#i found somerton through his video essay on killing stalking

[chihirolovebot]

on a real note that bit near the end of the video was genuinely haunting. hearing somerton talk about how gay writers are erased from history was one thing (with all the irony being that he stepped on the backs of numerous underpaid, underprivileged and uncredited queer writers to build his youtube channel) but when h revealed it wasn't even somerton's quote in the first place? the worst, most crushing sort of irony. how do you lament about the erasure of gay people and gay writers in history... whilst erasing a gay writer and taking his words as your own?

#it's genuinely unconscionable and its given me a lot to think about #i found somerton through his video essay on killing stalking #one of my favourite psychological horrors #i was overjoyed to find someone who seemed to recognise it for the dark character study of trauma and abuse that it was #and not a love story #now all i want to do is go back to that video and search up the phrases in google #to see who really wrote those words and phrases that got to me so deeply #fuck man . what a disappointment #james somerton #hbomberguy #veetxt

[crazybiaatch]

okay so with James Somerton hate being okay and encouraged now, let me recount my discovery of him and equally as swift hatred of him.

The first video I found of his was his interview with the vampire video, bc I was watching it at the time and everyone knows yt spies. I clicked on it hoping for a breakdown of their relationships or something similar, I wasn't sure since I'd only watched the first 2 episodes at the time. I watched his video in full, and walked away mostly just bored. Somehow it didn't even spoil me so I just continued on my merry way thinking he was just another YouTuber I would watch once and never again.

Then I put on a video essay playlist to watch while writing and his Killing Stalking video came up. I love killing stalking it's so good! Let's give it my full attention! Sang-woah. He calls Sangwoo Sang Woah. I cringed. But I tried to power through. Now keep in mind, I had only seen these two, so I figured he was a horror video essayist kinda like Wendigoon, I knew he talked abt the queer elements in interview with the vamp bc it's kind of hard not to, but Somerton made a point to always remind me that killing stalking is queer. I didn't watch it all the way through, and I was tired at the time, but I'm pretty sure I clicked off when he started trying to say that Sangwoos murders was a metaphor for being in the closet. Anyone who interacted with killing stalking and who actually read it and could see it's themes would tell you that Sangwoo isn't gay. He's not queer at all, who knows if he even feels sexual attraction, but he wasn't in a relationship with Yoon Bum, he was keeping him hostage. What I watched of the video just told me that he hadn't really read it and had maybe watched a summary or something. Now I know that the parts that seemed like that were probably just the parts he added in to be able to make fun of women

#hbomberguy #killing stalking #james somerton #its just really obvious #idk maybe its bc i reas it 3 times and love talking abt it with my friends

[ouyangzizhensdad]

ive found that most youtube analysis of queer asian media is hugely lacking. james somertons (I would guess also largely plagerized) video essay on killing stalking was also mediocre and largely a platform to take shots at 'straight women writing gay men', with very little love or understanding for queer and gay asians and the circumstances around the art they create. not surprised that he would steal from a video essay that largely extorted banal opines about mdzs and danmei. doesn't make stealing it right, or mean the original creator doesn't deserve analysis, but it would be nice to see voices who take danmei on its own terms

Hi anon,

I don't think the video is one that was plagiarised, it was just part of a playlist showcasing queer creators (in a 'there are other queer creators who aren't lazy stealing hacks, don't despair and give them attention!' kind of way).

At the heart of it, a very small creator who seems to be an undergraduate made a video that stemmed from his enthusiasm around having recently discovered and dived into the world of danmei and writing an essay about it in his uni class (nothing wrong on the face of it). So it's not surprising that his research skills are lacking or that he has a very under-developed understanding of danmei, especially because he seems to have mostly accessed danmei through the official translations and what he watched on netflix/yt versus the trove of information that are the fan spaces that have existed for many years and help the uninitiated understand more about danmei in a more organic manner? It's just 🤷‍♂️ disappointing because 1) he's included on the same list as a creator like Matt Baume.... we are talking wildly different calibers.... 2) this video being on the list might become some people's introduction to danmei which uh oh... 3) i am so normal and so sane about mdzs and mxtx (:

EDIT (since i saw this second ask too late):

Rather than questioning his taste, for me I guess it's more proof that even people who like things to be accurate will not be able to notice inaccuracies when it is a topic they are less familiar with (the obvious solution is for him to become obsessed with danmei webnovels). I have never personally looked for queer creators on yt doing video essays about asian media, but there must surely exist videos that are better-researched than this one.

#brine corner #anon ask

[shroomiwoomi]

okay so i know I'm some random. guy. on the Internet but my stupid brain finds all of my opinions important enough to post on aforementioned internet so I wanted to weigh in on hbomberguy new video because it's really fucking funny. here are some disorganized thoughts.

first off, hi. I'm Shroomi, I'm 16, and I'm a video essayist. i was inspired to pivot to video essays around a year ago by (originally) illuminaughtii, Harris Boober the Guy, and mainly Philosophy Tube. video essays are some of my favorite things, and I watch a lot of them.

im homeschooled, so I end up spending most of my time on YouTube. when you watch as much as I do, it's normally really easy to tell when someone does not care about what they are doing. i inevitably discovered James Somerton around a year ago through his Killing Stalking video, and it became very apparent to me that he was using a genuine crisis of media literacy to push a misogynistic agenda. that's all I remember from that video (and I'm not rewatching it)-- he made no good points, no clippable quotes, just... really hated teenage girls? for some reason?

this is a common thread in specifically white queer media, to direct an unreasonable amount of hate towards straight women, or those we perceive as such (the author of Love, Simon is a good example of his contempt). it's rooted in misogyny, as is everything. this is a common thread in Somerton's videos, it seems. I'll admit my knowledge of his videos is meager at best, but I have watched enough of his content to tell he is stuck in this phase of the white queer journey. he still has many internal (though he externalizes them quite a bit) biases to work through before he can even be a good video essayist. good media is unbiased media, and he has a clear bias. bro hates women. well, that may be an overstatement, but he seems to have this contempt and disregard for women and their ideas.

I'm not going to pretend the Killing, Stalking video and his contempt for the fanbase wasn't at least a little deserved. for those who aren't fatally online, Killing, Stalking is a gruesome account of a (fictional) abusive relationship. the fanbase, however, treated it as a love story. since Somerton's video on the subject came out, the fanbase has largely died down, which is honestly a good thing, but the amount of hatred Somerton seemed to have for these teenage girls who failed to understand the true meaning of Killing, Stalking was unprecedented. I found it odd to look at his subscriber count and find it over 100k; why would such a large YouTuber cover something so niche? but it is clear now to me that he was trying to push this gentle version of misogyny.

this isn't even mentioning the true subject of hbomberguy's video, plagiarism. as a previously dedicated Illuminaughtii fan, i should be talking about that. but I'm stuck on the contempt for women.

I'm probably gonna rewatch the video and reblog an addition after I sleep I've been awake for like 20 hours so apologies if this is poorly worded

#james somerton #txt #hbomberguy