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How YouTube and “Vlogging” have effected perceptions of gender identity.

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Over the past few years, YouTube has become a huge part of mainstream society, with users like Zoella (Zoe Sugg) having makeup lines and household items for sale in major high street stores. The largest YouTuber commands an audience of 49 million subscribers, numbers mainstream media outlets could only dream of. However, the popularity of YouTube has also allowed for ideas and values surrounding gender identity to be expressed and exposed into a mainstream market.

An example of this is the YouTube Gigi Gorgeous who started on youtube as Gregory. However over the 7 years, she has become a social media star, Gigi has gone through a full male to female transition that has been documented online.

With nearly 2.5 million subscribers her videos have clearly impacted a lot of people, this access to transgender women’s story is something that would not be available without the internet and has allowed so many people who themselves are also transgender and those who aren’t equally to learn and understand the struggles of transgender people and the wide spectrum of gender that exists.

A story of hers that has had a particularly large impact on mainstream views of gender identity was her video “detained in Dubai for being transgender” this video has had around 2.8 million views as of November of this year. This story also broke into the mainstream media with news outlets such as the daily mail and Time magazine online covering the story. This level of exposure of the prejudice against transgender people is not something that is common in the mainstream news, this showed how internet stars are having a huge impact on the perceptions of transgender people and affecting how mainstream society may perceive these people.

However, Gigi has also been criticized for her lack of content covering transgender issues. Her Youtube channel mainly consists of “beauty guru” style content, which many transgender people feel is a poor use of her internet fame. Many people believe that since her transition she has moved away from talking about this issues in order to avoid the controversy and to be “subscriber-friendly” and too be seen now as a “real woman”.

YouTube has also allowed or another side of gender identity to be expressed. “WOW presents” a YouTube channel created by The production company World Of Wonder, showcases drag artists, mostly from their TV show “RuPauls drag race” which itself has helped to change perceptions of gender identity around the world. However the televised show isn’t available around the world, so this YouTube channel allows for drag artists to be viewed anywhere with an internet connection. This means that gender fluidity is something that can be expressed to an ever expanding audience, meaning more people come to understand gender identity as a spectrum and not black and white.

Overall in the eleven years since it was founded YouTube has created a space where away from mainstream media people have been allowed to express their own thoughts and ideas. This has allowed for a massive increase in the awareness of people of all gender identities to express themselves and has given people the opportunity to be able to access and communicate with people who are struggling with gender identity or who are just interested in the subject. It has broadened minds and helped people to be able to express themselves freely.

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