"A few months ago, the musician Patrick Cosmos shared a "new unified theory of American reality" that he called "everyone is twelve now"-an attempt to explain an executive branch that endorses AI-generated videos of the president dropping poop on protesters from a shiny jet, and that replies to official press queries with the words your mom. Everyone is 12 is a strikingly effective summary of contemporary politics, but it also helps us understand why a good amount of popular culture feels as brain-numbingly dense as it currently does. Why is Nicki Minaj throwing insults at one of Cardi B's children and generating images of her as the purple dinosaur Barney? Everyone is 12. Why is Kim Kardashian the star of a fur-swaddled drama about Bentley-driving divorce lawyers with seven-figure clothing budgets? Everyone is 12. Why has Emerald Fennell adapted one of the more chasmic and ambitious tragedies in English literature into a poppy, gooey, thuddingly literal work of sexy fan fiction? Everyone is ... you get it."
"In some ways, that Fennell's Wuthering Heights is this vacuous and one-dimensional feels like progress. Male directors get to make big, unserious epics all the time. ("How many times have you watched Top Gun: Maverick?"I asked my husband last night. "This month?" he replied.) Fennell, whose film made $83 million at the global box office during opening weekend, is at least proving, with sticky aplomb, how starved we as a culture are for romance. Margot Robbie, the movie's co-star and one of its producers, has shrugged off mixed reviews; she told Vogue Australia, "I believe you should make movies for the people who are going to buy tickets to see the movies. It's as simple as that. I love working with Emerald because she always prioritizes an emotional experience over a heady idea." In other words, Wuthering Heights is simply giving the people what they want. And the people are 12."
Patrick Cosmos proposed a 'new unified theory of American reality' labeled 'everyone is twelve now' to capture juvenile political behavior and cultural spectacle. The phrase links an executive branch that endorses AI-generated grotesque videos and childish press replies to widespread cultural infantilism. Pop culture examples include celebrity feuds, sensationalized star vehicles, and simplified, eroticized adaptations of classic literature. Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights is described as vacuous and one-dimensional yet commercially successful, revealing a cultural hunger for accessible romance. Margot Robbie defends prioritizing emotional experience and ticket-buying audiences over heady ideas. The result is entertainment shaped by juvenile impulses and mass demand.
Read at The Atlantic
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