pop culture
Female pop-culture icons, women in the media and the depiction of women in the entertainment and pop culture sphere.
Notes from the Mind Palace
The house is dead silent, but inside my ribcage, the engine is still throwing heavy sparks. Everyone else gets to slip away into the dark, trading the weight of the day for soft edges, slow breathing, and effortless drift. For them, midnight is a curtain that drops cleanly, bringing an end to the noise. But for me, the dark isn't a relief—it’s a mirror. It is a wide-open canvas where the shadows start to take shape if I sit still for too long, a quiet room where the past likes to pull up a chair and wait.
By Syl De'Vil2 days ago in Viva
Cosmic Displacement
Beneath the silent canopy of the trees and the cold light of the stars, a lifelong outsider finds her true reflection. There is a heavy, ancient silence that only exists deep beneath the tree canopy after midnight. Out here, away from the synthetic hum of the house, the endless logistics of a large family, and the relentless demands of the daylight world, the air completely changes. I step out into the cold grass, pull my star-covered robe tight against the chill, and look up through the dark, jagged silhouettes of the branches.
By Syl De'Vil2 days ago in Viva
The Armor of the Metalhead Matriarch
Out here in the predictable daylight of the suburbs, a forty-five-year-old mother of seven stands out. People notice the sheer scale of a massive family and automatically file you away into a neat, conventional box. They assume your identity has been entirely swallowed by the endless cycle of groceries, laundry, and schedules. They think the story ends there.
By Syl De'Vil2 days ago in Viva
Rearranging the Broken Furniture Inside My Head
I often find myself thinking about what it means to simply not be here—not in this era, not in this specific, heavy space. There is a persistent, quiet displacement in my chest, a feeling that I was either dropped into the world entirely too early or far too late. I exist on the periphery, a permanent outsider who doesn't fit into the conventional puzzles of society, or even within the familiar walls of my own family.
By Syl De'Vil2 days ago in Viva
Notes from the Mind Palace.
There’s a strange transformation that happens when your kids become adults. You think you’re finally done with the chaos — the sticky hands, the mystery stains, the “is it POOP or chocolate?” or "why is this wet" moments. You think adulthood means peace, quiet, stability.
By Syl De'Vil5 days ago in Viva
The Trad-Wife Contradiction
As someone interested in history and feminism, I find the trad-wife trend troubling because its public image depends on a contradiction. The version of “traditional wifehood” promoted on social media does not feel especially genuine or authentic: many of these women argue that men should be sole breadwinners while earning their own money online through brand deals, sponsored posts, affiliate links, paid subscriptions, and monetised videos.
By Sarah Xenosabout a month ago in Viva
Dear Women: Stop Feeding the Machine
The entire world has been shaped by a bro-code patriarchy. Look at history: centuries of unhinged, psychotic greed, domination, rape, robbery and killing carried out overwhelmingly by men—and systems built by men to protect male power.
By THE HONED CRONEabout a month ago in Viva
Burn the Witch
There is a trend circulating on TikTok in which a crowd chants, “Burn the witch! Burn the witch!” A person then announces that they know a “spell” to achieve something desirable—getting rid of homework, summoning a particular kind of person or solving some everyday inconvenience—and the crowd changes its verdict: “Release the witch!”
By Millie Hardy-Sims2 months ago in Viva
Big Time Players Make Big Time Plays
I had the story the very second after it happened. I knew what I would say about this as well. The only thing I didn't have was a title, up until just now. I chose a very fitting one: "Big Time Players Make Big Time Plays." Two reasons. One, it's my tribute to the late, great Stacey King, who this Chicago Bulls fan remembers as part of our first three championships between 1991 and 1993. Of course, King went on to serve as the Bulls' color commentator for many years, and one of his many signature lines was "Big time players make big time plays."
By Clyde E. Dawkins2 months ago in Viva
