What The Hell Is Up With Parasocial Relationships - Healthy or Weird with Journalist Sadaf Ahsan
Explicit content warning
04/17/22 • 82 min
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We're back for our fourth full-length episode of S2! For this week's episode, we get into one of the hottest trends of 2021: parasocial relationships. No matter where you go on the Internet, it's all everyone is talking about. From the social and entertainment-kind, intense-personal, and borderline-pathological.
Between us and our special guest for the week, Toronto-based arts and culture writer and editor Sadaf Ahsan, Ameema, and Ama analyze everything to do with parasocial relationships and even make a case for why some might even be healthy! So many people, from influencers to celebs, broadcast all the mundane aspects of their lives. From their new outfits to the latest restaurants they've tried and even the packages they open, practically nothing is off-limits. So we explore:
- What exactly is a parasocial relationship?
- The power dynamics in fandom culture
- How we grew up in fandoms ourselves and participated in fan culture
- Why do fans have such high expectations of the people they are in relationships with
- Whose boundaries and mental health matter here?
- Finally, Sadaf names our official podcast fandom
- Finally, all three of us play a game where Sadaf and Ameema try to guess the names of certain fandoms. Shout out to our listeners in the Navy ;)
If you liked what you heard, maybe think about rating us! You can also find all our social links by visiting our Lnk.Bio page. Heck, if you want - leave us a voicemail. We love to answer questions from our listeners or take suggestions about what you'd like us to cover. Maybe we'll even feature it in a future show! Hell, if you even want to support us (we're a small team and a lot of work goes into what you hear today) then we would love it if you send us a few bucks via our Ko-Fi! All the money helps us with production costs and creating the podcast you hear today.
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Further Reading on this Topic!
- YouTubers Are Not Your Friends - The Verge
- Too close for comfort: the pitfalls of parasocial relationships - The Guardian
- Meet the stans who DM their faves about their day - Mashable
- When Grown-Ups Have Imaginary Friends - The New York Times
- Bo Burnham’s Inside begs for our parasocial awareness - Polygon
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Support the show (https://ko-fi.com/highlowbrowpod)
We're back for our fourth full-length episode of S2! For this week's episode, we get into one of the hottest trends of 2021: parasocial relationships. No matter where you go on the Internet, it's all everyone is talking about. From the social and entertainment-kind, intense-personal, and borderline-pathological.
Between us and our special guest for the week, Toronto-based arts and culture writer and editor Sadaf Ahsan, Ameema, and Ama analyze everything to do with parasocial relationships and even make a case for why some might even be healthy! So many people, from influencers to celebs, broadcast all the mundane aspects of their lives. From their new outfits to the latest restaurants they've tried and even the packages they open, practically nothing is off-limits. So we explore:
- What exactly is a parasocial relationship?
- The power dynamics in fandom culture
- How we grew up in fandoms ourselves and participated in fan culture
- Why do fans have such high expectations of the people they are in relationships with
- Whose boundaries and mental health matter here?
- Finally, Sadaf names our official podcast fandom
- Finally, all three of us play a game where Sadaf and Ameema try to guess the names of certain fandoms. Shout out to our listeners in the Navy ;)
If you liked what you heard, maybe think about rating us! You can also find all our social links by visiting our Lnk.Bio page. Heck, if you want - leave us a voicemail. We love to answer questions from our listeners or take suggestions about what you'd like us to cover. Maybe we'll even feature it in a future show! Hell, if you even want to support us (we're a small team and a lot of work goes into what you hear today) then we would love it if you send us a few bucks via our Ko-Fi! All the money helps us with production costs and creating the podcast you hear today.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Further Reading on this Topic!
- YouTubers Are Not Your Friends - The Verge
- Too close for comfort: the pitfalls of parasocial relationships - The Guardian
- Meet the stans who DM their faves about their day - Mashable
- When Grown-Ups Have Imaginary Friends - The New York Times
- Bo Burnham’s Inside begs for our parasocial awareness - Polygon
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Support the show (https://ko-fi.com/highlowbrowpod)
Previous Episode
Low Brow Takes on High Brow Culture: The Oscars Take Down with Danita Steinberg
We're back for our third full-length episode of S2! For our very first Low Brow Takes on High Brow Culture takedown episode, Ama and Ameema have invited on former co-host and fellow podcaster from the show We Really Like Her, Danita Steinberg to discuss all things Oscars 2022.
Between the three of us, we analyze everything that has to do with the Oscars 2022 show that we hope hasn't already been discussed to death already (cough, The Slap, cough) including:
- How brand new producer Will Packer made the executive decision to present eight of the 23 awards before the live broadcast began and totally fumbled the bag
- How diversity is still so lacking with The Oscars and what they could learn from independent awards shows
- How influencers and content creators were invited to this year's Oscars to help appeal to a younger demographic
- Why the Marvel Cinematic Universe has such a grip on cinema worldwide (no, but really)
- In our first segment, Danita Steinberg walks us through her top 10 snubs of the 2022 Oscars and if anyone disagrees, we will fight you.
- Making a case for why the Oscars are still relevant
- Discussing the fashion and why we miss Joan Rivers
- Finally, all three of us decide to award our own Oscars! Some of the awards include Celeb with the Most Audacity (here's looking at you, Judd Apatow!) and the Celeb Who Was the Most Wholesome (yep, it was obviously Youn Yuh-jung and Troy Kotsur!) but that's just the tip of the iceberg!
If you liked what you heard, maybe think about rating us! You can also find all our social links by visiting our Lnk.Bio page. Heck, if you want - leave us a voicemail. We love to answer questions from our listeners or take suggestions about what you'd like us to cover. Maybe we'll even feature it in a future show! Hell, if you even want to support us (we're a small team and a lot of work goes into what you hear today) then we would love it if you send us a few bucks via our Ko-Fi! All the money helps us with production costs and creating the podcast you hear today.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Further Reading on this Topic!
- Diversity at the Oscars: ‘CODA,’ ‘Encanto,’ ‘West Side Story’ Wins Show Breadth of Inclusion - The Hollywood Reporter
- We Aren’t Just Watching the Decline of the Oscars. We’re Watching the End of the Movies - The New York Times
- Will Smith's slap after Chris Rock's joke dominated the Oscars. But how does inherited racial trauma fit into the story? - ABC
- Can TikTok Help Save the Oscars? - Vanity Fair
- The Oscars is a show fighting for its life, but should we even care? - CBC
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Next Episode
Notes on Camp - The Wrestling Episode with Masterchef Canada winner and pro wrestler Jennifer E. Crawford
Oh hi, we're so happy to see you're back! We are dropping episode 5 of S2 today, and it's a fun one! For this week's episode, we are exploring the gay history of wrestling and how it's really a form of athletic storytelling or heck, performance art akin to drag. To take us through the history and make a case for why this matters, Nova-Scotia-based winner of Masterchef Canada and pro wrestler Jennifer E. Crawford talks us through everything and shares with us their story of how they developed Moon Miss, their wrestling persona. Throughout the episode we also discuss:
- How wrestling is the purest iteration of camp
- How wrestling can foster a deep curiosity about our bodies and their relationship to them
- OK, but are drag and wrestling really that similar?
- Then to follow up with that, Ama has a segment with Eric Shorey aka DJ Accident Report, a Brooklyn-based freelance pop culture journalist who is one-third of The Nobodies, a supergroup with a penchant for pro-wrestling, and we discuss how wrestling has become queerer
- Just how safe can the wrestling community be for queer folks?
- Finally, all three of us play a game where Ama and Ameema try to create their own wrestling personas and Jennifer helps them create a backstory
If you liked what you heard, maybe think about rating us! You can also find all our social links by visiting our Lnk.Bio page. Heck, if you want - leave us a voicemail. We love to answer questions from our listeners or take suggestions about what you'd like us to cover. Maybe we'll even feature it in a future show! Hell, if you even want to support us (we're a small team and a lot of work goes into what you hear today) then we would love it if you send us a few bucks via our Ko-Fi! All the money helps us with production costs and creating the podcast you hear today.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Further Reading on this Topic!
- Pro Wrestling Is Super Gay Now - them
- Queer Performers Making Space in Wrestling - KALW
- What Do Drag and Wrestling Have in Common? More Than You Think! - VICE
- Wrestling's Gay History and Optimistic Future - Pro Wrestling Stories
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Support the show (https://ko-fi.com/highlowbrowpod)
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