#Swolesome

[mothshrub]

Anyway, the latest hobby here is 'watching video essays by trans authors particularly but not exclusively if they have an essay on masculinity or gender and society'.

Recs:

Contrapoints

Jesse Gender

Lily Alexandre

Lady Emily

RickiHirsch

Alexander Avila

Oakwyrm

Shanspeare

KazRowe

Philosophy Tube

Swolesome

Khadija Mbowe

[asm5129]

QUEER INTERSECTIONALITY PANEL w/ QUESTING REFUGE, OLU ONLINE & SWOLESOME & LUNA LEBLEU

A discussion about gatekeeping, community needs, erasure and more!

https://www.youtube.com/live/4zN4yAGz8eU?si=rOGoUmvW-0Itq0f5

Https://www.twitch.tv/adamplaysagame123

[germ-t-ripper]

25AUG24 Mid workout self portrait.

[jaidotbands-blog]

I love the morning wake up face. Everything be swole

[dcmcboxers]

My shout-out to queer youtubers

Hbombs list was great but obviously not comprehensive. I watch a lot of video essayists and wanted to give a little love to the smaller channels that fall under the radar. Please feel free to add to this list!

let's talk about stuff/Sarah Zedig

If you've seen Jesse Gender's videos on the Matrix movies you may already be familiar with Sarah. She does excellent film and culture analysis with a lot of great conversations on paratext and outside influence in engaging with text. Her video on Tunic is one of my favorites.

Pamphleteer

No one makes videos like hers, which has the side effect making them a bit hard to describe. I will link one of my favorites which describes the disconnected temporality of being older when you discover you're queer.

Turbo Queer

Really really under watched channel. Skylar covers a lot of topics from video games, to anarchist history and modern events, to autistic life, to current politics. For a fun one check out her video on the SpongeBob strike episode.

Kaz Rowe

Kaz does a fantastic job examining modern myths and manufactured history primarily pertaining to western Europe, Victorian & Edwardian England, and 1800-1900s US. And of course, talking about historical queerness in all its ambiguities and evolutions. I highly recommend their video on Weimar Germany.

drapetomania

drapetomania interrogates the politics of low class and high class art and entertainment from a queer and Black perspective. Their art history videos alone cover many angles of white supremacist history I haven't seen anyone else discuss and I'm very excited to see more from them. They are also a very under viewed channel that more people should see!

I am error

Evelynn's channel primarily discusses video games in a presentation style and voice most similar to Action Button reviews. There's something just a bit more personal here though. I hesitate to say cozy since that word has a bit of an infantilizing connotation, maybe comforting is closer. She puts an immense amount of thought and empathy into the experience of playing video games and the personal narratives we build with them.

Swolesome

For more transmasc perspectives there's Swolesome. He has a lot of interesting insights into the more traditionally masculine and "broish" communities like fitness as well as commentary on recent trans issues.

Shonalika

Music, disability, and aggressively non-binary. Their video on gender presentation in heavy metal was really insightful. I would also check out the video "Why I Wear Gloves" for more insight on invisible disabilities.

Vivian Strange

Vivian delights in being a bit of a contrarian- something I really appreciate. She's probably going to challenge you and you're probably going to disagree at times, which is what makes her channel so important. Her video on Marquis De Sade is powerful and a must watch (if you can stomach the subject material, although I would encourage you to try). I haven't seen her most recent video on Saw yet but I am extremely excited to.

[aranock]

Seeing people fall for the "left doesnt speak enough to young men, and I the most sexist creep whos platform is devoted to harassing women and who thinks you need tactical n words am definitely a good source on this" stuff again and I just am so sick of it. There are actually a lot of leftist people, particularly leftist men, who are speaking and reaching out and trying to help young men grow.

Please go watch; F.D. Signifier or Swolesome or Colormind or Babila or Noah Samsen or 50 other of my colleagues who do good work online.

Trying to find a progressive way of doing sexism is not a solution and seeing multiple people sharing a fucking v**sh tweet on here is disheartening. Like no actually the racist sexist creep does not have a point, catering to sexism is not going to help young men. Yes of course the right appeals more to young white men, because power is appealing, being told that "you deserve everything and you are better than everyone else and actually women not having sex with you, which obviously you are entitled to, is because traditional gender roles(ones which benefit you) are being taken away" is more appealing then "actually you do need to work on yourself, you are not entitled to sex or power" then idk what to say. But theres no world in which you should want to cater more to the first thing and still genuinely call yourself feminist.

[alrightoddity]

video essays i love by smaller creators

i see so many posts about video essays but they feature mostly videos by youtubers with sub counts above 100k, so i made it a mission to collect some of my favorite video essays by smaller creators because there's good stuff out there no matter the channel size!

All creators featured here have subscriber counts under 100k. I also suggest these channels for their other videos/topics, just picking one video each.

Media Literacy is DEAD: Attack on Titan is Still Fascist – Lost Futures

Can We Stop Cosplaying As Poor People – Louis McClung

True Crime, False Morality: True Crime YouTubers Making Money Off Tragedy – Mika’s Rhetoric

Hunger Hurts: Cannibals and Why We’re Obsessed With Them – Lola Sebastian 

Was Red White and Royal Blue originally Social Network fanfiction?-- Jane Mulcahy

Spider-verse, Identity Politics, Leftist Infighting, and the Oppression Olympics – The Leftist Cooks

FNaF & Undertale: How to/NOT Tell A Story – Spaceman Scott

I'm obsessed with this evangelical review of Hereditary – max teeth

The LIES Behind 'Sound of Freedom' - How Tim Ballard Continues To Hurt Victims – Dead Domain

Frozen 2 Was A Mess, Here's Why – hoots

Escam: A Eulogy - maradia 

Why doesn’t The Left offer solutions? – Swolesome

The Strange World of Medical Commercials – thealrightoddity (okay LOOK i had to do self promo here haha)

[swolesome]

Hi Swolesome,

I enjoy your content on YouTube, and I was wondering if I could ask for some advise.

I'm a writer among other things (another one of those things is also being a fellow bisexual disaster), and I do a lot of writing on this and other sites. But lately I've been thinking about trying my hand at starting my own channel on YouTube.

I don't exactly have high expectations for my future channel in terms of how many people will watch, nor am I anywhere near expecting to acquire much in terms of monetary gain. I don't exactly expect to gain the following the likes that Contrapoints or Philosophy Tube have gained over the years

But I do have ideas to share for video essays topics (original ideas and work with sources cited of course, I've been keeping up with that particular discourse). I guess what I'm trying to say is I could use a little advice as someone who is just starting out. What to do, what to say, HOW to say things? I'm not the best actor, but I think I'm fairly descent in terms of presenting things (I've also been pretty good at writing both fiction AND essays both online and in school).

Also maybe some tips on actually creating videos.

Thank you :)

Hey! So glad you reached out, and thank you so much--I'm really happy to hear you enjoy the content I make. :) Also stoked to hear you're looking to start a channel of your own! It sounds like you're coming at it from a very realistic place, because it's kinda thankless work, especially in the early days. Some people know how to game the algorithm, but I am sadly not one of them, so I don't want to lead you astray on that front (FD Signifier would be a good source there, he has some more recent videos talking about content creation with some tips and tricks included.) The advice I can confidently offer is to be yourself. And I know that sounds like cliché right out of an after school special, but I mean it. What do you love? What perspective do you bring to a subject? If you're more of a presenter, you might find yourself connecting with educational content. If you're a writer, you might be drawn to storytelling or poetry. One of the nice things about videos as a medium, if the focus is specifically art and communication, is that they're so flexible. I fell into my style of videos because I genuinely love connecting with people and encouraging honest examination of thoughts, emotions, and how they interact; this is why I never say anything unless I mean it. Even if I later come to change my mind on a subject (which definitely happens), I think it's important to give people the same honesty I'm trying to encourage in them. Every YouTuber has an onscreen persona, of course. We all contain multitudes and it's important to have your self-self and your visible-self, if that makes sense, both for your style to come forward and for your mental health. But the content that will be the most enjoyable and rewarding will be whatever you can bring sincerity to. While there is certainly something to be said for acting as a talent in itself, I personally love creating and viewing YouTube content that gives a glimpse into the person making it. It doesn't have to be baring your soul (not unless that's what you want), but rather something about yourself that you're secure in sharing: an artistic talent, education you've received, your sense of humour--that part is up to you.

And don't get discouraged if there's something you want to talk about that other people have already addressed. This is something I still struggle with, worrying that my voice is just adding clutter, but we need more people sharing their passions and insights. Every perspective brings something new and increases the likelihood of someone else connecting with the subject. Whether you're everyone's cup of tea or someone's shot of whiskey, you're reaching others. Finding your voice is the key to getting started, recognizing its value is the drive to keep going. Oh, and on the tech side, if you had to select only one thing starting out, make sure it's a good mic. For a hearing audience, good audio is often the deciding factor as to whether or not someone will watch. You got this! 💙

[star-wars-multiverse]

I wanna write a long rant soon but this finale was so perfect, it tied everything up in the season so well that I’ll be basking in this swolesome moment for a long long time

[plasmktan]

Positive Masculinity is just a nicer version of Patriarchy

I've seen a lot of focus on the idea of positive masculinity a lot in leftist circles and I've always found this focus on masculinity a bit weird but I think I've finally found what I disliked about it. Now, not to say that masculinity is bad that's not my opinion so I will make it clear when I talk about masculinity here I mean the social norms of masculine gender roles in men and male-aligned people in society today which is what I see commonly supported to have a more positive version in a lot of leftist circles. So, the thing is that these typical masculine/male gender roles that these supporters of Positive Masculinity want to make more positive are roles and systems that are intended to oppress and control women and other gender minorities by using these roles and norms of what roles men are supposed to take, which also hurts and limits men, but more significantly the way these roles function hurt women the most of all, particularly in heterosexual relationships where gender roles are created in particular for men to have power over women. This is patriarchy through the nuclear family.

Large supporters of this positive masculinity like Vaush and FD Signifer ultimately are supporting just a new version of patriarchy where they are unwilling to lose the advantage that their male roles have given them. Ultimately, these two are really not advocating properly for Femenism because of their unwillingness to not properly deconstruct and dismantle male social roles by just saying an image of "Positive Masculinity" will fix it. The issue here is to properly achieve gender liberation for all is that it is necessary to separate the ideas of femininity from female genders and masculinity from male genders, this is not a matter of trying to make either men or women less masculine or feminine but rather to make these connections less inherent to deconstruct patriarchy and reach the largest amount of freedom in gender expression and expression in general for everybody regardless of their gender. Positive Masculinity stands in the way of this.

The inherent problem with this is how it seems to me many on the Left seem concerned sometimes with men feeling good enough about their masculinity to feel confident rather than actually fighting for social change through minorities that actually need it. Plenty of content creators as well as the previously mentioned do this, to name a few, Jessie Gender, Swolesome, and Salari, and yes this is a call out of these creators and their general shitty behavior. Vaush, FD Signifer in particular but also Jessie Gender for calling Shark30zero a housen**** on Twitter. For god's sake sometimes I'm like yeah I know that men are important to care about too but to be honest at this point in the world their position is only to improve and there are more important things to care about particularly in the USA with the current Trans Genocide and the gradual erasion of abortion rights along with the repeal of Roe vs. Wade. The Left needs to stop caring about men's feelings more than they care about actual social change period. Men tend to learn to be good people primarily and then they can learn to be good men!

[mysticdragon3md3]

"Think Of The Children" by Swolesome

[monriatitans]

To what we build next. 

Sign up for Nebula at "http://go.nebula.tv/identiteaze" get an annual plan for $2.50 a month and access to Maggie Mae Fish's Unrated series and Abigail Thorn's The Prince RIGHT NOW as well as Identiteaze when it releases. 

✔ SUPPORT ✔ ▶Patreon - patreon.com/jessiegender ​ ▶PayPal - paypal.me/jessiegender​​

✔ FEATURING✔ ▶Vera Wylde -   @CouncilofGeeks   ▶Bellamy Rhea -   @BellamyRhea   ▶Lily Alexandre -   @lily_lxndr   

✔ EDITING BY✔ ▶Lucien Brinkley - https://ko-fi.com/cafewithlucien ▶Jessie Earl 

✔ SCRIPT READING BY✔ ▶Bellamy Rhea -   @BellamyRhea   ▶Swolesome -   @FinntasticMrFox   ▶Foreign Man in a Foreign Land -   @ForeignManinaForeignLand    ▶Aranock -  @Aranock   

✔ VOICE OVER✔ ▶Zoe Bee -   @zoe_bee   ▶Vera Wylde -   @CouncilofGeeks   ▶Steve Shives -   @SteveShives   ▶Princess Weekes -   @Princess_Weekes   ▶Neil the Leftist Cook -   @TheLeftistCooks   ▶Caelan Conrad -   @caelanconrad   ▶Lance of the Serfs -   @TheSerfTimes   ▶Thought Slime -  @ThoughtSlime   ▶Lucien Brinkley - https://ko-fi.com/cafewithlucien 

✔ SELECTED BIBLOGRAPHY✔ ▶"Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands" by Kate Beaton ▶"White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism" by Dr. Robin Diangel ▶"The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love" by bell hooks ▶The White Leftist Industrial Complex by  @soulbunni  -   • The White Leftist...   ▶"Is The Left Failing Men?" by That Dang Dad-  @ThatDangDad   ▶"The Yassification Of Masculinity" by  @Tirrrb  -   • The Yassification...   ▶"What really makes a man desirable?" by  @FDSignifire  -   • What really makes...   ▶"What is Positive Masculinity? | How Patriarchy Oppresses Men" by Swolesome -   • What is Positive ...   -  @FinntasticMrFox   ▶"How to MAN like a LEFTIST" by  @ForeignManinaForeignLand   -   • How to MAN like a...   ▶The Law Does Not Agree by Sophie Gallagher - https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entr... ▶Gender Socialization is Real (Complex) by Devon Price - https://devonprice.medium.com/gender-... 

✔ OTHER PLATFORMS ✔ ▶Main Channel -   / lostrekkie   ▶Nebula - nebula.app/jessiegender ▶After Dark Channel -   / @jessiegenderafte...   ▶Twitch  - twitch.tv/jessiegender​​

✔ SOCIAL MEDIA ✔ ▶Twitter - twitter.com/jessiegender ​​ ▶Instagram - instagram.com/jessiegender/ ​​ ▶Facebook - www.facebook.com/jessie.gende...​

✔ PODCAST ✔ ▶Babylon 5 Rewatch podcast w/Council of Geeks - councilofgeeks.libsyn.com/

​​ ✔ SHOP ✔ ▶Book that I Helped Write - https://bit.ly/39EqtP4​​

✔ CONTACT ✔ ▶E-mail - jearl1892@gmail.com ▶Mail - Jessie Earl PO BOX 85787 Seattle, WA 98145 

0:00 - Intro 10:50 - Masculinity 45:48 - The Gravity Well 1:40:46 - What Comes Next

[daintymechas]

[While talking with Ryan about a medical condition that runs in my family and how much it worries me]

"And, yeah. I dunno, just the idea of potentially having to get a hysterectomy later on down the road frightens me. And the scar it would leave would make me hella self-conscious too."

"I get why that would be really scary. But don't let the scarring from that procedure make you think you'd be any less beautiful. I'd love you all the same. Besides, scars are cool. They're like natural tattoos. If anything, you'd just be more badass."

Okay, but for real, he's the most wholesome swolesom guy around 🥹💖 just let me put a ring on that finger already gotdamn.

I'm so in love with that "scars are just natural tattoos" mindset too. I need to adopt that into my worldview from now on.