Welcome to The Trend Report: Business Editionâ˘, a midweek look at top stories, trends, and more of whatâs happening online and off by Kyle of The Trend Reportâ˘. Today, weâre talking about what the Hyrox pooper means, how Hollywood is leaving LA, what Gen Z looks for in hospitality, the appeal of Mr. Kansas on gay Twitter, and a $60 loaf of bread going viral.
đ Trend Watchers: Women-in-sports psychosis
Iâm not going to explain the Hyrox poop incident as the whole situation has rightfully been blown out of proportion, highlighting something we will remember about the summer of 2026: this was the summer that women-in-sports fell into psychosis, both at their own doing and for being the political putty that the (American) politic has been manipulating for years. We saw this with the ongoing WNBA battles for and against trans athletes, which has created many a polarizing figure (Brianna Turner for trans athletes, Sophie Cunningham against trans athletes) while opening the door for an infiltration that has boosted views but also has made the league vulnerable to manipulation (See Enes Kanter Freedomâs ongoing stunts.). As if riding this wave intentionally, firebrand Sydney Sweeney appeared in a highly sexualized sporting ad for sports betting company Novig (Of course itâs sports betting!), where she played sports whilst naked, essentially positioning all of womenâs sports as something not for women to be enjoyed but to be consumed and bet on by the patriarchy. This has created a deluge of dissent, inspiring a trend on TikTok and Instagram of women who work in and who participate in sports to offer a look at what being a woman in sports actually looks like. This brings us to the Hyrox poop moment, which was one individualâs messing themself that smeared a big business, which is in turn exposing the brand to questions of responsibility and cringe. We know that shitting oneself has long been an elite athlete pastime, but rarely has it crossed over into mainstream culture or directly impacted others in this way. Taken all together and from within the 2020s prism of hyper-wellness and body dysmorphic extremes, the squeezing of women-in-sports to these breaking points feels like what happens when all of our culture is a raising of bars that are progressively impossible to clear â and are put there so that one trips, so that those around them (the straight, the white, the male, the Republican) can swoop in to take advantage of them. The Hyrox pooper didnât do anything but be herself and, unfortunately, such an âextremeâ and uncaring expression of the athletic self is no longer anything to aspire to: it is what happens when a site is politicized to care not for the body but for #Results, marking you as a site of manipulation.
𤊠Hollyweird Insider: LA is officially a mindset
Two devastating and symbolic punches to the Hollywood gut: American Idol is moving to Atlanta, inspiring many jokes about the trademark âYouâre going to Hollywood!â becoming a relic of the past, while Paramount is planning to leave the state following a protracted legal battle, which will likely turn the iconic Melrose lot into a tourist husk or a shadow of itself, as is the case of the post-CBS CBS TV City on Beverlyâs demise. This sounds ridiculous, but an iconically tied-to-Hollywood media brand and an iconic physical Hollywood expression both being dunzo means Los Angeles as the âsite of movie and televisionâ has officially drawn to a close as concerns are very high in light of this news. This plays into a 21st centuryâs long slow fade too as weâve seen Canadian production bloom, Arizona court productions (namely Netflix), Georgia become a power player, and New Jersey having similar momentum (via Netflix, via The Masked Singer). The exodus is real, which means Los Angeles truly has become more a mindset than a physical place, which Iâve written about for years and now is fully being realized. Itâs sad! But this is how it goes, when the arts become too entangled with business and politics. This is bad for the industry, less as far as the channels or media companies but more that workers lose â but so do audiences, as this smearing of identity further devalues what they make, diluting the Hollywood brand. This is how and why the digital continues to win, as Hollywood is absorbed by a similar mindset and divorces itself from geography.
đ Media Matters: Consider the fascism of today, not of yesterday
I had the absolute privilege to check out Naomi Klein and Astra Taylorâs book launch for End Times Fascism on Tuesday, which sounds like it would be intense and a downer but was one of the more inspiring things Iâve attended and experienced in some time. Naomi and Astra are geniuses, whose intelligence would be enough if it werenât for their being caring spirits who are thinking not of now but of the future. This was a big takeaway from the night, one that I wanted to implore as I let my own novelty and future-facing bias reveal itself: something like fascism isnât locked into the past, where there is only âoneâ type of fascism established by Mussolini or Hitler for us to watch out for; instead, weâre experiencing an adapting version of this human evil that we cannot simplify as being âlike then.â Thus, a big takeaway: imagine not how history repeats itself but how it is evolving, adapting, and expanding to suit these times, which is a common issue the media falls into by trying to match up the present with the past instead of considering the current context as it may evolve forward. This means our solutions must adapt too, using new models instead of âwhat once workedâ: fool me once, etc. âOur crises are of a different scale,â Naomi explained. âOur world is more dangerous than their world.â âThe word fascism comes from Latin for âbundle,ââ Astra said. âItâs not a monolith.â I cannot wait to read this book and the talk I attended can be watched on the Books Are Magic YouTube â and I highly, highly recommend you do. It is so terrifically inspiring.
