Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Danielle Walter docuseries, Aussie beauty influencer feud, BookTok anti-intellectualism discourse + Heated Rivalry backlash

Transcript

MINI SCROLL: Danielle Walter docuseries, Aussie beauty influencer feud, BookTok anti-intellectualism discourse + Heated Rivalry backlash · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
• 0:04
  culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
• 0:07
  media, the creator economy and the digital space.
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  Every Monday through Thursday and sometimes Fridays.
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  I'm your host, Lauren Meisner, the founder of the youth digital
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  media brand Centennial World. Welcome back to Mini Scroll,
• 0:22
  everyone. I hope you all had a wonderful
• 0:24
  weekend. Annabelle and I had a
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  Bachelorette party on Friday for Alex, who used to work on my
• 0:29
  team here at Centennial. It was in Sydney and it was
• 0:34
  really fun, but it was a 24 hour Bachelorette party.
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  We didn't stay the full 24 hours, but most of the girls
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  did. They literally stayed awake for
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  a full 24 hours and they had like activities booked every few
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  hours across those 24 hours. It seemed insane, but it was
• 0:50
  actually Annabelle's first ever Bachelorette party, which was
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  really cute. So if Minnie on Friday seemed I
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  mean, I didn't get this feedback, but if it seemed a bit
• 0:57
  rushed or maybe certain stories were not as in depth, then
• 1:01
  that's why I was getting be done because I had to get to a 24
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  hour Bachelorette party at 1:30. All right, let's get into the
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  stories for today. OK, The first story that I have
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  for you guys today is that creator Danielle Walter has
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  addressed the backlash that she received around her relationship
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  docu series that she released throughout December.
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  So if you have no idea what I'm talking about, don't worry, keep
• 1:24
  listening. So Danielle, she makes dating
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  and relationship content. She brands herself as the Carrie
• 1:30
  Bradshaw of San Francisco now mid last year, Danielle teased
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  that she was in a new relationship, saying that she
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  was quote, officially a girlfriend.
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  She kept who she was dating offline for a bit.
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  Although you can find on Reddit, people figured it out pretty
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  easily and pretty quickly. But regardless, she didn't
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  actually bring her boyfriend to her TikTok until three months
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  into their relationship. So in December, Danielle
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  released a limited docu series on her TikTok about their
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  relationship where she brought her boyfriend Lucas on.
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  They revealed their relationship and she shared the story of
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  their relationship and also shared advice throughout this
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  series. It was a 21 part docu series.
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  OK, about, like details of their relationship and the advice that
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  they would give to others. This series, there's no other
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  way to put it. It was cringe.
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  OK, she's a lover girl. I totally get that she was
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  excited for her new relationship, but it was
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  incredibly over the top. And again, people could not get
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  over the fact that they had been dating for three months, not
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  three years, not 13 years, not 30 years, three months.
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  And they were releasing this entire, you know, story of their
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  epic relationship across three months and giving all of this
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  advice to people about their relationship and about like
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  finding love and all of that kind of stuff after only three
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  months, so. Every month on our month
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  adversary, some people are going to be so upset about this, but
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  every month on our month adversary, Lucas plans something
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  for us without me saying anything.
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  I don't ask at all, he tells me. And for someone who's never had
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  that, it's incredible. And it's always.
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  So fun and sharing a full play by play of this relationship in
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  such granular detail. It was just, it was a lot.
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  Especially because a lot of Danielle's branding over the
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  years and messaging over the years has been like, don't
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  center a man. Even when you find the one, even
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  when you get into a relationship, don't center this
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  man in your universe. And obviously that is
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  essentially what happened here. So at first, the criticism was
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  more around like, this is cringe.
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  It's over the top. However, more backlash started
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  as obviously people kind of watched more of the series and
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  dug into Lucas, her boyfriend more.
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  So lots of viewers started accusing Danielle of missing red
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  flags. The first main red flag was that
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  she seems to actually different around him, at least in the
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  content that she shared with us. OK, she seems different than
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  what she normally seems like. People feel like he's a bit off,
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  like people are just not totally sure on their dynamic here.
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  And then Redditors did some sleuthing on his background.
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  They found that he was allegedly part of an evangelical church
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  back in Brazil. And he has also shared some MAGA
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  esque content on his public Facebook.
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  Although I will say there is a bit of a religious through line
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  in Danielle's content, especially recently.
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  So I guess that's not like totally surprising that her new
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  boyfriend would be religious as well.
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  They also allegedly found his LinkedIn in which he calls
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  himself a quote mentor and visionary.
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  So people got a bit worried that he kind of gives off like self
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  help scammy vibes or like worst case scenario cult vibes.
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  I've seen a lot of people accuse him of trying to be like a cult
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  leader. I think that could be a little
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  bit extreme. But yes, calling yourself a
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  mentor and visionary in like your LinkedIn headline, it is a
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  little bit wild. It's a little bit wild calling
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  yourself a visionary. But over the weekend, Danielle
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  has returned with a video addressing the docu series and
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  its perception. Honestly, she handled it really
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  well in the video. She didn't get mad at her
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  followers or blame them for anything, which we know.
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  We see that a lot with influencers when they get highly
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  criticized about something, especially something as personal
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  and intimate as a relationship, even if there's valid criticism
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  there or concern there from their followers.
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  You know, we see it a lot where influencers get really angry at
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  their audience instead of accepting the feedback.
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  And she really took it on board. And, you know, she kind of
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  laughed along with her audience and with the critics instead of
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  feeling like she was being laughed at.
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  And she agreed it was not her best decision to release this
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  and she seemed to take it really well.
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  I'm here today, take full accountability, the docu series.
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  Let's talk about it. During that time, things were
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  made official, but I wasn't sharing anything.
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  And the intention was to catch you up on what had happened
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  since I took a step back, like get you up to speed, you know,
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  and also introducing Lucas to my platform since he's here to
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  stay. I was hoping that this was going
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  to be entertaining and positive and received well and also
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  executed well, which it wasn't. And that's not at all what
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  happened. Not even close.
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  So first, the series being 21 parts, swing and a miss.
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  Swing and a miss. Here was my thought process.
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  Just to give context is I had a lot of footage and it needed to
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  be broken up in some way. And I do primarily short form
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  content, OK. And so I thought I will split
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  this into 2 1/2 minutes or less. A lot of them are a lot shorter,
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  30 seconds, 45 seconds, a minute, minute and a half.
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  But I wanted to create this docu series, like short series.
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  This did not land at all the way that I wanted to creatively.
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  The next pieces of feedback is that the whole thing in general
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  is super cringy. It's not normal.
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  It's removed from reality. And again, I'm going to have to
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  side with you on this one. I think that's the way it
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  landed. I agree.
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  Another piece of feedback was that I'm making this content
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  about a relatively new relationship and not following
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  my own advice that I've given for years.
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  And I there's a level of that that's true.
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  And I even said it in the in the series is that I have preached a
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  certain amount of about guidelines and rules when it
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  comes to dating and there are a lot of them that are being
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  broken currently because I truly feel like I found my person.
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  So do I think that the advice that I've given in the past is
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  wrong? No Am I following all of it?
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  Also no. I never claimed to be a perfect
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  person. A lot of the stuff that I share
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  on the Internet is things that I either learned the hard way or
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  am currently learning. So this response understandably,
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  has been received very well. The comments are filled with
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  people being like, this is the Danielle that we love.
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  We miss you. Where have you been?
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  A lot of people also noted that this is the type of content that
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  works really well for her versus her trying to create or I guess
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  like be like a content creator. Like obviously this docu series
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  was her trying to intentionally create content in a different
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  style. And people are like, that
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  clearly is not your Forte, girl. This very like casual, you know,
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  vulnerable, off the cuff chattiness, like get ready with
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  me, FaceTime chat vibes. Like that is what you thrive at.
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  But there are still tons of people concerned for her.
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  His seeming support of MAGA, You know, the way that they
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  interact, people feel like it's not maybe the best relationship
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  for her. But at the same time, there are
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  also a lot of people who are supporting her saying like, we
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  all get a little bonkers when we first fall in love.
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  Like the honeymoon phase is crazy.
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  It's very real. So like, don't take this to
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  heart. I think regardless of the
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  concern around her relationship, and I can't really comment on
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  that, I only found Danielle through this whole situation.
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  But I think regardless of the criticism or concern around her
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  relationship, this is a great example for how creators can, I
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  suppose, take feedback on board and not take it so personally
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  and not take it so seriously, which is very hard.
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  I totally get it. I totally get it.
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  It is incredibly hard, but it shows a lot of humility and you
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  know, her just like being able to zoom out like it.
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  She clearly has some perspective now on the situation and it's
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  not that serious. Like people were just like, this
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  is really cringe girl, what are you doing?
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  Her being able to zoom out and laugh at herself and not take
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  herself so seriously in this I think is a great character
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  trait. OK, the next story that I have
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  for you guys is TikTok. Famous Australian hair stylist
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  Sarah Amelia has been called out by her lash tech for basically
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  not holding up her end of their Contra deal for the past five
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  years. Sarah Amelia is a Sydney based
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  hair stylist who found huge fame on TikTok mostly for styling
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  incredibly thick extension looks.
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  Her signature video style would start with her clients
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  explaining to her what they wanted for their hair and then
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  basically would show the transformation.
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  And it was always like beautiful, you know, long Beachy
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  Australian waves, that kind of vibe, very thick extensions, all
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  that kind of stuff. So she was previous previously
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  the co-owner of Sarah Jade Hair in Bondi, but last year she
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  stepped away from the salon to focus on her influence and
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  career. So another Aussie beauty
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  influencer, Rosie Tehr, who was a lash tech in Sydney, made a
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  video over the weekend calling Sarah out and claiming that
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  she's done Sarah's lashes for five years and that as Sarah
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  found more social media fame, she hasn't held up their end of
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  the Contra deal. For anyone who's not in the
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  industry, Contra is when you get like a service or product for
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  quote UN quote free. You don't have to pay for it,
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  but you get it in exchange for posting I've.
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  Been doing Sarah Amelia's lashes for five years now.
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  I asked her to be an ambassador for me.
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  Before she had TikTok, she had anywhere from 15 to 30 K
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  followers. I think it was around 20
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  something, I can't remember. It was over five years ago.
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  She didn't have TikTok. I just knew she was a
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  hairdresser and I was looking for ambassadors and I thought
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  this is amazing because she's in the beauty industry.
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  I promised to do them ongoing, which I did for over 5 years.
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  Over 5 years she would come in and there were multiple times
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  she was good right at the beginning.
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  Don't get me wrong, she was good because she was a smaller
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  influencer so she had the time for me, right?
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  She didn't feel as entitled I guess.
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  Five years later, different story.
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  I have reached out to her multiple times because she won't
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  tag me or she'll tag me in a photo with 10 other tags.
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  I don't get one follower. For the last two to three years,
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  I've not gotten 1 follower of her and not one view.
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  And you have to check this stuff because she would say to me
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  after every appointment, can I come in next week?
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  And I would say, but you don't need it.
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  She'd come in our lashes will be fine.
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  But I was doing them weekly for her even when she didn't need
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  them done. And to wake up and see because
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  this year I said to her, babe, you haven't been tagging, you
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  haven't been posting. And if I can post my brow lady a
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  whole TikTok, multiple posts with her individual tag on my
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  stories when I pay $160 and don't get 1% off.
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  And I want to help this woman grow who's just like me, the
• 12:15
  only person in our business. I'm going to do that.
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  And I also said to her again, if there's anything wrong, if
• 12:21
  there's anything you're not happy with, please let me know.
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  I asked her 3-4 five times over the past year or two what's
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  going on? Because if she's not happy, I
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  need to know because I don't. Just because she's getting a
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  free service doesn't mean like she's going to post if she's not
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  happy. I believe if you come and I give
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  you a shit service, anyone gives you a shit service, doesn't
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  matter if it's for free. Let them know, give them
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  feedback and you don't have to post because why post a shit
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  service to your followers? I don't believe in that.
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  But that's why I asked her over and over again.
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  She said, and I love them. I love them.
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  I'm so happy and I put up with that.
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  And I'm going to tell you the real reason after the first few
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  years, the last couple years when she slacked and not did the
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  bare minimum, which is guys, all I asked for was a story tag.
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  And believe me when I have collabed with people, yeah for
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  fucking free for something so small, not ongoing or anything.
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  I have done TikTok stories. If I can do that, run a full
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  time fucking business and post nearly every single day multiple
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  times on TikTok, why can you not do that for me when you're
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  posting every other business. She also told me she never wants
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  to look like like ads on her story.
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  So that's why she posts in her private little chat group on
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  Instagram instead of her story. What are you talking about
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  talking on your Instagram If you were to go, hey this is my lash
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  tech Rosie. I love them.
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  I'm so happy with my lashes. Yes she has done that but so
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  rare and far between. And then she will go post her
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  brow lady and it hurts when you do see someone who she's gone to
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  not as long as you and she posts them as if they are they ride or
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  dies. And then you're going and being
• 13:40
  like is there something wrong with what I'm doing?
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  And she's saying no. I'm so happy I'm coming next
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  week giving her free. Products.
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  So it seems Rosie made this video because because Sarah made
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  a post without lashes this weekend saying how much she
• 13:51
  loves her new look without lash extensions.
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  And Rosie says this was made after they've had conversations
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  where Rosie has said I'm not going to continue doing your
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  lashes for free until you start posting more.
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  She has since followed up with the original video asking people
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  not to send Sarah any hate. So Sarah hasn't responded to
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  these videos yet at the time of recording, but she has turned
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  her comments off. I mean, look, this is another
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  situation where we could argue that it was not very smart of
• 14:20
  Rosie to not have a contract in place.
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  We see this a lot and influencer partnerships.
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  And yes, you could argue because of that Sarah technically didn't
• 14:30
  need to do anything for Rosie without a clear contract in
• 14:32
  place. But at the end of the day, if
• 14:35
  what Rosie is saying is true, that's just bad form from Sarah.
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  Like if Rosie really has been doing her lashes for free for
• 14:42
  five years and their agreement is that she posed like Sarah
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  posts about Rosie in exchange for that service, Rosie is
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  running a small business in the beauty space, just like Sarah
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  was doing at one point. And like, you have to remember
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  where you came from. You have to bring those people
• 15:01
  who have supported you, who have been there for you, who have
• 15:04
  taken chances on you. You have to bring them up with
• 15:07
  you when you are on the way up, when you are finding that
• 15:10
  success. The Kardashians are actually a
• 15:13
  really good example of this, no matter how you feel about them.
• 15:16
  OK, this commentary is not about them as people, them as role
• 15:21
  models, them as public figures. But one thing that they have
• 15:24
  done right in their career is, in my opinion, is, I mean at
• 15:28
  least it seems from the outside, is that they have always
• 15:31
  supported and platformed their team around them.
• 15:33
  And I know apparently they don't pay that team very well, which
• 15:36
  is another problem. But the way that they support
• 15:39
  their GLAM team, their assistants, the people around
• 15:42
  them, it genuinely seems like they really have helped turn so
• 15:45
  many of these people into millionaires.
• 15:47
  You know, they've helped them launch businesses and launch
• 15:50
  entire careers. So many people around them have
• 15:53
  said that. And I mean, I think that is
• 15:55
  something that they've done really right.
• 15:57
  And that might be why these people are OK with being paid
• 16:01
  like less. We, we have no idea if they're
• 16:02
  being paid well or not, But I know the rumor is that they're
• 16:04
  not paid very well, you know, and that could be why I have an
• 16:09
  interesting, I guess, experience or perspective on this because I
• 16:14
  have dedicated glam people. Like I have a dedicated nail
• 16:17
  girl that I've been going to for seven years.
• 16:19
  I've, you know, a dedicated hair stylist that I've been going to
• 16:21
  for six years. And I have different
• 16:23
  relationships with both of them. But with my nail girl, she
• 16:26
  doesn't actually care about exposure and about scaling her
• 16:29
  business. Like, she is happy to be fully
• 16:32
  booked and to just be able to have the flexibility of working
• 16:35
  for herself and making money and doing it on her own terms.
• 16:39
  So she doesn't offer. I mean, when she started her
• 16:42
  business, she did offer like influencer things like free
• 16:45
  nails in exchange to post just to build up her client list.
• 16:48
  But once she had a full book and she always has like 1,000,000
• 16:51
  people on her wait list, she doesn't do anything like that
• 16:54
  anymore because she doesn't actually need the exposure.
• 16:56
  Whereas my hairdresser is the opposite.
• 16:58
  Like he does have a very big hairstyling business here in
• 17:01
  Sydney, but he is trying to scale, he's trying to build his
• 17:04
  public profile and that's important to him.
• 17:06
  And so he does offer media discounts to like influencers,
• 17:10
  celebrities in the industry. So I think it also does depend
• 17:13
  sometimes from the service provider perspective, like what
• 17:17
  you are trying to do with your career, the direction you're
• 17:19
  trying to take it in, and if discounts like this or Contra
• 17:22
  deals like this actually makes sense for you.
• 17:24
  OK, the next three that I have for you guys is there is a
• 17:27
  little bit of book talk drama going on right now.
• 17:30
  And you know, we love a bit of book talk drama on this podcast.
• 17:35
  Book talk scares me, but I for some reason, I love talking
• 17:38
  about it. I am also a reader.
• 17:41
  So I do engage a dabble in book talk here and there.
• 17:44
  I would say. OK, so creator Mattie Clark has
• 17:48
  gone viral after essentially berating the book talk community
• 17:52
  for enjoying and highly rating books that she says are quote UN
• 17:56
  quote stupid as it's contributing to the decline in
• 17:59
  quality books being published. Maddie is an American creator
• 18:03
  who lives in France and makes a lot of lifestyle content, but
• 18:07
  she also does make some content related to media, like TV and
• 18:10
  book roundups and reviews and things like that.
• 18:13
  A few days ago, Maddie made a video that has rubbed book talk
• 18:16
  the wrong way. Let me play a.
• 18:18
  Clip I do not trust you little bitches on Book Talk and your
• 18:22
  stupid Kindle Unlimited book recommendations.
• 18:24
  Talking about this is five stars.
• 18:26
  This is one of the best books I've ever read.
• 18:28
  Meanwhile, when I was 12 years old, I was reading One Direction
• 18:31
  fan fiction written by someone whose first language was not
• 18:34
  English on Wattpad, and it was still better written than half
• 18:38
  of the shit I'm seeing pushed out on book talk.
• 18:40
  I'm going to be the bitch and say it.
• 18:41
  Some of you need to go back to a high school level literature
• 18:45
  class because the lack of reading comprehension that I am
• 18:48
  seeing is scary. I love a little fun romanticy
• 18:51
  vibe as much as the next girl. Like romanticy is one of my
• 18:55
  favorite genres. However, that does not mean that
• 18:57
  it has to be poorly written and I'm just going to say it.
• 19:00
  Not everyone should have their book published.
• 19:03
  I want to say before I continue, I don't know Maddie.
• 19:05
  I've never come across her before.
• 19:07
  So like, I don't know if this is her typical vibe, but her
• 19:11
  delivery here actually feels like marketing genius.
• 19:15
  I don't know if it was intentional or not is so savage,
• 19:18
  but it's also kind of camp. And if this is coming up for you
• 19:22
  as you're scrolling, which it did for me, I think a lot of
• 19:25
  people stopped and watched it. Like I think this got so much
• 19:28
  traction 'cause people were watching it.
• 19:29
  Like, OK, is this satire? Is this a character that she's
• 19:33
  playing? Is this real?
• 19:35
  Like, what is going on here anyways?
• 19:37
  It is real criticism that she was giving and it has sparked so
• 19:42
  much discourse. So the main camps here, first,
• 19:46
  there is a camp of people of book talkers who feel like this
• 19:49
  is rage bait for views and it's unjustified hate.
• 19:52
  Maybe because they love the books that she's talking about.
• 19:55
  Maybe because they don't realize that they're reading bad
• 19:57
  literature. Like, I don't know.
• 20:00
  Second, there's the book talkers who agree with Maddie saying
• 20:03
  that book talk books are like fast fashion of the literary
• 20:06
  world. And I saw one comment that was
• 20:08
  like book talk is a great niche if you want to find out which
• 20:10
  books to avoid. And 3rd, there's a lot of people
• 20:13
  who feel like this is a bit of a misogynistic take because book
• 20:17
  talk is primarily built off of a community of women.
• 20:21
  And the argument is basically like just let women enjoy
• 20:24
  things, let women have hobbies. I think this argument, I
• 20:28
  understand where it comes from, but I think it kind of airs on
• 20:31
  the side of choice feminism. Like anything that women do or
• 20:34
  choose cannot be criticized because it's like a women's
• 20:37
  choice and therefore it's anti feminist to critique it.
• 20:41
  And I think we still need to hold room for critique like no
• 20:44
  matter what. Now in the case of Maddie's
• 20:46
  video, I actually think her delivery though iconic in my
• 20:51
  opinion, I think it was actually the problem here because what
• 20:55
  she has said is not new. Like people have had this
• 20:58
  discussion about book talk for a long time and also have weighed
• 21:01
  the pros and cons of the niche. Because on one hand, like you
• 21:05
  could argue that book talk has made reading cool.
• 21:08
  It's made it accessible. It's made it exciting for so
• 21:10
  many people who probably haven't read a book since school.
• 21:13
  And it's true that it's like a great reintroduction to reading
• 21:17
  for people who were previously not reading very much,
• 21:20
  especially because you get that like fandom element, you get the
• 21:22
  community building. It's almost like having a book
• 21:25
  club with like thousands of people.
• 21:26
  But on the other hand, as with everything in life, when
• 21:29
  something gets really popular, everyone tries to get in on it.
• 21:33
  Floodsy and just history dilutes the quality of work because
• 21:36
  people want to profit from it. So I can see how that is
• 21:39
  happening here as well. And I agree with those
• 21:41
  critiques. But also like multiple things
• 21:44
  can be true at once. For example, Emily in Paris,
• 21:48
  it's an objectively bad show, but it still has a giant fandom
• 21:55
  and is very successful because it's essentially pure escapism.
• 21:59
  And it's also OK that we critique it and say like yes,
• 22:02
  just because it has this huge fandom doesn't make it a good
• 22:05
  show, and we can still critique it fairly regardless of that.
• 22:09
  And I don't think that the people who genuinely love Emily
• 22:12
  and Paris would be offended to hear that people think it's a
• 22:15
  bad show because they can hold 2 truths.
• 22:18
  They can love it, but they can understand like this is not a
• 22:22
  very good show. There are so many book talk
• 22:25
  books that I have read that I've really enjoyed, but that I can
• 22:29
  acknowledge are like not the best books ever written.
• 22:31
  And I think this kind of reflects back actually on what
• 22:35
  Annabelle wrote in our newsletter on Friday, how
• 22:37
  there's this rise right now in performing intellectualism
• 22:41
  online for young people. It's called the quote
• 22:43
  disgustingly well educated trends.
• 22:46
  And Annabelle looked at how this trend is in response to the rise
• 22:50
  in anti intellectualism, which we've seen over the past couple
• 22:52
  of years, and how even though it's trying to be the opposite
• 22:55
  of anti intellectualism, it almost perpetuates that.
• 22:59
  And I kind of see a similar argument for mainstream book
• 23:02
  talk here. Like just because you liked a
• 23:04
  book doesn't automatically make it well written or a strong
• 23:07
  story. We can like pieces of media for
• 23:10
  different reasons and where the problem lies is where we believe
• 23:14
  our opinion about that book, for example, holds more weight than
• 23:18
  fact. Like your opinion on a book.
• 23:20
  You can like a book, but it can still be not well written, it
• 23:24
  can still have grammatical errors, it can still have plot
• 23:26
  holes, all that kind of stuff. And it's not a judgment on you
• 23:30
  as a person if you like that book despite all of those
• 23:33
  things. But like we need to be able to
• 23:35
  identify that and acknowledge that.
• 23:37
  Otherwise we lose basic reading comprehension and we end up
• 23:41
  perpetuating all the same anti intellectualism that we're
• 23:44
  trying to actually push back on and through something like book
• 23:47
  talk. Does that make sense?
• 23:49
  That's kind of where I stand on this.
• 23:50
  As always, the newsletter is LinkedIn, the description if you
• 23:53
  want to read Annabelle's take on that from Friday.
• 23:56
  OK, the last story that I have for you guys today, a four story
• 23:59
  Monday for you is I am going to go over what is happening with
• 24:04
  the heated rivalry cast death threats on following situation
• 24:10
  primarily around Francois or not.
• 24:12
  So there's been some ongoing insanity from the Heated Rivalry
• 24:16
  fandom these past few weeks. And now one of the stars,
• 24:19
  Francois, who plays veteran hockey player Scott Hunter in
• 24:22
  the show, has spoken out about it.
• 24:24
  Francois did an interview on Friday talking about how the
• 24:27
  shows intense fandom has impacted him, especially amid
• 24:31
  rumors that he is romantically linked with costar Connor Story.
• 24:34
  Last Wednesday, Francois and Connor were photographed at JFK
• 24:38
  airport together, which sparked A frenzy online with fans
• 24:41
  speculating that they're together.
• 24:43
  Please keep in mind they are on a press tour.
• 24:45
  They're on a show together like they're currently doing so much
• 24:48
  press this cast. So anyways this is from CTV
• 24:52
  quote after being photographed at JFK airport with heated
• 24:55
  rivalry Co star Connor story on Wednesday, a social media
• 24:59
  firestorm erupted with some fans directing hostility at Arnod for
• 25:03
  seemingly disrupting the fantasy that Story is real life should
• 25:07
  mirror his on screen romance with Hudson Williams.
• 25:09
  In general, fans have been incredibly positive and
• 25:12
  respectful. This is is what Francois said.
• 25:14
  For the ones that aren't, I think it's a lot of younger fans
• 25:17
  who don't really understand the difference between reality and
• 25:20
  fiction. I honestly wish they would just
• 25:22
  rewatch the show because it doesn't seem like they got its
• 25:25
  message. Pay attention more closely.
• 25:27
  Did we watch the same show? He also said that he's had to
• 25:30
  reconsider his security and his living situation because he's
• 25:35
  been getting death threats from fans.
• 25:37
  And then he also got more heat last week because he seemingly
• 25:40
  unfollowed the whole cast and like, everybody be involved in
• 25:43
  the show. And when he was asked about
• 25:45
  this, he said it didn't have anything to do with anything.
• 25:48
  He's just trying to unfollow everyone on Instagram.
• 25:50
  He's trying to be one of those celebrities, I guess.
• 25:52
  You know, with the zero following, it's giving like
• 25:55
  Beyoncé, I think she doesn't follow anyone.
• 25:56
  Is that right? One?
• 25:58
  Who did she follow? Jay-Z So he's trying to be one
• 26:01
  of those slabs, I guess, where he doesn't follow anyone and he
• 26:04
  was like, Instagram just doesn't let you mass unfollow people.
• 26:07
  Like it thinks that spam it only lets you unfollow a certain
• 26:10
  number of people at a time. So he didn't intentionally
• 26:12
  unfollow them. He's just trying to unfollow
• 26:14
  everybody. So I think the parasocial stuff
• 26:16
  that we're seeing with heated rivalry is really interesting.
• 26:20
  We definitely got that within like, TV show fandoms, maybe not
• 26:24
  in TV show fandoms that are so new though, you know?
• 26:27
  And I think the intensity of the fandom is pretty unique, I would
• 26:31
  say, for a show that's so new. But I think it speaks to an
• 26:34
  obvious gap that we have in media for people to see
• 26:37
  themselves and their relationships reflected back to
• 26:39
  them, especially given it's so like, steamy and sexy.
• 26:43
  It's a totally different depiction in mainstream media of
• 26:45
  a gay relationship than we are used to seeing.
• 26:48
  And I feel like the intensity of the fandom should be a signal to
• 26:51
  the entertainment industry for how important this type of
• 26:54
  representation is and also how lucrative it can be to them.
• 26:59
  Because I am sure most of the decisions made around like what
• 27:02
  to platform, what types of stories to tell, all of that, it
• 27:05
  all comes back to money. So now this shows, like look,
• 27:08
  look at how big this show is. Let's have more of this.
• 27:12
  There clearly needs to be more stories told like this and
• 27:14
  pieces of media that specifically center different
• 27:18
  relationship dynamics outside of just heterosexual relationships.
• 27:22
  The fans are clearly hungry, OK, that being said, the fans being
• 27:27
  hungry for this and standing this does not excuse anything
• 27:31
  like death threats and like this rabid fandom that is going
• 27:35
  insane like none of that is OK. It should not be tolerated.
• 27:39
  But in general, I just think that this speaks to something
• 27:42
  bigger than it just being, you know, this young fan base that
• 27:46
  can't separate reality from fiction.
• 27:48
  All right guys, well, that's it for mini scroll today.
• 27:51
  Thank you so much for listening. I love you guys.
• 27:53
  Please remember to rate review in some subscribe, please
• 27:56
  Spotify star rate US. We're trying to get to 1000.
• 27:59
  I love you guys and I will talk to you tomorrow.
• 28:02
  Bye.