BY JOHN CARTER JR<\/p>\n\n\n\n
UPDATE: Allegations of plagiarism and potentially fraudulent behavior have been made against the interviewee of this article, James Somerton. In response to these allegations Somerton has removed all of his YouTube content and social media. At the time of publishing, we were unaware of these actions. Tiger Media Network does not condone such behavior.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For better or worse, YouTube has been one of the most integral platforms in the release of video essays and individual creator content. There are hurdles content creators go through to achieve success on the platform; however, for users in the LGBTQIA+ community, the struggles appear to be different. <\/p>\n\n\n\n TMN was able to speak with James Somerton, a YouTube creator with over 170,000 subscribers and millions of views on his channel, about his start on the platform, ideas concerning his videos, his relationship with the YouTube platform and his following. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Somerton got his start doing short video essays around 2014 with mostly pop culture videos; however, over time he began to find it hard to keep his thoughts to less than a thousand words. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI started watching videos from Lindsay Ellis, ContraPoints, and PhilosophyTube,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd suddenly I realized that people were actually interested in longer format stuff so I made the Monsters in the Closet videos.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, according to Somerton, it didn\u2019t take off immediately, only gaining about 300 views in the first couple of months. However in 2020 during Pride Month, YouTube gave the video some traction, which garnered Somerton 20,000 views in a month- kickstarting his choice to release videos every month and he hasn\u2019t stopped since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On September 10, 2020, he launched his Evil Queens: A Gay Look at Disney History (Video essay)<\/a> video on YouTube. This video has gained more than 275,000 views alone and discusses the history behind Disney’s gay creators and gay villains. When asked about the villans that Somerton enjoyed or even admired as a gay youth he said staples of the Jungle Book and Sleeping Beauty came to mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSheer Kahn and Maleficent, for sure. I just loved how they weren\u2019t so much evil, but supremely annoyed,\u201d Somerton said. \u201cBeing villains because one had a man (cub) encroaching on his territory, and the other didn\u2019t get a party invite. They\u2019re just so petty and dramatic, I love it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n When discussing whether or not gay youth looking up to villains as being problematic Somerton believes that the gay youth love classic villains more than even when he was young. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI see more Ursula\u2019s at Halloween than Ariels, it\u2019s kind of funny,\u201d he said. \u201cBut sadly Disney hasn\u2019t really been making new iconic villains. All the bad guys now are just misunderstood or not good people<\/em>. Not necessarily evil. Which I honestly think is a knee-jerk reaction to everyone seeing the classic villains as queer coded. They don\u2019t want to be seen as homophobic so they\u2019ve done away with real villains altogether. \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n This discussion about LGBT history bled into conversation about Somerton\u2019s importance of sharing LGBT history. When asked whether or not he thought the discussion about LGBT is silenced, Somerton agreed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI definitely think it\u2019s silenced, especially in schools,\u201d he said. \u201cYou don\u2019t really learn anything about LGBTQ history unless you specifically take a Queer History class in University. And YouTube is way more accessible, and far cheaper, than any university classroom. So even though most of my videos talk about Disney, or anime, or some other kind of media, I always like to insert actual information about queer history and queer culture in there too.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Somerton went on to discuss another video he released on January 21, \u201cThe Story of the Gay Holocaust (Complete Documentary).\u201d <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s videos like The Pink Triangles<\/em>, which is entirely historical. I made that because gay victims of the holocaust are basically ignored so I felt like a long-form documentary-type video was required since there\u2019s no way it was being taught in high schools,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then YouTube went and made it 18+. Go figure. Just kind of reinforces my point.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When opening the video, YouTube prompts a \u201cThis video may be inappropriate for some users\u201d warning as well as after another warning stating \u201cThe following content has been identified by the YouTube community as inappropriate or offensive to some audiences.\u201d immediately after. Both of which require potential viewers to click \u201cI understand and wish to proceed\u201d. The video contains no slurs or pornographic content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Recently on Twitter, Somerton expressed his struggles with the YouTube platform after the release of his The Necessity of Gay Crime<\/a> Essay concerning Banana Fish. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere is absolutely <\/em>a difference in how they [Youtube) treat straight and LGBTQ content. I\u2019ve seen educational channels put out videos that are almost identical sex-ed videos,\u201d he said. \u201cOne for straight kids, one for gay. And then the gay one is demonetized. In my own experience, there are thousands of Holocaust videos on YouTube. Documentaries, commentaries, etc. And they\u2019re all safe by YouTube standards. Even some full on Holocaust denial videos, totally monetized. But my gay Holocaust video is 18+. So YouTube has a huge double standard they like to pretend doesn\u2019t exist. The fact that \u201cpray away the gay\u201d organizations can advertise in front of my videos, but my video about the queer panic defense gets rated 18+ says a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Somerton says he has been trying to get some content on Nebula but has not found success there and has been relying on his patrons, especially this past month when Youtube demonetized both the videos he posted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy Patrons are amazing. I couldn\u2019t be more lucky to have them on my side.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n When asking more about his experience with his following and the discussion made surrounding his videos Somerton states that the response has been shockingly positive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI love doing live streams and things like that because I actually get to talk to the people who watch my videos,\u201d he said. \u201cA few videos have actually been made because of discussions I\u2019ve had on live streams.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Concerning negative responses, Somerton says that while rare, is something he has learned to navigate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s very rare that any real negativity will pop up in my comments or Twitter or Discord. And I\u2019ve gotten pretty good at policing my comments to make sure any hateful people are kept out of there,\u201d he said. \u201cIf people have a problem with me, I\u2019ll gladly talk to them and figure things out, but if people come into the comments just to bash on gay or trans youth, those comments get deleted right away. I like my channel to be safe. \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tOn April 1, 2021 the video \u201cKilling Stalking\u201d and The Romancing of Abuse<\/a> was posted to Somerton\u2019s channel and it gained over 1.4 million views. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think toxic love is marketed toward women as a project. A sort of \u2018You can fix him\u2019 storyline,\u201d he said. \u201cWhereas for gay men, it\u2019s more \u2018you\u2019re lucky you found someone at all, just deal with it.\u2019 Both are horrible, but I do think its interesting how toxic romance is marketed differently between the two.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n