I was disturbed, shocked and appalled when the allegations of sexual harassment against Day came out earlier this year.
I liked Day as a Youtuber. I enjoyed his content and admired his determination in regard to his music.
I was even more surprised when he decided to return to youtube earlier this month. I hadn't unsubscribed from him since the truth came out, so the video popped up in my newsfeed and out of curiosity I did watch it.
The release of his video coincided with the truth about Jason coming out, and a number of other Youtubers had released videos speaking out about ousting sexual harassment and sexual predators from the youtube community. I had been watching those videos earlier in the day Day released his video, yet, as I say out of curiosity as to what Day might have to say, I watched his video.
And I was nearly taken in again. In his video he comes across as reasonable, he presents himself exactly in a way that one might start to forget his past behaviour. This is when the alarm bells started ringing in my head.
I had been to the cinema and watched the epic Gone Girl around the time Day posted the video, and in that film the public's perception of the main male character is completely changed from negative to positive in one tv interview because of the way he portrayed himself. I'm not suggesting that Day deliberately portrayed himself the way he did to manipulate his audience, but he was hardly going to try and turn people away from him.
How can I be a better judge of his true character than people who have personally known and interacted with him, who have now dissociated themselves from him and spoken out explicitly encouraring viewers to not support him in their videos. They know Day better than I, or any viewer ever could, and it was on the strength of this realisation that I realised I had nearly been taken in by his manner. That I had nearly forgotten that he has been charged with a serious crime and he had violated and hurt other people. His crime is disrespectful, disgusting and one that I personally regard as one of the worst crimes that can be committed.
Thinking back to the video, at one point he says something along the lines of (I don't want to re-watch the video to find the exact quote) I looked at girls as the opportunity to have sex.
How can any one support that kind of mind set? It fuckin' scared me, (I don't swear so that's the strength of my feelings on this) firstly that anyone could have such a disrespectful, objectifying and opportunistic mind set, and secondly that I nearly continued supporting someone who thought like that. I know, inexcusable as it is, that Day is not the only one to think like this, but I'm writing this post to draw attention to this information about the situation with Day, incase someone who is still subscribed (I am NOT) and might watch any more of Days content to re-constider what they are supporting.
My University (Exeter) is running a campaign against sexual harassment called #NeverOk. It has had global recognition because of the success. The video campaign (including a well known face) can be viewed here #NeverOk video and another informative article I found discussing this subject in the wider community.
P.S. This is not part of youtuber reviews, I'd never include a ex-youtuber with a criminal background in that series. This is just some thoughts I had a few weeks ago but had not got round to putting down until now.
Independent article - Dear young men: The old stereotypes of what it is to be a 'man' are a load of rubbish
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