Queer Icon for a new generation.....

[LeftHander]

The LGBT community's most recent surprise mainstream pop icon is not without controversy.



I am talking about the infamous YouTube celebrity Chris Crocker. Crocker at 19 became wildly popular self admitted "face of YouTube" for the outrageous video "Leave Brittany Alone". Achieving millions of views of dozens of short videos featuring the caustic Crocker in various tirades, states of gender and clothing all while increasingly becoming more and more feminine over time.

The video and many subsequent 10 minute varied vignettes propelled this seemingly ordinary gay "party-boi" to the national stage as a queer pop cultural icon. She may not be the image that many LGBT people prefer but to paraphase, she "is queer and she is here"...so deal with her.

As internet time past on YouTube (a short 18 months) you see Chris under go a transformation and in her recent video and "farewell" video on YouTube she announces that she is leaving YouTube because of restrictions and censorship placed on her by YouTube for reasons that suggest were due to her budding transition and resistance by YouTube to allow or promote a outrageous young transsexual as teen icon. Despite her continuing popularity on YouTube Crocker claimed that YouTube was singling her out and removing her from lists that track the popularity of videos. Seems the mad scientist was trying to control the monster that was created.

The story continues...as she released a surprisingly polished pop dance single "Mind in the Gutter" to iTunes that became a instant hit and is beginning to get radio play...

I have found this story fascinating...partly due to watching a freely expressive gay young person exploring gender and partly for the "instant celebrity" that social networking can impose on someone.

Crocker is like a twisted, less predictable, "Evil Disney Pop Star". Rather than a sweet innocent transforming into raging trainwreck like so many manufactured Disney kids...you start with a trainwreck that you can't really tell how or when the wreck started...if it is an illusion or not...or if it will really end in disaster or a shiny new train roaring confidently down the tracks.

Regardless....Chris Crocker is finding herself and is part of our larger LGBT community...loathe or love her. Despite the insane and caustic beginning it will be interesting to see how maturity effects this unique individual as she attempts to parlay the attention of sudden internet fame into a pop music career. Regardless entering iTunes top 100 at 42 certainly positions her well for the possibility of more success as time goes on.

[msongs]

1. transgender is not queer nt

[LeftHander]

4. helpful.....

8|

[Zuiderelle]

6. Umm... Yes, it is.

[LeftHander]

7. Ok Label Correctness Police correct this Transwoman....

since it seems to of obfuscated the OP beyond being able to be digested.

Christ....no wonder this board's activity has dropped to almost nothing in recent months....

[Zuiderelle]

8. I'm confused. Are you insulting me, or supporting my answer?

I don't care for the term "Queer" personally, but I do know that for those who do care for it, it encompasses G, L, B, and T.

But, again, I'm not sure whether you are supporting me or contradicting me in your answer with the "Label Correctness Police" comment.

[LeftHander]

10. *sigh*

alas....I would rather others share thoughts on a fascinating cultural observation of a transwoman poised to become a mainstream pop star...a transwoman pop star....I mean Ms. Crocker is obviously transitioning and probably on androgen blocker and estrogen...granted we have had others in the past but either were stealth or simply "part of the act"...

Here we have the opportunity to see a person who gained 15 minutes of fame then take advantage of it...all while we watched a confused young person become confident in her gender identity and sexuality...to challenge mainstream popular (i.e. non-LGBT) culture and the pop music industry. Her single was independently produced and exclusive on iTunes.

I mean does that not seem historic...?

[Zuiderelle]

12. Well, pardon me then. I didn't respond the way you wanted TO ANOTHER PERSON.

You might try not insulting people who are trying to defend the very thing you wrote. It makes me want to ignore you completely.

[LeftHander]

17. okay my bad....sorry

I replied to the first post with "helpful"

and I saw "Ummm...Yes it is." which was taken as a response to my reply....

making it in support of the offending post. By that time I was pissed.

so I pointed the next post to getting an answer to transgender not queer.

gahhhh....I give up. too easy to mix up reply hierarchies...didn't see it. And I posted as a reply to you which was not...actually....

a simple post is fucked up and I pissed people off....

:>(

yes I know...a reply is slightly indented...I missed it.

[Zuiderelle]

18. Ok, you're forgiven. You made a mistake and didn't realize that I was responding to the person who

said that transgender wasn't queer. I guess I would have been happier if you had actually read my response to You, since I think I was pretty obvious in saying that I was defending you calling the transgendered person in your OP, queer.

But, it's ok, we're all a bit overly sensitive sometimes.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

9. why not?

[TechBear_Seattle]

13. It depends on your definition of "queer"

I've known several trans people. Some identify as queer and as part of the GLBT community. Some do not. It comes down to how Chris self-identifies.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

14. yup. i also know gay people who dont id as queer

[DarkTirade]

19. ... uh... what?

:wtf:

[dhpgetsit]

2. Yawn...

[OneBlueSky]

3. call me old fashioned, but the word "queer" . . .

still turns my stomach . . . I've heard all the arguments about "re-claiming" the word and "diffusing its power," and I don't buy any of it . . . it's still an odious word to me, and one that I will not use . . .

[LeftHander]

5. Ok -you are old fashioned

sanitizing reality does nothing...

[Chovexani]

11. And that really says it all right there

Idiocracy, here we come.

(Remember when people actually needed talent or at least a modicum of skill to be famous instead of shooting to stardom because of camwhoring on MySpace, crying on YouTube or putting out sex tapes? I miss those days.)

[LeftHander]

16. Right....

Indeed the bar has been lowered...or has it....?

minstral shows
vaudville
burlesque
sideshows

all were wildly popular in the pre-media day and many essentially were comprised of people with no other talent than the ability to entertain people.

Maybe the side-show has come to the front because of the internet.

Pop TV/Internet culture are rapidly crashing together. And it is making for some very interesting results.

It is like in the Movie 5th Element and the mass media TV guy that everyone watches...

no stage, no lights just a constant buzz coming from all sides...

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[LeftHander]

22. Yes I am comparing popular entertainment....to popular entertainment

across history....and no I don't smoke crack either.

if you look back to history....HIGH ART was not for the masses then much as it is today...then the "people" were simply barred by law now it is economic barriers that prevent people from participating in theatre, classical, art etc, etc...when people are given a selection of a staged play broadcast on television or Hurl! which do thing will get the more viewers....?

Low entertainment existed across history.

Comparing the random tittliation of popular internet culture is much the same as forms of low entertainment found in a time when TELEVISION, INTERNET etc etc...did not exist.

Tell me I am smoking crack....(insert appropriate expletive here)

NOT ALL of EITHER entertainment was good or of great artistic quality....

[Occulus]

33. It can be even bigger than you're describing

Nothing at all to do with GLBT issues in particular, but your overall point of "Pop TV/Internet culture are rapidly crashing together and it is making for some very interesting results":

Amanda Tapping is/was a star on the Sci-Fi Channel's "Stargate" series and films (both of the latest films, actually); recently she launched her own online-only project. She and a team of actors and stage personnel (and, most importantly, CG modelers and animators) created a series of webisodes for purchase online. Nearly all of their major set locations are made up of computer graphics, and the show itself is effects-heavy- and filmed in HD, by the way. Thanks to advances in computer technology, they were able to film the action and rather quickly model/animate/composite into the film their sets and CG characters (one of which, in later webisodes, even has a prominent speaking role).

Sales of the webisodes were such a success that the show got picked up by Sci-Fi, and the two-hour premiere of "Sanctuary" (the premiere looks as if it's the already-filmed webisodes themselves back-to-back, with few if any changes) airs nationwide tomorrow night, 10/3/08.

Another example of this phenomenon would be the incredibly successful "South Park" on Comedy Central, which started as an animated Christmas card ("The Spirit of Christmas"), got spread around online, and was later picked up by CC.

I can't imagine this person in the OP will be the last one who gains fame (and fortune?) by doing something a particular viewership finds interesting. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see this YouTube star with a show somewhere on TV in a year or two.

[qb]

15. I recently watched the "Leave Britney Alone" YouTube for the first time (I just got hi-speed)

I found it engaging and even a little touching.

My knee-jerk reaction to Chris Crocker... I like her. I think icon status suits her. I'm going to check out the music video.

[Chovexani]

21. You really need to get out more.

Yep, Idiocracy here we come...

[qb]

24. LOL - I agree!

:hi:

[La Lioness Priyanka]

23. if she is an icon, i am a goddess. not a human goddess a REAL goddess

w.super powers and everything

[Zuiderelle]

25. Not a fair analogy. You are so much closer to being a goddess than she is to being an icon.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

27. aww thank you

:blush:

[MNBrewer]

26. Oh GOD, another "q word" flame fest

Queer.... Get used to it.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

28. technically i think the flamefest is about icon not queer

:)

[Zuiderelle]

29. Yep. No problem with the term "queer" just wondering why a youtube "star" would be our icon.

:D

[Moloch]

30. This individual needs serious emotional help...

not to be encouraged.

[LostinVA]

31. What would a TG thread be without your loving insight?

:puke:

[Tektonik]

34. it's comical how that poster STILL shows up in trans threads

[Zuiderelle]

37. I agree. I think there should be a forced ignore for that poster and anything related to TG

[Crowman1979]

32. Totally disagree with this attention whore being a Queer Icon!

IMO the new generation's icon is Freddie Mercury. Even though he is no longer with us, his influence still permeates popular culture today.

[meegbear]

35. New generation or old ...

can the gay male community for ONCE have an "icon" that is not transgendered, not into showtunes or dance mixes and doesn't sashay across the street?

Is that too much to ask?

[LeftHander]

36. Didn't I just see you at sashay into the community theatre in drag?

lol

[meegbear]

38. Why I awtta ...

LOL!