Archive - Pretty Slash Smart

thank god for granting me this moment of clarity

life lessons from a developed prefrontal cortex (allegedly)

Dec 31, 2025 • Ari✨

The Popstar as Brand: Rihanna and the Luxury of Not Caring

How Rihanna turned public tragedy into private power.

Dec 17, 2025 • Ari✨

November 2025

the girls are not alright: serena and blair, jessa and hannah

the subtlety of female cruelty in popular media

Nov 27, 2025 • Ari✨

we come to this place for magic

on late bloomers, tik tok and doomscrolling

Nov 24, 2025 • Ari✨

The Popstar as Projection: Taylor Swift and the Failure of the Controlled Rebrand

How Taylor Swift built an empire on girlhood, innocence, and control — and why that image can’t survive the current culture.

Nov 21, 2025 • Ari✨

you do not have to be good

a meditation on surrender, survival, and letting life carry you forward

Nov 17, 2025 • Ari✨

The Popstar as Rebel: Miley Cyrus and the Performance of Freedom

the Disney machine, the good-girl myth, and why rebellion still needs better PR

Nov 12, 2025 • Ari✨

the suffering contract

on the roles we inherit, endure and finally reject

Nov 11, 2025 • Ari✨

the war on pleasure

- notes on the shackles of religion, suffering and emotional repression

Nov 6, 2025 • Ari✨

October 2025

The Popstar as Sacrifice: Britney Spears and the Birth of the Bad Girl

A cultural autopsy of purity, fame, and the price of the pop girl myth

Oct 20, 2025 • Ari✨

the man, the myth, the tumblr: why it was cool to be sad online

a love letter to 2012 internet brain rot and the girls who thought sadness was an aesthetic

Oct 8, 2025 • Ari✨

grief is just love with nowhere to go: on the batman (2022)

the batman, se7en and the art of rising above vengeance

Oct 1, 2025 • Ari✨

#nojs-banner { position: fixed; bottom: 0; left: 0; padding: 16px 16px 16px 32px; width: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; background: red; color: white; font-family: -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 13px; line-height: 13px; } #nojs-banner a { color: inherit; text-decoration: underline; } This site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please turn on JavaScript or unblock scripts