Today, I watched a YouTube video that succeeded in its attempt to get me to watch it out of outrage. Sydney Watson, a shameless bigot who shrouds herself in an aura of what she calls logic and objectivity, made a video about how "the age of ugly is over". In the thumbnail, she includes two gender non-conforming people, and a person who does not meet societal standards of attractiveness.
I rarely watch videos like this because they intend to anger people who disagree with them. The actual video does not hold much merit, Sydney basically spends its 25 minute runtime saying that nonbinary people make themselves ugly. It's almost like nonbinary gender presentation purposefully contrasts to cisgender presentations.
For people like Sydney, I am not in her target audience. She does not want to have a dialogue with people who disagree with her. Throughout the video, she presents quite smugly, to communicate that her opinions are correct. People use smug tones to communicate that opposition to their beliefs is trivial and nonsensical, to shut down a counterpoint before it can begin.
One low-hanging fruit of "shocking" nonbinary people she used in her video included Sam Smith. Granted, some of Sam's previous outfits they wore at concerts and at public appearances were outrageous, but their wild appearance had intention. The outfits were designed to contrast against cis and heteronormativity in abrasive and outlandish ways. I sincerely doubt Sam hit up the grocery store wearing the devil-horned hat and corset they wore during their tours promoting "Unholy", but that would have been a sight to see.
The central argument that Sydney presents in her video is that people who once identified as nonbinary no longer present their identity as "extreme" as they did before. She claims that this is because hotness and normality are in. This argument neglects that gender presentation can change over time, especially in people that already reject the idea of a gender binary. A nonbinary person can still be nonbinary even if they present their gender in a way that seems to align with typical ideas of masculinity or femininity.
Even more importantly though, her video's thesis neglects that society at large has become increasingly hostile to queer people and especially nonbinary and trans people. In this climate, someone nonbinary presenting more in line with traditional cisgendered presentation isn't so much about rejecting their nonbinary identity, but choosing to ensure their survival. Of course she would not acknowledge this point, because she intends on persuading people to be as bigoted and hateful as herself. She endorses hostility.
Sydney, despite producing ragebait also falls for it, hook, line, and sinker. Though I must point out, that posts such as mine give a hateful entity like Sydney the reaction they want. People who obviously hate the queer community, but never say slurs publicly, want to be called bigots. They want a queer person to use harsher terms than they use so they can play the victim and talk about how unreasonable and emotional queer people are.
Moreover, even though I am giving the reaction soulless people like Sydney want, I still wanted to say something about her espousal of hatred. It's no coincidence that increasingly brazen and depraved opinions about queerness are more visible than ever, online and in the media. While those facets of life are not all encompassing, their effects can't be ignored. It feels sometimes like the bigots are winning, and that they're leading to societal regression and furthering intolerance. A single post on a tumblr no one looks at isn't going to change society, and largely the people still on tumblr would also largely disagree with Sydney. Thus, this post effectively does nothing but say "this bigot is bigoted🥺" to people also against bigotry. But why not at least have one counterpoint to hatred?
Interestingly, someone as rational and objective as Sydney, the future face-eaten-by-leopards endorser of the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party, has dedicated hours of her life falling for the ragebait of provocateurs such as Lily Tino. (I want to look more into that drama, but dear God the amount of blatant and aggressive transphobia surrounding it just makes it exhausting).
In conclusion, I hope her bigotry makes her miserable and I look forward to when the misogynists she endorses turn on her when they no longer view her as a useful idiot.
Tl;dr: Sydney is a very good pick me, pick her, she's so rational and cool and not like other girls, please don't hate her like other "women" who care about trans inclusivity 🥺👉👈Isn't she cool that she's not woke? Come on men, pick her! Pick her! (Wait what, even the men who agree with Sydney wouldn't actually like her and view her as an equal and all she's doing is venting negativity into the world in an attempt to showcase how smart and rational and very male friendly she is? Wow.)
