Miley Cyrus: Haven’t I Seen You Somewhere Before?

Posted on by Kelly Welles

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“I feel like I’m one of the biggest feminists in the world because I tell women to not be scared of anything.”

Miley Cyrus, BBC Newsbeat.

Let’s not be under any illusion here. Miley Cyrus is a hardworking, savvy businesswoman who knows precisely what she needs to do to maximise her earning potential.

But she is also young, and while her desire to make the world a less frightening place for women is admirable, what she needs to realise is that her weapon of choice cuts most out of her sphere of influence before she even opens her mouth.

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Rebekah Brooks: More Human Than Human?

Posted on by Kelly Welles

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As someone who followed the Leveson Inquiry with the kind of furrow browed concentration a slavering dog applies to a careless barbecue operator, the subsequent trial and inevitable revelations therein were front and centre on my radar.

Whether it’s the machinations of an ever hungrier media desperate to pad out their empty pages that enthralls me, or the theatrical hand wringing of a public completely taken aback that such things go on at all, let alone to feed their interest, I know not.

I guess I just like the idea of seeing those for whom the concept of personal responsibility is an abstract get a slapping.

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Brand vs. Paxman: The Beardy Politic

Posted on by Kelly Welles


Like two male cats hop-stepping around one another with their large, brushy tails pointing towards the sky, the destroyer of political souls meets the sharpest of comedic minds.

Having lost early points by claiming he only edited an issue of The New Statesman because he was asked to by an attractive woman, Brand then effortlessly harnesses that notorious passion to redeem himself. Paxman, possibly having never been called ‘darling’ in an interview before, rolls with the velvet punch and tacitly acknowledges the perfectly placed blow with a knowing nod.

Watch this. Even if you hate Paxman. Especially if you hate Brand.

The sight of two such articulate minds sparring so spikily and yet so passionately is a reminder of what politics should be and what Jeremy Paxman is actually for.

For the record, Brand almost convinces him.

They Say If You Stare At The Sun For Too Long, You’ll Go Blind

Posted on by Kelly Welles

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This week, we’ve learned two things. Saying monkey while standing in the same postcode as a black person means you are a racist and refusing to offer your seat to a pregnant woman is indicative of a general decline in chivalrous behaviour among men, but complaining about it is sexist.

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Cosplay: When There Simply Aren’t Enough Fancy Dress Parties

Posted on by Kelly Welles

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What is this person buying from a pharmacy? Nothing that will benefit mankind, I’ll warrant. 

I used to be a goth. A proper one, who would not leave the house with first festooning myself in crushed velvet, eyeliner, talcum powder and at least two unfeasibly large hats.

Many people saw me. Many people laughed as me and my little gang – an erstwile group equally caught up in the romanticism of gloomy men covered in flour shouting indecipherable lyrics about Cthulhu into the fog – dodged between shop awnings to evade the watery sunlight. We drank cider and black, found philosophical meaning in the work of Wayne Hussey and drank heroic quantities of cider & black.

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Internet: That’s What I’m Talkin’ Bout

Posted on by Kelly Welles

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I write a lot about how corrosive and depressing the internet can be. How miserable it is that a tool enabling instant communication between anyone, wherever they might be in the world; a collective mind capable of constantly renewal where the answer to every question can be found instantly, is used by most to look at porn and pictures of cats.

And porn.

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Pop Music: Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Posted on by Kelly Welles

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You don’t have to be a porn star to work here, but it helps.

If there is anything to be learned from the sexualisation of the music industry debate, it’s that we as a society are more comfortable with our kids watching the soft porn that purports to be pop music than we are with older, and therefore less titillating women’s opinions about the damage it can cause.

I think I preferred it when Miley Cyrus astride a bloody wrecking ball was the nadir.

Images via instagram, theinterrobang.

Daily Mail: Marketing-sans-self-awareness

Posted on by Kelly Welles

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There are very few media disasters in the world that cannot be resuscitated by a carefully orchestrated scandal. And what better way to get those arbiters of British decency, the Daily Mail, spluttering into their ‘coming over here, stealing all our’ cornflakes in the morning than a poster advertising the movie version of events leading up to the death of their favourite Royal princess, right outside the tunnel where that fatal accident occurred.

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