Capitalizing on entrenched and easily exploitable anti-sex policies by internet giant payment processors and a new internet sex panic ushered in by FOSTA, 8chan trolls have started a campaign to mass-report attractive women who make ASMR videos. Listing names of women making these sound-effect videos in a forum thread called “PayPal lowering the hammer on ASMRtits” they’ve declared war by posting links to report pages for PayPal, and called upon fellow haters to get the women kicked off YouTube and Patreon as well. They’re laughing at the women’s anguish over creating nonsexual content and losing their revenue streams, saying things like “another whore for the deep-freeze” — in between posting anti-Semitic and Pepe the frog images, of course.
If you’re unfamiliar with ASMR, it’s essentially a genre of videos where the creator makes sound effects in a variety of scenarios that are geared toward evoking a sense-memory of tingling sensations from the back of the head. If anyone ever played with your hair and you felt a funny but calming shiver, you get the idea. The performance artists in these videos do things to create sounds like playing with hair, brushing microphones with makeup brushes, chewing ice and lots of other things that evoke a feeling for viewers. Not everyone tunes into the sensations, but those who do find it very beneficial.
It may sound weird, but it’s quite popular — especially with people combating anxiety and insomnia. University research has found that these sound effects and their resultant physical trigger, ASMR (“autonomous sensory meridian response”), actually work. In June this year, the University of Sheffield’s department of psychology found that people who “use” ASMR showed significant reductions in heart rates, as well as lowering of stress and anxiety, and feelings of social connectivity.
“The study found that those who experience ASMR showed significantly greater reductions in their heart rates when watching ASMR videos (an average decrease of 3.14 beats per minute) compared to those who do not,” wrote the researchers. “They also showed significant increases in positive emotions including relaxation and feelings of social connection.”
Interesting facts about ASMR aside, what’s happening to women who make these videos is ugly, disturbing and harrowing. The systems in which ASMR videos are made possible and distributed (YouTube, PayPal, Reddit, Patreon and others) are still a dream come true for men who want to harm women. Conservative social media policing mores naturally conflate sexuality with women and LGBT people, while relying on discriminatory and anti-sex automation. It deepens the wound of trying to be a female or LGBT creator in a system that categorically doesn’t believe you or trust you.
If you ever tagged me to do one of those tag game thingies and I never did it:
1) Thank you, seriously. Those are fun and being included shows that my followers care enough to want to learn more about me.
2) Very sorry about that, it’s extremely likely that I said to myself “Cool! But I’m busy at the moment, I’ll have to do this later today or tomorrow” before proceeding to just straight-up forget, now it’s too far back in my notifications and/or your blog to find again.
Oh it will be don’t worry. And there’s gonna be a much more diverse fandom that goes beyond she|th vs. kl@nce or lotur@ vs. allur@nce or what ever shipcourse there is. Like expect fans and stans for the characters that are sidelined in current fandom like Hunk, the generals, Krolia, Allura, and most especially Haggar (who I foresee getting the biggest fandom given a few years. She’s a iconic villain ya’ll. She’s gonna be the gateway villain for a lot of villain fuckers for years to come I assure you.)
And perks of being a large fandom, there’s gonna be a fic for everything in the future. AU where Lotor dies in s5ep4? Expect a ton of “For want of a Nail” AUs on that with various plots and focus on different characters. A “what happened to the mouse” fic for the generals, I anticipate the 70k+ fic starring Ezor and Zethrid as they develop their army but also their romance. Acxa Alone fic? You bet. A fic focusing on the romance on Keith’s parents in depth? You got it. The sibling theory fic canon never delivered to us? Yep that too. Expect a ton of switch fics too. like what if Lotor was the one sleeping in the pod and the paladins woke him up or a fic on Empress Allura.
The only downside is of course, that having legit criticism for the show is gonna be a lot harder to make i the future. People are gonna take your critique as personal attacks and are not gonna like it. But ehh, it’s better than people shitting on it cause it’s the “totally rad” thing to do now.
superheroladies 