A thought on the upper half of the meme: those "fans" sound like creeps with a fetish.
Streaming is just acting for a digital audience. If someone is going to be so upset over the identity of the streamer outside of their streaming persona, they are unhealthily invested in that person’s life.
Edit: I'm not surprised about the downvotes, but I am disappointed. This isn't very different than followers on Twitch getting pissy when they find out their favorite gamer girl streamer actually has a boyfriend, and I'm sure most of you would agree that those people are creepy, obsessive, and fetishising women gamers.
When people engage with content, they have expectations going in - they expect to know if the content is fictional, truthful, or intentionally ambiguous.
For example, if someone watches a documentary and finds out it was all made up, they'd be right to be upset, because it presents itself as honest.
Likewise if someone watches a fantasy movie, they don't have the expectation of honesty.
And if someone watches something like the Blair witch project, they go in knowing that it's dubiously truthful. It's a bit of a grey area because the deceit is part of the art.
Streaming is similar, vtubers are obviously fictional - nobody really has expectations around what they're really like.
But if someone builds a following around being authentically themselves, and then it's discovered that they're lying about significant parts of their content, I can understand some degree of outrage.
I don't really watch streamers because the dynamic between streamers and viewers seems toxic AF, where streamers are kinda forced to pander and appear personable... But I still understand being upset when you find out what you got isn't what you were sold
Not sure what sort of content this person made, but if I found out one of the trans creators I pay attention to was faking it I'd be kinda pissed.
Then again most of the trans content creators I pay attention to are either talking about trans specific issues, or shit like franlab where the content is very focused on the hobby and not the person.
One of the main advantages that streaming has over other forms of entertainment is that it does create a sort of relationship between the streamer and the viewer. Generally the viewer knows that the streamer isn't really his friend, but the viewer does feel a sort of human connection to the streamer which relies on the assumption that the streamer is being authentic.
I'll be frank: if I watch streamer content, it's because I'm feeling lonely and watching it is a little like hanging out with a friend. Obviously it's not the same because it's almost entirely a one-way interaction and I know that the streamer is deliberately creating entertainment as opposed to doing what he's doing purely for its own sake, but I would be disappointed if I discovered that a streamer's whole identity was made up.
Wait, we're allowed to use the word "Trap" to refer to crossdressers? I knew we weren't allowed to use it to refer to trans people (for obvious reasons), but it's still cool to call crossdressers that? Disgaea 4's PC release told me it wasn't.. gahh
Okay, I don't understand the Post-Twitter landscape. Is there a book of rules I can see
From what I've seen you have crossdressers self identifying as trap (a subgroup of all crossdressers and I could see how the term would be offensive to the rest as well) on one side and people that are unaware that group exists and think trap is exclusively a derogatory term for trans ppl (or think enjoying crossdressing MUST mean you're trans) on the other.
It's a whole mess as any offensive language tends to be, because words rarely ever only have one meaning and there's also more than one language in the world but terms still cross from one language into others.
Honestly as long as you're trying to be considerate of others I don't think anyone can fault you, and that goes for everything. People will try to speak for everyone, but even when they do speak for the majority there are usually exceptions.
yes and half of the trans people on tumblr call themselves trannies.
the difference is the same as watching a movie with flashing lights after sitting through the epilepsy warning and getting your brain actually blasted by the day 1 cyberpunk 2077 braindance cutscene. one's a choice, the other just happens to you.