not the original anon, but I'd go check Kat Lo's twitter. There's a whole storm over there rn because she didn't just accept what james somerton was saying at face value and now he's deleted his twitter.

I did and holy fuck, this guy really even went after JessieGender after she tried to tell him he was being an ass.

Like holy fuck, this is WAY of a disppropotionate response to what is ultimately such fucking mild criticism. Literally what this fuck had to do was say "yeah, you know what, that wasn't cash money of me to say, sorry" and done, but OH FUCKING NO, that would be too fucking easy. Instead this guy wants to involve the fucking police while putting a trans woman in blast, jesus christ. Chill was just never a thought on the mind of this plagiarist piece of shit. Although, I shouldn't be surprised since this is the same fucking guy who brought up the terminal cancer of his mother as a response to people criticizing him for a thumbnail option and even blamed people to him becoming an ass to his partner. Like dude... what the fuck. Who the fuck does that. This guy is fucking unreal, I swear. He always does this every time he gets criticized for anything. He escalates way more than it was ever warranted just to try to guilt trip people into feeling bad for criticizing him at all in the first place. What a slimy fucking ass.

The worst part is that this shit works. So many mentions about him right now are just being concerned for his well being, and how much harassment he gets, and how poor little Somerton baby boy needs to be protected from the evil mean JessieGender fans, like this is actually disgusting. No one can convince me that Somerton isn't having the biggest smuggest smile ever reading those.

Welp

the fuckable twink comment in the video took me out at the knees

Nothing sums up tumblr vs twitter more than which exposed youtuber people are worked up about

AND IT’S TODD IN THE SHADOWS WITH THE STEEL CHAIR!

i will say tho as someone with memory issues we can like. talk abt this situation without calling that part into question. if i write something and can't remember/find the source, i Tell people that, i don't act like i came up with it myself. and as he says himself, there is plenty he could have been doing to mitigate those issues, and he didn't. and we can question if he's telling the truth about specific parts without questioning if he actually Has Memory Issues or epilepsy or head trauma, he can have those things and still use it as a convenient excuse to explain away active choices. similar to the suicide attempt i don't feel like this is the kind of thing it's the public's place to stick our noses in when we can criticize him just fine without it

ok, i know i'm a couple days late to this... but i listened to hbomberguy's video on james somerton and....... man.

i only really watched 2-3 videos of somerton's dating back 1-2 years ago, and he had long-since fallen out of my youtube recommended, but i think it's important to chronicle why i (and potentially other, especially casually-viewing, queer people) believed him, and how insidious that trust-based belief was/is. for context, i'm gen z, and the videos of his i watched were (paraphrasing, based on memory) on the "rich"/complex/intertwined history of queerness and vampires (+ the monstrous in literature and film), the connection of current unrealistic body standards among gay men to an ideal which started with the "hyper-perfect bodies" of nazi soldiers, and one last video on the tie between queer perfectionism and self-harm in film that i do not remember as well. regardless.

i.... am unsure how much my experience of queerness, especially when i was child/teenager, aligns with other people's experiences, but the majority of the media/social environments i was in, despite how non and/or loving they were, were decidedly non-queer. i was the first currently-living relative in my family to be openly queer/explore queerness as a teenager, and that meant i had to explore what queerness meant/was, on my own. i had a few queer friends as a teenager, but most of us were still coming to terms with our identities and/or had not fully formulated who we were, yet. we're much more open with each other now than we were back then. in short, that mostly meant going online and trying to find and connect with other queer people online, even if i didn't realize that's what i was reaching out for at the time. there were no queer elders around me, or if they were, i did not know they were there. i, as well as the other queer people around me, were effectively isolated from these parts of ourselves irl.

in those circumstances i think it's fairly normative to look for other sources of information, then. as i got older, the queer and queer-aligned people in my corner grew, but i was still used to the format of outsourcing knowledge from queer elders online and when i was lucky enough, in person. i had fundamentally accepted that i did not know a lot about the community i found myself apart of, or at least that i would never know as much as i thought i did (especially when it came to intersectional identities/experiences involving queerness). i had to get used to being wrong, and/or learning about perspectives that i had never even thought of/considered before due to the inherently limited nature of my own experiences.

so, when i stumbled across a video of james somerton's detailing the deep, intertwined history between queer people and vampires as depicted in literature and film, i assumed this was just another part of queer history that i had not heard about/been a part of. i think the lack of transparently cited material, in a way, made me feel like these were novel, true-to-the-queer-experience observations and/or real queer histories that had deliberately not been passed on by wider society, a history that was passed down verbally inside the queer community in spite of those which intended to suppress it. it's naive, looking back on it now (specifically how i took his narrative of queer people at face value), but i don't know how else i could have viewed it given the information/level of emotional open-ness i had at the time.

i thought of the body image video similarly— james somerton was in some ways, was a queer elder, or at least someone who i had established in my mind as more well-versed in "true" queer history/culture than i was due to the vampire video. i had never experienced life as a fat, white gay man from canada growing up with the social pressures of staying in the closet/disassociating from being perceived as queer due to issues of direct social safety. i had never downloaded grindr or seen what gay male social-sexual subcultures were like. how was i not to know that these experiences somerton described, this through-line to a history long past, were not genuine? the nazis were horrible, so why couldn't it be true that some of their aesthetic/social ideals passed on to our own negative performances of gender identity, especially in relation to unattainable masculinity?

(note: im paraphrasing my understanding of his videos here in an intentionally simplistic black/white good/bad manner, but at the time, that's what they meant to me. his videos took advantage, in part, of my lack of knowledge and reinforced/restructured concepts that were harmful and/or blatantly untrue, yet seemed socially plausible to me due to my own pre-existing moral biases)

i was watching other queer youtubers at the time, and (luckily) ended up sticking with them for much longer than i did somerton, but not insignificant portions of somerton's ideas still stuck in my mind as something "true" to the queer-historical canon. i was not immune to his lies, plagiarism, or propaganda. even when he used it to subtly bash other people, including women and other queer identities. i just assumed he knew better about the intersection of social queerness in film/specific historical contexts, and used my personal feelings of queer-communal inferiority/imbalance of information to squash the parts of myself that squirmed with discomfort at some of the things he was saying. maybe women (whether they were queer or not) did actively contribute to the suppression of queer men, and could be automatic bad actors from this point of view? maybe current beliefs on body image and fatphobia in queer male spaces did derive from n*zi propaganda absorbed by american/allied soldiers. i don't know.

my lack of knowledge surrounding queer history/identity in those specific instances caused me to dig my own shallow grave. it feels unsettling to look back on. after looking at hbomber's video, i think some of my own internalized misogyny and biphobia, even back when i was identifying as bi, and my subsequent distancing from those two facets of my identity, were in part influenced by media like the videos created by james somerton. and regardless of how i feel now (as a person who often feels more aligned with being perceived as queer/nonbinary) that's really..... fucked up.

because regardless of how i identify and feel today, knowing that part of my perception of self, as well as my perspective on queer people, queer community, and queer history comes from a person who so blatantly rips off, demeans, and misrepresents queer people and women? it feels..... really awful in a way that i can tell hasn't fully settled in my stomach yet.

and i can't help but wonder how many other young adult queer people he convinced as well, even in small ways. i feel like i was searching for understanding and acceptance, belonging in a community i didn't fully understand but wanted to align myself with, and instead i was, in part, taught to subtly mistrust and hate myself and the people around me. to insidiously dismiss and demean queer/straight women and bi people, in the way he did. to give my dignity up, to squash the internal, wary voice in my head in favor to white cis men like him, and remember that they, ultimately, know best/the most of anyone else. to trust their word like it is an untapped facet of academia, or an inherent truth of my own community— of my own identity as a bi person, a queer person, and as a woman. (and arguably my identity as an indigenous person, as it is wrapped in so much of how i love, what i believe it means to love, and how we engage in community)

i flip-flop between the differences for myself when it comes to queerness and bi-ness (queerness and lesbian-ness, as well), then between womanhood and queer expressions of gender (including and especially nonbinary/lesbian expressions of gender), and to think that a portion of what i've been internally wrestling with and trying to figure out for myself has been based off of straight up.... lies and disdain? based off of the hacked-up and stolen works of other queer people, intentionally cut of their personal unique contexts to better suit his own identity as a canadian white gay cis man who felt snubbed by women in high school?

i can't fully articulate how awful that is to realize for both myself and in consideration of the people i love, in all of its overt and subtle forms of influence.

.....and this is all with me only really watching 2 videos from the guy, arguably 3. what is it like for people who has been watching somerton's videos/keeping up with them more religiously ?? i don't know. i just know that is/has been harmful, even in subtle ways, and i wanted to record and chronicle this viewpoint, somehow. idk if anyone will see this post let alone read it due to how long it has ended up being but i hope it is helpful.

i think hbomberguy was entirely right in pointing out the directly harmful effects somerton's videos/actions have had on lgbt creators, i just couldn't also help but think of the negative impact his videos will/have had on younger lgbt people, and the way it influences the way we engage with queerness itself. good night

I feel like people going "I can't believe you watched Somerton for so long, couldn't be me" are missing the obvious point (everyone is fallible), but are also missing the bigger picture? Which is that a lot of younger queer folk are going to have to now deal with intense internalized misogyny and arguably, homophobia. Somerton positioned himself as an authority figure, and they trusted his word. Telling these people they were BAD for falling into those pitfalls isn't going to like. Help them unlearn that shit? Being awful to people isn't really all that conducive to change, especially one that's tied in deeply with cultural norms. I think there's a fine line between helping people realize their issues and making it clear to people who are cruel on purpose that that shit won't fly. Maybe we mind where we stand on that line with this.

this is a joke. i hated business school.

(conversation with @thesweetestclementine)

I haven't finished hbomb's video yet, so I know he mentions this but IDK if he expands upon it more later BUT

In the illuminaughtii bit, he points out how YouTube video essays are a very collaborative art form. People ask for tips about editing, people talk to each other, people work together--hell, even individual channels often have teams working together.

And that's what makes me so sad about the Internet Historian and James Somerton's plagiarism. Like, I loved the "Man in a Cave" video. The script was top notch. I'm so mad that IH stole the entire script wholesale because if he had reached out and asked, I feel like it would have been really cool. If he had said "hey, Mental Floss/Lucas Reilly, I would love to use this article as a script", he still would have gotten the views (as he did provide the narration, the other voice actors, and the animation), but so would the other creator! Without Reilly's writing, the video would not be (and is not) as good. I don't know what career Reilly wants, but no matter what it was, having a video that went that viral would have given it a huge boost. It's not just that IH stole the revenue, IH stole future career prospects that Reilly deserved.

And then going onto James Somerton's videos. We all know that every video is basically a "collaboration against people's wills". If you truly thought all these people had great, worthwhile ideas, why didn't you truly collaborate with them? Why not truly work with the writers? And it's not impossible to do so. Somerton [allegedly] read Tinkerbells and Evil Queens. He [allegedly] watched The Celluloid Closet. It's not unheard of to take a bunch of articles about the same subject and synthesize them together into a cohesive narrative--he's READ THE BOOKS THAT DONE THAT [allegedly].

But I know why. It's because these guys (and Blair and Filip and people who do this) want to be the ubermensch. They can't help but want to be the one-man team. They want to say "I did this and no one else" and bask in how amazing it is for one person to put out such high quality work at such a high quantity. They can't stand to share the spotlight.

And they make more bank this way.

James Somerton's Tweets

Nobody ever told Somerton that desperation is not an attractive quality? "This streaming service didn't invite ME?? Me, the self proclaimed king of queer content?? That only I provide and no one else? Then that must mean they hate exclusive queer content! It can't be because they didn't like how I carry myself, the plagiarism allegation or literally anything wrong about my content or myself knocking on their metaphorical doors at 3AM! It has to be them being discriminatory! Because don't liking ME is equal at being queerphobic!" What an entitled twat.

Second time this guy pretends like he is the only one doing that and refusing to accept that maybe Nebula had their reason. I don't even fucking watch Nebula so I have no investment on defending them, but like, literally all they did was not want Somerton on their platform and this guy is throwing a hissy fit like this was a declaration of war. I wouldn't want Somerton on my platform either.

"They blacklist people who actively chase them for their attention, I heard on a podcast. Therefore that must mean they are gatekeeping since they didn't took the time to accept me. If they have accepted me then that would have meant it was a perfect site, because, again, there's nothing wrong about me or my content."

"This is why I avidly support self-publishing and independent film". I bet he does, because it makes it easier for him to plagiarize both without too much people calling him out. He supports them soooooo much, that's why he will steal both whenever is convenient for him and don't credit them at all until someone else calls him out. At which point he will paint that person as a harasser and bring out some other personal tragedy to disuade anyone from criticizing him in the first place. "They never responded to me, wah wah." Nobody ever tells Somerton that publishing agencies never fucking bother to answer you when they reject your work. I have lost account of how many times me or my friends have tried to get our own works in paper and literally never got a simple "thank you, next" as a response. Many of them literally warn you on their pages "if we haven't contacted you back then we have decided that your work is not suitable for us". This is actually fucking standard behaviour. Do you have any fucking idea how foolish we would have looked if we were complaining all over social media about how those publishing companies were evil because they didn't send us a proper rejection letter? They don't actually owe you shit, Somerton, not even that. They rejected you already, just take the L and fucking move on, you big fucking baby.

How nice of James Somerton to support other queer content creators! It was so supportive of him when he stole content from Alexander Avila that he worked really hard to make and then didn't even gave him credit or a proper apology to his face! Fuck this guy, honestly.

This James Somerton situation has just made me realize I need to be better about actively watching video essays instead of letting certain ones be background noise. Because DAMN the plagiarism is really obvious if you actually pay attention for longer than five seconds.

i've kinda been rotating the whole james somerton situation around in my head all day because i really liked his content and, like i said, i am super disappointed but i'd like to point out one point about the misogny that i noticed in some of his vidoes that i kinda ignored because i liked the rest but i think it's weird to call all women who shil mlm ships "straight white women fetishizing gay men" because queer women exist... Also, unfortunately because in a lot of pieces of media there are more well developed male characters than female characters so obviously mlm ships will end up being more popular if the characters already had more interesting dynamics...

I'm not saying it's not a thing at all or that queer women can't be guilty of this as well but it did kind of rub me the wrong way to be this one sided about it... Mainly because a big part of my Instagram bubble is queer bookstagram where Heartstopper and RWRB are really popolar but there are also a lot of really popular sapphic books (sometimes even by the same authors). it's just really weird to frame it like there are a lot of people framing the Heartstopper fandom as a whole as toxic straight women because a lot of people in the fandom are queer and can relate a lot to the characters even thought there experiences isn't the exact same... (i relate a lot to Nick's journey with his bisexuality and i really didn't expext the comic to resonate so much with me when i started it i was just curious what the hype was about and i already liked radio silence)

i guess i'm just frustrated about dismissing the experiences of queer women and non-binary people when you also talk about queer erasure in your videos (AND PLAGERIZE WORK ABOUT QUEER ERASURE??? DID HE NOT SEE HOW MESSED UP THIS WAS????)

mad men nights on PAUSE i gotta start watching hbomberguy's new exposéeeee

James Somerton just sent out what can only be a suicide note.

For all his faults, he's not irredeemable. I'm hard on him because I want him to do better, not because I think he needs punishment - he's punishing himself enough - but if he wants a comeback, he has to earn it.

And all lives matter and no one should have to think this is their only course of action.

So keep him in your thoughts/prayers/hopes that he's alright and he gets help that he needs.

My shitty abusive ex fiancee kept sending me James Somerton essays and I could never even finish one because he was so up his own ass. Guy speaks like he's looking down from the mountain top. Hearing about this shit is not surprising but is also vindication lmao

Fuck him. He made tens of thousands of dollars and whined about having no money while making that money off of stolen content and pretending he was the only gay tuber out there.