Blakely Thornton on Pop Culture as Sociology, Gay Beauty Standards, and What Makes An It Girl

Blakely Thornton (0:00)

It was the Black Dandy Met.

Brooke DeVard (0:02)

Yes, it was for The Cut.

Blakely Thornton (0:03)

Yeah, yeah, it was for the Queer Black Men's Met. It was wonderful because it was my first time doing that press pit, and that press pit is like Bloodsport. It's like, there's this much space. It was me, a little assistant girl, I think named like Christine or Helen from The Cut, and I was just screaming, and I'm just like in this Marc Jacobs suit, that I'm just leaning over these wet flowers, screaming. Because I find if you talk to celebrities with bass in their voice, they react. So I was like, hello, I'm like, Kerry Washington, get your black ass over here. Or like I made like a streetie got to I like come back. I was talking to Tiana, just screamed at him. He came back and people were like, what is happening?

Brooke DeVard (0:45)

Hello, hello, this is Brooke DeVard, and you're listening to the Naked Beauty Podcast. I am here in studio with none other than Blakely Thornton, my friend, you know him, you love him, you've definitely seen him on your timeline. Blakely Thornton is a content creator and self-described pop culture anthropologist, known for his hilarious takes on fashion and celebrity culture, and his signature sign-off, Roll Credits.

He co-hosts the weekly podcast, which I love, Yestergays with Justin Sylvester, revisiting the pop culture moments that defined a generation, and Out Magazine 2024, Out 100 honoree. Blake brings both heart and wit to everything he creates, and I have the pleasure of being in a group chat with you. Yes, so I get to hear from you, you know.

Blakely Thornton (1:30)

She hears from me quite a lot.

Brooke DeVard (1:33)

On my Instagram account, in my ears, through my text messages.

Blakely Thornton (1:37)

Unhinged voice notes.

Brooke DeVard (1:38)

Unhinged voice notes. I get it all. I get it all. But who you are on camera is who you are off camera.

Blakely Thornton (1:45)

Truly, she knows. It might be a little bit more unhinged off.

Brooke DeVard (1:48)

I'm like kind of scared for some of you, like I don't know what's gonna be said. Anything could happen in this episode of Naked Beauty, y'all, because what I love about you, though, is you don't hold back.

Blakely Thornton (1:56)

There's nowhere, I mean, in 2026, it's laugh to keep from crying.

There's nothing else I could do. What's the point of holding back now, guys?

Brooke DeVard (2:04)

But you know what, everyone wants to be brand safe. Everyone wants to be, and you interview people. People are so sanitized. And you're also friends with a lot of celebrities. So I know you get the behind the scenes key where they're like, I'm on a gag order from my publicity.

Blakely Thornton (2:17)

Oh, like the through-limb that I've gotten from people that I know that are more established and have shows or are bosses is it's literally like, you know, that thing from Happy, it's Billy Madison, he's like, never leave. Don't leave school.

They'll be like, you have your voice right now. You will never have more control of your voice than right now. So like, once you have a boss, like it's really made me really think about like, I will never have more freedom than I do right now. And like that freedom is actually, in some cases more powerful than money. And it's allowed me to have a really clear view of what that trade-off is. Cause once you're on Apple TV, Netflix, there's now three or four big companies, you know, all run by fascists for the most part. So you gotta be real careful. So I now know how to like structure my deals and be like, you know who you hired.

Brooke DeVard (3:09)

Right.

Blakely Thornton (3:09)

Don't play. So like, if this comes back around, so you know, if you see me on TV, you will know what I can and cannot say real quick.

Brooke DeVard (3:16)

Yes. Yes. But I love that you call out things like the Met Gala. No one wants to call out the Met Gala cause everyone wants their invite.

Blakely Thornton (3:22)

Yeah. And I think for me, the beauty was I got to go and it went so much better than I ever could have thought. And it was the Black Dandy Met.

Brooke DeVard (3:31)

Yes. We did it for the cut.

Blakely Thornton (3:33)

Yeah. Yeah. It was for the Queer Black Men's Met. It was wonderful because it was almost like it was my first time doing that press pit. And that press pit is like Bloodsport. It's like there's this much space. It was me, a little assistant girl, I think named like Christine or Helen from the cut. And I was just screaming. And I'm just like in this Mark Jacobs suit that I'm just leaning over these wet flowers, screaming. Because I find if you talk to celebrities with bass in their voice, they react. So I was like, hello. I'm like, Kerry Washington, get your black ass over here. Or like, I made like Shruti Ghatu, I like come back. I was talking to Tiana, just screamed at him. He came back and people were like, what is happening? And I'm like, well, I know these people and I understand that if you're struggling, go by. But if you hear me and we make eye contact, now you know where I am, come over here.