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VIRAL NEWS: ELLE WOODS, A VIRAL SPEECH, AND THE PAY GAP IN SPORTS

A peek into the topics buzzing at Cassandra

It's Friday again, so it's time for our weekly recap of viral news. Culture moves fast, and we at Cassandra try to move even faster to keep up with all the topics creating conversations in the online world of Gen Z, tracking tomorrow's relevant people, events, brands, and news. In Cassandra’ recent report on gender, Breaking the Rules, we learned that 70% of Gen Zs agree that “gender doesn’t define a person as much as it used to”. Well, this week, gender certainly was defining, as women are the common thread in our three viral news stories.

ELLE WOODS GOES TO HIGH SCHOOL

This week, Amazon announced at their upfronts that they had ordered the prequel to the Legally Blond series, which will follow Elle to” high school as we learn about the life experiences that shaped her into the iconic young woman we came to know and love in the first ‘Legally Blonde’ film.” Reese Witherspoon made the announcement on stage in her signature pink suit, with some on TikTok wondering if her daughter might take on the role!

BENEDICTINE COLLEGE

Most folks hadn’t heard of Benedictine College, a small, conservative Catholic College, just north of Kansas City. That is, until this week when Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker gave a commencement speech to the class of 2024. In his speech (which received a standing ovation from the audience), Butker shared his views on a wide-array of topics, including the role of women, the administration’s handling of the COVID crisis, and the month of Pride. This speech has literally blown up social feeds this week, with reactions fast and furious, including many pointing out the irony of Butker quoting Taylor Swift in his address.

THE GENDER PAY GAP

Last year, Claudia Goldin was only the third woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economics (and the first to receive the award as an individual and not part of a group) for her work on women in the labor force and economic inequality. She now has more material to work with. Caitlin Clark’s home debut this week once again put her, err, ‘modest’ WNBA salary into the forefront, as the game was the most watched WNBA game in more than twenty years.