AI\u2019s got nothing on good quality dumb entertainment\u2014and only people can make that<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2025, the slop got worse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nonsense imagery and words generated by artificial intelligence migrated from the back pages of your grandparents\u2019 Facebook to pretty much every corner of society. It\u2019s all over Google Search. McDonald\u2019s<\/a> and Coca-Cola<\/a> have dropped horrific AI-generated Christmas advertisements. The official social media accounts of U.S. officials are mashing up Franklin the Turtle with war crimes<\/a>. I can\u2019t even open my work email without being prompted to \u201ccreate professional images for work with Nano Banana.\u201d (The Minions never asked for this slander.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n And while this surge in slop is demoralizing for a host of reasons (see: the collapse of truth<\/a>, the environment impacts<\/a>, the impact on workers<\/a>, the sheer shittiness of it all), it also sucks because it distracts from the fine art of human-made\u2014or could I even say human-crafted\u2014slop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To go out on a limb and be so brave, I think slop\u2019s been given a bad name by the rise of AI. \u201cSlop\u201d has become widely used to describe the low-quality, mass-produced AI content currently flooding the internet. But for the sake of culture\u2014and queer culture specifically\u2014we must reclaim it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Because in 2025, nothing topped the pure quality human-made<\/em> garbage that rotted all of our brains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As queer and trans people, we have long looked to \u201clow-brow\u201d culture as both a salve and a vehicle for representation. From drag performances to the Real Housewives<\/em><\/a>, there\u2019s something distinctly queer about what the rest of society casts aside as being trash or slop. And 2025 was a year that saw horrors abound for queer and trans people like me\u2014silly little nonsense can also be a lifeline. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I spent much of this year making social media videos<\/a> about the abuses of the second Trump administration on TikTok, a platform that every administration was looking to buy. I watched and reported closely as my home province of Alberta banned gay books<\/a> in the summer and legislated away the rights of trans kids<\/a> in the fall. I wrote about how mainstream media weaponized trans people in the wake of Charlie Kirk\u2019s death<\/a> and irreparably shifted the narrative before they had any of the facts. Needless to say, it\u2019s been a rough year for a lot of us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And while I\u2019ve appreciated the excellent high-quality art and culture that 2025 has produced\u2014shout-out to Sinners<\/em>, Rosal\u00eda\u2019s Lux<\/em>, etc.\u2014what I will remember from this year is the pure volume of slop I\u2019ve consumed to keep myself sane through it. The gone-too-soon The Ultimatum: Queer Love<\/em><\/a>.<\/em> JoJo Siwa\u2019s pivot from trash lesbian to a gravelly voiced trad-wife-esque <\/a>Big Brother<\/em> star who sings about loving a man. Everything having to do with Labubu<\/a>. The feverish obsession we all have with the horny gay Canadian hockey TV show<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n