Ember Duke | layout editor

Following her outburst as a viral meme, Hailey Welch, also known as the “hawk tuah girl,” started her own podcast “Talk Tuah.”
 

The buzz surrounding this young sensation risks being demeaning toward women and perpetuating male-centric ideas of sex and relationships that we should be moving past. The way in which she became recognized alone is a deeply disturbing power dynamic.
 

Welch rose to popularity in a drunken man on the street interview on the Youtube channel Tim & Dee TV, where she coined the phrase “hawk tuah, spit on that thing,” in reference to a sexual act. The premise of the video was, presumably, sober men asking drunk girls explicit questions, the majority of which focus on the male’s benefit in a relationship.
 

In the first episode of her podcast, Welch said she asked them to take the video down. They refused.
 

Her bluntness and bubbly demeanor is what caught viewers’ attention and propelled her into one of the biggest internet jokes of the past few months. She decided to capitalize off her popularity by starring on other podcasts, taking interviews with major media outlets, like Rolling Stone, and later starting her own podcast.
 

Initially the viral video was mostly circulated amongst a male audience, according to an unofficial analysis by Vox.
 

The male attention stems from a backwards and self-pleasing infatuation with women claiming their sexuality, but only when it is still in dedication to male needs.
 

This type of misogyny plays the long con. It’s subtle. It feigns feminism because it is “supportive” of women’s truths, when truly it’s using the female voice as an excuse to keep objectifying them.
 

Welch’s podcast is an “unfiltered” conversation with her guests, according to her YouTube biography. She is often accompanied by another influencer, her close friend Chelsea Bradford and her manager, Jamie Forster, who in the first episode is more than happy to share his opinion on women’s grooming habits.
 

The conversation typically centers around men and women’s relation to them or Welch’s reaction to all the online attention.
 

The first episode is dominated by guest Whitney Cummings, a stand-up comedian and internet personality. Cummings uses the spotlight to bestow the wisdom of an older woman upon Welch, but at times horribly misses the mark.
 

On the topic of cooking and cleaning for your partner, Cummings gets upset that modern feminists make a fuss about housekeeping for their male counterparts.
 

“What do you do? Are you just like a hungry, filthy [expletive]? What do you bring to the table,” Cummings said. This is after she claimed her favorite thing in a relationship is respect.
 

It is later revealed that Welch is in an on-again-off-again relationship. She explains that her mystery man, dubbed “Pookie,” has not taken her on a single date in three years.
 

Cummings then said she agrees with his behavior and thinks it’s a good idea that he’s taking it slow because of her fame, stating “it could make things awkward.” She completely ignores the fact that this is not new behavior.
 

While not every point made is massively off base, the show maintains an eerie presence of the male-gaze. More often than not the discussion is sexual in nature.
 

This begs the question: To what extent and in what way is being explicitly honest about sex productive for women?
 

There is plenty of media that does contribute productively to that conversation.
 

“Talk Tuah,” however, brings nothing new to the table and the hype around Welch already feels a bit fetishistic.
 

Many online personalities have already attached themselves to her growing image.
 

The podcast is produced by Betr, a media company owned by notoriously controversial public figure Jake Paul.
 

Welch has expressed interest in not being known as “the hawk tuah girl.”
 

“I don’t really want that to be my image … I don’t see that being my thing,” Welch said on the Plan Bri podcast with Brianna LaPaglia.
 

However, as of now the majority of the content she has put out is in a similar vain to the phrase that made her popular.
 

She’s already been pigeonholed into this persona of the sweet, innocent southern bell with a Rolodex of graphic innuendos. It’s a trope we’ve seen time and time again: the girl who can get down with the boys, who can dish it back, but is still happily in service to them.
 

Welch seems like a normal girl doing her best to grapple with young adulthood and newfound stardom. Since her induction into the public sphere she has begun a charity movement in collaboration with the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee called Paws Across America to rally funds for sick animals.
 

Welch is the victim of a media culture that encourages young women to act against their own self interest in favor of those of men. Her online persona is one that communicates harmful and antiquated gender stereotypes that disproportionately hurt women and girls.