There comes a point in any saturated system wherein meaning no longer accumulates. It combusts. Contemporary culture functions less like a cogent symbolic order and more like a refinery under pressure, endlessly processing images, aesthetics, affect, and identity into liquid form.
Something uncanny has procured itself in the cultural consciousness of American media in the past week, a tonal shift that, although unsurprising given the current political climate, feels jarringly regressive and reactionary; the tipping point, undoubtedly, being American Eagle’s latest campaign featuring Sydney Sweeney as the white all-American temptress clad in denim.