I love watching educational YouTube videos! There's a wide array of educational content out there; from NileRed who does insane chemistry experiment videos to Hank Green telling me why the economy hasn't crashed yet, there's something for everyone.
I recently watched Broey Deschanel's "TikTok Feminism is Not Your Friend" video, and I have to say. It's a banger! My social media usage is mainly Instagram and Instagram Reels, although I watch a fair amount of YouTube videos & have accounts across other platforms as well. I previously used TikTok in high school and college, but after declining usage, political discourse crowding my feed, and the ban, I chose to delete my account and remove it from my phone. I haven't gone back, although I'm familiar with the game.
Other context I deem necessary: I'm white, mostly femme-presenting, bisexual, feminist, Virgo, & a leftist. I try to stay out of online discourse, but I do love to argue about things I feel strongly about. This is an unserious review & if you choose to read onward, you acknowledge that my opinion is being shared & could be wrong. Read the article, watch the video, talk to me about it, or don't, idc. Just follow your peace
Ms. Deschanel hits us with the question: is it embarrassing to have a boyfriend now? I had seen this circulating online in an image or video, but hadn't considered since 1. it's clearly ragebait, 2. I don't see John as my "boyfriend", & 3. I'm not embarrassed to be dating them. Apparently, this phrase was indeed designed to be ragebait- it's the title of an article that originally appeared in Vogue at vogue.co.uk/. You can read the article for free on the Australia Vogue site, vogue.com.au/. This sets up the context for both the Broey Deschanel video & the rest of this review :3
Honestly, if you identify as a straight woman, the article is worth a read. It may resonate with you more if you are also cisgender and/or white (or white passing).
Overall, I think the Vogue article is good and makes some interesting points, but Ms. Deschanel's video expands and elaborates on each point and pinpoints the flaws effortlessly. I think the quote that adds the most additional nuance to the Vogue article is by John Berger in the Ways of Seeing:
"A woman must continually watch herself. She is almost continually accompanied by her own image of herself. Whilst she is walking across a room or whilst she is weeping at the death of her father, she can scarcely avoid envisaging herself walking or weeping.
From earliest childhood, she has been taught and persuaded to survey herself continually. And so she comes to consider the surveyor and the surveyed within her as the two constituent yet always distinct elements of her identity as a woman."
John Berger, Ways of Seeing, Pennsylvania State University (1977).
I just personally agreed that I felt forced into a state of constant vigilance and self-policing to adhere to gendered norms. With this quote in the back of your mind, I agree with Ms. Deschanel that the article is more concerned with policing women's images and brand than with addressing anything meaningful or interesting. TikTok feminism is more worried about appearances and peoples' perceptions of your womanhood, or girlhood.
Since Les Wexner has been implicated in the Epstein files, I've been reconsidering my personal self-image. I saw a video on Instagram Reels that Victoria Secret's Pink line is lingerie for pre-teens, and it made me realize how weird it is that this was so normalized to me. I genuinely was 14 years old and would only feel beautiful or worthy of love when I was wearing mass-produced pre-teen lingerie sold by a company with a pedophile CEO. As said in Ms. Deschanel's video, mass culture has been designed to manipulate the individual in service of powerful institutions by fetishizing objects.
There's too much nuance & I can't think of anything else. Go watch the video & maybe I'll come back and update this :P