British writer and actress Jameela Jamil just wrote a satirical yet painfully accurate obituary for the short-lived Body Positive Movement. You know, the campaign that tried to disrupt the exploitative, profit-driven systems that depend on women’s self-loathing to survive? Jamil points out that today’s beauty standards idealise girlhood over womanhood in a way that is absolutely not accidental, but instead structurally linked to the normalisation of paedophilic aesthetics in media, fashion, and entertainment. And if you’ve been paying attention to the news or pop culture as of late, it’s not hard to agree with this take so far. Jamil connects postpartum ‘snap back’ culture, cosmetic surgeries, and hair removal norms to a more sinister motive of erasing women’s visible signs of adulthood. She goes further to say that women are coerced (economically, socially, digitally) into compliance with impossible beauty standards, and are sold so-called solutions as their ‘choice’ and a form of ‘empowerment.’ Gen Z may very well take Jamil’s advice to stop buying into these gimmicks and replace polite self-love with outright refusal to succumb to social pressures. Having seen feminism get rebranded into marketable aesthetics (self-care, that girl, clean girl, and hot girl), all of which still require money, surveillance, and discipline… we’re TIRED, girl. That said, younger readers may still find issue with the lack of nuance around agency, aesthetic choice, and self-expression this radical, full-force approach to rejecting beauty standards requires.
Science shows curiosity is at the heart of great dates and lasting love – big think
In 2015, an essay in The New York Times titled Modern Love went viral for claiming that all you had to do to fall in love with someone is ask them 36 increasingly personal questions. Based on psychological research, the idea is that spending less time on small talk and instead discussing more intimate topics early on is a key way to deepen connection. Relationship experts agree, promoting conversations about values, money, sex, and fears as central to building and sustaining love. And although dating this way won’t always guarantee a road to instant chemistry, it is a more way to efficiently learn who people really are, and have dates driven by curiosity and joy. The same principles apply to long-term relationships, too. Intimacy thrives through shared rituals, novelty, and mutual curiosity. For young people burned out on shallow social media posts and endless dating app swiping, but still craving depth perhaps a bit of intentional and efficiently planned vulnerability could work better than ‘just seeing where it goes’.
The life of the thirst traps is extending beyond Instagram and into places it arguably doesn’t belong… that is… LinkedIn. People are posting shirtless gym selfies alongside captions about having a ‘disciplined mentality’ and sharing bikini photos to promote B2B thought leadership. If it seems like professional platforms are now becoming bombarded with content you’d expect from your personal feed, there’s a reason for it, albeit a slightly depressing one. Like Instagram and TikTok, LinkedIn runs on (you guessed it!) engagement. And nothing grabs the eye faster than a image that’s totally out of place or off-brand. It’s become normal to manipulate platforms for motives other than their intended use (like Tinder for an ego-stroke rather than actual dating and Instagram for dating instead of sharing life updates) so this kind of crossover feels rather unfortunately inevitable. LinkedIn brands itself as professional, but as long as it’s social media, it’s currency will always lie in the number of clicks.
Inside the Homeland Security forum where ICE agents talk shit about other agents – wired
WIRED has uncovered a little-known online forum used by current and former agents from Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of Immigration and Customs Enforcement – aka, ICE. Here, agents post anonymously to argue over the morality and legality of shootings of protesters, vent about aggressive enforcement tactics, and openly criticise leadership, pay, equipment shortages, and burnout. Some defend escalating force and surveillance, but others express discomfort with mass deportation efforts that pull HSI away from investigating serious crimes like trafficking or terrorism. The forum exposes other internal fractures including disagreements over whether protesters should be classified as ‘domestic terrorists,’ anger about overtime caps and unpaid hours, frustration with outdated tech, and worry over the growing use of AI tools like facial recognition. While Department of Homeland Security declined to comment, the posts suggest morale is low as immigration enforcement expands nationwide. From a Gen Z perspective, this looks like institutional collapse in real time. When even insiders are willing to admit ‘this didn’t have to happen,’ trust is going to erode pretty fast.
Israel has proposed a law that would allow the execution of Palestinian prisoners convicted of killing Israelis. According to Israeli media, the Israeli Prison Service is already preparing facilities and training staff for potential executions, even though the bill has yet to pass its final readings in the Knesset. Rights groups say this comes amid worsening prison conditions, with dozens of Palestinian detainees reported dead in custody from torture or medical neglect since late 2023. Families of prisoners fear the law could apply retroactively to hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli jails, while legal experts argue the legislation is discriminatory, noting it would apply only to Palestinians, not Israeli settlers or soldiers accused of killing Palestinians. Groups like the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society say the move violates international law, including protections under the Geneva Conventions, and reflects another kind of escalation in Israel’s genocide.
‘Deliberate targeting of vital body parts’: X-rays taken after Iran protests expose extent of catastrophic injuries – guardian
Harrowing medical evidence from Iran’s January crackdown on protesters has been revealed through X-rays and CT scans obtained by The Guardian and the fact-checking group Factnameh. More than 75 scans from a single hospital show protesters and bystanders with catastrophic injuries caused by live ammunition and metal birdshot fired by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Victims include teenagers, women, and elderly people. Many were shot in the face, eyes, chest, spine, and genitals, with patterns doctors say strongly suggest deliberate targeting. Medical and ballistics experts who reviewed the images describe injuries consistent with wartime conditions, including bullets embedded in brains and necks, lungs collapsed by shrapnel, and eyes destroyed beyond repair. Birdshot is often mischaracterised as’ ‘less lethal’ but when fired at close range have caused injuries that left behind hundreds of pellets inside a single body. Doctors inside Iran report being overwhelmed by the scale and severity of the violence, performing repeated eye removals and emergency surgeries. These scans are forensic proof of repression that would cut through any propaganda.
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