Appreciate this analysis and behind the scenes take. I don’t try to judge folks aesthetic choices but when I see her I also think of that Dolly Parton quote about it taking a lot of money to look that cheap
I certainly think Sanchez's aesthetic is very much fair game, between this photoshoot and her weird "blazer and bra" ensemble at the inauguration. It's the middle point between Kardashian style and the MAGA woman one of the current Trump era (very augmented, hyper-feminine, almost to the point of parody, male gaze-y, boobs-forward, big brand names but not well styled, etc.)
I’m all about women looking how they want. I definitely get the uncanny/ sex doll vibe when I see her face though. I don’t mean that it a degrading, I’m better then you way, it’s just the absent of human features for me.
I still don't understand how a few celebrity women on a 10 minute joyride that barely clears the atmosphere is breaking "a glass ceiling" when we've had so many real female astronauts and scientists in actual space, working on space stations and doing space walks? I'm not even trying to be snarky, I'm genuinely confused!
It was a glorified ad for Bezos's space company, which mostly seeks to be a tourist experience for the uber-wealthy and for-hire service to replace the likes of NASA. Feminism had nothing to do with it. But it is fascinating how widely the propaganda was rejected. It really does feel like nobody saw it as anything other than a publicity stunt for people who should be taxed more.
I heard a story once about a group touring the “Blue Orgasm” (or whatever it’s called), facility and having the whole process of space tourism explained by some patronizing Bro-bot. One of the women in the group asked how they planned to handle the intense nausea which often occurs on lift off. The guide said “Oh, that’s all taken care of. And what do you do?”
The best thing about these two is that their relationship freed MacKenzie Scott and gave her a bunch of resources to do good in the world.
The space ride was ridiculed, but at the end of the day it happened. So rich people who want to go to space still will, depleting even more resources so that the mega wealthy can amuse themselves.
I understand that talking about a woman’s appearance is shitty, but there are times when I don’t care. And Lauren Sanchez‘s face reminds me that at least there is some karma in the world because she looks terrible. Her face looks like a bad filter - it’s the worst combo of puffy and angular I’ve seen. There’s a bit of poetic justice that she has to carry this reminder that consumption and excess can harm even the most affluent us (tho girl probably thinks she looks great 🤮)
There's obviously a line when it comes to discussing people's appearances, and I really don't know where the line is. We all screw up and cross that line. But I do think that we can't fully discuss the current reign of fascism and its weird aesthetics without getting into how it's pushing a very specific kind of femininity that's being endorsed by women like Sanchez, the Kardashians, and Fox News' crew. Frankly, a lot of these Vogue images feel like AI-generated jokes thanks to that uncanny Leibowitz sheen that is very ChatGPT.
I remember doing a close read of this article when it came out and thinking that it was a giant advertisement to get riders on New Shepherd. At that time, Lauren had been teasing the all female flight, but it was pretty clear that she was having trouble attracting famous people to it. Pete Davidson had recently dropped out, the Kardashians said a hard no, the most famous person (Non-Bezos) to date was probably William Shatner and that ended up getting some mixed publicity. The Vogue appearance and the fashion photographs of the New Shepherd compound in nowhereland, Texas seemed extremely calculated to try to get some other famous people to ride on it. There has been a lot of speculation within the aerospace industry and Blue Origin itself about how sustainable New Shepherd is in terms of cost and the number of people in the world who want to ride on it who can actually pay for a ride. It's the new climbing of Mount Everest for the extremely wealthy and it has had trouble attracting people outside of the techbro founder/venture capitalist camp. There are only so many people with $500k-$2mill who want to take a joy ride to space. Bezos literally subsidizes every ride and it is far from profitable. The Vogue article seemed like a misguided attempt to attract a celebrity who would then attract other rich people and it reeks of desperation. I was shocked that it actually kind of worked with Katy Perry and Gayle King but that backfired fantastically. (Also word on the aerospace street is that the rollout of girlboss astronaut crew was 100% the "Lauren game" and that is why it was so tone deaf. The Space Empress was wearing no clothes except for the skin tight space suit, I guess.)
Perry being involved didn't surprise because she is friends with Bezos and Sanches (and Elon, and Sam Altman. She sure knows how to pick them.) But Gayle King lending this thing a shred of journalistic legitimacy felt like such an obvious faux pas to me. Sure, I bet CBS thought it'd be good for publicity, but all I remember is Gayle's face as she regretted her life choices going into that pod.
And that also rings very true RE: Sanchez's PR blitz. You see it all over this Vogue piece as she tries to spin herself as a girlboss, a loving fiancée, and a family woman. That's hard to square with Kim Kardashian talking about their BFF shopping sprees, alas.
1) Why do these rich women tend to look like drag queens?
2) The first woman in space was Valentina Tereshkova in 1963 in an unsafe vessel. Still alive and a hardcore Putin supporter but she was as tough as anyone.
I find it amusing that Anna Wintour can be so anti-Trump and still embrace Bezos in this way. Perhaps she is trying to keep the conservative readers she may have turned off. The flaunting of this kind of wealth is obscene in light of the current administration’s desire to decimate the benefits of deserving Americans
I don't even know if it's about appeasing conservative Vogue readers so much as her just being part of an establishment that calls itself liberal but doesn't care to truly rock the boat. Vogue has always done pieces on Republicans and the like. They did a Sarah Palin piece before she got McCain's VP slot. They infamously did a puff piece for Bashir al-Assad's wife (which I wrote about in a previous issue.) They featured Trump too, before he became the fascist Cheeto but while he was still this celebrity rabblerouser. I honestly think Trump just became too obviously nasty (but also too gauche) for Vogue. If he'd been a Mitt Romney figure or what not, I think Vogue wouldn't have gotten political (and even then, they're hardly Teen Vogue in that manner.)
This is probably why I’m not a millionaire/billionaire, but once i reached that level of status, I’d fuck off to the middle of nowhere with some solar power and rainfall for water. I wouldn’t be spending my little bit of life trying to convince everyone how amazing I am while I burned the planet to the ground.
We’ve got to ask why Mackenzie Bezos only started giving away billions after her divorce. That kind of altruism doesn’t develop overnight, so did Jeff hoard their combined wealth or prevent her from donating?!
I think it’s possible that the shared ownership and other logistical factors made the circumstances different than Mackenzie having discrete billions in her name after the divorce. However, her whole brand is under the radar. So we don’t actually know that she wasn’t pushing and engaging major altruism in other ways during that time.
Appreciate this analysis and behind the scenes take. I don’t try to judge folks aesthetic choices but when I see her I also think of that Dolly Parton quote about it taking a lot of money to look that cheap
Thanks very much!
I certainly think Sanchez's aesthetic is very much fair game, between this photoshoot and her weird "blazer and bra" ensemble at the inauguration. It's the middle point between Kardashian style and the MAGA woman one of the current Trump era (very augmented, hyper-feminine, almost to the point of parody, male gaze-y, boobs-forward, big brand names but not well styled, etc.)
I’m all about women looking how they want. I definitely get the uncanny/ sex doll vibe when I see her face though. I don’t mean that it a degrading, I’m better then you way, it’s just the absent of human features for me.
I still don't understand how a few celebrity women on a 10 minute joyride that barely clears the atmosphere is breaking "a glass ceiling" when we've had so many real female astronauts and scientists in actual space, working on space stations and doing space walks? I'm not even trying to be snarky, I'm genuinely confused!
It was a glorified ad for Bezos's space company, which mostly seeks to be a tourist experience for the uber-wealthy and for-hire service to replace the likes of NASA. Feminism had nothing to do with it. But it is fascinating how widely the propaganda was rejected. It really does feel like nobody saw it as anything other than a publicity stunt for people who should be taxed more.
The collective rejection made me sigh with relief. Like “phew! Most of us didn’t buy that”. 😂
I heard a story once about a group touring the “Blue Orgasm” (or whatever it’s called), facility and having the whole process of space tourism explained by some patronizing Bro-bot. One of the women in the group asked how they planned to handle the intense nausea which often occurs on lift off. The guide said “Oh, that’s all taken care of. And what do you do?”
“I’m an astronaut.” Said the woman.
The best thing about these two is that their relationship freed MacKenzie Scott and gave her a bunch of resources to do good in the world.
The space ride was ridiculed, but at the end of the day it happened. So rich people who want to go to space still will, depleting even more resources so that the mega wealthy can amuse themselves.
I understand that talking about a woman’s appearance is shitty, but there are times when I don’t care. And Lauren Sanchez‘s face reminds me that at least there is some karma in the world because she looks terrible. Her face looks like a bad filter - it’s the worst combo of puffy and angular I’ve seen. There’s a bit of poetic justice that she has to carry this reminder that consumption and excess can harm even the most affluent us (tho girl probably thinks she looks great 🤮)
There's obviously a line when it comes to discussing people's appearances, and I really don't know where the line is. We all screw up and cross that line. But I do think that we can't fully discuss the current reign of fascism and its weird aesthetics without getting into how it's pushing a very specific kind of femininity that's being endorsed by women like Sanchez, the Kardashians, and Fox News' crew. Frankly, a lot of these Vogue images feel like AI-generated jokes thanks to that uncanny Leibowitz sheen that is very ChatGPT.
I remember doing a close read of this article when it came out and thinking that it was a giant advertisement to get riders on New Shepherd. At that time, Lauren had been teasing the all female flight, but it was pretty clear that she was having trouble attracting famous people to it. Pete Davidson had recently dropped out, the Kardashians said a hard no, the most famous person (Non-Bezos) to date was probably William Shatner and that ended up getting some mixed publicity. The Vogue appearance and the fashion photographs of the New Shepherd compound in nowhereland, Texas seemed extremely calculated to try to get some other famous people to ride on it. There has been a lot of speculation within the aerospace industry and Blue Origin itself about how sustainable New Shepherd is in terms of cost and the number of people in the world who want to ride on it who can actually pay for a ride. It's the new climbing of Mount Everest for the extremely wealthy and it has had trouble attracting people outside of the techbro founder/venture capitalist camp. There are only so many people with $500k-$2mill who want to take a joy ride to space. Bezos literally subsidizes every ride and it is far from profitable. The Vogue article seemed like a misguided attempt to attract a celebrity who would then attract other rich people and it reeks of desperation. I was shocked that it actually kind of worked with Katy Perry and Gayle King but that backfired fantastically. (Also word on the aerospace street is that the rollout of girlboss astronaut crew was 100% the "Lauren game" and that is why it was so tone deaf. The Space Empress was wearing no clothes except for the skin tight space suit, I guess.)
Perry being involved didn't surprise because she is friends with Bezos and Sanches (and Elon, and Sam Altman. She sure knows how to pick them.) But Gayle King lending this thing a shred of journalistic legitimacy felt like such an obvious faux pas to me. Sure, I bet CBS thought it'd be good for publicity, but all I remember is Gayle's face as she regretted her life choices going into that pod.
And that also rings very true RE: Sanchez's PR blitz. You see it all over this Vogue piece as she tries to spin herself as a girlboss, a loving fiancée, and a family woman. That's hard to square with Kim Kardashian talking about their BFF shopping sprees, alas.
Katy’s kissing the ground after her little jaunt had me absolutely dead. It was so tone deaf. 😂
She’s just fucking gross. Icon my ass 🤣🤣🤣
Someone is getting paid for making that ridiculous idea
1) Why do these rich women tend to look like drag queens?
2) The first woman in space was Valentina Tereshkova in 1963 in an unsafe vessel. Still alive and a hardcore Putin supporter but she was as tough as anyone.
I find it amusing that Anna Wintour can be so anti-Trump and still embrace Bezos in this way. Perhaps she is trying to keep the conservative readers she may have turned off. The flaunting of this kind of wealth is obscene in light of the current administration’s desire to decimate the benefits of deserving Americans
I don't even know if it's about appeasing conservative Vogue readers so much as her just being part of an establishment that calls itself liberal but doesn't care to truly rock the boat. Vogue has always done pieces on Republicans and the like. They did a Sarah Palin piece before she got McCain's VP slot. They infamously did a puff piece for Bashir al-Assad's wife (which I wrote about in a previous issue.) They featured Trump too, before he became the fascist Cheeto but while he was still this celebrity rabblerouser. I honestly think Trump just became too obviously nasty (but also too gauche) for Vogue. If he'd been a Mitt Romney figure or what not, I think Vogue wouldn't have gotten political (and even then, they're hardly Teen Vogue in that manner.)
🤮…also get at least one other look. It’s like friggin Zoolander.
What a ridiculous photo😂😂😂
This is probably why I’m not a millionaire/billionaire, but once i reached that level of status, I’d fuck off to the middle of nowhere with some solar power and rainfall for water. I wouldn’t be spending my little bit of life trying to convince everyone how amazing I am while I burned the planet to the ground.
We’ve got to ask why Mackenzie Bezos only started giving away billions after her divorce. That kind of altruism doesn’t develop overnight, so did Jeff hoard their combined wealth or prevent her from donating?!
I think it’s possible that the shared ownership and other logistical factors made the circumstances different than Mackenzie having discrete billions in her name after the divorce. However, her whole brand is under the radar. So we don’t actually know that she wasn’t pushing and engaging major altruism in other ways during that time.
She’s not. I’m not sure she’s human at this point. It’s like Bezos created a real life sex doll.
Am I the only one who thinks she looks like Caitlyn Jenner?
Hard no
Maybe Dow Chemical needs a spokesperson…
of what and for what. HARDLY.