YouTube & Gender

Just from the title I bet a lot of you will have dismissed this post to be just some other rant about feminism. But please keep reading- this is going to be different. 

 One of the special things about YouTube is the fact that content is user generated. This means that no matter who you are, where you’re from, what religion, gender or race you are, as long as you have internet access you can be a content creator. It’s a completely equal platform; no-one gets an automatic head start because of their social situation.

 So why is then that men are more successful than women on YouTube? Don’t judge, hear me out. I’m not saying this in a disapproving or angry way, more just in a ‘this is a thing’ way. Men do better. I’m not saying that there aren’t any successful women on YouTube, look at JennaMarbles, DailyGrace and Hannah from My Drunk Kitchen, but there are just more men.

 My main theory as to why this happens is because most of the people who subscribe and watch videos are young girls and they’re more likely to subscribe to guys- I, myself, am probably subscribed to more men than women. But I don’t have a problem with that, I love all the people I’m subscribed to. I just think this topic is really interesting and I’m not having a go at anybody.

 But this here is what makes me angry. My friend Bing’s recent Future Bing video showed him and all his YouTube friends all hanging out together. And that’s awesome, I love it when YouTubers all get together! They kept saying in the video that ‘the whole of YouTube’ was in Bing’s house and I couldn’t help notice that they were all male. So then this happened: 

Seriously, Bing?! Harsh. What exactly is ‘that person’ anyway?

 A thing that I find quite frustrating is when a woman makes a comment along the lines of gender and a man takes this as a personal attack. We don’t hate you! In fact, Bing, I fucking love you, I think you’re amazing. And the same goes to everyone else in that video: Jack, Tom, Khyan, Tim, Jamie, Matt – seriously, you’re all awesome. I have no problem with you all being successful YouTubers, you’re talented and you all deserve it. So Bing, please know that I wasn’t attacking you so don’t get all defensive. I was actually hoping for it to spark an interesting discussion and I know you’re good at them, but not when you dismiss what I said with a rude comment like that.

 So, I’d really like to just have an open discussion. Why do you think men are more successful on YouTube? Or do you think that it’s actually pretty equal? And what do you think about how men and women react to comments made about gender?

Let’s not be mean and attack each other, let’s have an interesting open debate.

Hannah

YouTube Identity

This is something that I've been thinking a lot about lately but I'm not sure how much sense I'm going to make, so bare with me.

YouTube is a very complex place but for the sake of getting across my point we're going to split it up into categories. In terms of people who create content on the site I can see four main categories: vloggers, musicians, gurus and film makers. Now lets remove musicians and gurus from the equation because I am not musically talented in the slightest and I haven't a clue about make-up or how to do anything. So we have vloggers and film makers. (As I said before it's actually more complicated than this but just go with it).

Now I would probably fit in the 'vlogger' category. However, I don't consider myself a vlogger. I don't think I'm actually very good at talking to a camera. The best videos of mine (in my opinion) are ones where I barely say anything or it's a comedy sketch of some sort. Real vloggers are people who have something interesting to say on a topic or their life such as Owlssayhooot, Emilythebravee or OhItsJustKim. But not me. I don't think I could ever upload a video that is entirely three minutes of me talking.

[Just as a disclaimer, I love all those YouTubers and I'm not insulting just talking to a camera because I think their videos are fantastic. I just know I wouldn't be very good at it.]

So I'm not a 'vlogger'. But neither am I a 'film maker'. I don't know how to use fancy cameras, lighting and sound confuse me and I've just installed Final Cut Pro onto my MacBook but I'm too terrified to start using it. However, being a film maker on YouTube- so making nice looking videos containing a sketch with a story and a punchline- really appeals to me. From recently meeting and hanging out with people who do make awesome sketches on YouTube, I am more and more fascinated by that side of YouTube and its content creators. One day I would love to be able to make videos as good as Slomozovo and OMFGItsJackandDean. But for now I guess, I'll just take it slow and learn a little bit at a time. Who knows, maybe my friends will help me and teach me the ropes...

Did this make any sense to you? I really hope so. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I feel a bit lost. I don't really know where I belong on YouTube but hopefully one day I'll find where I fit in and I'll be the best that I can be.

Just out of curiosity, which genre of YouTube videos do you prefer? And which of mine do you prefer?

Hannah

Sex

I am passionate about a lot of things and obviously as a human being sex is one of them. But, that's not what I want to talk about here. I want to talk about sex education.

I was educated in the UK in secular comprehensive schools and so my sex education growing up was a lot better than some people in say religious schools. In primary school we were taught about puberty, relationships and reproduction. In secondary school we were taught about contraception: aged 14 I had to put a condom on a test tube, I was shown photos of genitals of worst case scenario STIs, taught about abortion, all other different types of contraception and the myths and legends about sex. I am so grateful for this education I received in my early teens and even though those photos were absolutely disgusting it was worth my teachers showing them to us because it taught me one of the most valuable lessons you can learn in your life. And that lesson may even one day save your life.

Some, were not as lucky as me, and in their schools were taught next to nothing about sex and so when it came to experiencing it first hand they were completely clueless. I'm not going to name any names but when I was 17 I got very close to having sex with a guy but neither of us had a condom. His exact words were, "it doesn't matter, I'll pull out before I cum." Seriously!? Rule 1: you can still get pregnant or catch STIs even if the man doesn't ejaculate. Have you ever heard of pre-cum?

I strongly believe that every child and teenager has the right to a good and proper sex education. So many pregnancies and STIs occur simply because of ignorance. And it's not just the issues I mentioned that need to be addressed. So many people (teenagers especially) have no where to go if they have intimate questions about sex, body image or puberty.

I have come up with a mini solution. Seeing as I make videos on YouTube and my insight stats tells me that most of you who watch my videos are aged between 14-17, I thought where is a better place to educate people than via my YouTube channel. What do you think?

I plan on making a sex education video in the near future but I need your help! Please ask me questions on my tumblr (you can do it anonymously there) on any topic that fits in with sex and puberty. I will use these questions to come up with topics and a structure for the video and will obviously answer them too.

Thanks very much for reading this ramble!

Stay safe and sexy!

Hannah

I can't vlog.

So I tried to make a video today... That failed. Sorry about that.

Whenever anyone says to me, "Oh, you make videos on YouTube? What kind of videos do you make?" I have no idea what to say to them. What kind of videos do I make? Vlogs? Sketches? Stories? Songs? One thing for certain though is that I feel most comfortable in front of the camera when I'm not talking so much. In fact, in my most viewed video I say one line in the whole thing. I like it when I don't speak, mess around and make a fun video. Vlogs, on the other hand, make me feel awkward and words don't come out of my mouth right.

I have so much that I want to share with you guys that I thought the best way would be to do a traditional vlog. But I just felt weird and awkward and when it came to editing I just thought "well this is definitely not going on the internet" and it is not. BUT I STILL WANT TO TELL YOU ALL THE THINGS! I may put them in a vlog soon and work out a funner way for me to talk to a camera but for now I'll just tell you here : )

Firstly, I'm moving out in about 2 weeks to go to university. I'm going to be studying history at the University of Birmingham and I can't wait! I'm so excited to be starting a new chapter in my life and I'll be making new friends, experiencing new things and learning again (I'm a bit out of practice). I got a letter the other day about choosing which modules I want to take and it had a reading list and everything so it feels like it's getting very real.

Secondly, I want to talk about charities and helping people out and stuff. My friend Jonathan is doing a skydive for the charity Mind on the 8th October. I've sponsored him £10 and we would appreciate it a lot if you just had a look at the Facebook event and considered sponsoring too. I'm pretty sure there is no minimum amount so you can sponsor however much you like and it goes towards a great charity.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=200505836675910

Also, you may or may not have heard of Harry & Alfie on YouTube. They are Irish brothers who are musicians and are currently holding a Pledge Campaign to raise money for their new EP and 10% of everything raised will go towards The Ross Nugent Foundation. I've pledged for a Harry & Alfie canvas bag and a ticket to their pledgers only gig in London. They are really brilliant musicians and if you like their music I strongly recommend pledging for something. The campaign has less than a month left and they're at 75% of their target and they need to reach 100%.

http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/harryandalfie

And lastly, I was going to mention in the vlog how I have a blog but obviously there's no point in doing that here because if you're reading this then you know I have a blog.

Sorry about the no video thing but I'm not going to upload any old rubbish just so I have regular uploads. I'd rather put content out that I am proud of and I think you guys will like and find interesting.

Thanks for putting up with me.

Hannah