How to navigate family politics this festive season
For many of us, awkward conversations have become a mainstay of winter gatherings. The festive period promises a lot: turkey, tinsel, and a soundtrack of perennial arguments. For a large portion of us, the season has become something other than a celebratory get-together and more of an endurance test, especially...
Current in Culture
Opinion – stop letting men get away with silence
The belief that another person will complete us means that many people are settling for the bare minimum in relationships, rather than taking the time to get to know themselves as an individual. For modern dating to work, we need to recognise the importance of reciprocal communication between partners...
Why Miss Universe has triggered a ‘wokeness’ debate
The beauty pageant is being hailed as the death of wokeness, and the result of the ‘Trump effect’. Victoria Kjær Theilvig, a 21-year-old Danish woman, is Miss Universe 2024. She’s blonde, blue-eyed, and undeniably beautiful – a fact that should been met with applause and little more. Instead, her win has ignited...
Whoopi Goldberg launches women’s sport network
US comedian and television host Whoopi Goldberg has launched All Women’s Sports Network (AWSN), a new 24/7 global women’s sports channel. Women have historically been excluded and discouraged from practicing sports. During childhood, girls constantly hear phrases like ‘you run like a girl’ and ‘you kick like a girl’ – phrases...
What’s up with people hiring witches on Etsy?
The phenomenon isn’t as uncommon as you might think. Like many individuals, Riley Wenckus felt distraught and disempowered in the aftermath of Trump’s re-election. Wenckus was particularly furious at Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, and the key role he’d played in Trump's victory. So she turned to an unconventional...
Are brands crossing a line in the pursuit of relevance?
The widespread mocking of Gary Barlow’s son proves that virality alone should not equate marketability. Oh boy, does the internet love a spectacle. Over the past week, a photograph of Gary Barlow’s son, Daniel, towering above his dad, went viral. The memes arrived shortly after, and overnight Daniel became a...
Are Christmas markets losing their appeal?
We’re only halfway through November, yet Christmas markets have been open across the UK for weeks already. Are these once-magical festivities becoming too blatant of a cash grab? Although the team at Thred always looks forward to our annual Winter Wonderland trip, we’re not oblivious to the fact that we’re basically queuing up to get scammed. You know the drill: cosy wooden chalets, glittering trinkets, the wafting smell of grilled sausages,...
Cambridge Dictionary’s word of the year is ‘manifest’
Meaning ‘dream’ or ‘willing something into existence,’ it beat out ‘brat’ and ‘demure’ after a surge of celebrity-inspired popularity on social media. Clearly, 2024 was all about positive thinking. ‘Manifest’ has been named word of the year by Cambridge Dictionary. Though it’s more than six centuries old, it’s been given new life on social media as of late, thanks to a slew of celebrities who’ve been using it to describe how...
Explaining the controversy around the Mexican song ‘Tu boda’
Is it problematic for musicians to use femicide as inspiration for their art? In the last few weeks, the public has expressed mixed opinions over the release of the song “Tu boda” by Oscar Maydon & Fuerza Regida. The song has gone viral on social media and has secured the number one spot on Spotify Mexico, despite – or perhaps in spite of – the serious controversy surrounding it. Assessing online...
Exploring Gen Z’s love of horoscopes
From Aristotle to A-listers, astrology has been popular for centuries. Gen Z is particularly obsessed, with star signs playing a major role in how they interact on social media. Whether you believe in the power of the Zodiac or not, star signs have been in magazines since 1930, when the Sunday Express printed a birth horoscope for Princess Margaret Rose on August 24. Those of you who can...
