How Sexism Plays Out on YouTube
Posted: September 23, 2013 Filed under: Entertainment, Internet, Style, Techology, Women, YouTube | Tags: bubzbeauty, Daily Grace, Grace Helbig, iJustine, Michelle Phan, Philip DeFranco, Ray William Johnson, ReadWrite, slut shaming, YouTube, YouTube's Beauty Ghetto 7 CommentsThis is a piece I wrote in 2012, but couldn’t get the Daily Dot (and then ReadWrite) to run. I felt it was too important to not publish somewhere.
“I want to both have sex with her AND strangle her to death. But in which order…?”
That’s the disturbing question user menace8012 posted recently in the comment section of “I Gotta Feeling,” a Black Eyed Peas parody by YouTube star iJustine, originally uploaded in July of 2009.
The responses? A few joking replies chiming in. Not a single person objects or scolds the users. No one even clicks the “dislike” button on menace8012’s comment.
This gross comment is not atypical, but evident of a larger culture on YouTube, where sexist attitudes towards women run unchecked. It’s not just the trolls or haters in the comments section of videos; all YouTubers have been hating on women for gendered reasons since the site’s inception.
Menace8012’s comment, and the community’s response (or lack thereof), may seem extreme to the casual YouTube community safarian, but it also perfectly portrays why so few women have found success on YouTube. Many women on YouTube try to avoid this prevalent sexist culture by cloistering themselves in the beauty section, but that does little to combat the anti-women sentiments running rampant throughout the rest of the site.
YouTubers who silently upvote, or in this case “like,” menace8012’s comment are implying iJustine deserves the threats and derogatory comments she gets, daily, because of the way she looks and dresses. This is standard rape apologist & victim-blaming ideology. Sometimes, when the blonde, blue-eyed iJustine wears a tank top in her videos, that clothing choice sends both genders into a sexist frenzy. Read the rest of this entry »
Why don’t more people care about Subbable’s arrival?
Posted: July 25, 2013 Filed under: Business, Entertainment, Film, Marketing, YouTube | Tags: AdSense, Andrew Huang, Google, Hank Green, MinutePhysics, Subbable, YouTube Leave a commentTL;DR -> it makes AdSense obsolete.
I tried to sell a story on Subbable earlier this week. Oh gods how I tried. ReadWrite, the Guardian’s tech section, even Variety… but I failed to generate interest, and/or communicate just how drastic of an impact Subbable can have on the YouTube space, business-wise.
To most of the press, Subbable appears as a gentle, crowd-sourced monthly pay-what-you-want subscription platform funding web shows that already exist. Doesn’s seem that disruptive, until you consider the allure of YouTube. The heart of the indie YouTube dream is being free, or at least above, corporate influences. If successful, Subbable could potentially do away with the advertising/hit-mining rat race on YouTube. Hank Green doesn’t exactly say this in the video introducing the platform, but he might as well.
In a private chat, I got Green to elaborate:
“Advertising values all kinds of content the same, but different kinds of content delivers different amounts of value to users. We want there to be a system that rewards the creation of stuff people love, not stuff that people will spend three minutes watching when they’re bored.”
Subbable — which is unaffiliated with YouTube — changes the YouTube money-making game because it emphasizes community and a supportive fan base over viral hits with fleeting popularity & large monetary payoffs. It’s a slow, steady win as opposed to that big payday. (It’ll be interesting to see how the addition of Minute Physics, Wheezy Waiter, and Andrew Huang next week on Subbable will play out. )
Green never came right out and said this during our chat but it got me thinking: if a content creator worked it out with his fans, he or she could essentially never bother monetizing their channel…EVER. There’s literally no reason now to go through Google corporate to make money. Their high ad cut and ad sales team are already alienating users and businesses, so why bother with that hot mess? You don’t.
I, for one, still believe in that YouTube dream.
Wheat Thins Internet Ad Campaign Sucks (also, Nanalew has a purdy mouth.)
Posted: March 5, 2012 Filed under: Art, Commericals, Film, Internet, Women | Tags: Wheat Thin, YouTube Leave a commentSo, I am checking out the site I work for, before going to bed, and I notice a story I hadn’t read or heard about.
I go to see out who had tweeted the story that evening, (I am curious of our audience) and lo and behold, I see a sponsored tweet, purchased in EARLY JANUARY.
I had no idea these sponsored tweets had that long of a shelf life. Seem like a good value, now that I think about it (or so I thought, at the time).
Now this here, is a real reply girl…
Posted: February 28, 2012 Filed under: Business, Internet, Women | Tags: algorithm, community guidelines, dailydot, Gaming the system, icklenellierose, Internet Marketing, Marketing and Advertising, meganspeaks, replygirls, social media, tagging, terms of service, YouTube 1 CommentI’ve been writing about “reply girls,” this YouTube phenom for those that don’t know, for the last couple of days. Which means I’ve been knee-deep in YouTube drama for that entire time.
Yeah, some of you may make fun of me for what my work has become. You snooty business reporters, activists, gardening bloggers, social media consultants! (I sometimes make fun of myself for not keeping up on what my alderman, or Mayor Emanuel is doing. Don’t give me more shit than I already give myself, please…)
Some part of me respects these ladies for figuring out how to game the system in such a short amount of time. It’s ingenious? And my heart goes out to these ladies, for the amount of cyber abuse they are getting now, just because they were able to effectively highlight this flaw (not just in YouTube, but in human nature).
Nothing sadder than a reply girl in a push-up trying to choke back tears for the third day in a row.
This moment, in my research, made me laugh. (You wouldn’t get it if you didn’t know YouTube.)
YouTube comments are troublesome.
Posted: November 5, 2011 Filed under: Internet, Women | Tags: anonymity, conservatism, gay pride, gender roles, Katy Perry, porn, Satire, women on the internet, YouTube Leave a commentYesterday, 107 men had an unwanted gay thought, while watching a hot girl sing hot girl songs.
This unwanted gay thought, in what can only be assumed was a tragedy that befell these poor men, was a symptom of the “women don’t exist on the Internet” disease.
This time, a x3LilPinnytjuhx3 was directly responsible.
Her username is androgynous. When one reads it, one has to ask, was it just a random smattering of letters? Does LilPinny reference a penis? Or Miss Penny?
There is nothing that directly tells the reader x3LilPinnytjuhx3 is female.
Shame on her.
Her forgetfulness and inability to clearly portray that she is a female on the Internet, had dire consequences yesterday. Read the rest of this entry »
words of wisdom, found in YouTube comments
Posted: September 14, 2011 Filed under: Internet | Tags: internet etiquette, internet trolling, YouTube Leave a comment“people who write fail or fake and gay are them selfs just TROLLS !!!!!! i love them they make me laugh my ass off , and your youtube video doesn’t mean shit until people write fake and gay on your page” via 117dallas 5 hours ago
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