✨ hello —

a little about me

i'm jenny, an independent and extremely online writer, researcher, and brand strategist in new york city—i run a cultural intelligence studio called constellation theory

i make provocative, meaningful work informed by pop culture and intersectional thinking, helping build brands like lego, ebay, fitbit, target, california tobacco prevention, chipotle, expedia, at&t, jbl, and frito-lay

some things i love: travel, my two cats mia (bombay) and mango (orange), bar trivia, vintage slang, logic puzzles, broadway musicals, home decor, fun drinks, cooking shows, campy christmas rom-coms, portmanteaus, miniature desserts, email newsletters, dark lipsticks, and comfy cardigans

some cultural curiosities ↓

constellation theory newsletter ✨

🧠 pop culture powerpoint essays —

“like a fun cosmo article but with sage journal info”

is your teen texting about this?

how tiktok explains gen z culture & communication

Are you bored in quarantine and on TikTok? Are you confused and overwhelmed by trends nowadays? Are you intimidated by teen speak? Have you ever felt victimized by “ok boomer”? Have you ever wondered what exactly it is that strategists do all day? Then this deck is #foryou. Everything you need to know about TikTok and its relationship with Gen Z (memes, culture, socioeconomic trends), from a strategist’s perspective—what it is, where it came from, why it’s popular, and why that matters.

wap: women asserting power

the cultural significance of overt female sexuality in american music

*NSFW* Did I purchase an OnlyFans membership for a month for the express purpose of watching Cardi B’s behind-the-scenes content for this music video? Yes. Was it worth it? 100%. The latest in my series of Things No One Asked For (and a follow-up to *that* TikTok deck) is an exploration of sexuality and power dynamics in music as it relates to Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP”: the contextual significance of explicitness in rap music, the history of the word “pussy” in pop culture, the notability of French aristocratic design and Britney Spears’ influence on the video’s aesthetic, and how “WAP” represents the unapologetic reclamation of sexual agency and an alternate social hierarchy in which Black women are the reigning class.

what we owe to each other and the practical value of empathy

lessons from the good place on morality in a pandemic

On existential angst and the primal ache, or alternatively, a TL;DR of a bunch of philosophy books, articles, and treatises for you to drop into casual conversation. As this hellscape of a year comes to a close, I’m fascinated by the evolving ethical implications of living in a society in the midst of COVID-19, and the necessity of morality in a pandemic. My third and final deck of the year is an investigation into what “patriotism” means from a philosophical perspective: how the cult of American individualism informs our ideas of moral obligation and social contracts (come for the philosophy, stay for the scattered musings on Survivor), using the wisdom of the sitcom The Good Place. But the ultimate question is: What do we owe to our fellow human beings?

out of office

an investigation of memes, meaning, and linguistic competence online and irl

This project combines two topics I’m pretty much always thinking about—the nuances of language/communication and how meme culture reflects evolving societal norms—and is the product of six months(!) of work. I am deeply indebted to the internet, not only for providing endless entertainment and the basis for most of my research, but also for allowing me to connect with brilliant people like Dr. Anastasia Kārkliņa Gabriel, who reached out last year and despite us never having met in person, has become such a strong creative and academic complement to me, and somehow managed to do all of this while completing a PhD in Cultural Studies and Critical Theory (the dream!) at Duke University. A collaboration felt written in the stars for us, and I’m so happy with the way this turned out. Special thanks also to the incredible Matt Klein for his valuable insight and for being our official guest editor/meme consultant on this project 💁🏻‍♀️

escape from the wasteland

the broken promises of utopia and the relentlessly optimistic nihilism of mad max: fury road

I’ve thought a lot about optimistic nihilism lately, and about what it looks like in practice, which led me back to the wasteland of Mad Max: Fury Road. This deck began as an excuse to watch one of my favorite movies a million times, but I was also curious about how far off we are from the utopia and/or dystopia sold to us by fiction and pop culture, given our simultaneous epidemiological, social, political, environmental, and moral crises. I argue that the universe of Mad Max: Fury Road provides an excellent framework for both surviving the apocalypse and moving forward after an event of total collapse.

the bimbo renaissance

the weaponized performance of hyperfemininity

“Bimbo feminism” has seen a meteoric rise in recent years, exemplified by last summer’s Barbiemania, but it’s part of a much larger, very visible effort to reconcile feminism and femininity. And so my first project of 2024 is a *very* deep dive into bimbo culture, tracing its evolution in the media parallel to public attitudes about feminism, and contextualizing it within the broader pop culture landscape. I argue that the Barbie movie would not have been as successful had the past decade not laid the groundwork for the return to hyperfemininity—the Trump administration, the pandemic, and the recharacterization of female public figures and celebrity media. It’s especially important to be critical of entertainment at a time when media literacy is lacking in cultural discourse and, to be honest, after a couple of very difficult years, it’s tempting to revert to complacency. But universal liberation is a worthwhile pursuit, and from a cultural theory standpoint, I promise that it’s all connected.

✨a guide to getting started in strategy✨