Maker Naomi Wu is Silenced by Chinese Authorities (And Why I Blame Elon Musk)
There’s a really disturbing situation happening in China that I think it’s important everyone know about as soon as possible. The very talented maker Naomi Wu, aka Sexy Cyborg, has revealed that Ch…
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The theory is that you can get away with a bit more in China if you have a big western audience. She had a fairly big one and that was protecting her, but the audience is fickle (made more fickle by Musk ruining Twitter) and once her audience declined, she lost that protection.
I guess the real lesson is that if you're Chinese and develop a Western audience, us that to escape China. Don't stay behind in China because your big audience is painting a target on your back, and eventually the Chinese authorities are going to ruin your life.
As an aside, did anybody else find her vibe really offputting? I liked her content, but her enormous fake boobs and skimpy outfits were a distraction from otherwise interesting content. If I found a video of hers interesting, it made me not want to share that with anybody because they'd think I was watching it because of her body. I'm all for women's empowerment, if someone wants to look and feel sexy that's great. But, with her stuff, it was so extreme that it felt like exploitation. Maybe she was exploiting herself, but it still felt icky.
She has a video explaining how she became the way she is that address that. Iirc she was raised as a boy by her parents which was one of the major contributing factors.
That might explain the ridiculous boobs, but not why she still chooses to wear incredibly skimpy outfits in her videos.
Because it's her body and she can do whatever she wants with it.
Being able isn't a reason to actually do something.
A reason would be "Because I feel like it"
HELLO SIR RANDOM INTERNET USER SIR
I AM HERE TO GIVE YOU MY DAILY CLOTHING JUSTIFICATION REPORT
AS WE ALL KNOW WE ALL HAVE TO JUSTIFY OUR CLOTHING CHOICES TO YOU SIR
Reasons and justifications are different, and largely unrelated.
Nobody was talking about justifying anything, just the reason.
I never actually asked for a reason. I only pointed out that ability isn't a reason.
You might find more productive meaningful exchanges, when you engage with actual people rather than your own straw men.
But maybe meaningful dialogue isn't important to you. In which case I have nothing more to say.
"I didn't say that I needed a reason I just complained that ability isn't a reason so basically I said fuck all"
You just seem to be mad that people are taking your idiotic contrarianism to it's logical conclusion.
You might find more productive meaningful exchanges, when you stand by what you're saying instead of crying.
You're adorable.
I know, you're stupid
OMG Stop! You're too funny! It's like I'm in middle school!
"because I feel like it" is a good enough reason to give a stranger.
Yes? I don't think I understand what you're point is.
"Because I feel like it."
So in other words, because she wants to? As in, "because it's her body and she can do whatever she wants with it"?
That statements literally means [she want's to] [because she can].
As in, the ability is driving the desire.
But that's not how it works. We're able to do lots of things we don't want to.
The desire might not come from anything identifiable. The existence of desire is it's self the reason. The ability isn't the reason.
Does that make sense? It's a nuanced difference for sure. But an important one logically.
Yes and?
It actually does. It’s a forty minute video and it was worth it for me, who had never heard of her and doesn’t care about tech at all (sorry lemmy).
Tl;dw: imagine a woman talking about how Freddy mercury’s chest hair makes her uncomfortable because she thinks he’s peacocking for her. That’s you. It’s initially very understandable- you saw something with one known cultural marker and assumed it tracked, I did too. It’s just not the same cultural marker (just like a Chinese person without much international contact sixty years ago would probably have a very different assumption when looking at a picture of a woman in a western wedding dress).
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I watched the video, it's unconvincing. I don't think she's lying per se, just that her justification for doing all her videos wearing skimpy clothing is pretty thin. She says she's doing it because she's a "dee", but in the videos she shows, she's the only one who looks remotely like that. She shows herself walking her dog in fairly normal clothing, but claims she can't do that on her videos. She thinks that unless she's wearing absolutely skimpy clothing that someone's going to mistake her for a boy. Sure...
For me, the imagery of hyper masculine leather daddies was a eureka moment (what a fucking sentence). I don’t think they’re doing it to be ‘marketable’ to women or men (on an immediately, trying to attract someone that day basis), it seems much more obviously just a style thing.
Plus, she’s right that she’d make more money with smaller breasts- a C-cup on her frame would probably appeal to more men, while looking natural enough that people like you might be interested in sharing her videos with others. I can’t imagine that’s new information for her (YouTube comments sections are not the most tactful places), so she probably would have tailored her look to appeal to more men over time, if that was her goal.
She thinks that unless she's wearing absolutely skimpy clothing that someone's going to mistake her for a boy.
I don’t think that’s likely at all, but I do believe her brain whispers that to her until she stops treating herself well. Mainly because truth is stranger than fiction- a 160 cm tall person (even in the most southern part of china, men’s average height is 168-170 cm) who has very long hair, shallowly set eyes, narrow shoulders, a high pitched voice and zero facial hair is not plausibly going to be mistaken for a man on a regular basis. That would be such a 4 year old lie to make up. Maybe she’s betting on that and it’s a ruse, but that’s a risky move if anyone who knows anything about Thai queer culture can out your lie.
the imagery of hyper masculine leather daddies
The point is, while they might dress up like that when going to a club, or while getting intimate with partners, they don't tend to do that at their day jobs. And, if they did and their day job was presenting YouTube science / maker videos, I wouldn't want to share their videos either.
She's obviously free to do whatever she wants. Well... let me rephrase that. This article is about how she's in China and has disappeared, so she's obviously not free to do whatever she wants. But, as long as she's within the margins of what's acceptable on YouTube, she's allowed to dress how she wants in her videos. Having said that, apparently she's had videos demonetized for sexual content before. My point is just that as a potential consumer of her videos, I'd be more likely to watch and share them if what she wore wouldn't result in HR violations in even the most freewheeling of tech startups.
It really doesn't matter what her reasons for doing it are. Maybe it's because she's incredibly insecure about being seen as a boy. Maybe it's because she's a lesbian and part of a subculture that emphasizes a ridiculous take on the feminine form. Maybe she's doing it because it attracts horny male viewers. It's probably a mix of all those things, even if she doesn't admit it. I wouldn't want her kicked off YouTube, and don't even think it's reasonable to demonetize her content. But, personally, I'll be watching and sharing other channels.
You definitely don’t have to watch her! I liked that video a lot, but don’t care about tech, so I won’t watch her channel either.
It just feels disrespectful to contradict someone we don’t know about the reason she acts the way she does, especially because she gives a logical chain for her beliefs.
I don’t know if it’s a healthy way to deal with her trauma, but as she said, she’s just glitchy, as are we all. I can’t look down while going down stairs that I can see through, because my brain tells me they’re less safe than opaque stairs. Is that real? No. Does my understanding that it’s not real make my heart rate slower or my palms less sweaty? No, it’s a glitch. Mine’s more common and probably easier to empathize with, but if I only hung out with rock climbers, they might not understand at all. If they said I was playing a damsel for male attention, it would be infuriating.
It just feels disrespectful to contradict someone we don’t know about the reason she acts the way she does
Sure, if you have no other information, but we have other information. We know how much YouTubers obsess about their videos, and the ones that don't are the ones who aren't getting viral videos. We know how they pay attention to every aspect of their videos, from the titles to the thumbnails, to everything else. We also know that YouTube provides all kinds of tools to allow creators to see what part of their videos are most watched, etc. They also provide all kinds of information about who your audience is, including age and gender.
In Naomi Wu's case, even without that analytics information, we know that one of her most popular videos is "See My Boob😜", and if you open a typical video and look for the most replayed segments, it's often a part of the video where she's showing off the underside of her boobs for a second, or something.
So, it's reasonable to assume that she's aware of what her overwhelmingly male audience pays attention to in her videos. And it's reasonable to assume that it plays a significant role in the decisions she makes. But, it seems to me that her explanation video tries to pretend that appealing to horny male viewers isn't part of her goal at all. I believe her when she says that she's into girls, and that her clothing choices are based on appearing feminine, and appealing to girls. But, I don't believe that appealing to a male YouTube audience isn't also part of the calculation.
I don't know if it's in that video or a separate video, but she did talk about it in a specific video, and the short of it is, she was raised as a boy by her family and it messed her up for many years. Like, to the point where the trans community has adopted her to some degree for having had a similar experience to their experiences with gender dysphoria and other related psychological issues. So her dressing and looking like that is in part her embracing her feminity and the fact that she's a woman. Kinda like that stereotype of the gay guy who comes out of the closet and starts acting "fruity" or whatever the term is. Or the trans woman who has a pigtails and overalls phase like having the childhood they never got to experience the first time.
She does, in fact, explain it in the video. Worth the watch.
She really doesn't. She claims that because she's a "dee" she has to look like that, but in her videos with other "dees", she's the only one who looks remotely like that.
No, because I'm not a 12 year old boy who freaks out every time he sees a set of tits. She can dress however she wants, it has nothing to do with the quality of her content.
She released a video at some point explaining WHY she looked and dressed that way. It was an interesting PoV, and totally unrelated to her hobby as maker and influencer.
I guess the real lesson is that if you’re Chinese and develop a Western audience, us that to escape China. Don’t stay behind in China because your big audience is painting a target on your back, and eventually the Chinese authorities are going to ruin your life.
She couldn't, her SO was Uighur and couldn't get permission to leave.
As an aside, did anybody else find her vibe really offputting? I liked her content, but her enormous fake boobs and skimpy outfits were a distraction from otherwise interesting content.
indeed. I've never heard of her and seeing this I wanted to see what it's all about - one look at her youtube (not even clicking on the video, the thumbnail and the short hover clip was enough) and I decided nope, don't really care.
