I learn more about popular culture by visiting Twitter/X, then I ever did as a high school teacher.  I don’t like popular culture, but here’s what I’ve learned from the current controversy.

Sabrina Carpenter is the new sex doll who was been conjured into life or fabricated to become the next big pop singer. Taylor Swift’s batteries must be running down.

There may be other pop singer fembots and they may have actual talent, but I’m not going to check.

Coachella is apparently a music festival.  Absent context, I’d have thought Coachella was the term for Cinderella’s pumpkin after it had been turned into a carriage.  Without thinking about it, Coachella makes me think of a conch shell, which is how Moana summons Black Adam or the Scorpian King.  I don’t remember which.

Music festivals always had third-tier bands like Foghat or Artful Dodger, so Coachella is probably like that.  I’m not going to check.

Sabrina Carpenter was performing at Coachella, and got in trouble for mocking an Arab woman who was hollering.  The hollering was a traditional high-pitched Arabic cheer called a zaghrouta.  Everybody pretends like that is common knowledge, so Sabrina must be an asshole.

I’d never heard of a zaghrouta, and thought the high-pitched Arab yell was called a ululation, because it goes “you-lou-lou-lou-lou” and we mocked it all the time.  A zaghrouta may be different than a ululation, but I’m not going to check.

Sabrina addressed the controversy by submission to Islam with a post on X, “My apologies, I didn’t see this person with my eyes and couldn’t hear clearly,”

 She suggests that if she’d seen the woman, it would be obvious that she was Arab or Muslim, so beyond criticism.  I have had scores of Muslim or Arabic students, and they all dressed normal.  I’ve visited Morocco, and everybody dressed in the Western fashion.  The style was a little different, but not outlandish.

Sabrina finishes her act of contrition by stating, “Now I know what a Zaghrouta is! I welcome all cheers and yodels from here on out.”

That seems like an appropriate comment for a music festival. 

I realize that if I hadn’t seen this controversy play out on X, I’d have not known about it at all.  My life would not have been no less fulfilling.