Full Transcript for Whimsy!

cool what they did. I remember the day of the heist going online and seeing all of the comments under the reports were like, this is my first heist of my lifetime. I hope it's a good one. Like, what? First heist of my lifetime. I'm really excited. Oh, I. And I saw a lot of people being like, heists are back. The world is healing. Oh. Oh, that's okay. But why are they right? 07:13 Valerie Gorham But why are they right? Why has. Why has this serious crime turned into, like, this mystical, magical fantasy that everybody thinks is, like, super fun? Has anyone seen that? Oh, my God. That TikTok of that girl, that was like, Louvre heist headcanons. The main guy is named Tyler. He's 19. He's super cute, and he hacked the mainframe girl. That's not Gen Y. I haven't seen anyone Gen Y, like, speaking on this. Maybe I just don't get tiktoks by Gen Y people. But even my mom was like, nobody cares about this. Like, this is like, it's. Who cares? Like, oh, that's. She was like, oh, that's like, that's crazy. And then, like, she didn't care anymore. Well, here's the thing. What does this say about young people? It either says, we're still young and we're still goofy and we're still not very serious. 08:12 Valerie Gorham But you know what I think also? I think it Says that we sort of are getting back to a point in society where we appreciate good storytelling, we appreciate grandeur, we appreciate splendor, magnificence, impressiveness. We want things to be grand, we want things to be dramatic. And is that shallow of us? Keep that question in mind real quick. Think about another crime that happened about a year ago that people didn't care about, even though it was a murder. Yes, I'm talking about the United Health Care CEO assassination. We all know the name Luigi Mangione. I don't even know if it's pronounced Mangione or Mangione because he's like, Italian. But he assassinated a man named Brian Thompson, who was the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, which is a health insurance company. He assassinated him really in cold blood. 09:08 Valerie Gorham Like, it was like he just straight up shot him and killed him. When the pictures came out of who Luigi Mangion was, everyone liked him. Everyone thought this guy is super cute, and nobody cared that he was a murderer. When you really think about that on a societal level, that's actually horrible. It just kind of reminds you of Ted Bundy, who was a serial killer, but people didn't want him in jail because he was too rizzy. And that was back in the 70s. And when I look at Ted Bundy, he wasn't even that hot or anything. He was low key, kind of ugly. And people still thought, no, this is just a normal looking guy. He's not a serial killer, and he's too normal and good looking to be a killer. There's no way, like, stop, like, stop this. 09:58 Valerie Gorham So we see this pattern of, like, people literally not caring what people have done as long as they are attractive. I mean, really, at the end of the day, we're the same,

you and I. Like, we're one in the same in that way, I think. But for the first section, the main takeaway that we need to remember is that the Louvre heist is showing us that Gen Z and millennials don't care so much about historical figures. We literally don't care that these artifacts are being lost. What we do care about is the swaggy aura behind this heist, how these people pulled off such a cool feat. And I think that has something to do with the fact that no one was harmed physically. The government who funds this museum might have lost some serious assets, but nobody cares. 10:46 Valerie Gorham People are more concerned with, like, the aesthetics of this heist because it was whimsical. It was like a movie. And on the topic of whimsy, we are going to Move on to our next section, which is Halloween 2025, particularly gay Halloween, as we all know and love, but pretend to hate. I hate gay Halloween. What do you mean? Your trench coat buttoned to the top. That's, like, the first one I just saw. I'm, like, scrolling through Twitter right now. Twitter. By the way, nobody calls it a I hate gay Halloween. What do you mean? Your fish girl from 2019 YouTube video the Cut, titled 7 High Schoolers Decide who Wins a Thousand Dollars. That's the girl. Just vote. Just vote. Nina. I hate gay Halloween. What do you mean? 11:33 Valerie Gorham You're Cosmo, Queen of Melrose, explaining how your grandmother wanted you all to switch from Catholic to Jehovah. Gay Halloween. We love gay Halloween. I personally love gay Halloween because I feel like this year the whimsy has. It has been upped 20 notches. Something that I've really seen this year is girls. Instead of going as, like, hot bunny rabbit or whatever, it's more like they're going as, I don't know, Emmett from the Lego Movie. This year is, like, girls going as, like, stupid costumes, like, ridiculous fun costumes, where they're, like, just being themselves and it's awesome. And I think boys are doing the same. They're just going as whatever the heck, because life is short. Be your freaking self, right? Like, just do what makes you happy. 12:21 Valerie Gorham And I think that's something that is really coming up in my generation is, like, trying to care less about what people think of us, doing things that are fun and not caring so much about what other people might be thinking or what they're gonna say or how they're, like. Without hurting other people, obviously, without, like, disturbing or hurting others, but still having fun, doing fun things, Taking pictures, making memories, which goes back to whimsy, you know, just enjoying life, doing fun things, being silly. And we all know that Gen Z and Millennials are still statistically the most depressed generations of all time or whatever. Like, and it has a lot to do with, like, social media, you know, the workforce, everything. 13:07 Valerie Gorham But gay Halloween is a chance for everyone to escape the construct of 9 to 5 job and dress up as whoever you want to be. It's literally Zootopia, where anyone can be anything. And the amount of people who are probably going as freaking Nick and Judy Hopps this year because of the new Zootopia movie, I. I mean, that's great. I'm not going to any Halloween parties. I'm gonna go home and sleep. But I. I just. I'm so happy for you all that you're all going out, being yourself, doing gay Halloween. And gay Halloween, it isn't just for gays, it's for everyone. They call it gay Halloween because gay people are the ones who started these trends of like, going as like the most niche Internet reference you could possibly think of in your head. Cuz like, what do you mean you're going as? 13:54 Valerie Gorham But what happens when the talk is cheap and it is what it is. It's so amazing how the Internet has created these like, Halloween costumes that you can go as like somebody, nobody's gonna know who you are except for like maybe one person. And the thing is, like the person who knows who you are in your Halloween costume, that's gonna be your friend for life. You know what I mean? Like, that's somebody who knows the same things and likes the same things as you. So. So that's the beauty of gay Halloween is that you go as like something that you know and love that maybe not many other people out there will understand. 14:24 Valerie Gorham But those who do understand, you know that you can trust them and you know that you can form a bond with those people because they're probably similar to you if they know the same sort of niche reference or meme as you. And gay Halloween is beautiful in that way. Now this is another thing where Gen Z is valuing whimsy and happiness over tradition. But we're just taking history and we're rewriting it, right? Because now we have the Internet. The past hundred years of Halloween, people haven't had like Stan Twitter, you know, up until maybe what, 2010. And even then, like, if you went as like an Internet meme, nobody would like, really care as much. Now these memes are more prominent. You're going as non binary, amputee, polyamorous, hijab, or Thomas Jefferson, I met God, she was black. Silly, silly things, right? 15:19 Valerie Gorham Like not everybody's going to get the polyamorous, hijab, amputee, non binary. But those who get it. And those who get it, you're going to party with those people. It's about making friends, it's about rhetoric. At the end of the day, it's about like finding an audience that you like. And by an audience, I mean like a group of people, friends and people who actually understand your costume. And it's about not caring, about being serious, it's about being unserious, about being silly, about being whimsical and about expressing yourself. At the end of the day, is that shallow? No, that's awesome. That's fun. It's silly. Here's the thing, though. Older generations criticize it a little bit. They call it childish. But I feel like, also, older generations might have been forced to grow up

a little bit too fast. 16:03 Valerie Gorham And now that's why they don't have any whimsy in them and they don't like anything. So what are we doing anything wrong? I mean, what's wrong with. With celebrating how young you are and how hot you are and how silly you are and how fun you are? Nothing. I feel like people probably look more beautiful and more attractive in costumes that make them happy. So no point two, Gay Halloween, silly Halloween. Not shallow, awesome, fun. And it makes it more fun, and it takes the pressure off, like, looking being in shape or like, looking really good on Halloween, you know, it takes all the pressure off of that. So it's not about looking good. It's about looking like yourself and representing who you are, which is not shallow because it is awesome. 16:55 Valerie Gorham Finally, we are going to move on to the last section, which is going to be the longest one, which is about James Gunn's Superman 2025, starring David Corenswet as Clark Kent and Superman. And Nicholas Holt as Lex Luthor and Rachel Bhatia as the beautiful, magnificent, talented Lois Lane. Oh, my gosh, she was so good. She was so pretty in that movie. She's so pretty. I love her. She's so. She serves. She's serving so hard. She's serving looks, she's serving body. She's serving everything in that movie. Serving hair, everything. Well, maybe not hair. Her hair was kind of boring throughout the movie. But it's okay. She was serving hair on the red carpet. Here is the truth about David. Corn Sweat Superman. Millennials and Gen Y love Henry Cavill. They loved him as Superman. 17:43 Valerie Gorham One thing I will say, I found that other girls my age agree with, we never really liked him like that. Personally, here's my opinion, which I assume because I'm a very normal and average person, I assume, like a lot of other people probably agree, I always could recognize that he was very handsome, but never did I think to myself, like, oh, I. I wish I could be with someone like that. And also I always thought, you know, he's a great Superman. Like, he looks like Superman, but he's also a little scary. He's, like, kind of too intimidating. David Corenswet is 2 inches taller than him. I believe he's 6 4. But everybody wants that man. He seems so, like, endearing. And here's why. The new Superman movie is all about kindness and acceptance and loving Each other. I swear. 18:30 Valerie Gorham That's literally the moral of the movie. There's a part of the movie where Superman and Lois Lane are talking about just their views on people and the world. And Lois Lane says to Superman, you and I are so different because I'm more punk rock. I question everyone and everything, and you think that everything and everyone you've ever met is beautiful. And then Superman says to Lois, well, maybe that's the real punk rock. Bravo, James Gunn. Bravo. I love you, James Gunn. I love James Gunn. He's such a great director and writer. We love James Gunn, and he has a great playlist on every single movie. Amazing. But the girlies, we all love David Corn Sweats Superman. James Gunn's version of Superman, because it's not so scary and spooky, like the Zack Snyder freaking universe where everything was, like, borderline black and white, gray scale. 19:24 Valerie Gorham And Superman was, like, really scary. He always looked angry. In the new Superman movie, David Cornswet as Superman, he saves a squirrel from getting killed. He saves a squirrel in a tree. It's not his dog. We learn at the end of the movie, spoiler. It's his cousin Supergirl's dog. But he gets very concerned about that dog. There were two points to the new Superman movie. The first one is, take your strengths and do the right thing, which is what Superman does because, you know, he's like the man of Steel, whatever, super strong, super talented, and he could take over the world in the blink of an eye. But he chooses to do the right thing, to be a good person and to be a person like everyone else. 20:07 Valerie Gorham And then the second point of the Superman movie is that it's important to treat people who are different from you the same way you would want to be treated. And there's sort of a theme of, like, in immigration and people who come from different places and how they're treated in society. And this new movie, it was happy. It was punk rock, it was funny, and it was whimsical, unlike the Zack Snyder Superman movies. The Zack Snyder Superman movies were so serious. No good jokes. Everything was, like, dark, brooding. Superman was always like, I'm here to bring hope to the usa. Like, shut up. Like, nobody cares. I. I never really enjoyed those movies. My brother loved them. I never really enjoyed them because they were so dark. This new movie is, like, full of color. 21:02 Valerie Gorham It's full of bright blues, bright reds, and it's fun. It's fun to watch. I'm actually. You know what? I just love talking about it so much. I'm literally Gonna go watch it again this weekend. Like, I don't even care because it was such a good movie. Whimsical, whimsical, whimsical. Girls are saying that they prefer David Corswood to Henry Cavill. Yes. Is it because he's taller? No, it's because he smiles every once in a while. This Superman movie tackles theme of, like, also toxic masculinity. Well, yeah, because Clark Kent is this super tall, super huge buff dude. He's not trying to physically intimidate anyone. And in fact, he gets bullied at work. He is down bad for Lois. Like, it's talked about in the movie that he likes stupid pop music, pop radio music. 21:51 Valerie Gorham He, like, talks to his mom on the phone in front of everyone. This version of Clark Kent isn't like some super macho man. He's a nice, simple dude. He just wants to do the right thing and help people notice how I'm not hating on him just because he's a man and how I don't think that male happiness is a bad thing. I actually don't really hate men. When I say I hate men. I'm not

serious. Like, I'm just saying it in the moment and. But here's the thing. I did some research, found some articles which I will cite in the description of this podcast. But I wanted to understand why women as a whole currently have so much resentment toward men. 22:35 Valerie Gorham And basically what I found is that women don't really express resentment toward men themselves, but more towards, like, the system of oppression that has been created by men over the course of history. This is a system that has led to, like, societal pressures, gender expectations, pay gaps, and just, like, the expectation that women have to take on certain roles and that women shouldn't take on other certain roles. And the reason I did this research was because I wanted to just kind of evaluate whether or not women's disdain for men was valid. And I feel like it is. The thing is, it's not really disdain towards men. What I'm finding here is that it's just frustration and anger and resentment towards, like, a system that has been built to keep us out of certain spaces. Men, on the other hand. 23:28 Valerie Gorham So I wanted to also figure out, because this is something that I see online, this is something that I see from, like, men my age here in college, is that men also have a lot of bad stuff to say about women and have a lot of great stuff to say about themselves. It's interesting because it seems like men really do think that they're superior. It really seems like they do. And my, you know, the joke I always make is, well, if men are so superior, why don't you all just date each other challengers. But I wanted to figure out, like, because I see it so much, especially online, which maybe I just spend too much time online. I don't know if, like, in real life men actually hate women this much, but it seems like they do just from. 24:10 Valerie Gorham Also from, like, real life guys that I've met here at school. And like, in my life. It's actually horrible, but I wanted to see, you know, I have resentment towards men and I feel like my resentment and other girls that I've talked to, their resentment, I feel like it's valid because it's something that has been happening since even before were born, even before our mothers and grandmothers were born. It's been going on. It's like, it's like generations and generations of just, like, abuse, basically. And it's like just now starting to change. So I said, I thought to myself, well, if my resentment is valid, maybe there's a chance that there's also. Is that men's resentment has, like, an actual foundation. 24:54 Valerie Gorham And I found out, I really, I think I need to do more primary research myself instead of looking into articles and sources from online because there's a chance they might be biased. But guys, I really tried to find some kind of valid argument for men having so much disdain and resentment and just hatred towards women. And I really can't. I really can't. So men feel like they're being pulled down by women wanting equality and opportunities. And one key finding from a 2022 study at Oregon State was that when men felt like that their status was being threatened, they were more likely to misbehave. They were more likely to ignore people, be unhelpful. Women did not exhibit that same response. And at the end of the day, the findings show that men and women both want justice in the world. They want a just world. 25:54 Valerie Gorham And overall, it seemed like women's idea of a just world is an equal world, whereas men's idea of a just world is where they are still in power over women and women don't have as much control. Now, this is obviously very saddening for me as I am a woman. So, yeah, I really did try, and I'm going to try even harder to get to the bottom of this. Why do men hate women? Because I truly, the only reason I could think for a man to resent a woman Ever is if he was truly done wrong or abused by a woman in some kind of relationship, whether that's like his mom, his sister, or an ex who like really did something horrible to him. And like now it's like, messed with his like, brain chemistry and made him see all women as bad people. 26:45 Valerie Gorham I think that's kind of what happened to me with men, is just that I've seen actual real life situations with men that I have known in real life who have just disappointed me, done things like unthinkable betrayals to my friends, my family. And I just see it repeated so much that I feel like I can't trust any of them because I just see the pattern that they're all men, they all happen to be men. And so I would understand if that happened to a guy, like the same situation as me and the same sort of reaction, psychological reaction was elicited in a dude. That makes sense to me. And so that was what I was expecting to find in this research. But that's not why men resent women. The true reason that they resent women is because they want power. 27:31 Valerie Gorham They, they just want power. And that's kind of scary, but I really want to believe that. I'm just looking at the wrong data. I really want to. So I'm going to conduct some research here at NC State and I feel like this is the perfect place to do it because everyone here is the right age. This is, you know, exactly the range that I want to target. So I'm going to, over the next month or so, conduct a study. Yes. I'm just gonna make a Google form and I'm gonna try to find a guy to put it in all the men's bathrooms for me. And I am going to get to the bottom of this. 28:06 Valerie Gorham I'm going to, like, make all the right questions and I'm going to try to figure it out because I just don't want to keep living with so much resentment towards men. There has to be a real, true, justified reason for them to act the way that they do. If not, then that's actually messed up. We're gonna figure it out, ladies. We're gonna figure it out. We're gonna get to the bottom of this because I just don't want to believe that they're all evil. Just don't. So that is what we're gonna do. Now, all seriousness aside, let's get jokey again. Gen Z wants the whimsy back. Gen Z is here for the vibes. There is a very serious psychological thing happening Here with Gen Z, we are here for the vibes, for the whimsy, for the look, for the gram. 28:47 Valerie Gorham Does it have to do with social media? Do we want to just look cool for social media? Do we care about that now so much? Because we. That's what we have. It could be. I think that's probably a pretty big reason that Gen Z and Millennials are so care so much about, like the aesthetics of everything. Gay Halloween, the Louvre robbery. But I think also we're just starting to progress more as a society, maybe becoming less judgmental of each other and trying to encourage each other to become less judgmental. These aspects of pop culture, the Louvre heist, Superman, gay Halloween, these things represent where we're at as a generation, particularly Gen Z, my generation. And it shows that we're going somewhere new with our ideas, with our ideology, and it's a more creative place. 29:32 Valerie Gorham There might be a lot of factors that play into that. Social media AI taking all of our jobs. So we have to, like, start thinking outside the box to, like, create new things, you know, be more whimsical, try to outdo robots. But really we just need to celebrate that we're going in this direction because it seems pretty awesome to me and I really love to see it. And so, yeah, incorporate more whimsy into your lives any way you can, because it's in style, it is trending, and you will be trendy. So until next time, keep it whimsical. I am Valerie, and thank you for listening again to this episode of More than you Think. Love you. Bye.