This feature is from THE SELF-DESTRUCTION ISSUE of VICE magazine. Find it in a store near you, or get 4 issues each year sent straight to your door, by subscribing.

Are Western societies more barbarous than they were in decades past? As someone who’s never been on the wrong end of rat torture or a conquistador’s arquebus, it’s impossible for me to say, but abject ultra-violence has certainly become ubiquitous on our screens. Open any social media app right now, and you might see a Mumbai dog fight descend into horrifying farce as a spectator is sucked into the whirling power take-off shaft of a nearby tractor. Or a girl in a U.S. high school corridor crumpling to the floor after receiving a devastating triple blow to the face. Or a guy making minced meat of a foe who goaded him in a mall, complete with an audio edit that makes his punches land with a cartoon thwack.

In some parts of the world, the increasing algorithmic prominence of fist fights, stabbings, and gang brawls on social media has exposed some 70 percent of teens to real fighting on their timelines, often without them ever seeking out this type of content. This so-called “fight porn” bleeds into the everyday scroll, dissolving the line between entertainment, news, and snuff as it’s delivered by the same mechanisms that show you celebrity selfies and photos of brunch.

In a high rise building in Malad West, Mumbai a pet dog suddenly turned aggressive inside the elevator and tried to attack three girls

The dog's owner showed quick presence of mind and managed to control the dog, preventing a major tragedy

The entire incident was captured on… pic.twitter.com/LMghePMioz

— Ramesh Speaks (@rameshofficial0) July 18, 2026

“If you make someone sit down and watch a UFC fight or a boxing fight, they’re going to have a very different reaction behaviorally and neurochemically than if they are watching a street fight,” reasons Dr. Nafees Hamid, a cognitive scientist of political violence at King’s College London. “In both cases, you’re watching someone beat the hell out of another person. But one case is sanctioned. There are rules and a referee.” Street-fight clips are a different beast. “Are they spreading a particular vision,” Hamid wonders, “of what it means to be a man?”

When I was at school in England in the 2000s, videos of playground dust ups would occasionally be shared from phone to phone, and we’d grimace at the beatings meted out to classmates. Some of my peers would be a little more cautious the next time we were around the assailant. Others would puff out their chests, wishing to gain the prestige of putting them in their place. But crucially it was all contained, the distribution system that disseminates such content yet to be invented. Social media creates a greater incentive to “post and boast,” allowing bullies to bask in a dopamine-fueled orgy of infamy—until their victim dies and they are arrested, as has been the case in several high-profile incidents both in the UK and abroad.

Fight porn bleeds into the everyday scroll, dissolving the line between entertainment, news, and snuff

Just as violence has always been a way for men to assert their dominance, violence in entertainment has long prompted outbursts of social hysteria, from the heavy metal “Satanic Panic” in the 80s to first-person shooters like Grand Theft Auto in the 2000s. But those were all packaged forms of opt-in violence. What we’re seeing now is unpackaged, real, and floating around us constantly in a grisly ambient cloud. Who profits from turning the human experience into a never-ending fight club? Violent content on X has blossomed since the social-media platform, then called Twitter, was bought by Elon Musk in October 2022.

“I noticed [the uptick] almost immediately,” says filmmaker Luke*, who neglected to provide his surname for privacy reasons. “People fighting in the streets and dying constantly.” He assumed there’d been an algorithm tweak, intended to increase the amount of time people spend on the platform, since it’s “the kind of horrible shit that’s hard to look away from.”

The never-ending stream of gritty street brawls via popular X accounts, or on the 2.2 million-member subreddit r/fightporn, are clearly intoxicating for some. But whereas an afternoon escapade into the darkest recesses of online porn naturally concludes in a regretful discharge and at least a temporary disinterest in watching yet more filmed intercourse, the abundance of titillating bareknuckle boxing pumps adrenaline that has nowhere to go, almost leaving you craving a fight of your own. The algorithm discovered that we’ll stop scrolling when someone’s face meets concrete, and the attention economy meets the adrenal economy.

“Shocking footage registers in the brain as threat and arousal, and as a result, dopamine is released to keep you alert and engaged,” says anger management expert Mike Fisher, the founder of the British Association of Anger Management. He warns that regular viewers of this sort of content may develop worsening emotional control issues and increased baseline anxiety. “The two together, anger and watching violence, become a serious toxic concoction.”

The allure of fight porn and the ultraviolent soup careening around social media is that anyone can get into a street fight. Perhaps titillatingly, we are all just an errant barge or a misconstrued glance away from a potentially life-ending brawl. 

Road rage in Birmingham.. pic.twitter.com/KKHmK3yI5W

— London & UK Street News (@CrimeLdn) July 10, 2025

“It’s like billions of cortisol spikes frying our brains every day,” says entrepreneur Antoine, who did not want to disclose his full name for business reasons. He’s been watching street brawl content on YouTube since the very dawn of the video-sharing platform. “I’m a little addicted to these videos. I have had to protect myself and others in the past, and I feel watching fight videos helps me to be more ready if I need to defend myself again.” 

Nick admits he went through a phase of watching no-rules backyard fights on YouTube. “There’s a well-organized European brand I liked the most and found the most unnerving,” he says. “Before I knew it, I was being fed all manner of violence and actual human suffering constantly,” he adds, saying he even got served someone live-streaming their own murder.

Over the last year, Nick believes that his consumption of extreme fight content may have led him to experience intrusive thoughts, which he has found are consistent with harm OCD (a type of obsessive compulsive disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts, images, or urges about causing harm to oneself or others). “While I’m speaking to people, I have these unwelcome thoughts of twatting them in the face,” he explains. “These people could be parents, family friends, or basically anyone. It’s obviously jarring: I don’t want to hit my mom.”

It’s like his brain is saying: “What would happen if this entirely neutral situation became incredibly violent out of nowhere?” When violence becomes ambient, the mind begins simulating it. Not because we want to be violent, but because the brain is rehearsing threats.

“While I’m speaking to people, I have these unwelcome thoughts of twatting them in the face”

We are hardwired to pay attention to violence from an evolutionary perspective, says Brad Bushman, a professor of communication at Ohio State University. “Our ancient ancestors who ignored violent cues became extinct,” he says. “But when people are repeatedly exposed to street violence, they likely become desensitized and numb to it. These videos reduce empathy—and empathy is one of the best predictors for pro-social behavior.”

He learned a lesson they don't teach in schools. pic.twitter.com/Vcx1zoeSuf

— Libs Hate Us (@LibsHateUs) July 12, 2025

Even primates are drawn to violent videos, he adds, citing a recent paper he co-authored, which reports that monkeys pay more attention to videos with active and aggressive content compared to sitting and grooming videos.

Perhaps the question isn’t whether we’re more barbarous than our grandparents but what the effect of being constantly exposed to barbarism is on our brains and societies as a whole. To be clear, there is little evidence that street violence itself has exploded in the West, but what has exploded is its visibility—and the way that visibility shapes what feels socially plausible. When violence is everywhere, it stops being shocking and begins to feel normal. The danger may not be that fight porn makes us more violent, but that it makes violence feel ordinary.

*Names have been changed for privacy.

Follow Mattha on X @matthabusby

This feature is from THE SELF-DESTRUCTION ISSUE of VICE magazine. Find it in a store near you, or get 4 issues each year sent straight to your door, by subscribing.

The post Is Fight Porn Destroying Us? appeared first on VICE.

Welcome to LOST WEEKEND, VICE’s hungover news briefing.

It must be said that when it comes to female erections, I am far from an expert. So I was obviously intrigued when I received an email from Bryan Johnson‘s girlfriend late last week about lady boners. Just what are they, and what should be done about them?

Kate Tolo is probably well placed to answer that question, as she is officially in the “top 1% of all vaginas”—a bold claim made by her tech-millionaire-and-longevity-enthusiast partner, with whom she co-founded the longevity brand Blueprint.

This is her vaginal microbiome report. 100/100 score.

Top 1% of all vaginas.

Her sample is dominated by the single most protective bacterial species a vagina can host (Lactobacillus crispatus).

Only about 25-30% of reproductive age women globally are L. crispatus-dominant,… pic.twitter.com/Pt1JbKM5y0

— Bryan Johnson (@bryan_johnson) April 30, 2026

Tolo is on a mission to be the world’s most measured woman (it’s great when a couple has a shared hobby). As part of this, she’s harvesting data on her own nighttime erections. No, not using “bean calipers,” as Bryan’s freaky online fanboys have suggested, but with a piece of $15,000 lab equipment—for context, the device Bryan uses costs just $275.

The 49-year-old, who claims to have a 22-year-old’s dick, says this price gap sums up the current status of female health, which is primed for a revolution. “If nighttime genital blood flow predicts heart disease in women the way erectile function does in men, this is one of the most important measurements we’re looking at.” I love it when he talks dirty like that.

@katetolo

welcome to my room

♬ original sound – Kate Tolo

But as much as I like to poke fun at the whole longevity movement, improving our understanding of women’s health feels like something that could genuinely benefit millions of people. So I got Kate on the phone to find out more about her “techno tampon.”

VICE: So, female erections?
Kate Tolo: The clitoral area has the same erectile tissue as in men. Women go through the same erection cycles, particularly during REM sleep. Men wake up with morning wood; women wake up with the morning bean. Men’s erectile issues can predict heart attacks by two to five years. Is this true for women too? We have the same vascular network, so theoretically, it could be. Science hasn’t looked into it yet.

What’s the difference in longevity for men versus women?
I’ve never been about optimizing or longevity for women. I’ve been about, “What the hell is going on with our bodies?” We have not characterized the female body to the same degree as the male body. It’s extremely hard to measure a female body. The infrastructure is not built for that purpose.

And this “techno tampon” is gonna change that?
It looks like a tampon and has a light and a sensor. Because light is absorbed by blood, you’re able to deduce how much blood flow there is. It’s really archaic. Bryan measures his erections with a $275 wireless device that gives him an erection score. Mine’s like $15,000, with a long wire taped to my leg and software that looks like it’s from the 1970s. It took us three months to get it running. It disrupts my sleep and is not fun to wear.

Outside of this device, what does your female health protocol look like?
I measure around 1,900 biomarkers. I have a five-hour morning routine. Everything stays the same: food, water, exercise, schedule. At 6.30AM, the alarm goes off, and the F1 race starts.

Does optimization present challenges to your romantic relationship? Not sharing a bed for sleep quality, every romantic meal is Nutty Pudding…
It’s kind of cute. We’re living parallel paths. We have this ritual where we check his resting heart rate before bed. He can’t look at his phone because of the blue light, so he closes his eyes, and I’m like, “Alright, it’s 44, it’s 43…” We have all these weird rituals that only the two of us can possibly appreciate.

That sounds strangely romantic. Are you always chill about Bryan posting about you? “The 1%” is the famous one.
Sometimes I meet people in real life, and I can just tell they’re thinking about these tweets that have gone viral. He never posts about me without checking with me first. A lot of men don’t know about endometriosis—we’ve genuinely moved the needle on that. I support trying to gather as much attention around these things as possible.

I saw these tweets: “If Bryan Johnson solves endometriosis, all of his experiments will be worth it,” and “Okay, he can be crazy in peace forever if he keeps this up”—people seem to see him differently now.
Bryan and I started the business together and only started a relationship after that. I’m a shy person, and we kept things private for the first three or four years. That let us go through the normal turmoil of a relationship and be like, “We’re locked in. We’re good.” Once I came into the picture, they were like, “Oh, right. He cares about someone, and this is his person.” We’ve been doing this together from day one. It’s been both our brains—as a love project, ultimately.

Does being in love complicate the idea of wanting to live forever?
We have an 18-year age gap—that means something when you think about life and death. The funny thing about this project is none of us will get definitive answers for, like, 80 years.

So how do you make sure these findings benefit as many women as possible?
I am trying my hardest to get the word out there. The techno tampon is interesting because I grew up Catholic, and so I know how much taboo there is around sex. This is nonsexual and could be a really important cardiac marker for women to know.

OTHER NEWS

• One of the internet’s most annoying children, Jack Doherty, is supposedly banned from posting after signing a deal with a casino without reading the fine print, a blunder which is ultimately great promotion for both parties. Now, who wants to pay me to log off?
• Why walk around the world like Karl Bushby, who is back in the UK after 28 years, when you could just “visit” all these countries using AI, never leaving the comfort of your own home, or experiencing a single real thing, and still somehow ending up with a bigger carbon footprint in the process?

PREDICTION FOR THE WEEK AHEAD

• Bored and with nothing better to do after curing cancer, scientists will start shooting smack because, unfortunately, AI is unable to solve the fundamental problem of the ultimate futility of all human existence.  

BRAND NEW SENTENCE

• “This disgusting spectacle will involve rolling him out in a wheelchair, then live-streaming his body as it’s pumped full of bullets.”

BONUS PREDICTION: A BIG NIGHT FOR ERECTION HAVERS

• Bryan Johnson and Kate Tolo will take their relationship to the next level becoming DJ partners. Their Berghain set will consist of 140 bpm techno transmitted directly to erection measuring devices. 

Follow Adam on Instagram @yungtolstoi

The post Exploring the Mysteries of the Female Erection With Bryan Johnson’s Girlfriend appeared first on VICE.

This feature is from THE SELF-DESTRUCTION ISSUE of VICE magazine. Find it in a store near you, or get 4 issues each year sent straight to your door, by subscribing.

Now that our relationship to war is mediated by social media, it begs the question: Is conflict downstream of culture, or is culture downstream of conflict?

Photographer and researcher Federico Vespignani spends much of his time thinking about how the visuals of violence shape public perception. His book Short-Term, But Long Term archives over 300 images pulled from the dating profiles of IDF soldiers in Gaza, while his ongoing investigation Nucleo tells the story of “narco-deforestation” in Honduras (that is, drug traffickers hacking clandestine routes through the forest) with satellite images and declassified documents.

When Federico showed us his collection of conflict-inspired “tactical gear” aesthetics from Ukraine, we had to speak to him about the strange and underreported issue of graphic design in modern wartime.

VICE: What distinguishes Ukraine’s tactical shops from, say, German army surplus stores?
Federico Vespignani: Tactical shops in Europe mainly sell pants and jackets. In Ukraine, they mix in civilian clothes with a lot of graphic design—the kind of clothes combatants wear when they’re off duty. A lot of Ukrainians are starting their own brands specifically for combat. One shop I went to had its own military armor, which different caliber bullets had been shot at. There are shops selling night-vision goggles, gun parts, red dot sights, and EOTech. You can’t sell military-grade weapons in most places, but many had AK-12s as trophy weapons taken from Russian soldiers. There were also a lot of grenades and anti-tank weapons around—used, obviously. There are many tactical shops near the frontlines. They’re definitely more war-oriented. 

This is basically a war of ideology. You have paramilitary groups like Rusich and Wagner that have really strong visual identities, but they often start from a subculture, like extreme politics or black metal. How do you think that’s evolved over the last decade?
It’s becoming part of everyday life, and a part of Ukraine’s visual street culture. It’s become normalized to see a lot of branding campaigns with zombies and Russian zombies [a reference to memes that have portrayed Russian fighters, often those conscripted from prisons, as mindless undead]. It’s also reflected in the way the Ukrainian Army itself is organized. A lot of units and brigades run their own campaigns and they are branding themselves a lot. Once, I ended up in a Nazi-oriented tactical shop, which was for the Misanthropic Division.

That’s a fascinating example, because there is no Misanthropic Division… It’s like a meme, but it’s also something that people self-identify with.
Exactly.

What else is happening with graphic design in Ukraine?
There’s a lot of AI, which is something you really see with Azov [a notorious Ukrainian Special Forces Brigade]. They do a lot of anime-style video campaigns, and you can tell there’s a skilled graphic designer behind them. There’s also a lot of brand bootlegging, like “Donbasonia” patches reimagining the Patagonia logo. You see the Forward Observation brand a lot, too, which leans into special ops stuff like night-vision goggles, skulls, things like that.

Groups like Azov started off with very cheaply made flags. Now, everything looks professionally designed. It feels like a lot of talented artists are turning their skills to war.
Definitely. I met a lot of artists who, out of necessity, started working for single units like Kraken. They’re contracting a lot of freelance graphic designers and artists for branding. I met this one kid who was doing graphic design on a MacBook on one table, and on another table he had FPV chemicals for drones that he was in the middle of building.

When you think about the logistics of war, you think about food supply chains, fuel, munitions—nobody really thinks about the grassroots production of visual culture.
Yeah, what’s interesting about single-unit campaigns now is there’s no forced recruitment of people, but the units are branding themselves, saying, “You can do this, you can be a drone operator, you can be a graphic designer…” It doesn’t have to be about hardcore combat. There’s an awareness that you can be a part of the war effort in a different capacity.

This feature is from THE SELF-DESTRUCTION ISSUE of VICE magazine. Find it in a store near you, or get 4 issues each year sent straight to your door, by subscribing.

The post Merch and Destroy: War-Inspired Streetwear in Ukraine appeared first on VICE.

“Do you know who used to live here?” 

Spend enough time living in New York and you’ll inevitably hear that your block, building, or perhaps entire unit used to be the home of a celebrity. These stories become useful to impress out-of-towners (“Did you know Capote and the guy who made Grand Theft Auto lived in the same house?”) or to illustrate gentrification (Jay-Z’s stash spot from “Empire State of Mind” listed for $1.3m). But for Harris Ansari, discovering “what celeb used to live in my apartment” helped him answer another question: “Why does my closet smell like this?” 

In May, newlyweds Harris and Avani moved into their 3-bed 2-bath on Pinehurst Ave in Washington Heights. There was plenty to love about the space: natural light, high ceilings, and ample space for their cat Chutney to explore. One small concern: the floor and baseboards of the guest bedroom closet were caked in a mysterious black substance. 

“My wife made this interesting observation,” said Harris, pointing to the area in question. “She goes, ‘Why does it smell like a farm in here?’”

A born and raised New Yorker, Harris was never going to be scared off a good apartment on smell alone. On move-in day, the couple went to work steam-cleaning the apartment—only to find the heat was amplifying the smell. 

“Chutney [the couple’s cat] was definitely curious,” said Harris. “But I was like, whatever. She’s a dumb cat. Orange.”

“I was trying not to think about it,” said Avani. “But then I found a feather.”

Unfortunately, signs were pointing to the apartment smelling like birds because it once had birds in it. “Maybe not even a full feather, but like… fluff. I just tried to imagine that someone had kept hamsters there or something.”

Days later, a building meet-up with their new neighbors removed “willful ignorance” as an option.

“A new neighbor mentioned, ‘Oh hey, did you know Azealia Banks used to live in the building?’” said Harris. Banks’s blend of ballroom culture, hip-hop, and house music created some of the most enduring mephedrone burp anthems of the 2010s: “212”, “Anna Wintour”, “Big Big Beat”. The revelation piqued Harris’ interest: for one, he was a fan. For another, he had found a promo sticker for Banks’s 2016 mixtape Slay-Z on the inside of his mailbox.

Whoever put it there had the mail key for his unit.

Music aside, Banks is equally known for having a social media presence that necessitates a dedicated Wikipedia section. Among her most memorable posts: a December 30, 2016 video in which she dons goggles and uses a sand-blaster to clean out a carrion-caked closet.

“Three years worth of Brujería,” says Banks in the video, referring to the umbrella term for witchcraft rooted in indigenous Latin American and Afro-Caribbean cultures. “You know I gotta scrape all this shit up.” 

The video indicated that Banks had been using the closet for the sacrifice of live chickens. As an initiate of the African diasporic religion Palo Mayombe (overlapping with, but distinct from Brujería and Santería), the practice was of spiritual importance to Banks. By way of explanation, she tweeted that she made the sacrifices “to help my father (who is dead) out.”

At the time, the video set off an intense online debate. PETA stated that the practice constituted animal cruelty, while others noted that many religions incorporate ritual sacrifice (which is protected under the First Amendment). 

Fast-forward nine years: Harris compared the background of the video (and other livestreams from Banks) to confirm that yes, he did indeed live in Azealia’s former “witch cave.” This may also explain why the iridescent tile in the bathroom matches the album art for Banks’s 2012 Fantasea mixtape. The smoking gun came weeks later: a letter in the mail addressed to Ms. Azealia Banks.

Initially, “it was unsettling to find it out,” said Avani. But a little research and open-mindedness helped them reach closure. 

“We went down a Wikipedia rabbit hole,” said Avani, which yielded the info that Brujeria sacrifices are usually done for the benefit of someone in the afterlife. “When [Harris] said she did it for good fortune, I relaxed a bit. She wasn’t invoking anything evil here.” 

The logistics of Banks’s rituals did draw some questions from Harris: “In my research, there’s nothing in Brujería that says you don’t have to clean up after your sacrifices, and to do it in one’s home as opposed to outdoors. That’s interesting.”

Harris was also quick to acknowledge that interpretations of his own faith (Islam) can involve elements of animal sacrifice. “Initially, when you hear the word ‘sacrifice’, people go to a place of satanic panic,” he said. “But I would never be the one to judge someone’s spiritual practice. If sacrificing chickens brings you closer to who or what you believe created us, power to you. People did hit me up on Instagram saying that I had to get my home blessed, but it’s not as if she was trying to summon something evil, right? I believe that whatever energy someone gives off, they take it with them. So there was no real concern from me.” 

“In most New York City apartments, you have the luxury of not knowing what happened there,” Avani shrugged. “But in all likelihood, something you’d rather not know about did.” 

“Probably won’t tell my mom,” added Harris. 

Follow Eamon Levesque on Instagram @eamonomania

The post We Just Moved Into the Azealia Banks Animal Sacrifice Apartment appeared first on VICE.

When you’re a girl from Merseyside living in Indiana, one thing you’re going to do is get the 6AM Greyhound bus to Chicago to see EsDeeKid.

Since moving here ten months ago, the Scouse rapper has kept me tethered in some way to my home. With bars about Jürgen Klopp and “Scouse birds” ringing in my ears, I have roamed the aisles of Spirit Halloween as if it were the Louvre, and watched frat brothers throw up on street corners. If I squint my eyes and blur my vision, a Walmart can become a big Asda, the diner a Wetherspoons. I’ve watched the pink sunrise over cornfields and listened to “4 Raws” while contemplating whether Liverpool had a spell cast on it thousands of years ago, bestowing it with the special power to produce Scouse messiahs every millennium. The Beatles, now EsDeeKid. If you have ever been to Liverpool, you will understand that the average child on a BMX has more wit and confidence than any fully grown comedian with a Netflix special. It was only a matter of time before a Scouser took over the world, or at least the world according to Carti fans—compelling Italian teenagers, Timothée Chalamet, and people in the dusty corners of America to rap about evading the “plod.”

I step into the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago at 4PM, and see hordes of Gen Z kids in face paint and jester hats. A cold sweat hits me: ‘Have I drastically overlooked an essential part of EsDeeKid’s image? Have I been unwittingly associating myself with clowncore this whole time? Is this what getting old is like?’ Then, relieved, I realize I’m at the wrong venue. All these people are waiting to see The Garden. The next road over is where I’m meant to be, at the Aragon Ballroom, with emo girls wearing Union Jack beanies and boys with hair completely covering their faces queued up waiting outside.

Tonight, TikTok youth culture has claimed this neighborhood, snatching it away from the resident young professionals who watch from the booths of small-plate restaurants, a different micro core at every crosswalk running in front of Ubers and screeching with glee. 

I deleted TikTok off my phone before crossing TSA a year ago. I never redownloaded it, so the only short-form video content I’ve consumed since being in the U.S. is Instagram Reels: Gypsy Rose Blanchard fancams, Russian farmers, the man who says “separate checks please,” things like that.

Because of this, it’s difficult to know what the American EsDeeKid fan club will look like. His debut mixtape Rebel has hundreds of millions of streams on Spotify, but would it translate to the teens of this godless country? And if it did, would they really love him for his Scouse swag, or just because he went white boy crazy with Timothée?

I tapped into the spirits of my Liverpudlian ancestors and approached the youth to find out. 

Ellie, 23

VICE: What are your thoughts on the United Kingdom?
Ellie: I love Princess Diana, and I miss her every day, but right now I think EsDee is the UK princess. 

What does EsdeeKid mean to you?
Being from a place where a lot of rappers grow up and rap about their hardships, it’s really cool seeing it come from a different culture and get so big here. 

What do you think a council house is?
That’s where the kings go, where the leaders of your group all hang out, and you have a lot of money, and you smoke a lot of dope. Only good vibes there. And EsDeeKid is always there because he runs it. 

Lucas, 18

What do you think about the UK?
Lucas: I’m so sorry about the Queen, bro. 

What does EsDeeKid mean to you?
He’s the only rapper from Britland, which is cool. No one else in the history of rap ever came from Britland. 

What’s a council house?
A bunch of rats, a bunch of wizards, a bunch of medieval shit. 

The vast majority of fans I speak to do not know what a council house is, despite the tour being named Council House Rat Tour. Instead, EsDee’s recent mythical imagery, pairing Arc’teryx with chainmail, has given many the impression that the council estate is some kind of sacred place—a central meeting point for a community of freaks, lords, and the mischievous. A type of UK Skyrim tavern where you make beats.

This aesthetic framing of the council estate is something I wish I had tapped into when I was younger; how much better life could’ve been for those born in 1998 if we’d had our own EsDeeKid to unite the subcultures. I thought about my past emo self, the emos I knew, and the emos that came before me, who all hung outside Liverpool Courts, wore “Free Hugs” T-shirts, and had ears stained blue from Directions hair dye bought at Quiggins (RIP). I got a meatball Subway sandwich thrown in my face once for being a mosher, dip-dying the ends of my scraggly bleach job marinara orange. I know a Scouse figure like EsDee would’ve helped me come to terms with that more than a CAMHS counselor ever could. 

Liz, 22

What’s your favorite EsdeeKid Lyric?
Liz: “Outfit change on the day / I’m a genius.”

What does EsdeeKid mean to you?
He’s the essence of cool but calm. Elusive. 

Have you learnt any Scouse words from listening to EsDeeKid?
“Bird.” I love calling the ladies birds.

Maya, 17

What’s your favorite EsdeeKid Lyric?
Maya: “I’m the male version of ecstasy.” I think that’s really cute. 

What does EsdeeKid mean to you?
He’s someone to look up to. 

I stand between two speakers at the front of the stage and feel like I am in a lucid dream, hundreds of Chicagoans screaming “I’m a scumbag / I was raised in Liverpool slums, lad” behind me. EsDee shouting “‘ow’s it goin’ she-car-goooo” on top of a council house stage set, lifting his head in an MF DOOM-esque mask.

Just like it doesn’t matter that most of the people here do not know what a council house is, it doesn’t matter that I haven’t brought earbuds, and only have a £20 digicam which, earlier that day, a man had told me was “redundant media.”

The vibe EsDee conjures would work even in a Lutheran church service with the big light on.

He makes his way down the house and onto the stage, where he is joined by collaborator Rico Ace. At this point I retreat to the upper floor and watch an entourage of people in high-vis vests storm the pit with flashlights. But EsDee doesn’t stop to see if anyone needs medical help or water, because on closer inspection, they aren’t real security; they are teenage boys doing pit management, spinning their friends around like carnies at the Blackpool teacups, heightening the chaos everyone wants tonight. A real security guard standing next to me slowly shakes his head, hitting send on a text that reads simply “fuck this.” 

Shahir, 18, Omar, 20, Ryan, 19

What’s your favorite EsDeeKid lyric?
“Got girls flocking all over ‘cause I’m young, lit, and I’m handsome.” I just relate to that. 

What does “divvy” mean?
A weapon.

What’s a council house?
I don’t know.

Sierra, 27

What’s your favorite EsdeeKid Lyric?
Sierra: “Too much snow, kid coming like Canada / Got kush smoke all in me lungs, I’m running from plod, but I’m lacking the stamina / I’m whipping it smart, the NOS in me head got me gone, I can’t fuck with the canister.”

What does EsdeeKid mean to you?
He’s a super hot, young, talented Scouse prodigy. 

You wake up and you are blindfolded and put into a car, and you find out your parents have sold you to Fakemink. Are you happy or sad?
That would be awesome. I would rap with him in the car to wherever we’re going. 

Do you have a favorite Scouse word?
Wool. 

I smoke my first cigarette in four hours outside a bar selling $17 pumpkin spice espresso martinis and start crying. A large group of Americans has just walked past me doing Scouse accents, and the mixture of Modelo and amazement has turned my blood into a sentimental potion. It’s not that lyrics like “got your bird in a crop top / smoking top crop” make me emotional necessarily, but a figure like EsDeeKid is evidence you can do anything. You can go to Paris Fashion Week and then back home to a terraced house in Liverpool, and people think that’s cool as fuck, even Americans in Balenciaga. 

Our evening of EsDeeKid fandom data collection was confirmation that his work has the stamina to make it across the Atlantic, an important litmus test to see if a Brit will become a global superstar or be locked up in the Love of Huns Khia Asylum. Maybe in a few years, instead of Americans asking you to say “bottle of water” or “it’s Tuesday innit,” they’ll be asking you to say “chicken and a can of Coke,” and instead of asking if you know Paul McCartney, they’ll ask if you know EsDeeKid. Maybe the Timothée Chalamet conspiracy theorists were onto something, and we really are in the presence of a Scouse Paul Atreides.

Follow Charlotte on Instagram @lottelandrum

The post These Americans Love EsDeeKid. But Do They Really ‘Get’ Him? appeared first on VICE.

A generational shift is underway in China, where young people are stripping away taboos and becoming more casual about sex.

The artist Lao Xie Xie has been photographing Shanghai youth since 2019, following Gen Z through a pandemic and tightening moral codes. His eye-catching pictures give us a glimpse into the lives of young microcommunities thriving underground, despite increasing pressure. 

Lao spoke to VICE about his favorite pictures from the series, Shanghai No Why.

VICE: Who are the people you photograph, and what first drew you to them?
Lao Xie Xie: Most of the people in my pictures I encountered through Instagram. It’s usually just the way they present themselves on their profiles—their image, their energy—that catches my attention and makes me reach out. Most of them happen to be Gen Z and from Shanghai.

It’s kind of important that, in China, you need a VPN connection to use Instagram. So if they’re on the app, that kind of prequalifies them as having a different mindset compared to other Chinese people. They might be more against censorship. Rebellious? I don’t know. But they think differently. And they might be more open to taking these kinds of photos, too.

What does sex culture look like among young people in China today?
I don’t think my work is tied to sex or sexuality. To me, these photos are about freedom, freedom to present your body differently.

It’s nothing new. Ten years ago, it was [Chinese photographer and poet] Ren Hang, but even before, I used to find albums from the 1970s and 60s at vintage markets in China, of Chinese women posing nude. Nudity, in a way, has always been part of the culture—people wanting to keep a memory of how beautiful their bodies are when they’re young. It’s pretty normal.

Of course, the government likes to communicate that nude bodies equals pornography. Enforce a ban with censorship, threaten with jail [time], actually jail people… 

How does China’s cultural climate affect the way young people explore and express their sexuality?
I will be careful answering this, because my work is not a documentary investigation into sexuality or censorship in China. What interests me is the possibility of suggestion. I can take a picture of something without the obligation of explaining it. Sometimes, what makes a picture important is hidden, or outside of the frame. That ambiguity is what makes my work mine. I don’t need to explain everything to make an image meaningful.

“To me, these photos are about freedom, freedom to present your body differently”

At what point does sex culture become counterculture?
I don’t think there is any clear point. In China, you just have a sense that everything is changing very quickly; everything is evolving, getting more advanced and tech-loaded. I remember, in 2020, there was a sex shop called V Spot in Shanghai, and they hosted a lot of crazy shibari events there. As legislation got stricter, they tried to comply to keep things legal: first, the event flyers became non-explicit, then people had to wear underwear while performing. No one could be fully naked, and if you attended, you’d needed to sign a disclaimer of responsibility.

But people still attend.
Yeah. And if it’s a private event, it’s a whole different story, of course. Whether hiding or not, there is a big community underground.

How does Gen Z’s approach to sex differ from that of Millennials or Gen X?
I don’t know. What I can say is that many of the people I photograph belong to a generation obsessed with images. It’s social media and its hyper-aggressive push toward self-representation, and clearly, this influences how they approach relationships and sexuality too.

What is a common belief about people in China in the Western world that’s not valid anymore?
There is a gap between how people behave in public and privately, with the preconception being that Western people may be more open-minded and outspoken about sex than people in China. It’s kind of not true. I think there is a stigma that has dissolved, and Gen Z is treating sex as something more casual, less heavy, compared to the generations before them. It has become something that is easy, and there’s nothing to regret about it.

How did the pandemic change the way young people experience physical intimacy?
I think this is another question that is very personal, kinda different for everyone. What I think happened is that the pandemic actually pushed many young people to leave China, to move abroad to study, to work, to chase something.

“Many of the people I photograph belong to a generation obsessed with images”

What about the effects of social isolation?
You know, it’s really strange, because when I talk to people in Europe, I have the impression that they are way more traumatized about the lockdown period. Frankly, outside of Shanghai, we didn’t have such strict lockdowns, and life went on in relative normalcy.

I think the changes are more the combined results of social media and the pandemic. Perhaps they made this generation less likely to overthink body touching or prioritize meeting in real life, the way that Millennials and Boomers had before.

But again, what I photograph is always a particular person, in a particular moment, and my understanding of that moment is inevitably subjective. The only thing I’m trying to figure out is how people relate to their own image, how they look at others, and what happens when another person looks at them through a camera.

What are some of the stories from the series that have stayed with you?
The first couple I photographed for the series were a woman and a trans woman living together in a house just outside Shanghai. It was kind of a villa where they would also host parties and gatherings, often around shibari. What I remember most was their openness and the atmosphere they created for each other and everyone around them.

They were incredibly open-minded and made the whole experience feel so very natural and friendly. From the beginning, there was a sense of trust and freedom that allowed me to photograph without feeling like I was intruding into their world. I’m forever grateful for them.

“My role is to create the image. But for me, it will never hold the answer”

After spending so much time photographing intimacy, what do you think these images ultimately reveal about how young Chinese people want to love and be loved?
I’m not a documentary photographer. I try to take good pictures of people I find interesting, to convey an idea, and that’s about it. I also haven’t spent my time trying to photograph sex as a subject in itself, so that’s kind of leaving us in the dark here. Sex, intimacy, desire, and sometimes rebellion are present in my work, yes, but they exist alongside friendship, bodies, everyday life, loneliness, humor, fashion, boredom.

I guess my photographs begin with reality, but go beyond that, transformed through my own vision, framing, memory, and imagination. I create my own world through photography. And this is where I think art becomes particularly powerful. Science and philosophy require a certain preparation and language in order to enter their mechanisms. Art has the quality of being accessible even to someone who knows nothing about it. Any of us. The eyes are only instruments for collecting information, but the experience happens through the body, the stomach, the heart, the brain. This is also what I want from my photographs. I want them to create a reaction, something that happens before you decide what the image means. My role is to create the image. But for me, it will never hold the answer.

Find more of Lao Xie Xie’s art at Instagram @lao_xie_xie

Follow Tom Veréb Czibolya at Instagram @tom_vereb_czibolya

The post Gen Z Are Leading a Sexual Revolution in Shanghai, Apparently appeared first on VICE.

This story is from The Self-Destruction Issue of VICE magazine. Find it in a store near you, or get 4 issues each year sent straight to your door, by subscribing.

“Vape that turns you into a zombie” may sound like a pitch for an A24 horror with Rachel Sennott attached, but as with all novel plot lines these days, reality has beaten entertainment to the punch. E-cigarettes laced with the sedative etomidate have become the latest “drug crisis.” Typically bought on the black market through apps like Telegram and WeChat, they produce a short-acting, euphoric high that is compared in online trip reports to dissociatives like nitrous oxide and ketamine, but with one key difference: at higher doses, etomidate produces stuttering and mechanical body motions. Hence, “zombie vapes.”

First synthesized in 1964 as an emergency room anesthetic, etomidate emerged as a recreational drug in China in 2021, where experimentation with novel psychoactives and grey market substances is a popular way to bypass drug prohibition. Etomidate works on GABA receptors to slow activity in the central nervous system. While it can reduce anxiety and space you out, it does not produce ketamine-like hallucinations, nor would it boost neuroplasticity or treat depression—in fact, experts say it is likely to do the opposite. Yet the discreet nature of vaping has helped etomidate spread rapidly throughout East and Southeast Asia, where strict punishments and widespread surveillance mean drug users have to be extra-sneaky. 

Etomidate hasn’t shown up much in Europe, the UK, or the U.S. yet. However, zombie vapes have surged in popularity in countries like Japan and Singapore, with videos spreading on social media of users exhibiting erratic movements that one former addict described as being like “a [bug] writhing after being sprayed with insecticide.” Unfortunately, the party poopers in government are trying to shut down these antics by banning etomidate, slapping users and suppliers alike with jail terms. In true drug prohibition fashion, this has only led to analogs like metomidate, isopropoxate, and CF3-etomidate taking etomidate’s place.

“Users exhibit erratic movements that one former addict described as being like ‘a [bug] writhing after being sprayed with insecticide’”

The popularity of zombie vapes is representative of a broader shift in drug culture away from familiar psychoactives like LSD and psilocybin towards enshittified and hollow novel highs. In the 80s and 90s, the late artisanal chemist Sasha Shulgin invented hundreds of novel psychoactives in his legendary lab through careful experimentation on himself and his circle of friends; some of his greatest discoveries, like MDMA and 2CB, were adopted by ravers and other countercultural groups that developed best practices around their recreational use. 

Etomidate’s spread is not driven by a subculture, nor does it have any aesthetics or music genres associated with its use. It’s a hospital drug repackaged as a consumer product after many countries restricted sales of spice and propofol, another commonly abused anesthetic, in the 2010s. In this era of mass-produced “legal” highs, novel drugs are created in bulk in clandestine labs, and tweaked endlessly to fit through legal loopholes—a quasi-industrial model that churns out drugs as cheap oblivion tools. For manufacturers, staying one step ahead of the authorities is the priority, leaving us with the poisons of last resort. 

Michelle Lhooq is the author of RAVE NEW WORLD, a newsletter on drugs and nightlife. Follow her on Instagram @michellelhooq

This story is from The Self-Destruction Issue of VICE magazine. Find it in a store near you, or get 4 issues each year sent straight to your door, by subscribing.

The post Oh No! It’s Asian Zombie Vapes appeared first on VICE.