On Holding Space For The Need to Shift the Culture

Hey y’all! I can’t believe we’ve made it to December. What a year it has been. I hope you’re able to take some time to rest and process this year in a space that feels comfortable and safe because 2025 shows no signs of slowing down. 😅

Personally I have been sooo tired and irritated recently (shout out to mercury AND mars retrograde) but one thing that’s been on my mind has been the need for our culture to transform in order for our politics to follow suit. It goes without saying that America has decided to follow the yellow brick road to fascism. In the past month of trying to reconcile how we got here, one thing that has become abundantly clear to me is the desperate overhaul needed in our media and stories. Despite how we may try to dillude ourselves, the bigotted belief systems that drive people of all ages and backgrounds were not built in a day. They’ve been carefully planted in mainstream media for years whether in the form of manosphere podcasts or trad wife TikToks. The stories we’ve been told about ourselves and each other are all massive puzzle pieces in the Christian nationalist game plan or coup as Brittney Packnett put it a few months ago.

So I find it even more fascinating that Wicked, a movie about oppression, propaganda, herd mentalities, power, and false leadership, came out now out of all times. I’ll be the first to admit I was really skeptical about this movie because I’m quite tired of every movie trying to be Barbie by shoving cross-promotion down our throats. However, once I saw that my favorite creators like Jezz Chung and Divinity really loved the movie and wanted to see it multiple times, I knew I was done for. Not only as a former theater kid but as a lover of music and all things witchy. Prior to seeing the movie, I had heard the musical’s iconic songs like “Defying Gravity” and “Popular” but I never got to see the show live on Broadway. I’d also watched the Wizard of Oz and The Wiz (the movie and the live musical, respectively) before but I was never a hard core fan of the world of Oz or really knew what the plot of Wicked entailed.

I say all that to say this movie really won me over on all fronts. The music, the set design, the choreography, the acting, the costume design. Everybody clocked tf into work and it was amazing to witness. But what’s been even more interesting (besides the plethora of memes from this chaotic press tour) is people’s reaction to the film and their interpretations.

One TikToker I watched spoke to the power dynamics in the film and how she perceived them differently compared to the white man next to her who saw Elfaba’s desire to help a discriminated group that she related to as forcing her power on them rather than just her doing the right thing. Other people have spoken to the fact that Elfaba’s experience speaks poignantly to the experience of being bullied through exclusion and how our uniqueness is only perceived as worthy when someone with more social capital cosigns us. But the best part of this is that people are in movie theaters again having conversations with people they normally wouldn’t talk to, processing experiences that they hadn’t really thought about and making connections to our current reality. That is the power of storytelling and media. If we hope to survive what is to come and create a better society in the process, we have to be able to use stories to shift the culture before we can expect to see a change in politics. As Marquise Davon shared in an episode of Olay & Friends “Culture shifts before policy does.” For better or worse, our society was primed to elect an abusive, bigoted, felon into office. How can we prime it for something better? I don’t have the answers just yet but I mayyy be working on something for us to explore this topic together next year 👀

Thanks for reading as always! If you missed it my most recent YouTube videos are live on my channel here.

Happy Holidays and see you in 2025!

With gratitude,

Paula ❤️