Link List: A Few Quick Things

via Sarah Andersen comics - I love her work and think it's hilarious, I relate to this and also to many of her comics

Note: I am currently on vacation, but wrote and scheduled this post before I flew out. I'll be back by early October! Today's post is about a few things I was looking at online right before I left for my trip. As usual, given my writing style, it was really difficult to be quick and concise so that I could actually get this post completed and scheduled before I left.

1. // In the midst of a renewed discussion about the Eileen Fisher-ish "menocore" aesthetic, one r/femalefashionadvice commenter, u/PalmSignet, made some interesting points about the increasingly casual and relaxed standards of professional dress in many industries these days.

I can't relate to every single thing, but she makes some good points that ring true to me. My overall experience with workplace dress codes is ultimately quite different, but some of the key details still feel real. (I've never been in an employment situation where I felt the dress code expectations were unfair. While I wouldn't be terribly pleased about a "business formal every day" rule, it wouldn't exactly be an unreasonable thing for many attorney workplaces to demand.) Anyway, I won't be able to articulate my full thoughts on that discussion any time soon, but I wanted to share that specific discussion because it was novel and interesting. Oh, and this other discussion about (mostly workplace) dress and what it might signal was also interesting, though it didn't get much traction. 

2. // There've been a few interesting discussions about "influencer" (mainly Youtuber) campaigns and compensation recently. I'm not at all familiar with the world of makeup Youtube anymore, I last followed it back when Michelle Phan was in her heyday (and that was ages ago) but it seems to be a wild and highly compensated world for the top players. The r/blogsnark discussion about this topic wasn't too active, but someone took a screenshot of a comment from someone in the industry that noted that some Youtubers solicit companies to pay them to do "dedicated negative review[s] of a competitor's product" (and for that particular anonymous Youtuber, this option cost significantly more than a "dedicated product review" of the company's own product). Now that is wild, and is probably enough to make some makeup and beauty reviews on Youtube sound potentially suspect.

Somewhat relatedly, a r/blogsnark user mentioned the parameters of that Olay Whips campaign that's been around on Instagram lately. Among other things, I feel like these campaigns can look inauthentic because they go live at the same time, and because many of the people promoting the item typically use higher-end stuff. (Not that skincare products need to be high-end to be effective. My own routine is mostly prescriptions and drugstore products!) Of course, there are probably data-supported reasons why Olay set those campaign parameters.

3. // Both Leigh and Bitches Get Riches recently wrote about the important topic of splitting and sharing finances as a couple. Given my stage in life, it's a topic about which I currently have surprisingly little to say. K and I are remarkably aligned in our values when it comes to money and related topics, so we haven't felt much of a need yet to discuss most of the gritty details. We're also both very flexible about things like how accounts should be arranged. Many people might find this lack of having hashed out the practical details to be a bit odd (maybe even irresponsible), but well, it works for us.

And that's it for this slightly abbreviated link list post! Any thoughts about those workwear discussions I linked? I guess I'm generally not a fan of the "dress for the job you want" idea if it requires things like pantyhose or blazers when I'm not in court. Also, I only wear heels when I feel like I have absolutely no choice, with great reluctance.