The Out-of-Touch Adults' Guide to Kid Culture: Alysa Liu and 'Goonbait'

This week, we're taking a look at goonbait and RegencyCore If you don't know what any of that even is, you're definitely in the right place, so let me break down for ya.

Alysa Liu and goonbait

In Gen Z and Gen A slang, "gooning" refers to extended masturbation without orgasm, sometimes done for the purpose of entering an altered state of consciousness. "Goonbait" is, essentially, media that exists to inspiring gooning.

Speaking of goonbait, a couple weeks ago, I talked about Olympic gold medal figure skater Alysa Liu as the hero athlete of Generations Z and A. It didn't take much time for some of the weirder members of the younger generations to make it creepy. This is a familiar reaction that too many younger people have to women doing anything in public.

At issue is a widely shared photo of Liu looking hungrily at her gold medal, that some are called goonbait. Here's an X post that sums it up:

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This inspired many to point out how creepy it is and to make memes of things that are also "goonbait," like the following:

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The truth is, people used to check whether a coin was gold by marking it with their teeth—gold is a soft metal—and photos of athletes biting their gold medals is an Olympics tradition that's been around since at least 1992, when Greco-Roman wrestling champ Péter Farkas chomped on his for a photo. I'm pretty sure no one called this picture goonbait. Since then, it's expected for all medal winners to do that pose for the funny photographs. Liu seems to be making a joke about that tradition in her photo, not creating "goonbait."

It's not just people online who are all weird about Alysa Liu; real world people are getting into it too. On March 4, the 20-year-old skater posted a story on her Instagram with the text, "So I land at the airport, & there’s a crowd waiting at the exit with cameras & things for me to sign. All up in my personal space. Someone chased me to my car bruh. Please do not do that to me."

What is "RegencyCore?"

A fashion and design aesthetic popular among some members of Gens Z and A, RegencyCore springs from the popularity of the fantasy-regency era look of the Netflix show Bridgerton. It draws inspiration from the opulent style of the British Regency era of the early 1800s, but adds a fantasy element of pastel colors and gold accents.

RegencyCore is becoming a whole lifestyle. There are how-to RegencyCore decorating videos on TikTok, tea parties are becoming popular, people are rocking corsets and opera gloves, and some have even taken up archaic hobbies like tablescaping and writing letters, complete with quill pens and sealing wax.

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