literal salvation:
teenage girl music is about defying artificially constructed authority:
teenage girl music is about processing your own experiences so you can learn from them and discuss them with others, helping them to benefit as well:
teenage girl music is about viewing the world from feeling rather than information:
and i think that is why when we become “adults” and “professionals,” we slowly lose our connection to music.
but music is so important!!! music saved my life!!!
without music, maybe i’d have been a “serious person” forever.
the men who control international capital want you to see music as an object, a commodity, perhaps even as a token of your identity, but they do not want you to take lessons from that music and bring those lessons into the board room.
they want to define teenage girl culture and teenage girl music as “unserious,” a totally made up concept which they themselves invented, and now they use this concept of “seriousness” to keep teenage girls out of the senate chamber.
i say fuck that.
i say hire me with my haim crocs or fuck off:
i say olivia rodrigo for u.s. senate:
i say that the propagation of teenage girl music, and the application of its lessons to own lives, is not only an enriching experience but a powerful antidote to the inauthenticity, fakeness, and mindless materialism of american capitalism.
capitalism tells you to define yourself according to objects, while teenage girl music asks you to look inward at your feelings.
teenage girl culture is a ready made vehicle in western society for dematerialization, for a refocusing on feeling.
don’t let them stop you from immersing yourself in music.
extract from above post:
We should have compassion for the Lolas.
They have spent years denying their own freedom to make real choices about their lives. They make themselves miserable, put themselves through hell, live in anger toward others, all for no reason, all while telling themselves repeatedly: “this is the real world / must be an adult / must be grown up / must force friend to make money”
Anyone who deviates from this mantra is a threat to the integrity of the capitalist identity drone: the presence of an openly free being reminds the free being trapped within the shell of a capitalist identity drone that yes: you too have always been free.
Of course Lola’s motives don’t necessarily just come from capitalism. There is a sibling dynamic between her and Eileen. Sometimes siblings want familial recognition that they have defeated their fellow siblings in some kind of competition. If their competitor simply drops out and takes a low-paying job at a literary magazine, what does that say about the existence of the competition they supposedly won? The indifference of the free-being sibling toward prestige and money is taken by the identity-drone sibling as an undermining of her own supreme achievements.
Lola clearly believes that, by virtue of her own economic choices to have a “real” job, she is an objectively better person overall than her sister.
Twice Rooney shows us the biting text message Lola writes to Eileen:
Hmmm do I really want to hear about how immature I am from someone who’s stuck in a shitty job making no money and living in a kip at age 30…..
Does Lola hope her ruthlessness will goad Eileen into admitting that Lola is a success and Eileen is a failure?
What matters to Lola, a capitalist / sibling-competition identity drone, are not Eileen’s feelings: Eileen has repeatedly told her she is “happy at the magazine.”
But Lola refuses to accept Eileen’s feelings,
Lola substitutes “happy” with “stuck.”