Diggit magazine

23/10/2026

Can AI generate abject, "leaking" bodies? According to Roos Slegers, actors who do well in the body horror genre might not have to fear that they will lose their jobs any time soon. In this video, she hypothesizes that horror movies will need "real" humans to performs certain roles to achieve their visceral effects.

Would you like to learn more about Slegers' research? There's a longer video on our website (go to diggitmagazine.com/instagram).

22/10/2026

In this video, Inge van de Ven argues that the visual dimension of Backrooms would probably work better without a narrative. However, the movie's narrative might not be the point. For younger audiences, shared affect, abjection, fear and disgust might be way more important than appreciation the craft of high-quality movies.

Would you like to learn more about van de Ven’s research? There's a longer video on our website (go to diggitmagazine.com/instagram).

21/10/2026

A meme that mocks men. A platform that loves repetition. A culture that still runs on gender myths. This piece breaks down how manages to be both entertaining and unintentionally reinforcing at the same time.

Memes in the Digital EraMemes have existed as cultural replicators long before the internet popularized the term, yet it is only in the digital era that their circulation has become a pervasive and highly visible social routine (Shifman, 2014). Through sp*ed, reach, and participatory remixing, on .....

21/10/2026

More than any other movie genre, horror is best enjoyed in company. But that is only one of the reasons why young people are filming themselves while they are watching horror movies. As people from Gen Z experience all sorts of issues including body dysmorphia and various other anxieties related to their bodies, seeing some of their fears externalized on a screen might feel liberating. Roos Slegers explains why.

Would you like to learn more about Slegers' research? There's a longer video on our website (go to diggitmagazine.com/instagram).

20/10/2026

Why are some people so obsessed with white women "making" more babies, and simultaneously so afraid of transgender people? In this video, Inge van de Ven and Roos Slegers discuss how some discussions about female bodies and bodies in general can be linked to the urge to control bodies, and thus have fixed gender identities.

Would you like to learn more about van de Ven and Slegers' research? There's a longer video on our website (go to diggitmagazine.com/instagram).

19/10/2026

Rated. Measured. Optimised.

What does looksmaxxing reveals about gender and power online? This article explores how looksmaxxing communities on Reddit and TikTok turn beauty into a platform-driven system of rules and evaluation that reproduces hegemonic gender ideals.

It is often said that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”So-called "looksmaxxing" communities would argue otherwise. Across Reddit and TikTok, users gather in online spaces dedicated to maximising their physical attractiveness through ruthless rules, techniques, and p*e ...

19/10/2026

Did you notice that tradwives don't have any of the post pregnancy issues that normal mothers have after giving birth? In this video, Roos Slegers comments on the fact that, in popular culture, these women are apparently not "leaking", and immediately ready to beautifully return to the "pageant stage" as dutiful married women. We might argue that, rather than remaining a topic that is shown in movies, body horror increasingly becomes a feature of real life, as women are forced to surgically transform their bodies to become less "monstrous."

Would you like to learn more about Slegers' research? There's a longer video on our website (go to diggitmagazine.com/instagram).

18/10/2026

Why is the movie Raw by Julia Ducournau so interesting from a body horror perspective? In this video, Inge van de Ven explains how notions such as sexism, cannibalism and capitalism play a role in the movie, and how the movie ultimately poses questions about the rather artificial separation between human bodies and other entities.

Would you like to learn more about van de Ven’s research? There's a longer video on our website (go to diggitmagazine.com/instagram).

17/10/2026

According to Inge van de Ven and Roos Slegers, as a feminist project, the movie The Substance has completely failed. Viewers are invited to be disgusted with Demi Moore's aging body, while her body is being compared to a younger female body. What is also interesting, is that Demi Moore is a beautiful actress in her 60s who plays an 'older' woman in her 50s, leading to a situation in which realistic body horror linked to the male gaze is not even allowed to become visible in movies that claim to criticize the male gaze.

Would you like to learn more about van de Ven and Slegers' research? There's a longer video on our website (go to diggitmagazine.com/instagram).

16/10/2026

Based on a long-term police ethnography in the Netherlands, this woking paper argues that ethnic profiling should not be reduced to the preferences and discretionary authority of street bureaucrats, but is better studied as a practice of profiling/rejecting ‘ethnic others’.