Multi-Media | My First Response Editorial
Happy holidays, everybody! As the year winds down, we find ourselves looking for ways to show people we care about them by giving them the biggest and most expensive presents imaginable.
I myself have my own list of thing I had wanted this year, but what I really wanted was to become famous, to extend my reach, to get my writing out to a larger audience. I’ve been doing this for about a year! Surely my big break, or even a medium-sized one, was on the horizon!
But nothing could have prepared me for this.
So… uh…
Before I continue, I just want to say a few things.
First of all, I’m just going to call this person “M” for the rest of this response. Hope that’s okay.
Second, I’m… amazed. And flattered. I can’t believe that somebody saw one of my little editorials and was so intrigued by it that they wanted to talk about it on not just a different platform, but in a video format.
So Stained Glass is my first editorial to cross mediums. That’s the power of being united in hatred of Lily Orchard, I guess.
(And if any of you are mad at M for doing this, for making a video out of reading off of somebody’s Medium post, Lily did it first- except bad. Just awful. She credited the person in the comments, sure, but she added nothing besides reading their arguments, to the point where Lily actually apologized for how that segment of her Steven Universe video was handled.)
So I watched the video, and it wasn’t what I expected. Not that that’s a good or bad thing, it’s just different than what I thought it was going to be. I was expecting that somebody just found my editorial, and was going to read parts of it out loud while providing commentary.
I didn’t expect the back-and-forth comparisons between my two Worst lists, much less debating on which entry was truly the worse video. I didn’t expect the video to be thirty-five minutes long; I was told that it was a short video (not that I mind, I prefer longer content anyway).
Most of all, I didn’t expect so much disagreement between M and myself- not that there’s anything wrong with that.
But I do want to take this time to go through this video, clear up some misunderstandings, defend my choices, and chip in my own two cents.
#10
On one hand, I can see how the old #10 could be construed as worse, because she was being literally factually incorrect. On the other hand, I found the tangents in the My Little Pony video to be more unnecessary, the misinformation to be more integral to the video’s structure, all with the extra problem of hating straight people for no real reason.
I dunno, it’s just dumb.
#9
Just to clarify, I didn’t say the whole video was objectifying, just that the title and some of Lily’s comments on her Tumblr came off that way. And yes, I know the Family Guy video is one so bad that Lily actually retracted it, but this new placement was done largely to make the point that Lily can mess up a lot even when talking about things she likes, sometimes because she likes them. It’s worse than “Tropes vs Ida Davis” because it goes to show that Lily never stopped being hypocritical and passive-aggressive towards shows she likes and dislikes, respectively.
M, you may think that it’s easier to talk about something you like than something you hate, but my point was that Lily can’t do either to save her life.
#8
Nothing to comment on here, I just wanted to say that yes, there are indeed Bechdel tests for every type of representation. In fact, one time I saw one that judged PoC representation based on whether or not two named PoC characters talked about something besides a white person and that was the moment I gave up on the whole “representation” thing.
#7
Honestly, I think I should have been even harder on “Bitch Eating Crackers” than I was, for one reason: even if everything Lily said in the video was true, she still screwed up if the point was to put a stop to her online harassment.
Why? Well, say what you will about The Mysterious Mr. Enter, but when he did a video about his online harassment, it actually worked because not only did the things he talked about in the video actually happen, but he mentioned people by name. No vaguery, no placeholder names, he just called them out directly.
I’ve noticed a trend over the course of being on YouTube for several years: If you make a video addressing harassment that doesn’t directly call people out by name, it’s over. The end. You failed. The video will not work. First of all, if people talk about you and mention you by name, you have a right to mention them by name. Second of all, if these people are as dangerous as you claim, it’s important to let your followers know who they are so they don’t get involved.
Either Lily was knowingly lying, or she wasn’t taking this seriously. Probably both.
#6
Not much to say, except that even if you agree with the nucleus of Lily’s problems with Little Witch Academia, the execution of Lily’s criticism is terrible and steeped in her anti-anime bias. Also, my complaints with Lily’s video had nothing to do with shipping itself.
Intermission:
One of M’s biggest problems with me was that I didn’t talk about the videos she thought were the worst, like Lily’s videos about morality and inaction, or her anime ranking video. Let me just take the time to say that every video I didn’t include either bored me more than anything else or was discussed better by someone else. In the meantime, here are some videos I wish I had gotten around to talking about, and maybe even should have put on the list:
Every Anime I’ve Ever Watched Ranked From Worst to Best (Published August 10, 2022)
I mean it was bad, very bad, I just didn’t have that much to say. The part about Revolutionary girl Utena was pretty bad, but the rest of the video doesn’t inspire me to talk about it.
A Thought Experiment on Heroism and Inaction (Published September 23, 2021) + A Follow Up On Heroism (Published October 28, 2021)
Okay, honestly? The reason I didn’t talk about this or Lily’s anime video is that other people had already covered these videos and did so pretty well, M included (yes, I knew about her before this). I wanted to save my list for videos I hadn’t seen adequately covered.
Golden Rules for LGBTA Representation (Published June 27, 2019)
I didn’t want to bog down the entire list with her videos on representation, else we’d be here forever. This one is just as bad, though.
Maybe “Politics As Fandom” Wasn’t A Good Idea (Published December , 2022)
Well, this last video she published was pretty bad. That said, not only has it ALREADY been ripped apart, but it’s so incoherent and scattershot that I’m not even sure how I would talk about it. I might reference this video some other time in future editorials, but that’s about it.
Top Ten Best/Worst/Blandest Episodes of MLP (Published May 7, 2020)
I of all people know that these kinds of lists are subjective, but some of this reasoning REALLY seems like reaching on Lily’s part. Also, why was this a Glass of Water?
Calarts Style Isn’t Real, You’re Just Old (Published October 15, 2022)
“No, actually WEEBS!!!111!!!1!1!!”
We Need To Start Having Honest Discussions About Creative Vision (Published September 6, 2022)
Another one that’s so incoherent I’m not sure what the central point is, not even to mention that Lily Orchard and “honest discussion” go together like ice and drain pipes.
And there’s one more video I specifically wanted to mention before continuing:
Spotlight: The Gender Curious 60’s Cartoon You’ve Never Seen (Published November 11, 2022)
I really only linked this one out of habit, but maybe I shouldn’t out of principle. This video obviously isn’t Lily’s worst, but it’s among her most reckless.
I’m not even talking about the fact that she ended up retracting almost all of the praise she gave these shows over things that she should have known beforehand, I’m talking about this video’s production.
See, around this time, I don’t know if Lily sprained her throat, or was sick, but something happened to her voice, that’s for sure.
This video is borderline unwatchable, because Lily’s voice is almost painful to listen to. It sounds like strep throat having angry sex with laryngitis, and it only gets worse as the video progresses. At times I can’t even tell what Lily is saying. I kept thinking “Lily, stop, you’re going to seriously damage something, please just stop”.
To even determine whether or not this video was bad enough to go on my Worst list (it isn’t, it’s just kind of “meh”), I had to read the transcript. I don’t even know how she brought herself to finish this.
And I don’t buy for a single second that her income and viewership would suffer seriously if she took a small break (Lily’s cited reasoning for going through with the video). Her viewers are incredibly sympathetic and apologetic towards her, almost to a fault sometimes, and she probably could have gotten a large enough bump on Patreon, or whatever could have given her the ability to take a small health break, if she just explained the situation on her Tumblr or the YouTube Community tab.
Look, I take this kind of thing seriously. I’ve been a professional youth athlete for over a decade, and I’ve seen firsthand what happens when people “push through” injury and illness. Not to mention that their reasoning for doing so is almost always stupid and made-up. It won’t make you tougher in the long-term, you will almost certainly hate the end result, you’re plenty capable of making time to recover, and the people in your life WILL most likely understand.
Lily, if you’re reading this, I strongly urge you to try again and re-record the video at a later date. Not saying you have to, just saying what I would do.
Okay, now let’s continue with the response.
#5
Look, I don’t care if M doesn’t like Steven Universe, but that wasn’t what this was about. My point was that Lily objectively misrepresented the show’s writing, and made out the show’s messaging to be something it wasn’t. We can debate for as long as you want on this show’s merits, but Lily’s criticisms shouldn’t be anybody’s criticisms because they’re just wrong. I thought I explained that pretty well.
#4
I keep wondering if I didn’t make myself clear enough the first time around on these. I still like “Stained Glass”, but maybe it’s something I need to work on.
Anyway, I haven’t actually seen The Owl House, so I don’t know how good of a protagonist Luz actually is, but my point is that Lily’s claims about white favoritism being the reasoning for certain characters’ popularity is most likely baseless. Multiple fandoms elevate side characters for either good reasons or no reason at all, and there’s no real cause for concern here.
#3
For the record, I do stand by my statement that all of the videos I chose for “Stained Glass” are worse than their respective number entries I chose for “Glass Cannon”, but that’s just my opinion.
I don’t read any comics at all, or engage in most of the media Lily discussed in her Magneto video (therefore M’s entire rant about how “that was the whole point” meant nothing to me, and certainly would mean nothing to Lily but for different reasons), but I do still maintain my position that anybody can be a villain, and social reform villains/ villains that have suffered oppression are not inherently offensive.
One last thing: my point about RWBY wasn’t that Lily has no business expanding her media horizons, it’s that she hasn’t actually watched the show (she’s said so herself, she’s just getting secondhand information) and is only regurgitating outrage porn about things she’s uninformed on to support her point.
#2
I disagree that it’s unreasonable to expect people to engage with media in-depth, because people do it all the time for fun. Of course, forcing people to do this is wrong, and you don’t need to have a degree in media studies to watch a TV show.
You know what? I undersold how bad this video was, too. I don’t think I quite conveyed how incoherent and weirdly vitriolic it was, and so I will be talking about this video more some other time, most likely when talking about the idea of “listening to marginalized people” and why it doesn’t work.
Anyway, I never even considered how the statement “product of its time” is actually inherently critical of the work it’s applied to, but wow. I guess even I can’t cover every angle the first time around. This is why I love ongoing discussions like the one surrounding Lily Orchard: I find that it helps me become a better person and a better content creator.
#1
So, I messed up.
While accusing Lily of pulling the 30% number from a random and probably unreliable source, I forgot to cite a statistic *I* used regarding male domestic abuse victims. I’m sorry, I will do my best to make sure this never happens again.
M, if you’re reading this, I didn’t mean not to post a source for most abused men not realizing they’re being abused- it was from here, sorry for my gross negligence.
In our study only a third of men who had experienced domestic abuse thought they had been in an abusive relationship. This is a much lower proportion than women. Understanding this type of gender difference is crucial in training health care and other professionals to enquire and respond appropriately to the domestic violence experienced by men.
If there’s anything else you want a source on, please let me know. I tried my best to cite all the best one-stop shops I could find in regards to allegations against Lily, but in the end I could only cite Lizzy’s.
Before we wrap up, I just want to say that M is right. It is fun to talk about people and things you hate, but one of these days I really should talk about a content creator I actually like. In fact, that might just be my next editorial; it was long overdue, anyway. So look forward to that.
But in conclusion, I just want everybody who decided to check out my blog because of M’s video, I want to thank M herself for taking the time to talk about my content, and in a very weird way I even want to thank Lily Orchard, for making this possible by being an absolute dipshit. As mixed as my feelings were coming away from M’s video, this is still one of the best presents I’ve ever gotten.
If I don’t publish anything for a while, I hope you had a Merry Christmas, and have a Happy New Year.
Thanks so much for reading. Until next time, stay on the hook!
