I think these past days (and week- you'll see soon) have been in the theme of the recent YouTuber situation in which popular vloggers are sexually abusing others. On Friday, I posted an article talked about Sam Pepper and his "social experiment" but today, I feel the need to talk about something that hits closer. As most of you know from posts about him (here ) I loved Jason- aka Veeoneeye on YouTube. I mean he was funny and carefree and had cool friends and a good taste in music and therefor I invested a good two years in watching his videos and supporting some guy I barely knew. At Warped Tour, I even met him. I really can't say much about our time together- I was over the moon about seeing this guy in real life and therefor didn't really judge our experience the day I saw him. I was just so happy I could finally meet him that I didn't really care. The two of us took a picture and I touched his hair (that felt like a load of hairspray and disappointment since I always believed it would feel like candy floss) and then hung around for another ten minutes since there were only three other girls at his little tent. Jason was the first YouTuber (and only one so far) I've met so I really couldn't compare it to anything. He said it was nice to meet me and signed my black Vans (I'm actually really sad now that I have his signature on a pair of my favorite shoes).
There was one shady piece in which the girl standing with me (lets call her Maddy- we talked a lot while he was chatting with the two other people at the meet up) commented on how hot it was to which he replied,
"Maybe you should just take off your shirt." I realize it was just a little joke (let me just put out there Maddy was like fourteen years old) but things didn't end there. When he hugged her, his hands began traveling down her waist and towards her ass. Maddy pulled away in surprise and nervously giggled out something like,
"Whoa there." but you could tell how embarrassed and uncomfortable she was with how he almost touched her. Jason then laughed it off and went to the tent and didn't talk to us for the rest of the time we were there.
There are multiple allegations against Jason that are all equally as important and frightening as the next because you would never imagine a guy like him doing something this terrible. Starting with one of the first blogs that came to my attention, I'd like to discuss "Vianon". Her story focuses on a flirty relationship she had with Jason this year when she was merely thirteen. He would send her pictures of his hickeys, drop strange hints towards liking her, and even at one point hinted towards wanting nudes. Though you should never ever doubt the victim, this girl does have proof of their interaction through screenshots she took of every single message. There is also another frightening story of a girl who befriended Jason online (she was a huge fan) they ended up in a hotel with a bottle of Vodka. Jason pressured her to drink more than a sixteen year old should and they ended up sleeping together and he never talked to her again. Overall, you can definitely gather that Jason's behavior is creepy and inappropriate.
Jason getting underage girls drunk seems like a common occurrence within these stories as you can tell in Ania's video about her experience with him. The two of them met in London when she was fifteen and he was around twenty. They spent the night together and Jason decided to buy alcohol- through the night, he'd make comments such as "you need another drink" and Ania said clearly in the video that he seemed to have one goal: get her really drunk. It doesn't stop there though and instead of describing it in this post I just think you guys need to hear Ania tell her story here. I also screens shotted some of her tweets from her page that are really great.
I also love Jason's (old) friend group very much and they are all responding very well and have all confirmed they had no clue this was going on and disapprove of his behavior. Even his former housemate, Luke Cutforth, says he really wasn't aware of this and wish it had never happened. Everyone who he used to be close with (excluding Patty- he's probably just too overwhelmed to go online right now) have now said publicly that they are not letting his get away with it and have pulled away. I am especially proud of Emma Blackery for her supportive tweets towards the survivors of Jason's abuse.
Emma hadn't found out about what Jason was doing unit tonight and she was obviously overwhelmed but cleared up her opinions on Twitter.
She was accused of knowing about Jason's relationships and having pre-written all her other tweets for the occasion when it got out but she immediately defended herself against that ridiculous accusation.
Emma is obviously extremely scared and upset by this (as a normal person would be) and I have faith in her that once she gets herself composed, she will be the intelligent and strong person she is within addressing the situation.
Bribry speaking out about how corrupt YouTube is getting and also making sure everyone supports the victim instead of going towards people in Jason's former friends.
Jason uploaded a video on Saturday night addressing the allegations which though I hate to say that he did something right in a situation like this, I do believe what he did was more professional than other You Tubers who have just run away from all their problems and pretend as though they didn't happen (at least it wasn't a social experiment!). The video overall is just him talking about his dependency on alcohol at that time. In the end, there is no excuse for having sex with a fifteen year old girl at age twenty but I really can't say how I felt about the video. I guess you guys just need to watch it for yourselves here.
As I said in my Sam Pepper post, there is a lot we need to change about YouTube. We are treating these people as though we know them and put all our trust in them and that has been proven to be wrong. In Jason's case, we need to "amputate" him from here. That means no more Vidcon, Summer In The City, Playlist, Warped Tour etc. No more clicking his ads or watching videos- unsubscribe. We don't need abusers like Jason on here and since the viewers are what give him the power, we can take it away by not supporting him. I also believe these victims stories are super important and a warning to others and therefor we need to spread this. What is going on right now is very significant and therefor talking about it on YouTube, Twitter, Tumblr, blogs, etc is a great way to spread the message and hopefully stop things like this from happening.
I also wanted to add two videos; One on the topic of the YouTube community and sexual abuse by The Third Pew and one very personal one about Jason by one of his former best friends, Evan Edinger here (I am warning you it is slightly painful to watch)
You've been you, I've been concerned about the YouTube community.
Hello there! This post will be a little different from my normal diaries since there are just a few simple things I need to discuss all involving this very blog. Starting off, we have a new header! It seems super lame saying it but my dad was the one who made it since he's a cartographer- I am still unsure if it'll stick because my OCD tends to get in the way of these things and I'm not completely sure if I am 100% happy with it. Over the past year and (over) a half, How Fitting has changed looks based on what this blog discussed- not to say it has changed very much in what type it has been. I mean we've had the same schedule ever since I made a steady posting routine but I mean my style has changed. I went from generic kiss marks as a background when I was really unsure how to even work a blog and skipping over a bunch of designs I already forget we ended up with a more magazine layout when I decided HF would work better as a zine
You can kind of tell my style was pretty similar at this point and I kept with this background for a pretty long while until I got bored (as I do with about everything) and went onto the background I kept for the longest time which was actually a set of pins I had taken off of The Pulp Girls' website.
On a side note, I would like to point out my desktop picture is this photograph of Matthew Gray Gubler and it continues to be the picture I use to this day because I can't find one I like more.
Back to what this post was actually about, I then decided that since the whole running a zine thing wasn't exactly my style (in other words, I wasn't very good at playing Tavi Gevinson) and therefor went back into a more blog looking style where I was all about pastels and had more of a kawaii feel.
At this point, I would like to think of myself as more grown up within this blog- I have been practically documenting my life and thoughts through this little nook of the internet and going through old posts is strange if not a little scary. Though I know I have a long ways to go, I would like to think of myself as marginally more mature than thirteen year old Ann who created How Fitting in the first place. My goals have become a little more clear on what I want to achieve and though I always had an idea of feminism on here, I believe my opinions have bloomed into something more put together and valuable.
Onto another lame but somewhat significant announcement, I have written a novel! Yeah a huge hunk of paper of writing and everything! Though I won't be going into the long and boring details about it, it takes place in the 1950s at a traveling circus. The basic synopsis of the book is that struggling teenager, Dan, leaves his previous life of moving from town to town and living in an automobile due to his father's drinking problem and has the theme of what would really happen if you ran away to join the circus. Throughout the book, Dan really realizes how corrupt everything is within this show and ends up falling in love with one of the trapeze artists. I would have to admit it's slightly on the pretentious side but nonetheless, I have pride for it and thought that would be a cool thing to share with you guys.
So at this point you may be asking,
"why are you writing a post about something that was already resolved?" well first off, you probably won't be thinking that since I have this thing for putting words in other people's mouths but getting past that, something really important that was sparked by this excuse for a YouTube video's release.
I don't believe I have ever mentioned Dottie (otherwise known as thisbedottie on YouTube) but she is one of my favorite YouTubers and she recently released a video talking about an experience she had when she was only sixteen years old and Sam was twenty three. She had met him at a meet and greet and she described that by the end, she could easily tell he was into her so he invited a minor to a seemingly innocent date at the movies. Things began getting shady after she let him kiss her and then he began to place his hands on various (intimate) parts of her body. Since she had already outstepped her comfort zone, Dottie took his hands off of her- which let me remind you she had every right to do. She had only spoken to this man once and he was marginally older than her so she wasn't feeling comfortable with the situation and calmly took his hands off her own body. He then continued to place HER hands on his body which she pulled away. Obviously this was too much for her and she made the excuse to get away from him saying she should catch her bus but she could tell he was angry with this and since she was a fan, didn't want to upset him and stayed for the rest of the movie. Once they got out of the cinema, he literally ran away from her without saying goodbye and therefor she Facebook messaged him that night (she provides actual proof in the video) saying,
"You're horrible." but she told him the next morning she was sorry and he should have a nice day because she didn't want him to hate her.
Dottie was merely a sixteen year old girl and Sam Pepper was a grown man who manipulated her into doing something she clearly didn't want. In the video, she states he stopped being kind to her once she made it clear there was no sexual promise. This video mainly got positive feedback since it was extremely brave of her to post but there was of course one person who had to make a fuss; this being Kalel (otherwise known as "Kalel Kitten").
Let me start off by just talking a little about something I learned during the whole Alex Day/ Tom Milsom thing; YOU SHOULD ALWAYS BELIEVE THE VICTIM. I think anyone who has ever read through How Fitting could tell that I was a massive Tom and Alex fan and as heartbroken as I was that my heroes would do something like this, that didn't stop me from giving them what they deserved which was definitely not my respect. I, of course, didn't want to believe the accusations were real but I did since there is literally nothing you can do wrong by believing a victim- you are putting faith and defending a vulnerable person who has been through a lot. Kalel completely threw all of those morals aside and had no problem saying that Dottie was probably lying about the entire situation and said that she was overreacting and trying to ruin Sam's life. I could go on and on about how wrong what she did was but to sum it up, Kalel's behavior was repulsive.
The thing that really bothers me about this tweet is how she tells Dottie, someone who was taken advantage of, to just "Calm down and unsub" as though this is something extremely easy to get over. Dottie, as you could tell, was very hurt and scarred by the things Sam did to her- how dare she trivialize that?
OK Kalel, people make mistakes- it is a natural thing to do as a human being but this wasn't just Sam saying Dottie was stupid, he abused her. Sam Pepper is a grown man and when he touched Dottie, he knew what he was doing. It's not as though one second he was on an innocent date with a sixteen year old and then "Whoops! I guess my hands just accidentally began intimately touching you without consent!"
Not only did many Twitter users call Kalel out on her shit but popular YouTuber, Emma Blackery, stood up for her good friend and did an awesome job of spreading awareness to her thousands of followers.
As if the ridiculousness of Sam Pepper didn't stop there, he had to post a part two of girls pinching guy's butts and then a third video claiming it was all a social experiment and we all need to calm down. Can I just comment on how stupid that is? Sam Pepper obviously has an awesome management team but this could't save his ass. As I said in the beginning, Sam is known for this kind of shit and has never apologized for it but when people finally stand up to him, instead of saying sorry like a decent human being, he comes up with some weird excuse. As Bribry said in a video he made with Candice (that is super duper awesome and I will add to this post),
"Sam Pepper has made a video in which he sexually harasses women to tell us how much of a problem sexual harassment is. I would now like to say that I love animals, so I'm going to kick the shit out of some animals and put it in a video to show you how serious animal cruelty is. I like Harry Potter. I'm now going to find Daniel Radcliffe and slap him." This was such a good statement that shows how completely idiotic this "social experiment" is. I would like to pause and say how amazing both Bribry and Candice are and how great role models they have been for me.
Since the last edition of Sam's series was posted, a large amount of women have been coming out with their own experiences involving this lame excuse of a man talking about how they were sexually harassed by him- there is even a story of rape in there (the survivor of this has posted a fifteen minute video telling her story that I am putting in here- I will warn you that it is quite scary and can be thought of as triggering so if you believe you will be triggered by this kind of thing, I'd advise you not to watch it.)
The YouTube community and overall internet community needs to figure things out now. How can we let rapists and abusers such as Sam, Alex, and Tom run this place that is supposed to be safe and wonderful? Why are people accusing victims of lying instead of looking into this "hero" and his own behavior? I am sick and tired of hearing "You deserved it." or "You should be grateful." in the comments of these videos. I am tired of people like Sam Pepper being put on a pedestal. We as people on the internet and regular human beings need to take these abusers off websites such as YouTube, tumblr, and twitter because they are a danger to others and do not deserve to be here. To do this, we need to isolate Sam Pepper and other "harmless pranksters" like him. This means, do not click on his ads, watch his videos, or support him in any way possible. I am not saying I want to destroy Sam Pepper's life- I am just done with abusers like him on what is supposed to be safe place for people to create and show off their talents and as Bribry stated,
"YouTube is a wonderful place where people can be creative and show their talents and if your talent is sexually harassing women, you should be in jail."
I am going to leave you guys with some really great responses towards Sam Pepper and the entire issue of sexual harassment. They are all made by awesome people and I would recommend 100% you watching and reading these responses.
Jack Dodge's video on how we need to make this stop.
Megan Tonjes parody of "Rude" singing about Sam Pepper and his video- it's super well written and Megan Tonjes is overall an ultimate babe.
A really awesome video regarding the things wrong with the entire situation.
Nathan of TheThirdPew on YouTube being real cool- he's an awesome guy and is pretty known for discussing things like this (his most famous video is on the whole Nash Grier situation in December)
I just loved how passive aggressive this was.
Luke Cutforth making fun of the whole "social experiment" (he makes a couple Sam Pepper puns in the end of his latest video)
Dottie's lovely boyfriend, Patty Walters being great about Dottie's video.
*Since Blogger is being a jerk, I couldn't upload this video but Laci Green's open letter to Sam Pepper is super important and you need to watch it here
You've been you, I've been repulsed by Sam Pepper and select people of the YouTube community's behavior.
Last week, one of my favorite bands ever, Sir Sly, released their first ever full length album (I talk about it before the release here). Before I get into all the jazz about that, I would just like to say how impressed I am by this band. Sir Sly started out with about six songs on a sound cloud (they're still there- I'd really recommend you listening to it) and are now opening up for bands such as The 1975 (I saw them in April) and releasing really awesomely produced albums and covers (check out their Drake cover and Arcade Fire one)
Onto the actual thing I was supposed to talk about, You Haunt Me features four songs from the Gold EP and eight newly released tracks. Though I didn't recognize six of the new songs, I did know "Inferno" and "Too Far Gone" (which are actually my favorites off the album but we'll get into that later) since they sang them both at the concert.
I'm going to just dive into picking each song piece by piece because I believe that's the best way to get through these reviews so without further a due, the album starts off with "Where I'm Going"- I just realized I have never ever really addressed the Gold EP so this means I'll also be including songs from there that were put onto the album. The first track was actually my favorite off the EP just because it includes so many chill and almost mysterious points with a strong drum line and some weird breathy synth thing going on in the background that sounds super kool. It's a real nice song to just kind of jam out to (wow I sound like a pretentious dick) and is extra calming. "Ghost" was the next one (also from Gold) and though it isn't my all time favorite it does capture an almost creepy vibe with the defiant yet subtle drum in the background and raspy vocals. The reason why I'm not crazy about this track is because I feel as though they could have written a better chorus than "Ghost. You're a ghoooooost." over and over again but I do give them extra points for the really awesome bridge that I could easily listen to multiple times in a row. Of course Sir Sly added their biggest hit, "Gold", to the album which is always great. I like how it contrasts to all the other songs on EP in the way that it has more of a lively beat has a repetitive chorus but more than one phrase for it- the lyrics in it are also super quote worthy and it's a super great song to absent mindly sing along to. I would also like to point out how killer the vocals in the final chorus are. Track four was the first single to be released and also the title to the entire album. Personally, I was more than excited to hear this one when it first came out and was a rather repeated song on my Spotify. I admire how well this track opens up the CD since unlike their EP, the track is much more upbeat and has a lot of piano pieces in it- something Gold didn't have very much. I'm also super into the drum beat in this one. After "You Haunt Me", the last song off their EP, "Found You Out", comes on. The vocals are a little more belty than others in here and I am all about the bridge where everything seems to break down. Sir Sly's music can be described as a thin line between being super calm and chill and almost freaking out- "Found You Out" is a good mix of in-between since the verses are very dreamy with the whole "ah ah ah ahs" going on yet once you hit that bridge, the vocals get more desperate and that's where you really hear the mood of the song ("I'll be the bigger man while you act like you're innocent.") and then we go into a bigger and more dramatic chorus (as Sir Sly does most of the time) which is A+. We finally get out of the Gold Ep tracks and enter into "Nowhere/Bloodlines Part One". This song is interesting since if you aren't paying close attention to what track is playing, you'd think this was two different songs. The first three minutes take to the loud and jumpy piece of "Nowhere"- there is yet another really awesome drum line in the pre chorus I would just like to add. As the first part begins to end with heavy percussion and an ongoing "oooooooo" layering in the background and all of a sudden everything seems to stop and it's replaced with a steady beat that sounds almost like a train leading into the second half. "Bloodlines" is much sadder and more ballad like with a high pitched (and killer harmony) chorus line and much less production. The song then comes to an abrupt stop and we go into my favorite song off You Haunt Me, "Inferno", featuring Lizzy Plapinger. As I said before with the fine line between the intense Sir Sly music and soothing, this song is definitely on the breaking down side. It's fast paced and the chorus line is extra extra catchy. I also have to mention how A+ Lizzy's vocals are- I get a serious Courtney Love vibe off of her and she has this very apathetic tone that kills it. There's a whole lot of shout-y parts that make everything seem much more intense- if you've never heard anything of Sir Sly's, I would completely recommend this track to start off. The eighth track is "Leave You" which seems like a super filler to me. Don't get me wrong, it's an OK song but didn't really need to be on the album. The verses are pretty well written whereas the chorus lacks imagination with just "Youuuuuu youuuuuu. That I would have to leave you.". The only way I believe that got away with it was the interesting keyboard they stuffed in there. Though this could pass off well from anyone else I know Sir Sly could do better than this. We then go into "Floods" which is one of their sadder points with only a bit of clapping tone in the beginning. Though it was nice they put in a slower song, I really believe this was yet another filler (if they needed extra songs couldn't they have just added "Miracle" and "Easy Now"?). The rhymes in this one were pretty basic and the overall quality of the lyrics were low. Whatever. Though there are two shitty tracks in a row, the band redeems themselves within "Too Far Gone" which I have taken quite a liking to since I can get really into the catchy chorus line and the guitar in this track is one of their best. "Helpless/ Bloodlines Part 2" comes afterwards as since the first part was super rad, I was real into this track. "Helpless" wasn't as great as the second part but has a cool synthetic beat to it that is extremely well produced. I don't believe the transition into part two was as good as the first one with only the sound of a guitar moving frets being the only thing separating them apart but the vocals were gorgeous and as always, I was impressed by the harmonies. Even if part two sucked, I would still appreciate this track since I love it when albums have tracks like that. The last track off of You Haunt Me is "Witches" which has a bit of an overproduced intro but I was a fan of the intense chorus though the lyrics could've been improved "I'm hunting for the witches and I think I've found one." wasn't the best but I'm not complaining too much since it overall was a good song and I may just be too intense of a critic.
All in all, You Haunt Me was a pretty fucking awesome album and I'm overall just grateful Sir Sly has more music since I've been listening to the same six songs for the past six months.
P.S I've also added some photos from the night I saw Sir Sly
On Monday, The New York Times gave a preview of my favorite singer, Lights', latest album Little Machines on their "Press Play" feature (which by the way, is really cool). The first look included eleven songs off the upcoming compilation and my god I am so grateful I could listen to them early since they're all insane and will be listening to them on repeat for the next few days (screw waiting a week).
The first song that I hadn't head off the preview was one of my favorites, "Running With The Boys". It's super upbeat and fun which I love about Lights and has a super catchy chorus that is so well written. Her voice is belt-y and gorgeous at the refrain and she sounds like herself while adding some "ah ah ah"s at the end- something she rarely ever does. Another one I loved was "Same Sea". Something I've noticed about this album is how killer the percussion is in every song. They all have clear drum lines that really bring them to life and "Same Sea" was no exception. I also am digging the amount of synth used in the interludes within Little Machines since it brings a little more pop into the mix. Onto the next song on the preview, "Speeding", I began to notice how fun and upbeat this album is- unlike her last album, Sibera, she is making her music much happier which really connects to her place in life right now. "Muscle Memory" comes next and though I'm not as into this track as the others, I think the chorus is super well written (A+ for parallel language Valerie). The piano in this one was also stellar. "Oil and Water" was the next track on the preview and I have so say it was one of my favorites. The chorus is extremely dreamy and she is constantly using riffs in her voice that could make anyone jealous. Also, as I said before, the drums in it are awesome. After that came "Slow Down", a loud song with a bunch of synth in it that was super well done- you've got to admire Lights for using just the right amount of synthetic sounds. Lights' voice can get so loud to the point where it sounds like she's shouting and she really showcased it in this song. "Meteorites" came afterwards and I really diid catch how cool the piano in this track is- as I said previously about her loud voice, this one was awesome for it and she sounded completely badass on it. This is less of a dance-y song yet is still fun and cool to sway to. I really got into the second to last track on the preview, "How We Do It", since it was super catchy and her voice sounded completely enchanting and almost trance like. You can basically see her dancing to it- the quotes in this one were also A+++. Last but not least, "Don't Go Home Without Me" came on and I really admired the slowness of this one since the rest were so upbeat. Her vocals are super breathy and almost choked (in a good way) as she sings the sad lyrics along with a steady drum beat.
All in all, the preview of Little Machines was insane. Shout out to the New York Times.
Side note: can we also appreciate the photos for this new album because she looks like a goddess.
Monday ♥Top: Vivi ♥Skirt: H&M (I literally wear the same skirt every single day since I haven't gone school shopping yet- I know I'm icky) ♥Choker: DIY
*I didn't take any photos on Tuesday since I was feeling sad and not rad and really could't take a picture
Wednesday ♥Sweater: Buffalo Exchange ♥Jeans: Hot Topic
Thursday ♥Blink 182 tee: Hot Topic (DIY cutting it into a tank) ♥Skirt: H&M ♥Socks: Hot Topic ♥Choker: DIY ♥Boots: thrift
