REAL TALK- Double Standard of Content Creators

Ciao lovelies! Today's post is a REAL TALK, but I'm keeping it PG, so that anyone can read it. Today's REAL TALK is about the "double standard of content creators," the idea that people who create content (youtubers, instagrammers, bloggers, actors, artists, etc) are held to a higher standard than others just because they create content, and must act, look, and preform in certain ways.

Now, a quick disclaimer. I am not saying that celebrities, etc DON'T have an influence on youth, I know that they do, but this post is more about the nitpicky nature of internet "haters."

As a content creator, I've dealt with my fair share (and possibly more so) of criticism, both constructive (which I appreciate) and nitpicky (comments on my appearance, etc.). I've also received death threats, messages telling me to kill myself, etc, but those aren't the point here.  
I'd like today's post to focus on the wildly inappropriate and unfortunate practice of nitpicking a content creators life, appearance, and existence. 

I have seen a lot of cases of this throughout different types of content creation. People will complain about literally anything, leaving many content creators discouraged and wanting to give up. The excuse of the people who relentlessly nitpick, harass, and gossip about content creators is simple; "They put themselves out there, they should be able to handle criticism and hate." Basically, blaming the content creator for being hated on. But is this true?
Personally, I don't think we should be blaming the content creator for receiving this hate. Do we blame robbery victims for being robbed? Murder victims for being killed? Why are we blaming targets of hate for being hated?

Take for example, a favorite youtuber of mine, Yumi King. A quick google search of her name and you find her channel, deviant art- and a thread full of people ripping her apart.
This site, called "Pretty Ugly Little Liars" or "PULL" for short, is one of many sites dedicated to "discussing" (meaning hating on and nitpicking) content creators all over the internet. These sites will hate on literally everything a content creator does, making fun of everything from their appearance to their life; excusing all of their abusive comments towards the creator with that same overused excuse "(insert ANY content creator name since they make fun of everyone!) should expect this, they put themselves out there, it's their fault."

Sites like these relish in causing anguish, often causing mental breakdowns in those they criticize, they then criticize those people for being upset about the hate. "We're just expressing our opinions!" they insist, but tell me, why is it that their opinions should cause so much mental anguish to their targets? And why should they be allowed to use that excuse, time and time again, blaming their victims? If the people they hated on acted anywhere close to the way these "haters" act, they'd be ripped apart.

Looking through sites like these, you see many more faces than just Yumi's. Scores of people, women and men alike, are nitpicked, torn apart, cyberbullied, stalked, and harassed daily by sites like these. And while users claim to follow "rules," such as "no contacting the person," often times, people find threads about themselves via messages in social media inboxes, often sent by users of the site for the sole purpose of upsetting the content creator.

It may seem like sites like these are rare cases, but nitpicky hate like this happens all the time.

And that brings me to my point. I feel as though we forget that content creators are people too. When haters sit and nitpick someone's appearance, I seriously doubt that they remember that person they are hating is a real human being, with feelings and beliefs and a life.

While these haters nitpick this persons life and demand perfection, these haters are still hiding. Hiding behind fake names, anonymous labels. Afraid to be judged, but judging all the same. The true double standard. 

That is my biggest point. How can we continue to hold content creators to ridiculous standards? Why do we demand that they be sweet and kind all the time, even in the face of ridiculous amounts of hate? As a society, we need to stop letting this hate continue. Sites like these should not exist. People should not demand perfection from someone on the other side of a screen.

That's my small REAL TALK post on this issue. What do you all think of this topic? Do you agree, or disagree? Let me know!


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