July 8, 2026 • 43 mins
In the last few years a suffix took over the internet: "-maxxing"! First it was "looksmaxxing", then as all trends do, it multiplied! From fiber-maxxing, protein-maxxing, to beauty-maxxing, there's always room for self-improvement according to your algorithm. In this episode, Diosa and Mala dig into the internet origins of "-maxxing", how it jumped from niche forums into the mainstream, and why a simple suffix became apart of the cultural zeitgeist. Las Locatoras ask what this trend says about the current societal moment, self-improvement, and performance in late stage capitalism. Diosa and Mala also share how they're -maxxing their own lives.
Sources:
The Suffix That Tells Us to Ruthlessly Optimize Everything
The Captivating Derangement of the Looksmaxxing Movement
How I developed my glitzy personal style
Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/locatora_productions
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
My personal favorite is whimsy maxing.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Tell us about whimsy maxing.
Speaker 3 (00:04):
So, whimsy maxing is just like stacking your life with
all things whimsical. I think that this is sort of
a version of the idea of romanticizing your life. For me,
I love whimsy maxing. This is the first time I've
used this term, Okay, but I identify with this term
because I think I do this naturally in my life.
Speaker 4 (00:22):
You are a hippie whimsical person I am.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
I'm very flowy, and I love the summer because I
think LA has its most whimsical potential in the summertime. So,
for example, like a classic summer for me, I had
this day recently with my friend where we went to
a skate meetup in Long Beach, suns out, buns out,
We wore like really cute outfits. We roller skated all
(00:47):
day long with a bunch of other whimsical roller skaters.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
We were gardening at.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
The beach, we hung out on the sand, we got
poke bowls, and then we watched heated rivalry. It's a
perfect LA day and that's how I like to spend
my LA summers.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
O La La. I'm fiosa and I'm Mala and you're
listening to another capito of Lokata Radio.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Today we're talking about maxing.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
What the fuck is maxing?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Maxing is everything and nothing at the same time. It's
a lot of different things. You might have heard this
term on TikTok all over the internet, maybe with regards
to beauty maxing or money maxing, even fibermaxing, and you
would be surprised at the origins and where this trend
is coming from. But not only that, maybe like where
(01:39):
in history we've seen maxing before, we just weren't calling
it that.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
Yes, this trend circulated in the mainstream digital space in
the last several years, and like most trends, take a
life of its own, and today we're talking about what
it is, where it comes from, and what it reveals
about the cultural zeitgeist.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
I think it's this is one of those like, uh,
those moments where we say this isn't new, Yes, this
has happened before, and here's why.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Yes, here's why. Is human beings we.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Turn to max maximalism, We turn to maxing, especially in
times of turmoil of economic stress. As human beings, we
have this tendency towards wanting to indulge, and I think
that's the moment we're in right now.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
All right, let's talk about it because there's some I
think in its evolution, because we're going to talk about
the origins and kind of how dark the origins are.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
But we're going to.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Start like we always do, or like we tried to,
not always, but we're going to start with like the fun,
the fun, the evolution that we're like popets of the internet,
like make it its own.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
And so one of the ones that we're talking about
or that we've seen online is like Latina Maxing.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Yes, I love this one.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
So Latina Maxing, I mean to find out how you want, right, Latini,
that is a spectrum. So the way I'm Latinoxing today
is I'm wearing, of course, hoops, red lip the and
I'm wearing my little liked Bad Bunny merch that I
got in Mexico. So it's the little goncho wearing the
Mexican jersey. And that's how I'm Latina Maxing today because
(03:17):
I did not want to get in trouble because I
wore my Bidou shirt last episode and I'm wearing so
I'm wearing Mexico today.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
So that's how I'm latina maxing.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
You're you're also you're serving the people.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Yes with your lug, correct, with your your Latina max lugs.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I am for the people. I am tri cultural.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yes you are. And it must get exhausting.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
It is exhausting. Yes, I need a third term.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
Like everyone is like nia, yeah, and I'm like, I
need a third one to add to it.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
We need to work on that, right for the tricultural baddies,
the tri cultural mommies, the tri cultural Latinas.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Yeah, okay, we're going to work on that. We're going
to workshop that. We'll come back next episode. Yes with
a with a tri cold term.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
All right, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
And in a way that is like culture maxing. I
can stand that's culture maxing.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
There's also Mamacita maxing. And so there's this creator on
TikTok At Luis Done, and I saw him talking about
Mamasita maxing in this way, Latinas need to weaponize their
beauty to get richer by Mamacita maxing.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
And he's calling us in and he's like, stop getting
stop getting the two dollars drinks bought for you. Aim higher.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
He's like, use your beauty and weaponize it to get more,
not the free drinks cool, I'm higher and I was like, dang, okay.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah, and that is mamacita maxing.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
I love this notion of mamasita maxing, which I think
is different than latina maxing because I believe that latina
maxing is maybe like really wearing all the different items
that signify culture, all the cultural markers.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
You're like, put that shit on.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
But I think mamita maxing is really like harnessing your
mamita power, your mamita energy. Yes, because I think all
mamitas are Latinas, but not all Latinas are like going
full mamita all the.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
Time, mamasita mommy, like the whole, the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Like, if I'm gonna go out and I'm gonna be
mamita maxing, I'm gonna wear like tight capris, wedges, I'm
gonna wear a crop top. I'm going to like straighten
my hair probably or wear like big.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
Hair you're giving hildosaurs exactly, iconically from Ugly Betty.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
From Ugly Betty exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
I might not wear like things that are specifically culturally Mexican,
but I'm I'm gonna be Mamita to the max.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
That's the distinction, and that's how what we're wearing today.
I am Latino maxing and you are Mamacita maxing or
mammy maxing.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
To a degree, to a degree, I could go harder,
It could go harder. We could always go harder.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
This is still a workplace.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
We're at work. We are professionals. We're professionals, so that
this is not the only type of maxing that people
are engaging in. It goes from what we're wearing, to
how we're spending our time, even to what we're eating.
People are even talking about fibermaxing, yes, which is really
prioritizing fiber and getting as much fiber into your meals
(06:25):
and your diet as possible.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
And honestly, like bowel movements very important, and I think
like we're going to get deep into it. But I
think part of the fibermaxing is like our shitty healthcare
system people are actually yes, I know, no put intended
is actually like you know, for our age demographic, colon
(06:49):
cancer is actually on the rise, and health insurance wise,
we're not allowed to get colonoscopies until later in life. Yeah, right,
And so I think that this is one of the
reasons that fibers is a part of the wellness and
the maxine that people are doing.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
I also think that there is such a big like
gym talk and like skinny talk and every like iteration
of this. They're not each of these are different, but
I think that fiber also plays a role. Yes, in
like all the fitness influencers are always talking about fiber,
(07:27):
Like the skinny girls are talking about fiber. Everybody's talking
about fiber for different reasons, but it's it's just central.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
And I think it started it was like the protein craze, right,
people are putting protein in everything, and now it's like
the fiber craze.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
You cannot have protein without fiber, right, too much protein
and then like you're in trouble.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
You need the fiber to.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Balance it out, yes, or you're going to be very
backed up, right right right, and very sad.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
I don't like where this conversation is going. Can can
we move on to.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Going down the drains? Is going down the drains, down
the tubes.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
So we talked about fiber maxine, protein maxine, looks maxing,
beauty maxing, which this is I think a more generalized
way of talking about the Mamita maxing, the Latino maxing,
but just for the general public, right right, maximizing your beauty.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
It is a general public.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
I don't know. I don't know them. I've never met them,
but I imagine I don't know her.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
I imagine they exist. My personal favorite is whimsy maxing.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Tell us about whimsy maxing.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
So whimsy maxing is just like stacking your life with
all things whimsical. I think that this is sort of
a version of the idea of romanticizing your life. For me,
I love whimsy maxing. This is the first time I've
used this term. Okay, but I identify with this term because
I think I do this naturally in my life.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
You are a hippie whimsical person I am.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
I'm very flowy, and I love the summer because I
think LA has its most whimsical potential in the summertime.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
So, for example, like a class summer for me.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
I had this day recently with my friend where we
went to a skate meetup in Long Beach.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Suns out, buns out.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
We wore like really cute outfits. We roller skated all
day long with a bunch of other whimsical roller skaters.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
We were gardening at the beach.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
We hung out on the sand, we got poke bowls,
and then we watched heated rivalry and just like like
it's it's our Like this is girlhood.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
What a perfect day.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
It's a perfect LA day. And that's how I like
to spend my LA summers, you know. And so for me,
like I want to fly kites this summer, Like I
want to get all of our little friends together and
go to the park and fly kites, you know.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
To me, that is whimsy maxing.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Yes, I want us to like bring our adult coloring
books and blow bubbles, a little crafting day, a little
crafting day, and fly kites and have like our cute
little dogs surrounding us.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Like, to me, that is whimsy maxing.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
I love that. Thank you, that's adorable.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
I support this whimsy maxing.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Thank you, thank you? And what else?
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Okay, Another way that I'm whimsy maxing is I think
this is very whimsical.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
I'm directing a.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Play, wow, like a live play like theater, which is
very fun.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Right, very fucking whimsical.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
It's very fucking whimsical. So the play is called Let's
be pop stars. It was accepted to spaghetti Fest at
the Allegian Theater. Everything I'm saying is whimsical right now,
premiering at spaghetti Fest at the Allegian Theater one night only,
July seventeenth, And it's about two roommates who become pop
stars to solve the Los Angeles housing crisis.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Intead, I mean, come on, that's what pop stars should
be doing, Yes.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Using their millions to solve the housing crisis and like
en world hunger and like establish world peace.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
That's hard, It's not that hard.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
So to me live theater and pop stardom combined, it
screams whimsy.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
That is very whimsical.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
The play is.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Written by Scarlet Red and Annie Valdez.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Comesius July seventeenth. It's to be so cute.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
That is so cute. I love that.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Thank you join the.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Whimsie sol Theosa. You're Latino maxing ye currently as we speak,
but I know you are also maxing in other parts
of your life.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Okay, right now I'm podmaxing. Okay, yeah, only am I.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
Working on Lokata Radio, but I well, we are also
working on another podcast. Just we're just producing an episode.
But it's going to be a fabulous episode. By the
time this episode is out, the series will be out.
And it's called American Colony. It's produced by the Latino
Newsletter and we are producing an episode with Raquel Richard,
(11:38):
past guest of Lokat Longtime home Girl, and the episode
is about Edie's check On, And the entire series is
about Puerto Rico as a colony and its history and
how it currently resists and how it's current like political struggles,
and so it's gonna be fan fabulous, it's gonna be great,
(11:59):
it's gonna be power. It's an incredible team that we're
working with. But our episode is about beauty standards, it's
about the show girls, it's about the Vedets and the
iconic East check On. Yeah, so that is one way
that I'm podmaxing. But I'm also working on an additional podcast.
It's a memoir podcast. I'm working on it with an
(12:20):
incredible editor, producer, and I can't really say more about it,
but it's memoristic. It'll hopefully come out next year twenty
twenty seven. But when I tell you, I'm in the
weeds with writing and going into the deepest core of
my memories of things I've tried to forget.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
I'm like giddy ess podcast. You said you wanted to
make this and this, you pitched it.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
You started working on this years ago while you were
a grad student at US.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Yes, and now it is. It's in production.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
It's in production. It's in production.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
It's one of those things where it's it's like painful
to make, but the art and the result will be good,
will be great, will be powerful for me as a release,
and I hope people like it. But that's like one
thing that I'm doing is I'm podmaxing.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
And there is even another podcast that we are very
much in the early stages of development on. It's a
season two. We can't say too much right now, but
we're always working on a new show. Yes, trying to
get a new show made.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Podcasting is my life.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
It is my life. So I am podmaxing and I'm
also new. Have not talked about this, I don't think
on the podcast or I'm not even really talking about
it on social media, just like with my friends. But
I'm med maxing. Okay, I'm on two meds right now.
I'm on an antidepressant and I'm on a stimulant. Because
(13:52):
last summer I was diagnosed with ADHD late in my life,
late at thirty one years old.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
Yeah, and so haven't shared much about because I'm still
learning about it. I didn't have like the quote stereotypical
symptoms that when we think of ADHD, and typically we
think about boys and like hyperactivity. But for me, it's
presented very differently, which is why it was missed for
most of my life. And so this is my first
(14:20):
time ever, like actually on medication. I have famously, fabulously
been on birth control for like a decade, famously famously,
but you know, have not been on any type of
like antidepressants, SSRIs, like any of that before. So I'm
medmaxing because it is quite the journey to find the
(14:43):
right cocktail, to find like the right combination of like
what works for you, what treats your symptoms, what makes
you feel like actually better.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Yeah, And so that is how I'm medmaxing.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
I want medmaxing to take off. I don't think i've
seen it yet here first, Yeah, I think you're hearing
it here first, medmaxing.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
There we go, medmxing.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
Also in this current day and age, where we have
set the secretary of health RFK Junior trying to reduce
how many people or who gets to prescribed and who
gets to receive Andy de presance and SSRIs and.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Like ADHD meds.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
So I'm like, actually, medmaxing might be like a radical
thing that we're doing.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Yeah, absolutely, as healthcare is constantly under attack and coverage
and protections are more and more expensive and less and
less comprehensive. Yeah, getting what you need to take care
of yourself in under a regime that actively is fighting
against our health and wellness is definitely very radical.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Yeah, so that is what I'm doing. I've also learned,
like if you're on SSRIs, which is what I'm on,
you can very heat sensitive, like you're sensitive to the
sun to heat. And you know that that's never been
a problem for me. I run very cold. Yes, So
I'm like newly experiencing like what it's like to like
(16:14):
feel really hot and like I need a fan, Like,
oh my god, let me go inside.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
So that's new.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Don't go anywhere, locomotives. We'll be right back. Oh my god,
I I don't about you.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
I run so hot.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
I thought about it was like this is why mom
always has a fan always.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Yeah, it can be very uncomfortable when your body starts
to overheat. Yes, and you're like really not even doing
anything strenuous.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
I know, I know, so sorry.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Okay, wait, this reminds me remember when we did that
photo shoot for Spotify, Yes, for Times Square, and they
had to like, I was getting so hot in for
the lights. I was getting so hot in front of
the lights. And this is, by the way, a photo
for a Times Square billboard, a big one.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Yes, and we're there.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Full hair, full makeup, looking cute, but I'm getting so hot.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
I'm overheating.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
So many lights on us, so many lights, And they
had to pull out like a swamp fan to and
pointed at me, and like the photographers and the pas
they're like, oh my god, she's getting so hot.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Oh my god. We got to get a fan on her.
It was like a thing.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
It was get the makeup artists, we got it.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
We got to blot it was. It was too much.
But yeah, I hope that your system regulates.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Yes, me too, Me too.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
Let's talk about maxing its history origins, its origins as
a term, and then broadly, like how it's where we
can situate in history as like a phenomenon that's not new.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Because I think right now the type of maxing we've
been talking about is like very femme coded maxing.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
It's to the benefit of the girls and the gays
in the days.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
And I've seen a lot of the maxing terminology being
being like made popular by fems, by women, by latinas,
by Latine people, by queer people. But the Internet origins
are actually quite the opposite of them.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
Yeah, So the origins of maxing can be traced to
two verified sources according to New York Times magazine, And
originally it comes from game theory, so language games like
you're maxing your strategy okay, oh oh yeah, and that
that can be found like dated back into the nineteen forties.
But the way we're thinking about maxing now and present
(18:33):
day can actually be traced back to like the twenty tenths,
and it became popularized among in cells. And these are,
if you don't remember, are the self proclaimed involuntarily celibate
right now in cell culture, I think has transformed into
what we know is the manosphere. But at one point,
(18:54):
quote in cells were like fringe, you know, they were
on the dark Web, they were four Chan, they were
not in the mainstream. But now we see it in
the mainstream on these like manusphere podcasts.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
And there is this.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
Streamer I don't really want to talk about him, but
he has popularized this term looks maxing, and it's this
trend in which young men strive to become the most
attractive in the extreme form by essentially self harming. So
they're hammering their own faces to obtain a chisel jaw.
They're using steroids, they're buying peptides off the black market,
(19:36):
so meaning it can be unaltered, it can be produced
in not a sterile place. And that is how we
got this idea of like maxing.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
It actually comes from in cells. It comes from the
dark web.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
And it's interesting in the way that we've now adopted it, right,
Like we don't even know that it comes from there,
but we've adopted it in this way where it's like
a fun Internet term, right, And that's fine, that's that's like,
that's the part of trends, and that's the part of
how like language moves. But the origins are are from
(20:11):
like dark web. Four chune in cells that is so.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Bleak, right, oh my god, But I feel like where
it's gone now is much more positive, Like it's kind
of been taken and transformed and reframed in a good direction.
It's not like I don't think that the maxing that
(20:34):
I'm seeing and that people are talking about is in
a harmful way.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Correct? Correct?
Speaker 4 (20:39):
That is like not what I had seen or that
is not how I understood it. I have heard about
this streamer. I don't know if he's like on twitch,
but this streamer, and i'd heard of him talk about
looks maxing and I had talked. I've heard him like
say like really misogynistic, like racist things, and so I
was aware of this person, and so I understood, like, Okay,
this is what this is. This is the negative side
(21:00):
of it. But I had also seen like this positive side,
which I think, like it's just the way I think
we commodify language right now in like this late stage
capitalist time where everything has like a term, right, we
had like what were some of the popular ones, like
even just a couple of years ago, It's like girly pop.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
It's like, I'm just a girl.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
These are all you know, because I'm a woman, Like
I'm thinking about the things that girls and women do online, right,
But it's not exclusive to women to be clear. But
there's like the way we've the plates princess, right, the
way we like name things and commodify them and make
it an identity, right, And I think that that's what's
happening here with like this quote maxing. It's not necessarily
(21:43):
a bad thing, but I think it's the way that
Internet allows for this type of the digital space allows
for this type of like naming of things, right, Like yeah,
ten fifteen years ago would be like the hashtag, right,
but now it's like it's like subculture within subculture.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
And it's interesting because a term is well will be
like invented or popularized to describe behaviors that people already
engage in or have always engaged in, and then it
becomes like hyper viral and it's everywhere, and then in
a year we forget. I forget because there's been a
lot of terms, and we've talked about them on the show. Yes,
(22:23):
we've like produced and hosted episodes about different viral moments,
viral terminology, behaviors, like the exact thing we're doing today.
It's like insert other word Hereah, but like I'm having
a hard time remembering.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
Yeah, well, because I think like I don't know, fibermaxing,
protein maxing, Like it's just wellness.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
It's just wellness.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
It's just wellness at.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
Its extreme, like repackaged and commodified. But like it's it's
not anything new. But I think just the term or
the way we're talking about it is like the new thing.
But actually, like striving to be like your optimal self
is something that is very much encouraged and celebrated in
this country, and like capitalist systems, right, is like you're
(23:03):
always optimizing to be the best person and best version
of yourself.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
And so that's that's nothing new.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's it's just it's having a balanced diet. Yes,
you know, it's like following the food pyramid, right, But
that's not that's not doesn't have viral potential. No, But
if we come up with a new term that has
viral potential, because now it's associated with the sound, and
it can be reused on like a new clip, and
(23:32):
it can become something whereas like something that already exists,
like well, it already exists, there's no viral potential behind
it unless you remix it somehow and kind of give
it some new life and sort of rebrand it. It's
a rebranding of things that we already like are doing, right.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Yeah, that reminds me of like the superfood craze. Yeah,
like we've gone through these like ebbs and flows of
popularity and like virality pre Internet, like the super food
I remember when it was kale and then it was
spiralina you know qa quinoa, right, No one had heard
of quinoa.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Before I had, but of course you had.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
I had, but the other people hadn't, you.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Know, Yeah, exactly exactly, So I think, Yeah, and even
the things that we talked about today like whimsy maxing,
Mamita maxing. You know, it's just like people's personalities and
their styles and how how we like to be, how
we like to exist. So this is like the Internet origins,
the in cell origins of the term of the maxing term.
(24:37):
But again this concept of doing something to an extreme
or to a max maybe as a response to the
society around us. Like I think right now maxing is
popular because gas prices are really high. Again, we're you know,
we're at war. You know, things are very expensive. We
(25:00):
live under a very oppressive political regime. So I think
that the messaging to us is to cut back and
be more minimal and to save and be more conservative.
But of course, as human beings, we're in a society
that takes so much from us, so the natural inclination
(25:20):
is to indulge in the things that make us happy
and that are good for us and that we love
and that we enjoy. So instead of being super minimalist
about things because of the state of the world, we're
maxing and we are indulging and we're having fun with it.
And to me, when I was like thinking about this
episode and this concept of maxing, I immediately thought about
(25:42):
zoot suits and zoot suitors and the Zootsuit riots, because
I think that zoot Suitors were some of the original
like style maxers. You know, like think about back in
the day. It's the nineteen thirties, it's the nineteen forties,
and like we're at war, were in the Great Depression,
and we're talking about rations at the time, and we're
(26:05):
like rationing textiles and there's like limits being placed on
imports on things like wool.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
And then you have.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Black youth in Harlem and Latin American Mexican American youth
in La wearing these really extravagant zoot suits with tons
of fabric, very maggy pants, tapered at the ankle, big
oversized coats, big long like chains on their watches, and
(26:35):
just like the opposite of what you would think when
you're thinking of like depression and rationing, and so zoot
suitters were really like stylish and not dressing in accordance
with like the Great Depression era and expectations at the time.
And that was met with violence, right, And we can
(26:56):
talk about the zootsuit riots and how servicemen in the
LA area literally came in droves to downtown LA and
for several days there was like a full blown riot
and navymen servicemen were like literally roaming the streets of
downtown and attacking zoot suitors or anybody perceived to be
(27:18):
wearing a zoot suit who were predominantly in LA at
the time, Mexican and Filipino and stripping them naked and
beating them, and then the police were arresting the victims.
And it was definitely racially motivated, and it was this
like these military guys directly violently like responding and attacking
(27:40):
to these guys who were stylemaxing, and women were also
zoot suitors. But when we think of the suit, I
think we think of the men first and foremost. So yeah,
I thought immediately I was like, well, yeah, yeah, zoot suitters,
like that's exactly what they were doing.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Yeah, that's a really good breakdown of like the cultural
and historical context of the zoot suits and like style
and how style has always been like embedded in like
political resistance, whether like you want to see it or not.
But I definitely think I think that's a great example.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
Yeah, it's definitely there. I think also like Dolly Parton
is I mean, hello, a fab an icon. And I
think that she has been like glamour maaxing and style
maxing her whole career, and she's been beauty maxing and
whimsy maxing. I think everything that she does is to
the max, especially with her look and her aesthetic, like
(28:35):
the big wigs, the colorful, loud makeup, the embellishments, the nails,
the tight silhouettes, and some people refer to her style
as yeehaw glam. And she also when she was starting
in her career and even after being very established in
her career, was constantly receiving criticism, being made fun of
(28:58):
told that she needed to tone it down, that she
looked trashy, that nobody would take her seriously, And she
always was so funny about it, and when she got
interviewed about her looks, she would always make a joke
out of it.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
She was always just lighthearted.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
She was never defensive, and she would say that her
style inspiration was like the town hooker from the little
town that she grew up in.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
And she would talk about.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Being a little girl and seeing like this working girl,
and a young Dolly would see her and think to herself, like,
what a glamorous, beautiful woman.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
I want to look just like that, right.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
You know?
Speaker 3 (29:38):
And Dolly Parton actually has a book called Behind the Seams,
My Life in Rhinestones, and they did a little excerpt
in time how I developed my glitzy personal style. And
I love this little quote from her. When I started
wearing that big hair and my flamboyant clothes and my
boob sticking up.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
A lot of people said, Dolly, you need to dress down.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Nobody's ever going to take you serious as a songwriter
or a singer if you look like that, because you
look more like a hooker than you do a singer.
And Dolly said, well, tough, this is who I am.
They'll get used to it. And she never toned down.
Speaker 4 (30:14):
She never changed, never did never even now at her age,
you know she's still performing when she does perform, like
in leotards.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Yes, you know, she looks.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Fabulous, she's glammed up. She has not changed.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
And she is someone that's definitely clearly has like committed
to the style or the style maxing her entire career
for decades.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
Yeah, it's not a phase, it's not a trend. It's
truly who she is.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
Definitely, Who are some of the other artist or people
that you think are like maxing a higher level, not
a higher level, more public level.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
I also think, of course our fave, the icon, the legend,
the queen Selena, Yes, Selena Keithania, I think was the
Hannah maxing. Yes, with all of her print looks and
the leather, they had a maxing. I think that she
was also Latina maxing and Mamita maxing for sure. Yeah,
and I think that she veered more on the Mamita
(31:12):
maxing side because I don't.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Think don't go anywhere, lookamotives will be right back.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Other than the cowprint.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
I don't think she was necessarily wearing items that screamed
like Mexican. I don't think she was necessarily wearing things
that were like very specifically culturally Mexican. But it was
the way that she put it together. Yeah, that was
very Mamita Maxing of her she as we know, her nails,
her red lip, her earrings, her gold jewelry, like the
(31:44):
way she did her hair.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
I think the way she.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Wore her clothes, it was all very much accentuating her
natural beauty in a way that to me, I think
we would now look at that and say, like, she
was Mamita Maxing, Yeah, someone.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
That we now regard as a style icon. Yes, And
that's because she was creating her own looks in the
same way Dolly Pardon does and has done, is having
her unique own persona, her own style, her own look,
and like sticking to it. And in spite of being
in a male dominated genre like the Hano music, Selena
(32:22):
like committed to the glam. She committed to her looks,
and I think that's one of the reasons we can
look at her and like, well, of course, no, she
was doing things very differently, paving her own way, but
was doing it in her own way. And that's why
we can call her an icon, you know, because it
was uniquely her. She wasn't imitating someone else. She may
(32:43):
have been.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Inspired right by other artists.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
Dolly Pardon, may have been inspired by the local town
sex worker, but they make it their own. And I
think that's part of like making it specific to you, right,
is how you're doing it, not necessarily the trend of
it all.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
Yes, absolutely, And I think Selena also famously in Selena
the movie, there's that scene where she debuts her boostier
for the first time when she's performing at a carnival
and her dad gets so mad at her about it
because he's like, she's wearing a bra. There's men out here, yes,
(33:24):
And then Marcella Selena's mom is like, it's a boostia.
She looks cute, you know, And I think in that way,
Selena was also projecting a femininity and a sexiness that.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Was pretty bold.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
For again, a woman in the Hano music to go
out and wear very tight fitting clothes and wearing a
boostier and totally owning it and not allowing anybody to
make her feel.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Bad or to scare her away.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
So I think that in that way too, she was
very much Mamita maxing with the pieces that she was
wearing and the way she was putting it all together.
And I also think, you know, Prince, I think was
glamour maxing. Yes, very much so, in every way, from
his like platform shoes, to his hair, his makeup, his
assless chaps at times.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
Yeah, the gender bending like glam of it all, you know.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Was so good.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
Yeah, just like the definition of a rock star, very
much so. And then and then also you know, like
Lady Gaga, I think is also somebody who has done
a lot of like style maxing, glamour maxing, whimsy maxing.
I think that she uh set the stage for someone
like a Chapel Roone to do the same in her
own regard. So yeah, I think with every generation you
(34:42):
have somebody who's like taking the baton and running with
it and taking that glamour to the next level, which
I always love and appreciate. I need my pop stars
to have some glamour and some whimsy. That's very important
to me.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Yes, it is very important. And like a dance routine.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Please some core choreo, please some Choreosgrpy.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
If you're a pop star, you have to do choreo.
It's part of being a pop star.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
Yes, which is why I appreciate this group Catsie. Yes,
I love them. I think they're so cute. I think
that they're also glamourmaxing, and I love that they dance.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Yes, they're great. The dancing is important. The choreo is important,
Yes it is, Yes it is.
Speaker 4 (35:21):
And do you remember how the internet bullied do A
Lipa into really becoming.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
A global pop star. Yeah, I like and doing choreo.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
Yeah yeah, because there was a famously like a video
and there comment was like, yes, girl give us nothing
because when she was like moving, like the choreo was
just like very soft, and now she like brinks it.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
You know, she's a global pop star.
Speaker 4 (35:43):
I love Dua Lipa and I think, yeah, she's someone
that took a critique and like ran with it.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Yes, improved, she's now giving us like kickball, change a count.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Yeah, people are very It's funny though, because people don't
expect choreography from everyone like Ray. People do not expect
choreography from someone like Ray or like a Billie Eilish.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Or Mariah Carey or I'm Mariah Carey. Carry will never
a pop star.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
She used to do a little choreo, a little choreo.
Speaker 4 (36:17):
But I think like pop stars for me, I expect
because my representation or image of a pop star is
the beloved Britney Spears, of course, and she was giving
us choreo. And so when I think of a pop star,
I think of choreo. I like Billy Eilish. I wouldn't
call her a pop star.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
I don't think. I don't think she's I.
Speaker 4 (36:39):
Don't think she's a pop star. I'm not saying she's
not famous. I'm not saying she's not global, but like
pop star, I don't think that's the kind of music
she makes.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Maybe I'm wrong.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
Yeah, she makes very kind of like wow, very dour,
very sad, very sad star.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Yeah, like Sabrina Carpenter's pop star.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
I think she's a pop star.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
She gives us choreo. She was doing her positions like
all through her through her tour.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
Like yeah, you know, yeah, I don't know. I guess.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
Once we start talking about artists who are moving into
this zone where they're like so mainstream, that they're like
making songs for the Barbie movie, like Billy.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
I think pop star is it's become so many different things.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
I think it's a.
Speaker 3 (37:25):
Pretty broad category because when I think of pop music,
it just means popular music, you know. And I think
that we kind of like pick and choose who we
expect to dance. Okay, yeah, yeah, But somebody that I
do appreciate is Tate McCray. We saw Tate McCray, yeah,
(37:46):
at the iHeart Fest Music Festival.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Girl Can Dance, which I love, Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Yes, I love a choreo.
Speaker 4 (37:53):
And I think of just bringing it back to the
maxing and the self improvement of it all. And something
that you touched on in the at the top of
the episode, mala is like control of self right during
political turmoil or economic distress, is like I can control
(38:14):
what I do. So here's how I'm going to self
improve or like optimize my life.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
Absolutely, I think it's about feeling like your life is
in your own hands, Like your life is within your
own control. Like you can decide how beautiful you are,
you can decide how much fiber you take in, you
can decide how you express your culture, you can decide,
(38:42):
like to what extent you're really maximizing your mame thanis
you know that these are not things that are imposed
on you, but things that you have ultimate saying power
and control over. And I think it's a way for
us to all feel like we are the masters of
our own destiny.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
M Yeah.
Speaker 4 (39:01):
I also think that there's like always this fine line
between like the extreme right. And I think when I
hear the word maxing, it's it is like feels very intense,
like we're talking about it, like the whimsical of it
of and that like really feel good part of it.
But I also when I think of maxing and this
(39:23):
idea and when it comes to like beauty and wellness,
is like how extreme we can like push ourselves and
how like in the eternal quest to like be better?
Like does the goalpost always move? So do we ever
actually feel good? Do we ever actually feel better? And
that's I think my concern with like how we view
(39:46):
wellness and how we view this type of like on
the surface, like yeah, it's good to have a balance
to me a like yeah, it's good to feel good
on the inside and out, But is the goalpost continuously moving?
And then in the end, does it actually make us
feel not that good? And I think from the cultural lens,
that's where I'm like looking at these type of trends like, yeah,
(40:09):
it's not new.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
But does it ever.
Speaker 4 (40:12):
Push us to like the point of harm? And I
think That's where I'm thinking of it right now.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
Yeah, I feel like on past episodes we've talked about
this with regards to different trends. But you know, so
much of this is like a vehicle through which we
push like buying, and we push like purchasing things, buying products.
If we're talking about beauty maxing, does that lead to
(40:39):
like link in bio, you know?
Speaker 1 (40:42):
And is there like a sale? Is there a product?
Speaker 3 (40:46):
If we're talking about like protein maxing, are we now
like all getting Chloye Kardashian's cloud popcorn right? You know
it's like sprinkled with protein powder. I mean behind every
trend there is like a sales team. Yes, there's a
marketing component to it. And when we are like looking
to make ourselves feel better because we might never be
(41:08):
able to get out of debt or buy a house,
do we placate ourselves and do we put a band
aid on the big problem? By like, oh, well, I'm
you know, I'm whimsy maxings.
Speaker 4 (41:19):
I mean whimsy maxing sounds like the least harmful and
actually most enjoyable and like well, like wellness part of
it all.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
Which is why I do it, which is why you
do it.
Speaker 4 (41:29):
Yeah, because I'm like, you just brought up the and
we've talked about this before, like the capitalism behind it,
the machine behind it that wants you to buy things.
Everything you described is free. You're like, yeah, I'm gonna
go fly a kite in the park. Yes, I'm going
to go roller skate at the beach. Yes, I'm going
to watch a series with my friend. Right, sounds lovely.
Also sounds inexpensive, thank you, you know, And so I think, yeah,
(41:53):
I can see why you're for your approach. You're like,
this is wholesome, this is lovely, this is whimsy, And
I'm like, oh, this in cell culture, like this is
the origin. And I'm not saying that one is wrong,
and like there's one is wrong and one is right.
But I think the way our introduction to the to
this idea of maxing was so stark, you know, like
(42:14):
yours was like fun and whimsical and mine was like
this horrible like Manisphere bro who like parties with Andrew Tate.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
So I'm like, what the fuck is going on?
Speaker 1 (42:23):
It's very odd, you know.
Speaker 4 (42:24):
Yeah, And so yeah, as with all things that we
look at on the podcast, like we look at the
micro and the macro, like how we are involved in something,
if we're involved in something, and then at the macro level,
like what it signifies about, like the culturals, like guys,
the cultural moment and like how that how we're all
reading it or involved in it or what we're making
(42:45):
of it.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
Absolutely, So, listeners, how are you maxing today?
Speaker 2 (42:50):
Are you maxing?
Speaker 1 (42:50):
Are you maxing? How are you maxing?
Speaker 3 (42:53):
Let us know, leave a comment, leave a review, because
we're maxing all summer and not the credit card, not
maxing the credit card, everything but the credit card, please lord.
We're maxing our happiness. Yes, we're joy maxing, we're health maxing,
we're wellness maxing.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
I'm mad maxing, all right, Yeah, as.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
A means as a means, as a means to an end, Yes,
it means.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
To an end.
Speaker 4 (43:15):
All right, y'all, thank you for listening to another capital
of Look At Radio, and we'll catch you next time.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
Besitos local.
Speaker 4 (43:24):
Look At Radio is executive produced and hosted by Me
THEOSAP and Me Mala, Video editing by Saul Gomez.
Speaker 3 (43:32):
And audio engineering by Joel hero Morales.
Speaker 4 (43:36):
You can listen to look At Radio on the iHeartRadio
app or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 3 (43:41):
Give us a follow, give us a review, and share
with a friend.
My personal favorite is whimsy maxing.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Tell us about whimsy maxing.
Speaker 3 (00:04):
So, whimsy maxing is just like stacking your life with
all things whimsical. I think that this is sort of
a version of the idea of romanticizing your life. For me,
I love whimsy maxing. This is the first time I've
used this term, Okay, but I identify with this term
because I think I do this naturally in my life.
Speaker 4 (00:22):
You are a hippie whimsical person I am.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
I'm very flowy, and I love the summer because I
think LA has its most whimsical potential in the summertime. So,
for example, like a classic summer for me, I had
this day recently with my friend where we went to
a skate meetup in Long Beach, suns out, buns out,
We wore like really cute outfits. We roller skated all
(00:47):
day long with a bunch of other whimsical roller skaters.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
We were gardening at.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
The beach, we hung out on the sand, we got
poke bowls, and then we watched heated rivalry. It's a
perfect LA day and that's how I like to spend
my LA summers.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
O La La. I'm fiosa and I'm Mala and you're
listening to another capito of Lokata Radio.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Today we're talking about maxing.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
What the fuck is maxing?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Maxing is everything and nothing at the same time. It's
a lot of different things. You might have heard this
term on TikTok all over the internet, maybe with regards
to beauty maxing or money maxing, even fibermaxing, and you
would be surprised at the origins and where this trend
is coming from. But not only that, maybe like where
(01:39):
in history we've seen maxing before, we just weren't calling
it that.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
Yes, this trend circulated in the mainstream digital space in
the last several years, and like most trends, take a
life of its own, and today we're talking about what
it is, where it comes from, and what it reveals
about the cultural zeitgeist.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
I think it's this is one of those like, uh,
those moments where we say this isn't new, Yes, this
has happened before, and here's why.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Yes, here's why. Is human beings we.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Turn to max maximalism, We turn to maxing, especially in
times of turmoil of economic stress. As human beings, we
have this tendency towards wanting to indulge, and I think
that's the moment we're in right now.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
All right, let's talk about it because there's some I
think in its evolution, because we're going to talk about
the origins and kind of how dark the origins are.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
But we're going to.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Start like we always do, or like we tried to,
not always, but we're going to start with like the fun,
the fun, the evolution that we're like popets of the internet,
like make it its own.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
And so one of the ones that we're talking about
or that we've seen online is like Latina Maxing.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Yes, I love this one.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
So Latina Maxing, I mean to find out how you want, right, Latini,
that is a spectrum. So the way I'm Latinoxing today
is I'm wearing, of course, hoops, red lip the and
I'm wearing my little liked Bad Bunny merch that I
got in Mexico. So it's the little goncho wearing the
Mexican jersey. And that's how I'm Latina Maxing today because
(03:17):
I did not want to get in trouble because I
wore my Bidou shirt last episode and I'm wearing so
I'm wearing Mexico today.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
So that's how I'm latina maxing.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
You're you're also you're serving the people.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Yes with your lug, correct, with your your Latina max lugs.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I am for the people. I am tri cultural.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yes you are. And it must get exhausting.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
It is exhausting. Yes, I need a third term.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
Like everyone is like nia, yeah, and I'm like, I
need a third one to add to it.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
We need to work on that, right for the tricultural baddies,
the tri cultural mommies, the tri cultural Latinas.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Yeah, okay, we're going to work on that. We're going
to workshop that. We'll come back next episode. Yes with
a with a tri cold term.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
All right, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
And in a way that is like culture maxing. I
can stand that's culture maxing.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
There's also Mamacita maxing. And so there's this creator on
TikTok At Luis Done, and I saw him talking about
Mamasita maxing in this way, Latinas need to weaponize their
beauty to get richer by Mamacita maxing.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
And he's calling us in and he's like, stop getting
stop getting the two dollars drinks bought for you. Aim higher.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
He's like, use your beauty and weaponize it to get more,
not the free drinks cool, I'm higher and I was like, dang, okay.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah, and that is mamacita maxing.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
I love this notion of mamasita maxing, which I think
is different than latina maxing because I believe that latina
maxing is maybe like really wearing all the different items
that signify culture, all the cultural markers.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
You're like, put that shit on.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
But I think mamita maxing is really like harnessing your
mamita power, your mamita energy. Yes, because I think all
mamitas are Latinas, but not all Latinas are like going
full mamita all the.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
Time, mamasita mommy, like the whole, the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Like, if I'm gonna go out and I'm gonna be
mamita maxing, I'm gonna wear like tight capris, wedges, I'm
gonna wear a crop top. I'm going to like straighten
my hair probably or wear like big.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
Hair you're giving hildosaurs exactly, iconically from Ugly Betty.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
From Ugly Betty exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
I might not wear like things that are specifically culturally Mexican,
but I'm I'm gonna be Mamita to the max.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
That's the distinction, and that's how what we're wearing today.
I am Latino maxing and you are Mamacita maxing or
mammy maxing.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
To a degree, to a degree, I could go harder,
It could go harder. We could always go harder.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
This is still a workplace.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
We're at work. We are professionals. We're professionals, so that
this is not the only type of maxing that people
are engaging in. It goes from what we're wearing, to
how we're spending our time, even to what we're eating.
People are even talking about fibermaxing, yes, which is really
prioritizing fiber and getting as much fiber into your meals
(06:25):
and your diet as possible.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
And honestly, like bowel movements very important, and I think
like we're going to get deep into it. But I
think part of the fibermaxing is like our shitty healthcare
system people are actually yes, I know, no put intended
is actually like you know, for our age demographic, colon
(06:49):
cancer is actually on the rise, and health insurance wise,
we're not allowed to get colonoscopies until later in life. Yeah, right,
And so I think that this is one of the
reasons that fibers is a part of the wellness and
the maxine that people are doing.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
I also think that there is such a big like
gym talk and like skinny talk and every like iteration
of this. They're not each of these are different, but
I think that fiber also plays a role. Yes, in
like all the fitness influencers are always talking about fiber,
(07:27):
Like the skinny girls are talking about fiber. Everybody's talking
about fiber for different reasons, but it's it's just central.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
And I think it started it was like the protein craze, right,
people are putting protein in everything, and now it's like
the fiber craze.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
You cannot have protein without fiber, right, too much protein
and then like you're in trouble.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
You need the fiber to.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Balance it out, yes, or you're going to be very
backed up, right right right, and very sad.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
I don't like where this conversation is going. Can can
we move on to.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Going down the drains? Is going down the drains, down
the tubes.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
So we talked about fiber maxine, protein maxine, looks maxing,
beauty maxing, which this is I think a more generalized
way of talking about the Mamita maxing, the Latino maxing,
but just for the general public, right right, maximizing your beauty.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
It is a general public.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
I don't know. I don't know them. I've never met them,
but I imagine I don't know her.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
I imagine they exist. My personal favorite is whimsy maxing.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Tell us about whimsy maxing.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
So whimsy maxing is just like stacking your life with
all things whimsical. I think that this is sort of
a version of the idea of romanticizing your life. For me,
I love whimsy maxing. This is the first time I've
used this term. Okay, but I identify with this term because
I think I do this naturally in my life.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
You are a hippie whimsical person I am.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
I'm very flowy, and I love the summer because I
think LA has its most whimsical potential in the summertime.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
So, for example, like a class summer for me.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
I had this day recently with my friend where we
went to a skate meetup in Long Beach.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Suns out, buns out.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
We wore like really cute outfits. We roller skated all
day long with a bunch of other whimsical roller skaters.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
We were gardening at the beach.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
We hung out on the sand, we got poke bowls,
and then we watched heated rivalry and just like like
it's it's our Like this is girlhood.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
What a perfect day.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
It's a perfect LA day. And that's how I like
to spend my LA summers, you know. And so for me,
like I want to fly kites this summer, Like I
want to get all of our little friends together and
go to the park and fly kites, you know.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
To me, that is whimsy maxing.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Yes, I want us to like bring our adult coloring
books and blow bubbles, a little crafting day, a little
crafting day, and fly kites and have like our cute
little dogs surrounding us.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Like, to me, that is whimsy maxing.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
I love that. Thank you, that's adorable.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
I support this whimsy maxing.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Thank you, thank you? And what else?
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Okay, Another way that I'm whimsy maxing is I think
this is very whimsical.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
I'm directing a.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Play, wow, like a live play like theater, which is
very fun.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Right, very fucking whimsical.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
It's very fucking whimsical. So the play is called Let's
be pop stars. It was accepted to spaghetti Fest at
the Allegian Theater. Everything I'm saying is whimsical right now,
premiering at spaghetti Fest at the Allegian Theater one night only,
July seventeenth, And it's about two roommates who become pop
stars to solve the Los Angeles housing crisis.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Intead, I mean, come on, that's what pop stars should
be doing, Yes.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Using their millions to solve the housing crisis and like
en world hunger and like establish world peace.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
That's hard, It's not that hard.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
So to me live theater and pop stardom combined, it
screams whimsy.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
That is very whimsical.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
The play is.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Written by Scarlet Red and Annie Valdez.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Comesius July seventeenth. It's to be so cute.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
That is so cute. I love that.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Thank you join the.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Whimsie sol Theosa. You're Latino maxing ye currently as we speak,
but I know you are also maxing in other parts
of your life.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Okay, right now I'm podmaxing. Okay, yeah, only am I.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
Working on Lokata Radio, but I well, we are also
working on another podcast. Just we're just producing an episode.
But it's going to be a fabulous episode. By the
time this episode is out, the series will be out.
And it's called American Colony. It's produced by the Latino
Newsletter and we are producing an episode with Raquel Richard,
(11:38):
past guest of Lokat Longtime home Girl, and the episode
is about Edie's check On, And the entire series is
about Puerto Rico as a colony and its history and
how it currently resists and how it's current like political struggles,
and so it's gonna be fan fabulous, it's gonna be great,
(11:59):
it's gonna be power. It's an incredible team that we're
working with. But our episode is about beauty standards, it's
about the show girls, it's about the Vedets and the
iconic East check On. Yeah, so that is one way
that I'm podmaxing. But I'm also working on an additional podcast.
It's a memoir podcast. I'm working on it with an
(12:20):
incredible editor, producer, and I can't really say more about it,
but it's memoristic. It'll hopefully come out next year twenty
twenty seven. But when I tell you, I'm in the
weeds with writing and going into the deepest core of
my memories of things I've tried to forget.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
I'm like giddy ess podcast. You said you wanted to
make this and this, you pitched it.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
You started working on this years ago while you were
a grad student at US.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Yes, and now it is. It's in production.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
It's in production. It's in production.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
It's one of those things where it's it's like painful
to make, but the art and the result will be good,
will be great, will be powerful for me as a release,
and I hope people like it. But that's like one
thing that I'm doing is I'm podmaxing.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
And there is even another podcast that we are very
much in the early stages of development on. It's a
season two. We can't say too much right now, but
we're always working on a new show. Yes, trying to
get a new show made.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Podcasting is my life.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
It is my life. So I am podmaxing and I'm
also new. Have not talked about this, I don't think
on the podcast or I'm not even really talking about
it on social media, just like with my friends. But
I'm med maxing. Okay, I'm on two meds right now.
I'm on an antidepressant and I'm on a stimulant. Because
(13:52):
last summer I was diagnosed with ADHD late in my life,
late at thirty one years old.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
Yeah, and so haven't shared much about because I'm still
learning about it. I didn't have like the quote stereotypical
symptoms that when we think of ADHD, and typically we
think about boys and like hyperactivity. But for me, it's
presented very differently, which is why it was missed for
most of my life. And so this is my first
(14:20):
time ever, like actually on medication. I have famously, fabulously
been on birth control for like a decade, famously famously,
but you know, have not been on any type of
like antidepressants, SSRIs, like any of that before. So I'm
medmaxing because it is quite the journey to find the
(14:43):
right cocktail, to find like the right combination of like
what works for you, what treats your symptoms, what makes
you feel like actually better.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Yeah, And so that is how I'm medmaxing.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
I want medmaxing to take off. I don't think i've
seen it yet here first, Yeah, I think you're hearing
it here first, medmaxing.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
There we go, medmxing.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
Also in this current day and age, where we have
set the secretary of health RFK Junior trying to reduce
how many people or who gets to prescribed and who
gets to receive Andy de presance and SSRIs and.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Like ADHD meds.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
So I'm like, actually, medmaxing might be like a radical
thing that we're doing.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Yeah, absolutely, as healthcare is constantly under attack and coverage
and protections are more and more expensive and less and
less comprehensive. Yeah, getting what you need to take care
of yourself in under a regime that actively is fighting
against our health and wellness is definitely very radical.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Yeah, so that is what I'm doing. I've also learned,
like if you're on SSRIs, which is what I'm on,
you can very heat sensitive, like you're sensitive to the
sun to heat. And you know that that's never been
a problem for me. I run very cold. Yes, So
I'm like newly experiencing like what it's like to like
(16:14):
feel really hot and like I need a fan, Like,
oh my god, let me go inside.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
So that's new.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Don't go anywhere, locomotives. We'll be right back. Oh my god,
I I don't about you.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
I run so hot.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
I thought about it was like this is why mom
always has a fan always.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Yeah, it can be very uncomfortable when your body starts
to overheat. Yes, and you're like really not even doing
anything strenuous.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
I know, I know, so sorry.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Okay, wait, this reminds me remember when we did that
photo shoot for Spotify, Yes, for Times Square, and they
had to like, I was getting so hot in for
the lights. I was getting so hot in front of
the lights. And this is, by the way, a photo
for a Times Square billboard, a big one.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Yes, and we're there.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Full hair, full makeup, looking cute, but I'm getting so hot.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
I'm overheating.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
So many lights on us, so many lights, And they
had to pull out like a swamp fan to and
pointed at me, and like the photographers and the pas
they're like, oh my god, she's getting so hot.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Oh my god. We got to get a fan on her.
It was like a thing.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
It was get the makeup artists, we got it.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
We got to blot it was. It was too much.
But yeah, I hope that your system regulates.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Yes, me too, Me too.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
Let's talk about maxing its history origins, its origins as
a term, and then broadly, like how it's where we
can situate in history as like a phenomenon that's not new.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Because I think right now the type of maxing we've
been talking about is like very femme coded maxing.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
It's to the benefit of the girls and the gays
in the days.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
And I've seen a lot of the maxing terminology being
being like made popular by fems, by women, by latinas,
by Latine people, by queer people. But the Internet origins
are actually quite the opposite of them.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
Yeah, So the origins of maxing can be traced to
two verified sources according to New York Times magazine, And
originally it comes from game theory, so language games like
you're maxing your strategy okay, oh oh yeah, and that
that can be found like dated back into the nineteen forties.
But the way we're thinking about maxing now and present
(18:33):
day can actually be traced back to like the twenty tenths,
and it became popularized among in cells. And these are,
if you don't remember, are the self proclaimed involuntarily celibate
right now in cell culture, I think has transformed into
what we know is the manosphere. But at one point,
(18:54):
quote in cells were like fringe, you know, they were
on the dark Web, they were four Chan, they were
not in the mainstream. But now we see it in
the mainstream on these like manusphere podcasts.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
And there is this.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
Streamer I don't really want to talk about him, but
he has popularized this term looks maxing, and it's this
trend in which young men strive to become the most
attractive in the extreme form by essentially self harming. So
they're hammering their own faces to obtain a chisel jaw.
They're using steroids, they're buying peptides off the black market,
(19:36):
so meaning it can be unaltered, it can be produced
in not a sterile place. And that is how we
got this idea of like maxing.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
It actually comes from in cells. It comes from the
dark web.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
And it's interesting in the way that we've now adopted it, right,
Like we don't even know that it comes from there,
but we've adopted it in this way where it's like
a fun Internet term, right, And that's fine, that's that's like,
that's the part of trends, and that's the part of
how like language moves. But the origins are are from
(20:11):
like dark web. Four chune in cells that is so.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Bleak, right, oh my god, But I feel like where
it's gone now is much more positive, Like it's kind
of been taken and transformed and reframed in a good direction.
It's not like I don't think that the maxing that
(20:34):
I'm seeing and that people are talking about is in
a harmful way.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Correct? Correct?
Speaker 4 (20:39):
That is like not what I had seen or that
is not how I understood it. I have heard about
this streamer. I don't know if he's like on twitch,
but this streamer, and i'd heard of him talk about
looks maxing and I had talked. I've heard him like
say like really misogynistic, like racist things, and so I
was aware of this person, and so I understood, like, Okay,
this is what this is. This is the negative side
(21:00):
of it. But I had also seen like this positive side,
which I think, like it's just the way I think
we commodify language right now in like this late stage
capitalist time where everything has like a term, right, we
had like what were some of the popular ones, like
even just a couple of years ago, It's like girly pop.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
It's like, I'm just a girl.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
These are all you know, because I'm a woman, Like
I'm thinking about the things that girls and women do online, right,
But it's not exclusive to women to be clear. But
there's like the way we've the plates princess, right, the
way we like name things and commodify them and make
it an identity, right, And I think that that's what's
happening here with like this quote maxing. It's not necessarily
(21:43):
a bad thing, but I think it's the way that
Internet allows for this type of the digital space allows
for this type of like naming of things, right, Like yeah,
ten fifteen years ago would be like the hashtag, right,
but now it's like it's like subculture within subculture.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
And it's interesting because a term is well will be
like invented or popularized to describe behaviors that people already
engage in or have always engaged in, and then it
becomes like hyper viral and it's everywhere, and then in
a year we forget. I forget because there's been a
lot of terms, and we've talked about them on the show. Yes,
(22:23):
we've like produced and hosted episodes about different viral moments,
viral terminology, behaviors, like the exact thing we're doing today.
It's like insert other word Hereah, but like I'm having
a hard time remembering.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
Yeah, well, because I think like I don't know, fibermaxing,
protein maxing, Like it's just wellness.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
It's just wellness.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
It's just wellness at.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
Its extreme, like repackaged and commodified. But like it's it's
not anything new. But I think just the term or
the way we're talking about it is like the new thing.
But actually, like striving to be like your optimal self
is something that is very much encouraged and celebrated in
this country, and like capitalist systems, right, is like you're
(23:03):
always optimizing to be the best person and best version
of yourself.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
And so that's that's nothing new.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's it's just it's having a balanced diet. Yes,
you know, it's like following the food pyramid, right, But
that's not that's not doesn't have viral potential. No, But
if we come up with a new term that has
viral potential, because now it's associated with the sound, and
it can be reused on like a new clip, and
(23:32):
it can become something whereas like something that already exists,
like well, it already exists, there's no viral potential behind
it unless you remix it somehow and kind of give
it some new life and sort of rebrand it. It's
a rebranding of things that we already like are doing, right.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Yeah, that reminds me of like the superfood craze. Yeah,
like we've gone through these like ebbs and flows of
popularity and like virality pre Internet, like the super food
I remember when it was kale and then it was
spiralina you know qa quinoa, right, No one had heard
of quinoa.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Before I had, but of course you had.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
I had, but the other people hadn't, you.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Know, Yeah, exactly exactly, So I think, Yeah, and even
the things that we talked about today like whimsy maxing,
Mamita maxing. You know, it's just like people's personalities and
their styles and how how we like to be, how
we like to exist. So this is like the Internet origins,
the in cell origins of the term of the maxing term.
(24:37):
But again this concept of doing something to an extreme
or to a max maybe as a response to the
society around us. Like I think right now maxing is
popular because gas prices are really high. Again, we're you know,
we're at war. You know, things are very expensive. We
(25:00):
live under a very oppressive political regime. So I think
that the messaging to us is to cut back and
be more minimal and to save and be more conservative.
But of course, as human beings, we're in a society
that takes so much from us, so the natural inclination
(25:20):
is to indulge in the things that make us happy
and that are good for us and that we love
and that we enjoy. So instead of being super minimalist
about things because of the state of the world, we're
maxing and we are indulging and we're having fun with it.
And to me, when I was like thinking about this
episode and this concept of maxing, I immediately thought about
(25:42):
zoot suits and zoot suitors and the Zootsuit riots, because
I think that zoot Suitors were some of the original
like style maxers. You know, like think about back in
the day. It's the nineteen thirties, it's the nineteen forties,
and like we're at war, were in the Great Depression,
and we're talking about rations at the time, and we're
(26:05):
like rationing textiles and there's like limits being placed on
imports on things like wool.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
And then you have.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Black youth in Harlem and Latin American Mexican American youth
in La wearing these really extravagant zoot suits with tons
of fabric, very maggy pants, tapered at the ankle, big
oversized coats, big long like chains on their watches, and
(26:35):
just like the opposite of what you would think when
you're thinking of like depression and rationing, and so zoot
suitters were really like stylish and not dressing in accordance
with like the Great Depression era and expectations at the time.
And that was met with violence, right, And we can
(26:56):
talk about the zootsuit riots and how servicemen in the
LA area literally came in droves to downtown LA and
for several days there was like a full blown riot
and navymen servicemen were like literally roaming the streets of
downtown and attacking zoot suitors or anybody perceived to be
(27:18):
wearing a zoot suit who were predominantly in LA at
the time, Mexican and Filipino and stripping them naked and
beating them, and then the police were arresting the victims.
And it was definitely racially motivated, and it was this
like these military guys directly violently like responding and attacking
(27:40):
to these guys who were stylemaxing, and women were also
zoot suitors. But when we think of the suit, I
think we think of the men first and foremost. So yeah,
I thought immediately I was like, well, yeah, yeah, zoot suitters,
like that's exactly what they were doing.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Yeah, that's a really good breakdown of like the cultural
and historical context of the zoot suits and like style
and how style has always been like embedded in like
political resistance, whether like you want to see it or not.
But I definitely think I think that's a great example.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
Yeah, it's definitely there. I think also like Dolly Parton
is I mean, hello, a fab an icon. And I
think that she has been like glamour maaxing and style
maxing her whole career, and she's been beauty maxing and
whimsy maxing. I think everything that she does is to
the max, especially with her look and her aesthetic, like
(28:35):
the big wigs, the colorful, loud makeup, the embellishments, the nails,
the tight silhouettes, and some people refer to her style
as yeehaw glam. And she also when she was starting
in her career and even after being very established in
her career, was constantly receiving criticism, being made fun of
(28:58):
told that she needed to tone it down, that she
looked trashy, that nobody would take her seriously, And she
always was so funny about it, and when she got
interviewed about her looks, she would always make a joke
out of it.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
She was always just lighthearted.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
She was never defensive, and she would say that her
style inspiration was like the town hooker from the little
town that she grew up in.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
And she would talk about.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Being a little girl and seeing like this working girl,
and a young Dolly would see her and think to herself, like,
what a glamorous, beautiful woman.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
I want to look just like that, right.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
You know?
Speaker 3 (29:38):
And Dolly Parton actually has a book called Behind the Seams,
My Life in Rhinestones, and they did a little excerpt
in time how I developed my glitzy personal style. And
I love this little quote from her. When I started
wearing that big hair and my flamboyant clothes and my
boob sticking up.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
A lot of people said, Dolly, you need to dress down.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Nobody's ever going to take you serious as a songwriter
or a singer if you look like that, because you
look more like a hooker than you do a singer.
And Dolly said, well, tough, this is who I am.
They'll get used to it. And she never toned down.
Speaker 4 (30:14):
She never changed, never did never even now at her age,
you know she's still performing when she does perform, like
in leotards.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Yes, you know, she looks.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Fabulous, she's glammed up. She has not changed.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
And she is someone that's definitely clearly has like committed
to the style or the style maxing her entire career
for decades.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
Yeah, it's not a phase, it's not a trend. It's
truly who she is.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
Definitely, Who are some of the other artist or people
that you think are like maxing a higher level, not
a higher level, more public level.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
I also think, of course our fave, the icon, the legend,
the queen Selena, Yes, Selena Keithania, I think was the
Hannah maxing. Yes, with all of her print looks and
the leather, they had a maxing. I think that she
was also Latina maxing and Mamita maxing for sure. Yeah,
and I think that she veered more on the Mamita
(31:12):
maxing side because I don't.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Think don't go anywhere, lookamotives will be right back.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Other than the cowprint.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
I don't think she was necessarily wearing items that screamed
like Mexican. I don't think she was necessarily wearing things
that were like very specifically culturally Mexican. But it was
the way that she put it together. Yeah, that was
very Mamita Maxing of her she as we know, her nails,
her red lip, her earrings, her gold jewelry, like the
(31:44):
way she did her hair.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
I think the way she.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Wore her clothes, it was all very much accentuating her
natural beauty in a way that to me, I think
we would now look at that and say, like, she
was Mamita Maxing, Yeah, someone.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
That we now regard as a style icon. Yes, And
that's because she was creating her own looks in the
same way Dolly Pardon does and has done, is having
her unique own persona, her own style, her own look,
and like sticking to it. And in spite of being
in a male dominated genre like the Hano music, Selena
(32:22):
like committed to the glam. She committed to her looks,
and I think that's one of the reasons we can
look at her and like, well, of course, no, she
was doing things very differently, paving her own way, but
was doing it in her own way. And that's why
we can call her an icon, you know, because it
was uniquely her. She wasn't imitating someone else. She may
(32:43):
have been.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Inspired right by other artists.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
Dolly Pardon, may have been inspired by the local town
sex worker, but they make it their own. And I
think that's part of like making it specific to you, right,
is how you're doing it, not necessarily the trend of
it all.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
Yes, absolutely, And I think Selena also famously in Selena
the movie, there's that scene where she debuts her boostier
for the first time when she's performing at a carnival
and her dad gets so mad at her about it
because he's like, she's wearing a bra. There's men out here, yes,
(33:24):
And then Marcella Selena's mom is like, it's a boostia.
She looks cute, you know, And I think in that way,
Selena was also projecting a femininity and a sexiness that.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Was pretty bold.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
For again, a woman in the Hano music to go
out and wear very tight fitting clothes and wearing a
boostier and totally owning it and not allowing anybody to
make her feel.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Bad or to scare her away.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
So I think that in that way too, she was
very much Mamita maxing with the pieces that she was
wearing and the way she was putting it all together.
And I also think, you know, Prince, I think was
glamour maxing. Yes, very much so, in every way, from
his like platform shoes, to his hair, his makeup, his
assless chaps at times.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
Yeah, the gender bending like glam of it all, you know.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Was so good.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
Yeah, just like the definition of a rock star, very
much so. And then and then also you know, like
Lady Gaga, I think is also somebody who has done
a lot of like style maxing, glamour maxing, whimsy maxing.
I think that she uh set the stage for someone
like a Chapel Roone to do the same in her
own regard. So yeah, I think with every generation you
(34:42):
have somebody who's like taking the baton and running with
it and taking that glamour to the next level, which
I always love and appreciate. I need my pop stars
to have some glamour and some whimsy. That's very important
to me.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Yes, it is very important. And like a dance routine.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Please some core choreo, please some Choreosgrpy.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
If you're a pop star, you have to do choreo.
It's part of being a pop star.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
Yes, which is why I appreciate this group Catsie. Yes,
I love them. I think they're so cute. I think
that they're also glamourmaxing, and I love that they dance.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Yes, they're great. The dancing is important. The choreo is important,
Yes it is, Yes it is.
Speaker 4 (35:21):
And do you remember how the internet bullied do A
Lipa into really becoming.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
A global pop star. Yeah, I like and doing choreo.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
Yeah yeah, because there was a famously like a video
and there comment was like, yes, girl give us nothing
because when she was like moving, like the choreo was
just like very soft, and now she like brinks it.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
You know, she's a global pop star.
Speaker 4 (35:43):
I love Dua Lipa and I think, yeah, she's someone
that took a critique and like ran with it.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Yes, improved, she's now giving us like kickball, change a count.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Yeah, people are very It's funny though, because people don't
expect choreography from everyone like Ray. People do not expect
choreography from someone like Ray or like a Billie Eilish.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Or Mariah Carey or I'm Mariah Carey. Carry will never
a pop star.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
She used to do a little choreo, a little choreo.
Speaker 4 (36:17):
But I think like pop stars for me, I expect
because my representation or image of a pop star is
the beloved Britney Spears, of course, and she was giving
us choreo. And so when I think of a pop star,
I think of choreo. I like Billy Eilish. I wouldn't
call her a pop star.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
I don't think. I don't think she's I.
Speaker 4 (36:39):
Don't think she's a pop star. I'm not saying she's
not famous. I'm not saying she's not global, but like
pop star, I don't think that's the kind of music
she makes.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Maybe I'm wrong.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
Yeah, she makes very kind of like wow, very dour,
very sad, very sad star.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Yeah, like Sabrina Carpenter's pop star.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
I think she's a pop star.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
She gives us choreo. She was doing her positions like
all through her through her tour.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
Like yeah, you know, yeah, I don't know. I guess.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
Once we start talking about artists who are moving into
this zone where they're like so mainstream, that they're like
making songs for the Barbie movie, like Billy.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
I think pop star is it's become so many different things.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
I think it's a.
Speaker 3 (37:25):
Pretty broad category because when I think of pop music,
it just means popular music, you know. And I think
that we kind of like pick and choose who we
expect to dance. Okay, yeah, yeah, But somebody that I
do appreciate is Tate McCray. We saw Tate McCray, yeah,
(37:46):
at the iHeart Fest Music Festival.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Girl Can Dance, which I love, Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Yes, I love a choreo.
Speaker 4 (37:53):
And I think of just bringing it back to the
maxing and the self improvement of it all. And something
that you touched on in the at the top of
the episode, mala is like control of self right during
political turmoil or economic distress, is like I can control
(38:14):
what I do. So here's how I'm going to self
improve or like optimize my life.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
Absolutely, I think it's about feeling like your life is
in your own hands, Like your life is within your
own control. Like you can decide how beautiful you are,
you can decide how much fiber you take in, you
can decide how you express your culture, you can decide,
(38:42):
like to what extent you're really maximizing your mame thanis
you know that these are not things that are imposed
on you, but things that you have ultimate saying power
and control over. And I think it's a way for
us to all feel like we are the masters of
our own destiny.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
M Yeah.
Speaker 4 (39:01):
I also think that there's like always this fine line
between like the extreme right. And I think when I
hear the word maxing, it's it is like feels very intense,
like we're talking about it, like the whimsical of it
of and that like really feel good part of it.
But I also when I think of maxing and this
(39:23):
idea and when it comes to like beauty and wellness,
is like how extreme we can like push ourselves and
how like in the eternal quest to like be better?
Like does the goalpost always move? So do we ever
actually feel good? Do we ever actually feel better? And
that's I think my concern with like how we view
(39:46):
wellness and how we view this type of like on
the surface, like yeah, it's good to have a balance
to me a like yeah, it's good to feel good
on the inside and out, But is the goalpost continuously moving?
And then in the end, does it actually make us
feel not that good? And I think from the cultural lens,
that's where I'm like looking at these type of trends like, yeah,
(40:09):
it's not new.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
But does it ever.
Speaker 4 (40:12):
Push us to like the point of harm? And I
think That's where I'm thinking of it right now.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
Yeah, I feel like on past episodes we've talked about
this with regards to different trends. But you know, so
much of this is like a vehicle through which we
push like buying, and we push like purchasing things, buying products.
If we're talking about beauty maxing, does that lead to
(40:39):
like link in bio, you know?
Speaker 1 (40:42):
And is there like a sale? Is there a product?
Speaker 3 (40:46):
If we're talking about like protein maxing, are we now
like all getting Chloye Kardashian's cloud popcorn right? You know
it's like sprinkled with protein powder. I mean behind every
trend there is like a sales team. Yes, there's a
marketing component to it. And when we are like looking
to make ourselves feel better because we might never be
(41:08):
able to get out of debt or buy a house,
do we placate ourselves and do we put a band
aid on the big problem? By like, oh, well, I'm
you know, I'm whimsy maxings.
Speaker 4 (41:19):
I mean whimsy maxing sounds like the least harmful and
actually most enjoyable and like well, like wellness part of
it all.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
Which is why I do it, which is why you
do it.
Speaker 4 (41:29):
Yeah, because I'm like, you just brought up the and
we've talked about this before, like the capitalism behind it,
the machine behind it that wants you to buy things.
Everything you described is free. You're like, yeah, I'm gonna
go fly a kite in the park. Yes, I'm going
to go roller skate at the beach. Yes, I'm going
to watch a series with my friend. Right, sounds lovely.
Also sounds inexpensive, thank you, you know, And so I think, yeah,
(41:53):
I can see why you're for your approach. You're like,
this is wholesome, this is lovely, this is whimsy, And
I'm like, oh, this in cell culture, like this is
the origin. And I'm not saying that one is wrong,
and like there's one is wrong and one is right.
But I think the way our introduction to the to
this idea of maxing was so stark, you know, like
(42:14):
yours was like fun and whimsical and mine was like
this horrible like Manisphere bro who like parties with Andrew Tate.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
So I'm like, what the fuck is going on?
Speaker 1 (42:23):
It's very odd, you know.
Speaker 4 (42:24):
Yeah, And so yeah, as with all things that we
look at on the podcast, like we look at the
micro and the macro, like how we are involved in something,
if we're involved in something, and then at the macro level,
like what it signifies about, like the culturals, like guys,
the cultural moment and like how that how we're all
reading it or involved in it or what we're making
(42:45):
of it.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
Absolutely, So, listeners, how are you maxing today?
Speaker 2 (42:50):
Are you maxing?
Speaker 1 (42:50):
Are you maxing? How are you maxing?
Speaker 3 (42:53):
Let us know, leave a comment, leave a review, because
we're maxing all summer and not the credit card, not
maxing the credit card, everything but the credit card, please lord.
We're maxing our happiness. Yes, we're joy maxing, we're health maxing,
we're wellness maxing.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
I'm mad maxing, all right, Yeah, as.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
A means as a means, as a means to an end, Yes,
it means.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
To an end.
Speaker 4 (43:15):
All right, y'all, thank you for listening to another capital
of Look At Radio, and we'll catch you next time.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
Besitos local.
Speaker 4 (43:24):
Look At Radio is executive produced and hosted by Me
THEOSAP and Me Mala, Video editing by Saul Gomez.
Speaker 3 (43:32):
And audio engineering by Joel hero Morales.
Speaker 4 (43:36):
You can listen to look At Radio on the iHeartRadio
app or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 3 (43:41):
Give us a follow, give us a review, and share
with a friend.
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