So if you're as dedicated a YouTube addict as I am, you will know there has been a massive debate on the latest 'Becoming Youtube' episode about Girls on Youtube. I did record and upload a video response to it, but there was an editing problem and after seeing other responses to the episode, my opinion and thoughts started to change.
I'll give you a brief version on what I want to say, for time and length purposes. When I first watched the episode, I thought it was really good. It was only after when I saw everyone's video responses that my opinions started to change.
Firstly, I disagree with the proposed idea that these video responses gave Benjamin Cook (the creator of the series) a 'vocal battering'. I didn't appreciate the tone of some of the responses if I'm being honest, but I wouldn't say they gave Ben a 'vocal battering'. They were simply just giving valued and well-reasoned criticism, and they weren't being cruel and victimizing Ben for being 'a sexist pig' or something similar.
Another thing I strongly disagree with, (which may seem quite random, but it is related I promise) I would even go as far to say I don't just disagree with this statement, but that it is factually wrong. What I'm talking about is the idea that 'Oh men and women DO get equal opportunities though!!' HA. No they do not. This is not just true for YouTube but for society in general. There are less women in high roles in politics as the houses of parliament members are predominantly male. Even though women are doing better in education, they still need to break through that glass ceiling of male patriarchy.
This is similar in the YouTube community with males being dominant and just from watching the latest episode of Becoming YouTube I've realised that there are so many more female Youtubers than I expected, just from watching the video responses and all the girls that they've recommended to watch. Also male Youtubers don't promote women Youtubers as much, which I don't particularly understand. Is it because they feel they'll be judged because of it? I really don't know. In my opinion, when females are successful it is kind of down to luck to be honest. For example, I feel Emma Blackery wouldn't have got 100k subscriptions so quickly if she wasn't friends with lots of high brow Youtubers such as Luke Cutforth.
One thing my friend Lauren said when I was talking to her about it last night which I agree with quite a lot with is this: "At the end of the day it's about attracting an audience and I think you have to have a large circle of connections to get noticed in the first place! It's ok for well known female youtubers to say they get equal recognition because they attracted an audience through connections and that's their individual experience! They don't exactly consider the bigger picture in my opinion."
I also agree with something that Rosianna (missxrojas) said, in that okay, as women in some way we have to be better equipped to deal with the hate comments. But we SHOULDN'T HAVE TO BETTER EQUIPPED. You don't see men saying they're better equipped for the hateful comments do you?
As a little experiment I decided to go down my subscriptions and tally how many men and women I'm subscribed to. Here is my total: Male - 49. Female - 47.
So the gap is quite narrow within my subscription feed, and that may indeed be representative of the Youtube community but you never know it may not.
