Signal Boost: Oscar Wilde of YouTube fights the alt-right with decadence and seduction - The Verge

[ljwrites]

Oscar Wilde of YouTube fights the alt-right with decadence and seduction - The Verge

ContraPoints, whose real name is Natalie Wynn, is known for slick, moodily lit YouTube videos that draw hundreds of thousands of views, where she brings a leftist perspective to a variety of hot-button issues — things like structural racism, Marxism, transgender politics, and the alt-right. With a wink, she calls herself “one of YouTube’s leading B-List transsexuals.”

(via alisx)

Comments

[lb_lee]

Man, I have no idea how any Youtuber who gets big does it. People sometimes seem to think I have a rough line to hoe, but no way man, the Youtubers, those are the folks who REALLY have a rough time on their hands. Having your real live face associated with your public persona performance (instead of just lines of text or drawings) leads to a level of public identification that folks like me can mostly avoid.

And I imagine it only gets worse when you're trans, or visibly different or unusual in any way.

[ljwrites]

Yeah it must be tough to get a degree of separation between the private person and the public persona--especially because there's a lot more immediate contact between internet celebrities and their audiences than traditional celebrities. I read that it really becomes a 24/7 thing and I could never do it--I'd flame out probably worse than I did with Tumblr.

[manapotion]

Great article! I'm always impressed, amused, and titillated by Wynn's work. (The heartbreaking scene where she doesn't want to penetrate her lady partner and resulting dysphoria and loneliness... god, I've been there, but from a transmasc perspective).

I hadn't heard about Wynn's breakdown re social media until now, I'm sorry to hear what she went through. I'm so tired of callout culture, and of how late capitalism seems to efface any separation between the private and promotional more and more with every passing day. Everything is brand, is image, is receipts, is done in public view of the entire world for everyone to pick apart, all on heavily-monetized, traffic-driven platforms.

[ljwrites]

I hadn't known about Wynn before reading the article, but I watched her Tiffany Tumbles video afterward and had tears in my eyes from laughter and sadness at different times. I also empathize with her hard as someone who is also disillusioned with academia. And yeah, while Tiffany is obviously wrong about 99% of things, she does strike a chord of truth when she talks about the lack of empathy in leftist discourse and how people turn on you at the drop of a hat.