Why, Internet, why?

I’m finding it incredibly hard to sit here and not say anything at all about this Laci Green debacle. It feels like I woke up today and the Internet failed me. For the first time in my life, Tumblr has failed me, and yes, I’m taking it very personally even though this isn’t about me at all.  For those of you who don’t know, Laci Green is a video blogger who puts up very informative and educational videos about sex-positivity/sexuality/body confidence. She has helped a lot of people open up and created a platform where people can openly discuss subjects that are generally still considered taboo in society. She was recently forced to take a break from the Internet by people who issued her death threats and seemed to know her exact address somehow. They also posted aerial pictures of her home. Yep.

My thoughts are all muddled up but I’d still like to address a few things:

1)    Laci Green is a human being (shocking, I know). Human beings, as you know, are not perfect. They make mistakes. Laci was asked by someone why she used an offensive slur commonly used to define Transgender people in a derogatory way in a video. Laci has apologised for that, which by the way, was in a video that she made 3 years ago. And no, not in the “I’m sorry if I offended you but deal with it” kind of way, in a genuine “I know what I did was wrong and I’m genuinely sorry” kind of way. Take a look. How is this in any way a half-apology?

“Probably because I was 18 and ignorant. You are totally right and I sincerely apologize for my mistake. Before I educated myself about trans issues I had not the slightest inkling of how the word is used to dehumanize nor its place in the cycle of violence against transfolk. Now I have seen people hurt by it and seen it used as a nasty slur. Words have power, and ‘tranny’ is not a word for anybody but transfolk themselves to use because only they can reclaim it.  If I knew that was in a video, it would have been long long ago removed. Consider it banished forever.”


Laci has also been accused of making Anti-Islamic and Fat-shaming videos as well, which have apparently angered some people. I have not seen these videos so I can’t really comment on them but I have heard that she spoke about HER personal experiences concerning Islam and oppression. I do know that Laci ALWAYS promotes body-confidence and body-positivity so I find it really hard to believe that she would make videos shaming bigger people. Regardless though, people have to understand that everyone thinks about the world differently and people have DIFFERENT opinions. They express things differently, you can’t please everyone and someone, somewhere is going to be really offended by the tone in which you said something. This cannot be helped. I know this seems like a really simple thing to say but I feel like some people need to be reminded of this. By creating a situation where someone is forced to remove themselves from a setting due to safety concerns, how is she supposed to defend herself and discuss this matter in a civilized manner? It is NOT OKAY to make her feel threatened. It is NOT OKAY that vloggers – especially female vloggers – still have to deal with this kind of thing everyday (threats/stalking). And yes, the majority of the time, it does happen to women so YES I’m pulling that card.

2)    People are up in arms because when John Green came to her defence, he used the T-word/T-slur when explaining the situation. They said he had no right to and that they were disappointed in him etc. without stopping to think about the context in which he used it. Like John Green explained, it would have been impossible for him to explain the situation to people who didn’t know what was going on or who had never heard of the term before – it was an aid in understanding only. It was in quotation marks. I’m not saying it’s not an offensive word, I am saying that it was not meant in an offensive way. I am a woman of colour and I would not be offended if someone was to use the N-word in the context that John did. Some people have to understand that not everyone is familiar with the terms and vocabulary that are second nature to you and a couple of people on Tumblr have a certain sense of self-righteousness that quickly transforms into intolerance for all kinds of ignorance on subjects that they seem to know everything about. My friend Andrew put it perfectly:

Up until about 6 months ago, give or take, I had no fucking clue about any of these terms:

•    cis

•    cissexist

•    transphobic

•    ableism

•    privilege (in this context)

And yet I feel like I still wasn’t ignorant at all, or a bad person. Tumblr has created an

environment that breeds hyper-socially-aware teenagers with little to no experience of any of these things irl, which breeds ignorance about ignorance. It’s such a fascinating paradox to me that these people who are so involved with and owe so much to the proliferation of these terms, are so protective of them and deal with ignorance about them in such a completely inappropriate and hateful way.

3)    And then comes the issue of privilege. I’ve read a lot of posts in which people have stated that the only reason that people are so upset about this ordeal is because Laci is a “thin, pretty, white, cis-gendered woman” and that it was therefore inevitable that John Green (a “white, cis-gendered male”) would rush to her defence. White people defending White people. What about the misrepresented people of colour, Transgender people, Muslim people who have had to deal with death threats and abuse everyday. No one ever rushed to their side to defend them but everyone’s all over this Laci thing because she’s white. I have to say, I more than a lot of people understand why people could be upset about feeling like they are once again not being heard and being overshadowed by a “privileged white girl” but I really don’t think that this is so much to do with race or being 'cis' as it does with exposure. Laci has hundreds of thousands of subscribers, millions of views on her videos and John Green knows her personally. He did not defend her because she’s White, he’s defending her because he sees the injustice and seriousness of what has happened to someone he knows, a fellow vlogger, regardless of who she is. I am a WOC and I don’t feel the need to ignore Laci because there are many of us that are misrepresented and unheard in society. I’m not defending Laci because she’s white, I’m defending her because I love her videos, I respect her as a fellow human being and woman and I think that the way she’s been treated is absolutely appalling. I have the right to defend whomever I want to. I will defend against any transphobic/islamophobic/anythingphobic posts/videos that I come across and I won’t have people sit there and ask me to justify myself. I won’t have people try and pressure me into thinking that some people deserve to be defended MORE than others because that’s completely hypocritical. A lot of posts that I’ve read are from angry, bitter, negative people who are doing absolutely NOTHING to better their own situations other than complain about privileged people. I do think that there are many bloggers/vloggers that need to have their voices heard and that have faced unacceptable forms of abuse online, but the answer is not to be nasty to Laci Green is it?

I understand where the people who are upset are coming from but I don’t agree with many of their reasons. I feel like a lot of people were just waiting for an opportunity to pounce, an outlet to express all their pent up frustrations and I really don’t think that this is the right platform. You’re not going to gain support and get yourself heard in a positive light by trashing other people and then promoting and image of positivity/feminism/anti-oppression etc. It just doesn’t make sense.