It just feels disrespectful to contradict someone we don’t know about the reason she acts the way she does, especially because she gives a logical chain for her beliefs.

I don’t know if it’s a healthy way to deal with her trauma, but as she said, she’s just glitchy, as are we all. I can’t look down while going down stairs that I can see through, because my brain tells me they’re less safe than opaque stairs. Is that real? No. Does my understanding that it’s not real make my heart rate slower or my palms less sweaty? No, it’s a glitch. Mine’s more common and probably easier to empathize with, but if I only hung out with rock climbers, they might not understand at all. If they said I was playing a damsel for male attention, it would be infuriating.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 0 points 10 months ago

It just feels disrespectful to contradict someone we don’t know about the reason she acts the way she does

Sure, if you have no other information, but we have other information. We know how much YouTubers obsess about their videos, and the ones that don't are the ones who aren't getting viral videos. We know how they pay attention to every aspect of their videos, from the titles to the thumbnails, to everything else. We also know that YouTube provides all kinds of tools to allow creators to see what part of their videos are most watched, etc. They also provide all kinds of information about who your audience is, including age and gender.

In Naomi Wu's case, even without that analytics information, we know that one of her most popular videos is "See My Boob😜", and if you open a typical video and look for the most replayed segments, it's often a part of the video where she's showing off the underside of her boobs for a second, or something.

So, it's reasonable to assume that she's aware of what her overwhelmingly male audience pays attention to in her videos. And it's reasonable to assume that it plays a significant role in the decisions she makes. But, it seems to me that her explanation video tries to pretend that appealing to horny male viewers isn't part of her goal at all. I believe her when she says that she's into girls, and that her clothing choices are based on appearing feminine, and appealing to girls. But, I don't believe that appealing to a male YouTube audience isn't also part of the calculation.