Archives February 2024

A wise sage by the name of Kacey Musgraves once implored her listeners to “kiss lots of boys, kiss lots of girls, if that’s what you’re into,” and more than a decade later, it seems another pop-country chanteuse has opted to follow those sacred instructions. Maren Morris, the Texas-born-and-bred singer-songwriter whose songs have netted her five Academy of Country Music awards (not to mention a Grammy), came out as bisexual on Monday, writing on Instagram that she’s “happy to be the B in LGBTQ+.”

In a perfect world, a 34-year-old woman coming out as bisexual wouldn’t be news, but unfortunately the world that we actually live in—and Morris’s country-music milieu in particular—can still be hostile to such disclosures. Still, it’s heartening to think of Morris joining the ranks of Orville Peck, Lil Nas X, and other openly LGBTQ+ artists who choose to make their art within (or at the fringes of) the country scene.

If Morris isn’t necessarily surrounded by queer community in the world of mainstream country music, fans are definitely making her feel welcome on Instagram, where the comments section on her coming-out post has become a veritable Pride parade of rainbow-flag emojis and hearts. (A quick dig through the annals of country history shows that Morris is far from the first woman in her genre to be attracted to other women, of course; the late country singer Wilma Burgess, who had over a dozen Billboard-charting singles between 1965 and 1975, was an out lesbian.)

Hopefully, Morris’s candidness about her sexuality will inspire country to get a little more inclusive—and inspire her fans wrestling with their own LGBTQ+ identities to feel a little more comfortable loving who they love…or, at the very least, blast the Chicks’ iconic, deeply sapphic-coded country ballad “Goodbye Earl” at top volume. (I mean…killing an abusive man and then peacefully making jam with your bestie for the rest of your life? Sounds pretty queer to me!)

I’m not going to lie: I thought I was pretty cool for serving appetizers at my 31st birthday party last month. I mean, what’s more adult and elegant than giving guests little ham-and-cheese pinwheels to gnaw on while they drink to excess? But, shockingly enough, Charli XCX somehow outdid me at her 32nd birthday fête in Los Angeles on Friday, which drew none other than Lorde in to dance with Charli to their “Girl, So Confusing” remix.

I don’t even know what to focus on first in that Oscar-worthy video snippet, to be honest. Is it Charli’s Brat-green phone case? Her beyond-perfect pantless birthday look? Lorde’s nutso little braids? Rachel Sennott and Molly Gordon dancing next to them? The guy in the crowd who’s clearly being FaceTimed in? Or should we just zoom out to the fact that the Manic Pixie Dream Guy himself, Glen Powell, was there too (well, not necessarily at this specific moment, which seems to have been reserved for the girlies and gays, but at the party more generally)?

As if Powell’s presence weren’t enough, Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish, Finneas, Gracie Abrams, Addison Rae, Tove Lo, Nelly Furtado, Anya Taylor-Joy, and two of the Willis sisters—Scout and Tallulah, to be specific—were also on hand to celebrate the day this world went from being Charli XCX-less to Charli XCX-full, and I certainly hope they brought a vast array of slime green gifts.

Ultimately, though, one specific detail of the birthday party had me astral projecting, and it was the stunning and extremely on-brand cigarette bouquet that singer Rosalía brought Charli for her birthday:

The 2024 MTV Video Music Awards on Wednesday were full of recap-worthy moments: Beyond the distinctive red carpet style, the energy of live performances from the likes of Katy Perry, Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, Karol G, Lenny Kravitz, and host Megan Thee Stallion made the night feel quite fun. (And we deserve it after that debate, right?)

Below, find all the moments we loved—or felt slightly weird about!—during the 2024 MTV VMAs.

Video Vanguard winner Katy Perry’s QR code lower back tattoo

Let me be clear: I am a lower-back-tattoo evangelist who is staying very silent about whether or not I have one for the sake of my parents, but a scannable hashtag is…a wild thing to ink onto your body. (Actually, maybe it’s temporary, or just some kind of living art piece?) Then again, Charli XCX did dub this the season of “showing off my brand-new little back tattoo.”

Sabrina Carpenter’s alien makout

Love is a many-splendored thing, especially when you’re gawking at it from the outside. In this column, we’ll be examining the celebrity couples that give us hope for our own romantic futures and trying to learn what we can from their well-documented bonds.

I feel strongly that a May-December relationship is only as mature as the youngest person in it, which is why it so reliably bums me out when the Leonardo DiCaprios of this world are spotted cavorting with women in their 20s. I’m not trying to be a Church Lady—a before-my-time SNL reference I never would have gotten if I hadn’t briefly dated an older comedian, by the way—but if your whole thing is dating people who have only recently gained the legal right to drink, I do have certain questions about your maturity level.

That said, I do think a May-December relationship can work, as long as the balance of power is relatively equal: Just take 78-year-old Cher and her 38-year-old on-again, off-again music-executive boyfriend Alexander “AE” Edwards. I mean, okay, nobody in this world has as much power as Cher—but at least the May component in this case is, you know, a grown adult. On Tuesday, the two were spotted making a date night out of the 2024 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, and forgive me for doing celebrity Kremlinology based solely on paparazzi photographs, but…the romantic vibes have never seemed stronger. (Is demurely kissing your much-older girlfriend on the cheek technically PDA, actually? Unclear, but I like it.)

There’s a line from Slouching Towards Bethlehem that I once looked up online, printed out on my office printer, and brought with me on a road trip in my early 20s (yes, really): “One of the mixed blessings of being 20 and 21 and even 23 is the conviction that nothing like this, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding, has ever happened before.” Does that quote go hard as hell? Absolutely. But now that I’m in my seasoned early 30s, I’m ready to paraphrase Joan Didion and say that actually, one of the mixed blessings of being 30, 31, and even 32 is realizing that you can keep being confused and deranged once you’re off your parents’ health insurance.

It’s obviously not news that you can keep on being a flop after you’ve graduated from your 20s (hello, Carrie Bradshaw got six seasons, two movies, and a spinoff out of it!), but I won’t lie: As chaotic and often miserable as my 20s were, it was also nice to be so…what’s the phrase I’m looking for? “Dialed-in?” “Culturally relevant?” “Directly marketed to?” There’s definitely a lot I don’t understand about the current zeitgeist, from the rise of the soul tie to the concept of being “boysober,” but as I’ve crept further and further into my third decade of life, I’ve realized how ridiculous it was to think that all things fun and messy and risible would disappear from my life once I learned what an FSA account was, and paid off (some of) my credit card debt.

As fate would have it, we seem to be entering something I’d like to term a ~Saturn return girl summer~, with Charli XCX’s much-memed latest album Brat signifying the true ascendance of the semi-grown adult who still wants to have madcap adventures despite being in possession of an extensive nighttime skin-care routine that involves at least one wildly expensive unguent. (God, I could cry for all the time I went to sleep in my 20s covered in a fine sheen of glitter and pizza grease.) I once thought my 30s would be all about taking a warm bath to Enya’s “Dark Sky Island” and then going to sleep early, and I’m not going to lie—that does happen with no small degree of frequency. But I also want to embarrass myself in the club to “Talk Talk” at my earliest opportunity! Women contain multitudes!