The Hmm

Thinking Face Emoji

Arts EN ↓ 6 episodes

From girl math to men who are babygirl to looksmaxxing incels, online culture has accelerated, and perhaps even changed, how we express our gender identies. In this podcast created by The Hmm in collaboration with The Institute of Network Cultures , we are focusing on online gender expression. The early Internet is often viewed as an emancipatory space where people explored and experimented with identity and gender. Today, this spirit of identity play exists simultaneously alongside a broader trend that leans toward more cisheteronormative gender roles. This podcast series is an extension of T...

Author

The Hmm

Episodes

The Future of Girlhood 15.08.2025 42:25

In the sixth and last episode of the season we delve into the future of girlhood in online culture. Since 2023, the so-called “year of the girl” with trends like girl math, girl dinner, and the Barbie movie’s influence, girlhood has become a widely discussed cultural and theoretical concept. We’ve learned that the figure of the girl has evolved into a digital strategy rather than a fixed identity,...

Post-Soviet Girl, or the Sad Girl Trope 04.08.2025 47:27

In the fifth episode of Thinking Face Emoji, Margarita Osipian from The Hmm and Anielek Niemyjski from the Institute of Network Cultures are joined by writer and independent researcher Salome Berdzenishvili, to discuss the online aesthetic of the post-Soviet sad girl. Together they dissect the sad girl industrial complex to explore how this aesthetic emerged, and how it shapes and reflects the vis...

Sock, the Bushwick enby 24.06.2025 46:16

In this episode, Maja Mikulska from The Hmm and Anielek Niemyjski from the Institute of Network Cultures are joined by Maya B. Kronic - co-author of Cute Accelerationism and Head of Research and Development at Urbanomic - to discuss all things Sock . From Bushwick enbies to memes and fancy foot cover-ups, the conversation focuses on what it means to explore gender nonconformity, both online and of...

Gigachad, or the Surge of Nu-genics 12.06.2025 39:34

In the third episode of Thinking Face Emoji, Margarita Osipian from The Hmm and researcher Mita Medri, are joined by writer and cultural commentator Ana Sumbo, to discuss the online phenomenon of looksmaxxing. Hunter vs prey eyes, the canthal tilt, siren vs. doe eyes, angel vs witch skull, or a FYP filled with Gigachad jawlines. This is the landscape, or some might say cesspool, of looksmaxxing. W...

Sigma Male, or How Incel Terms Went Mainstream 28.05.2025 43:48

In this episode Salome Berdzenishvili, from the Institute of Network Cultures, and Sjef van Beers, from The Hmm, talk to Dr. Daniël de Zeeuw, from the University of Amsterdam’s department of Mediastudies, about how terms originally associated with incel and femcel communities seem to have reached the mainstream. Mentioned in this episode: “‘Teh Internet is Serious Business’: On the Deep Vernacular...

Girlboss, Through the Years 13.05.2025 47:16

In this inaugural episode of Thinking Face Emoji, Margarita Osipian and Sjef van Beers from The Hmm, are joined by Sam Cummins, of Nymphet Alumni, to discuss the girlboss . Overly familiar with the many critiques this online stereotype has gotten over the years, we shift our focus to look at the cultural and aesthetic environment that led to the girlboss, her inception, and the impact she made on...