If we are fans/subscribers of similar people on YouTube - and let's face it, if you're here there's a good chance we are friends as a a direct result of following the same people - then you will probably know that in the past few weeks, there has been a lot of STUFF happening in this community. Good stuff and bad stuff, and ... other stuff.
So we all know that the relationship between content creator and content consumer on YT is completely unique. Some creators can rightly be called (internet) celebrities, while others, making equally good content, are nowhere near that popular. But in either case, we don't see them the same way we movie stars or Top 40 musicians. The line between fan and creator is very blurred - we see our favourite YouTubers as real people, not just beautiful faces or infectious voices or famous names.
Why? Not because we are delusional fans, convinced that we "know" them - we see them as real people because they share with us the things that make them real people. Their ups and downs, their insecurities and their favourite colour and the last book they read and the cute thing their puppy did and they way their voice cracks after a weekend of partying.
Whether they make vlogs or music or whatever else, their art is inextricably linked to their everyday life. And when someone's videos resonate with you, when you allow them to have
meaning for you, you become, to some degree emotionally invested in their art - and by extension, their life. And creators who interact with their audience, who value the contributions of their audience towards the conversation that is their videos, become invested in their viewers as well.
This connection, this investment, is what the YouTube community was built upon. It's the reason that we all feel that sense of belonging and acceptance when we're among other video creators and viewers. It's the reason that amazing things like Project for Awesome and VidCon happen. It's the reason we have friends around the world. It is, overall, a Good Thing.
But like all good and precious things, this connection can, of course, be broken. If a YouTube creator does something to lose the trust and the emotional investment of their audience, then they lose their audience.
(As an aside: If a pop star were to do something similar, they would probably not lose their entire audience. Why? Because as an audience, we don't see their art intertwined with their life. We don't see what makes them real, relatable people. And so we trust them less - and thus, there is less to be broken.)
And layered on top of the fan/creator dynamic is the issue of gender. A lot of well-know YouTubers have largely female audiences, who are belittled as "fangirls" - with the implication that their dedication or trust in a YouTuber is superficial or silly. It's ingrained in our society that women's emotions are not as valid as men's; that they are over-the-top, irrational, and motivated by hormones and mood swings rather than reason and value. And nowhere is this more apparent than in the way society treats teenage girls.
The world is sort of an awful place to be a teenage girl; they are programmed to hate their bodies and each other, their emotions are mocked, their opinions invalidated, and you can forget about independent decision-making. Consequently, it's really difficult for girls to form healthy connections with, well, anyone.
And then along comes YouTube. A platform for interacting that, while it definitely has issues, is somewhat less antagonistic towards girls than the IRL world. The YT world (at least, the one I'm in) is largely comprised of younger people, and so maintains slightly lower levels of misogyny than the real world, which is dominated by our parents' generation. The anonymity of YouTube means that viewers who are girls can be enthusiastic, emotional, opinionated and in general act like real humans, without being attacked and shot down the way they are IRL.
(I'm not saying YouTube is some wonderful equality paradise - there are A Whole Lot of problems faced by anyone who is not male in the community. But as a teenage girl and also a YT viewer, it is far easier to care about stuff here than to care about stuff IRL.)
And so, teenage girls, who find it so difficult to connect with people in their everyday lives, find themselves forming connections on YouTube. Whether it's someone they find charming and attractive or someone whose art they admire and aspire to (or more likely both), they become emotionally invested, just like any other viewer, in both the content and the creator.
And that emotional investment should not be mocked or put down or deemed dangerous - it's really actually sort of beautiful. Connections with people are how we grow and mature and learn more about ourselves. They are, as stated above, Good Things.
When a creator breaks the trust of their audience, it's really awful. When that audience is largely comprised of teenage girls, as many popular YouTubers' audiences are - it's really really awful. Because from about the age of 13, girls are constantly having their trust broken. Their trust that their bodies can look like the pictures in magazines. Their trust that they can actually have any job they want. Their trust that their voices will be listened to just as much as the voices of their male peers. Their trust that the world sees them as people.
All of these things, teenage girls learn, are not the case.
But because they are wonderful and strong and really, really brave, teenage girls persist in caring about things. They persist in shouting and having their voice heard. They persist in forming connections, even though they know that trust is so easily broken.
People argue that events like this are grim warnings. That when a "fangirl" puts her trust into a musician - whose music is the only thing that lets her fall asleep at night, who tells her she's awesome and thanks her for supporting his career - and he turns out to be a complete asshole, that it's preparation for the real world. For all the other people who will break her heart. They argue that this will teach girls not to "obsess" over someone they don't actually know.
The thing is, it's not a warning. As anyone who has spent 5 minutes as a teenage girl can tell you, it's just a confirmation of what they already knew. Just the very latest in a string of people who have broken their trust.
And we have to hope, we have to hope with all our might, that once this is over, they will still have trust to give.
Thanks for trusting me, bloglings
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