Too pretty, too famous
Too pretty, too famous
This week: beekeeper buzz, drinking problems, million-dollar delis, prosocial botnets and smart cities
Erika Thompson is probably the most famous beekeeper on earth, and she is definitely the most glamorous. That was, at least, my first impression when I first came upon her Instagram.
Huh! I thought. That chick looks better elbow-deep in a swarm of stinging insects than I did at my wedding, probably. And then I scrolled on, as one does, to some other meaningless ephemera … like this video of a dog doing laundry.
But on Thursday, as you surely have already seen, one of Thompson’s fellow beekeepers decided she could scroll no more. In a viral TikTok I have watched at least three times — partly so I could write this, but also so I can commit choice lines to memory for jokes later — a woman by the name of Friday Chamberlain and the handle @LAhoneybeerescue accuses Thompson of a host of beekeeping crimes, including (a) failing to observe the fashion and hairstyling norms of professional beekeepers; (b) neglecting to model the proper safety protocol or demonstrate the real danger/difficulty of beekeeping; and (c) relying on her husband to do the heavy lifting.
“She looks really pretty doing it,” Chamberlain says at one point, “and that’s because it’s faked.”
First off: recognize the strategy here. Chamberlain is at least 100x more recognizable than she was a day ago, when she had 22,000 TikTok followers to Thompson’s six million. Twitter’s been abuzz over the ~beekeeper drama~ for the past 24 hours. (I’m allowing myself a single bee pun and that one’s it, I promise.)
I have no opinions on the integrity or safety of Thompson’s beekeeping practices, other than to note that literally every person who represents their life on social media, influencer or no, is presenting a sanitized, glamorized and simplified version of a less attractive reality. This is a fact so universally recognized that it itself became a meme several years ago (!).
On the subject of Thompson’s appearance, though — or, God help us, her husband’s manual labor — Chamberlain is treading more complicated, and more problematic, ground. In seeking to elevate her vision for “real” beekeeping (I can’t believe I just typed that clause, what a time to be living), Chamberlain relies on very obvious (!) stereotypes to put Thompson down. You can hear this, especially, in her repeat invocation of other female beekeepers: They are serious professionals, she suggests, while Thompson is too “pretty” and too famous. This is perhaps as good a place as any to mention that Chamberlain is also an actress and a model, outside of her apicological interests.
Incidentally, I encountered Chamberlain’s TikTok immediately after reading Lyz Lenz’s recent Substack on a parallel Facebook meme. The meme compares Kendall Jenner to Alyssa Carson, an aspiring astronaut, and essentially argues that Carson’s version of womanhood is progressive and legitimate, while Jenner’s is not (… not “smart,” too glamorous, too sexy).
This is all intended as women’s “empowerment,” but as Lyz observes at length, it’s not terribly empowering to tear a woman down for her appearance, even if that appearance is conventionally attractive. Also, fame — on TikTok or otherwise — doesn’t just happen! Women also work for that!
The juxtapositioning of the images is designed to clearly communicate what women ought to be. One can safely assume that Carson also wears swimsuits, but that’s not the point. The point is to drag two women into a conversation that they were not having. The language copies the language of empowerment, but it’s still a trap. Be one woman, not the other. Look like a kid playing NASA dress up, instead of an entrepreneur making bank on Instagram.
To be clear, I think both the ladies here are “making bank on Instagram” … or at least aspiring to. There’s little else for Chamberlain to gain from self-consciously “calling out” the most famous member of her profession. As of this writing, however, @LAhoneybeerescue — whose TikTok account was suspended yesterday — has only 650 followers on Instagram.
“Hi guys, thanks for all the love,” she said, in an an IG story yesterday. “I know you’re coming here from TikTok and Twitter.”
P.S. For those seeking yet more meaningless internet drama, a new scandal in Pelotonland: Instructor Jenn Sherman, who previously spurred her employer to remove the class in which she joked about Covid “taking down” the White House, has weighed in on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict … with predictable results! I am eternally fascinated by the tension between Peloton, the Brand™, and Peloton, the constellation of global fitness influencers who can kinda do what they want. Also, to invoke this very insightful Rebecca Jennings piece: Do we really need influencers’ Israel-Palestine hot takes? We do not!
P.P.S. Today’s banner image is from a photo by Lufa Farms. Thanks, Creative Commons.
If you read anything this weekend
“How to Negotiate with Ransomware Hackers,” by Rachel Monroe in The New Yorker. There are a lot of cyberattacks in the news this week — and every week, I guess?? — but the sheer frequency and technicality and chaos of these things mean I’ve never bothered to dwell much on their mechanics. It turns out, however, that ransomware is a pretty evolved industry, with … call centers! And customer service agents! Just one of those pieces that has you saying “huh” a lot, and also hoping your workplace is never hacked.
“America Has A Drinking Problem,” by Kate Julian in The Atlantic. When I started telling Jason about this article, he interrupted me to groan that he’d rather not hear another reproach about how much we drink. Fair enough!! But this is less a scolding than … an exploration of drinking’s evolution, literally and culturally, and a very reasonable prescription for maximizing its benefits. I, for one, am going to confine my drinking to social events this week. (But you can pry my glass-of-chardonnay-while-I-cook from my cold wino hands, Kate.)
“The Mystery of the $113 Million Deli,” by Jesse Baron in NYT Magazine. We’ve spent a lot of the past few months bleating about meme stocks and NFTs (whose bubble has burst at last, btw) — but the real crazy shit arguably happens among institutional investors, in full sight of everybody. That mysteriously overvalued New Jersey deli, for instance, which made Twitter waves in April, is actually a vehicle for Asian investors to avoid U.S. regulation. I liked the mystery better!
“‘FIND THIS FUCK:’ Inside Citizen’s Dangerous Effort to Cash In On Vigilantism,” by Joseph Cox and Jason Koebler in Motherboard. Has Silicon Valley ever overseen a debacle more immediately outrageous than this CEO who put a literal bounty on an innocent man’s head? (The eBay harassment campaign comes to mind, I guess.) We can all take solace in the fact that Citizen will soon surely be sued out of existence.
“The Greatest Achievements in Dumb Internet Video,” by Ryan Broderick, Sarah Davis, and Hussein Kesvani in Polygon. Exactly what it sounds like: “a Criterion Collection of completely stupid, but absolutely genius internet content.” Remember “Shoes”? Still a classic!
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Postscripts
There have been many profiles of Adriene Mishler, but at last — at last!! — they profiled her dog. “People want their activism to be pretty.” Beware the screenshot. The failed promise of Africa’s “smart cities.” A botnet that amplifies climate news. “US Soldiers Expose Nuclear Weapons Secrets Via Flashcard Apps” is … not a headline that inspires confidence.
6 reasons people don’t get vaccines. 11 things that lasted longer than Trump’s blog. “One of the more exciting cooking resources on the internet” (… besides FoodTok). “Virtual brands” are coming for your chicken wings. Gawker 3.0 is coming for the media. If Spotify’s Daily Mixes aren’t doing it, Pitchfork now has you covered. The emperor truly, TRULY, has no clothes. Cancel Amazon Prime. Help an AI win the New Yorker caption contest. Last but not least: I feel bad for this woman’s (thin, sober, well-adjusted, and presumably very few) friends.
That’s it for this week! Until the next one. Warmest virtual regards.
— Caitlin