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I know what Nymphenburg is! I saw it last summer! It's a summer palace in Munich, once belonging to the Bavarian royal family. Ludwig II, the guy who built Neuschwanstein, that ultimate fairy-tale castle, was born there. The whole thing is incredibly baroque and over the top. I walked into the reception hall, and it was about the preposterous room I'd ever seen, and it was guarded by people who were almost certainly migrants from incredibly poor countries, and I understood Communism in a whole new way. Down with kings! Of course later in the week I saw lots of even more ridiculous rooms, because we went to ol' Ludwig's mini-Versailles too. But anyway, if those tiles are copies of ones from Nymphenburg, they have the highest of consumerism pedigrees and are probably from a hunting-themed dressing room.

There was a Purple Lady in my hometown, in the 80s. House, car, clothing, husband (voluntarily!), all purple, on your basic middle-class budget. She was a lovely person and very civic-minded. We used to host Japanese exchange students in the summer, and I'd take several of them by the Purple Lady house, because you just don't get those in Japan. I would also take them by the Madonna Inn, which is about the most Barbie place you'll ever see in real life (google it; I'm not sure a link won't put me into spam hell).

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I def. need you two to see the movie. I am not fit for it, but a review from someone I follow basically called it something like "Man-hating dystopian brainwashing" or some such. Sounds pretty strong to me, but given many of the "glowing" reviews elsewhere I have seen would match up with what is standard these days. I mean one would not expect a barbie movie to be all "yay men" but from the sounds of it it was also REALLY not the kind of thing you would want kids to see despite the bright, kid like aesthetics. Idk, just curious to hear what you all think since this is on your side of the fence. :D

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I feel like the Barbiecore/cabin thing is actually more a class issue than a feminist thing. Making your kitchen all pink is decidedly a middle class pursuit (notwithstanding the cost of the appliances, we’re talking about class not money) while Mr Fancy Pants Designer has all the trappings of a very successful member of the creative class and precisely the sort of life a member of the media would aspire to. Eg how would they cover a man that covers their house in football memorabilia?

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Surely Phoebe has seen Grand Designs on BritBox, which has no end of delightful insane house building projects.

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VERY excited for Phoebe to see Good Omens! Good work Micheal!

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The only time I visit NYT is when link in FemChaos or other article and each time, I hit paywall “You have used up your 10 free-loader experiences this month.” Thanks to your articulate literary skills- I was able to visualize the wood log fetish parlor and Barbie- mania. But, when I saw pink soccer uniforms in Miami game - I thought they were all homosexuals. Turns out- they are participating in Barbie conspiracy. Even yesterday when I went to doctor for for routine blood-work, the color of my blood was - you guessed it, pink.

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Still listening and cracking up over pulling their heads off and fashioning clothes from scraps for their headless bodies -- I used to enjoy cutting their hair down to a crew cut and then having them get run over by my hot wheels cars while imprisoned around a maze of Lincoln logs. Psychologists of Substack-- have at it!

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I've tended to like and dislike Hyacinth's house at the same time, and and I think you nailed it and cleared my ambivalence. It's very tasteful, but yes, there's not one square inch of Richard there.

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Now Greta Gerwig is set to make us feel okay about Narnia.

Aslan as a transparent stand-in, clearly, for the Patriarchy? All those favourites: The Horse and Her Girl. The Witch’s Niece. Jadis. The Last Struggle Session.

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Just listening to the start of the episode, and having previously mentioned the Victoria Wood "Barry and Freda" court case, here are the details:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12300035/Hotel-boss-sexually-harassed-head-chef-singing-Victoria-Woods-Ballad-Barry-Freda.html

(Only non-paywalled version I could find was the Mail.)

And the 'offending' song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFI5Jl_IqsE

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