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Chris Crocker made a viral video called “Leave Britney Alone”. This video was made when Britney Spears was going through a lot in her personal, and her career life. This video was perceived with some homophobia and transphobia. Because of the internet and sites such as YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook, this video got a lot of attention from a lot of a lot of outlets. Chris Croker was a prominent vlogger on the internet. In my opinion, this helped set up things  for how the LGBTQ+ community is on the internet nowadays.

Nowadays, there is an abundance of content for LGBTQ+ members on YouTube. Throughout the years, there have been many different creators that can be looked at as leaders and advocates for the community. One of the first gay YouTubers I remember creating his platform and audience was Kingsley. Kingsley made videos revolving around pop culture and current events. He was not afraid to express himself, or his opinions. I personally saw him as bold, and extremely confident when he spoke, and it is something I admire. For example, in the video attached to this blog, Kingsley is talking about a woman calling police on family at a park grilling out. The majority opinion was that the woman who called the police was overeating. It was a public park, during the day, and most people do not have a problem with a family grilling. Kingsley addresses the situation, and provides alternant solutions other than calling the police. The moral of his video is that he feels as though people should get in trouble for wasting resources, and polices time. As a gay viewer of Kingsley for many years, he has kept a smile on my face and encouraged me to always speak my mind when things aren’t right, disregarding my sexuality.

There are YouTubers of all members of the LGBTQ+ community. Youtubers such as Kingsley, James Charles, Rickey Thompson, Tre Melvin, Courtney Revolution, Todrick Hall, and so many others provide a platform for the gay portion of the community. Gigi Gorgeous is a Trans Woman on a YouTube, known for her videos as vlogger. She has many Storytime style videos talking about different points of her surgeries transitioning. I believe this could create a community of it’s own. I think Gigi’s videos have helped a lot of people apart of the trans community. She gives advice biased off of her own experiences as a trans woman. This could help a viewer who was once in the position she was in. Because Gigi is also on Instagram, and Twitter, this impact could reach a lot more people. Viewers can share their stories among other views on YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram, providing support for each other. At the end of all of her videos, Gigi reminds her fans to “Stay Gorgeous” and ends the video. I certainty believe her fans do this for not only themselves, but among themselves. This provides inclusion on the internet for the LGBTQ+ community.

Of course there are many LGBTQ+ content creators on YouTube. Recently, 2 big names on YouTube teamed up, and made a collaboration series. Shane Dawson, a Bi-sexual vlogger, and Jeffree Star, an androgynous make-up guru, and business owner. This shed light on both Shane, and Jeffree’s personal life, although most of the series was focused on Jeffree. In reference to the article attached, Jeffree said he obtained his love for fashion from his mother. In the video series with Shane, Jeffree was asked what pronoun was preferred. The response was “whatever you wanna give me. I don’t care. No really I don’t. I wont be upset with whatever you call me”. He then elaborates, and explains to Shane that Jeffree is Nonbinary, meaning a gender is not claimed. Jeffree does have a boyfriend, and opens up to Shane reguarding details of that throughout the series.

https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/beauty-hair/celebrity-hair-makeup/a22621818/jeffree-star-shane-dawson-you-tube-documentary/

A sense of community between members of the LGBTQ+ community has certainty  grown online throughout the years. In bigger cities there are neighborhoods with predominately LGBTQ+ members called “Gayborhoods”. Here in the city of Louisville, there is a Drag Show Bar called “Play”. I have visited a few times, which hence the picture on this blog. Here, of course there are drag shows, and alcohol. As a member of the community, it is more than just this. It is a place we can go in a community, and not have to be a minority when it comes to sexuality. Personally, I feel on the same level as everyone else when I do go, from the Queen themselves, and the people I meet there that night. The picture attached to this blog is a picture of Drag Queen and I who I’ve sense made friends with. It is nice to go somewhere, where we can be ourselves without receiving homophobic judgements that we may face from outside of the community.

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GamerGate was a controversy was established in 2014 in the gaming industry where a group of male gamers accused female gamers, developers, and female cultural critics for undermining the gaming community. This controversy got its name from Adam Baldwin via Twitter. GamerGate is basically a culture war on a heavly dominated male gaming industry.

Zoë Quinn is an American video game developer famously known for her development of the video game called “Depression Quest”. She is also known for her controversy on Wikipedia. Essentially, the controversy revolved around sexism in gaming. She discusses the “Damsel in Distress” in a video on YouTube. This means there is a woman needing to be saved in a certain situation. In gaming, male characters would be able to use physical strength, or mental wittiness to get themselves out of a certain situation. Female characters would be trapped with no possible way to get out. They would have to rely on someone to come save them, typically is a male character. Female characters are typically sexualized. Usually the female is kidnapped, and relied on a male protagonist to come save them.  This is common in the game “The Legend of Zelda”, and Donkey Kong. It is common in television shows, such as Popeye. Essentially, stereotypical gender roles come into play.

Not all video games are designed like this. Sometimes these games were not published, or the plot line and characters are changed. One famous game where a woman is the main protagonist. This game is known as “Tomb Raider”. This game features the main character by the name of “Lara Croft”, a tomb raider/explorer. Her father was a famous explorer and she is following in his footsteps. This game was made in the 1990’s but was later remade in 2013. The game is based off Lara, and her crew take a travel out to an island. She and her crew wreck due to a storm. From here, the game revolves around Lara Croft, and how she escapes a cursed island. Throughout the game, Lara Croft is exploring old crypts, tomb, and everything in between. She is breaking the stereotypical video game gender roles. There are features in the game which allow her to craft her own weapons, and even scavenge plants for stat boosts (health, stamina, etc). While playing the game, NPC’s (non-playable characters) who are enemies of Lara Croft, may make comments on Lara’s appearance while they are being defeated. They normally say something to the extent of “Oh it’s a woman!”. Typically, players see themselves as the player when the play games. A producer of the game, Ron Rosenberg said "When people play Lara, they don't really project themselves into the character.... They're more like 'I want to protect her.' There's this sort of dynamic of 'I'm going to this adventure with her and trying to protect her….”. This may be due to male players, who see it as sexually variable. Granted, this is understandable due to Lara Croft being a victim of sexual assault in the game. In the end, she is seen as a rescuer. She is able to defeat the spirt, and end the curse on the island. She is the reason why she and her crew were able to leave the island.

A Feminist reviewed the 2013 version of Tomb Raider.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolpinchefsky/2013/03/12/a-feminist-reviews-tomb-raiders-lara-croft/#332f0b285d92

Lara Croft is not the only dominate  female character in the gaming world. There is a character out of the “Street Fighter” series. She goes by the name of Chun Li, which is Mandarin Chinese for “Spring Beauty”. Her appearance was changed several times throughout the years. First, she wears a Chinese styled dress, called a qipao. It is modified so she is able to “obtain a wider range of movement”. In my personal opinion, I could see where that is possible, but the clothing seems to be hint for a sexual appearance, and not a fighter appearance. She is known for being highly disciplined, seasoned, and courageous woman. At the same time, she has an elegant, sweet, and feminine personality. She is a strong woman, in a male dominated field.  A rapper by the name of Nicki Minaj has released a song on her most recent album song called “Chun Li” in reference to this character. Comparing the rapper, and the video game character, they seem to possess the same qualities. Understandably, due to the fact that Nicki Minaj is high successful in a male dominated industry (hip-hop/rap).

There are also some games changing, so women can be included. 2K, an NBA Basketball game intends to put WNBA players in the game, not just the men’s teams in the NBA and G-League. Rene Montgomery, a WNBA player for Atlanta, shared an image online of her getting scanned into the game. The features are unknown, but it is probable they are using the women for some sort of feature. It will come out in 2020 (NBA 2K20). This feature came earlier, in the 2K series, NBA Live 2k18. This included a separate player mode, along with ultimate teams.

Video of WNBA players likely coming to 2K.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrRb3tHGgeU

One of Chun-Li’s outfits.