What Do Virtual Youtubers Have to Teach Us About Authenticity?
By: Sam Young
Tags: Social Justice, Work, Culture, LGBTQ, Community

This article is a sneaky trojan horse for social justice warrior politics, just like the last one I wrote on this topic. That’s not how I personally see my own work, but it’s how a lot of other people saw it. To be perfectly honest, considering the amount of time I spent carefully thinking out and researching an article meant to expose a new audience to a niche community that left me open to challenges towards my masculinity only to have said community accuse me of being a disingenuous “social justice man” was a pretty painful experience. I am by far not the first person to experience something like this, most of the results that come up after a search for “journalism quotes” have to do with dealing with controversy. The reaction to my previous article actually prompted me to look up that phrase on google images, and the first quote that came up is now my tagline.

There’s no evidence that Orwell ever said this, but the sentiment is nice.

The concept of “haters” has been beaten to death and unenlightened or insensitive criticism is something you have to expect being any sort of creative, especially online. Being openly authentic is admirable precisely because it leaves you vulnerable to such things. One of my favorite quotes is something Thelonious Monk said in 1960: “a genius is the one most like himself.” This is something I believe deeply, and for this reason I see authenticity as something that is inherently beneficial for society and the progression of humanity as a species. Muhammad Ali is worthy of awe to me not because he was particularly good at punching people, but because he was unabashedly a genius. His life is a testament to the human spirit as well as an unwavering sense of moral responsibility not only to other people but for oneself as well.

I decided to start off with the anecdote about my article on Virtual Youtubers because I believe that they exemplify this sense of genius, albeit in a much less dramatic way than someone like Malcolm X or Muhammad Ali. This is something that I touched on briefly in my last article, but has become more relevant to me recently as Indonesian VTuber Ayunda Risu recently discussed some of the same frustrations I have personally experienced with being accused of being phony or disingenuous (appropriately, ingenuous and genius both come from the same Latin root gigno). For her, her persona as a VTuber is just as real as any persona she takes on interacting with people in real life. She feels that she pours herself into her work, and uses her position as an opportunity to put forward the most positive version of herself.

Here’s a video completely unrelated to the topic at hand and in no way related to anything that may have happened personally to the author.

There was one comment on my previous article made by David Formosa which I thought was especially insightful. He mentioned a strange paradox that emerges from having a fictional persona, namely that embodying a character may in some circumstances permit one to act more genuinely than they would be able to in person. This is a factor that VTubers themselves often bring up. Many describe how in “real” life they have often felt restricted from being their true selves either because of a disability, social anxiety, life circumstances, or any other number of factors. I would add that the anonymity that often comes with being a VTuber makes it easier for people to behave in ways that they would otherwise feel too embarrassed or afraid act out otherwise. I conjecture that VTubers are overwhelmingly female in large part because women are put under far more restrictive expectations than men are, who for the most part worry far less about being shamed for expressing vulgarity, sexuality, or even some of their more mundane idiosyncrasies.

This is more radical than you may think. Representation of LGBTQ+ characters in media is still seen by many as “political” or “forced diversity”. The VTuber communities I know of normalize it to the point you it really feels no more marked, or unusual, than being straight. Homosexuality is heavily criminalized in Ayunda Risu’s homeland of Indonesia in particular, where anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment is escalating at an alarming pace. This doesn’t stop her colleagues Moona and Iofi from openly flirting with each other and other girls.

I’m sure this makes no sense out of context, but I want to point out that it is not legally possible for Moon and Iofi to be married where they currently live.

These issues are of international significance. While Houshou Marine’s homilies on her libido may be a fan favorite in Japan and overseas, from 1948 to 1996 her “remarkable abnormal sexual desire” could have been grounds for involuntary sterilization. Prominent Japanese politicians still make comments about LGBTQ+ people being “genetically deficient”, while a 2019 Supreme Court decision recently upheld the requirement that trans people be sterilized before legally changing their gender. From 1930 to 1970, one third of the women in Iron Mouse’s homeland of Puerto Rico were sterilized, often through coercion or force. Latina women in the United States, especially those with disabilities like Iron Mouse, have been targeted by sterilization campaigns up to this day, as whistleblowers report women in ICE detention centers have been receiving hysterectomies at high rates under dubious circumstances.

I have written an entire article on how important media representation is for supporting vulnerable groups. This may be even more true for VTubers than it is for traditional media personalities, since VTubers are able to form a closer relationship with their audience. Donations, fan art, memes, and clip translations are all ways that audience members demonstrate appreciation for their favorite VTubers, which feeds into a phenomenon called the Benjamin Franklin Effect. Basically, doing favors for other people reinforces the idea that you like them and makes you feel more invested in the relationship. While there are certainly unhealthy elements that come into play in parasocial relationships, I think that building a community around someone who is queer or otherwise a political minority guarantees that a requirement of membership to that community is acceptance of those minorities as valuable members of society and a certain degree of sensitivity to their problems.

I’ve noticed a great deal of openness towards fluidity in gender identity and expression from the community

Communities are fundamental to the well being of all humans, and therefore provide a great deal of leverage and cultural capital to those who manage them. In this respect, I believe that VTubers wield a great deal of influence over cultural and even political trends. That this is not an intuitive fact, and that people may even see VTubers as “non-political” only makes the implicit values easier to proliferate. Rather than being a threat to the political and social identities people already hold, I believe that many see the community values promoted by VTubers as a natural extension of the media, communities, and world views that people already hold dear.

Authenticity is a critical component of how we influence the world around us and bring it closer in line with values that support the flourishing of all people. Unfortunately, not everyone’s job is based around being authentic in the same way a VTuber’s is. Hearing Ayunda Risu discuss the disappointment she feels reading comments about her being a “hypocrite” or phony got me thinking about how odd it is that people feel entitled to say whatever they want about public figures, no matter how disrespectful or hurtful it may be. As a creator on the internet, this is generally pretty easy to brush off as you’re in a position of power in regards to who you have to take seriously or even interact with. However, because of the cultural attitude that “the customer is always right”, most workers find themselves at the opposite end of the power imbalance when it comes to how they are treated and in what ways they are able to express themselves.

“Female call center employees face daily nightmares” in Egypt

I have a friend who lives in Egypt. He’s incredibly smart, talented, and hard working, but because of the situation he was born into he has spent much of his adult life working at a call center. He was expected to deal with racist people day in and day out who would mock his accent, as if they could even speak a word of Arabic, and treat him as subhuman with no ability to stand up for himself. In some cases, he has been asked to participate in things he finds unethical, and as an employee he is forced to choose between acting in violation of his values or losing his livelihood. This isn’t just something we force onto other countries, I’ve already written an entire article discussing how grocery store workers are forced to put their lives at risk pandering to customers who have no respect for the dangers involved with exposure to COVID. I’m sure I could write a whole other article on times I or friends of mine have been forced to act inauthentically or incongruently with our values because of the realities of workplace hierarchy.

We all have our own stories related to the dehumanization and alienation often associated with work, especially in customer service. Most people spend more time at work than any other pursuit in their lives besides their family. For many people, family comes second. There’s a reason why so many Christmas movies tend to focus on figuring out how to balance work and family life. It cannot be healthy to practice sacrificing our authenticity during the majority of our social interactions. It must be poisonous for our souls to live in a society where we’re expected to treat workers as a dumping ground for our inadequacies and frustrations with little compassion or consideration for their humanity.

Being a VTuber is a very unique variety of work, but I still think that it can act as an exemplar for how work in general is treated by our culture. Work is sometimes seen as a type of temporary serfdom where you surrender your autonomy for a set period of time in exchange for the right to participate in society. In contrast, VTubers experience work as a way to actualize themselves, express their agency, explore their authenticity, build community, contribute value to other people, and exchange a sense of appreciation with those around them. Some of this is peculiar to the line of work they are in; it would be a bit idealistic to expect that sanitation workers or postmen discover the depths of their creativity while going about their daily rounds. That doesn’t mean we can’t express genuine gratitude and appreciation to people doing valuable work while at the same time being considerate of everyone’s needs and treating each individual contribution as indispensable and wonderful in its own right.

VTubing at its core is compensated labor. However, the relationships that are built between them and the people they work with and serve go beyond merely transactional. VTubers tend to set clear boundaries between themselves and their audience, and the audience expects them to set those boundaries to maintain a genuine feeling of community and authenticity. Audience members often express concern about the well being of the performers to the point of being obnoxious, and in return the performers make it clear to their audience that they too should take care of themselves and ensure their own needs are met. This is similar to traits I have noticed being exemplified in the very best grocery clerks. This is the opposite of what I have heard is the experience of waitresses, who are financially incentivized to put on an act for patrons.

This is where material conditions come into play. Waitresses do not decide to subject themselves to harassment and disrespect because they are incessantly greedy. Rather, people do what is necessary to survive, and when you live hand to mouth you experience severe pressure to act in whichever way is necessary to maintain financial stability. Serving people food and building a positive atmosphere for families, lovers, and friends to experience special moments together could certainly be a positive experience for everyone involved, but it’s not really feasible when your primary concern is maximizing your personal profitability so you can continue to make rent.

Every day, people make the decision to voluntarily contribute to their favorite VTubers to demonstrate the appreciation they feel for the value those entertainers provide. VTubers respond by pouring themselves into their work, sometimes through impressive feats of endurance like Korone’s famous 24 hour live streams. I believe that most people want to work hard to make life better for those around them. Meaningful service for others is something I consider to be a core emotional need. When I see disenchanted people phoning it in at work, I tend to assume that the failure is not in the individual’s work ethic but in the job itself for failing to provide a supportive environment that gives workers a sense of esteem, meaning, agency, and purpose.

In 2008, three textile factories in Egypt were granted the right to worker self-management. Conditions improved considerably.

I went a lot of places with this article, but I think it’s best to wind down and end this with a small call to action. This Christmas is a great time to start a habit of providing moral and material support to the workers who make our lives better every day. Making cookies for your local grocery store staff, leaving a tip for the mail carrier, or sending a heartfelt letter to your sanitation worker are all good ways to express your gratitude. The actions we are able to take this year are quite limited, and for many they are severely limited, but I think that all such effort, regardless of how small, is worthwhile. Work is a major component of everyone’s life, and establishing a genuine sense of community and self-worth for the people who make our lives possible is critical. Hopefully, we can reach a point someday where people feel as if they can express an aspect of their authentic selves through all facets of their lives. If corporations fail to provide their workers with a sense of self worth and influence, maybe it can come from the people they help. We owe it to them.