not sure if you'll see this or if you're still in the fandom but i was wondering what your take was on harry's 'dodgy pronouns' joke in the new survive the internet vid? like personally it kinda hurt but idk if i'm being too sensitive.
Hello everyone, long time no see lol!
First of all, I have left the fandom due to the fact I felt uncomfortable by a lot of things. I think the comedy that the sidemen bring out is funny as fuck, I have cried with laughter many times. However, I started realising that the comedy was at the expense of others which made me very uncomfortable. For example, the continuous transphobia for example that joke or the constant use of slurs thrown around
I.E, JJ used the T slur, apologised when he found it was a slur and then used it again. That made me, as a non-binary person, very uncomfortable. You have every right to be hurt by a comment made about pronouns, especially if they are important to you.
I do understand that their humour is very British and their fandom are mainly teenage boys who are stuck in the classic 'man' concept. They will laugh at transphobia and racist comments but then complain that it's not against those people because they've got a mate who is trans or a poc. I've had fans of the sidemen send me death threats because I defended a transgender individual and respected their pronouns. In what world is that okay? And the sidemen don't help, they hardly ever acknowledge issues within their fandom as well as society.
I will stress that I understand that they aren't required to however, as a very popular influencer with 10 million people watching them, they have an impact, whether they like it or not. And they should use that for good. Out of all of them, I think Tobi uses his platform for good the most. And by that, I think he promotes the right causes for example BLM, Stop Asian Hate, and Women Rights. One tweet is not going to be enough to push for a cause. They could easily spread that information for days on end. I know they can because they have done it over football.
Additionally, I hate the treatment of POC (which is anyone who isn’t white but if there is a better term please let me know). I am white so I don’t know how far I am allowed to comment on this situation, please let me know if any of this is pushing boundaries.
England is a very ‘casually racist’ place, in which slurs are thrown around as a laugh, saying that if people want equality then everyone should use those slurs. A lot of sidemen fans have had that mentality, calling both JJ and Tobi slurs, as well as Vik. Even though they’ve expressed that it’s not okay. This has not changed over the five years I’ve known of the Sidemen (I only became a fan of them a year or two ago roughly). Look back at any video with the three of them where they look at comments and they probably get called a slur. It is vile.
Alongside this, I really dislike how often Ethan and Harry mock accents. Ethan has done it as a joke of his 3% Nigerian DNA and Harry has done it over many videos. I can’t rewatch one of these videos without having to pause or stop the video. It makes me so uncomfortable.
In summary, I left the Sidemen fandom because I lost interest and saw how often they used others as the butt of the joke. Many members of the fandom make me uncomfortable and I got one too many death threats to enjoy the content anymore.
I may pop up to answer and questions or change this if someone explains that information is incorrect and whatnot but this is my last official post for now. If you do want to follow what I write for other fandoms, my AO3 is whereyoustand. Thank you guys for all the support you gave me, you guys helped me so much :’) My posts will be left up so everyone can still read them, I put a lot of work into them all so I hope you guys still enjoy them to! I appreciate you all :D
