Don't Ban Eugenia Cooney From Youtube

Alright, time to surf the information super highway

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Oooohhhh youtube drama leaking out into the real world. Bad influence, promoting unhealthy lifestyles. Lets see what kind of crazy things she’s posting.

Hmmmmm, they’re just dumb emo make-up tutorials and random vlogs with click bait titles. Yeah she’s really skinny, but maybe I'm just missing...

"I've never tried to be a bad influence on youtube or influence anyone badly. I have never told anyone to try to lose weight, or to change the way they look, or try to look like me. I would never tell anyone to do that and I would just try to tell people to be themselves." (5:10)

*sighhhhhhhhhh* Yahoo this is why I stopped reading you. Hello catholiccontriversy here and I’m not a fan of Eugenia Cooney. I just found out about her the other day because I happened to open up the yahoo home page and the title pulled me in. “Should this severely anorexic woman be banned from vlogging?”
“Oh she must be telling her story about how great anorexia is.” No, she does dumb little make-up and clothing tutorials, and random Q&A vlogs with click bate titles. Sure, I wouldn’t want to watch them but that’s because I have no interest in watching a young emo woman talk about emo chic and answer dumb questions her fans ask. But just because I don’t like her doesn’t mean she shouldn’t be allowed to make videos. Right?

Not according to THESE people. APPARENTLY because she is super skinny and is in the public eye, she is an advocate for anorexia and is promoting eating disorders in young girls, diii-spite the fact that she out right says “I am not a role model, don’t try to be like me, just be yourself.” Does she have an eating disorder? I don’t know. It could be anorexia, or it could be something else. I know people with type 1 diabetes and no matter how much they eat they can’t put on weight. They eat twice as much as I do and they’re still half my weight. Tell them to “eat a sandwich” all you want; they’ll eat 3 and they won’t gain an ounce. Maybe she has an eating disorder. Maybe she has some non-eating disorder illness that makes her so thin. Maybe she really is, just naturally that skinny. But I don’t care, if she doesn’t want to talk about it, then it’s none of my business, and it’s none of your business.

“But she made a video titled ‘I’m not dead,’ which is obviously a remark about how she can harm her body without dying.” Sure, it’s not like the phrase “not dead” or “still alive” is internet slang for “I haven’t posted in a while, so here’s an update.” It’s not like everyone,

old,

young,

fat,

thin, 

and everyone in between uses it for updates. Eugenia didn’t mean “I haven’t posted in a while, so here’s an update” when she made an update video about not posting in a while titled “I’m not dead.”

But you know what, I understand why people would have a problem with her. When I was in middle school emo meant “emotionally unstable” and “emo” was synonymous with “self-harm.” So if I had a daughter and she was watching a video where someone said

"And if you are emo, you should just embrace it because being emo is the best way to live life." (0:29)

I would be concerned. So as a responsible parent, I would talk with my daughter about what are good influences and bad influences, and how to make responsible, healthy choices. You know, a thing called BEING A PARENT! It’s not your job to shield your children from the troubles of the world; it’s to equip them with the skills necessary to handle the troubles of the real world. It’s what my parents did, and I’m an independent millennial that doesn’t need safe spaces. If you did get Eugenia banned from youtube for the crime of being too skinny, another will pop up in her place and you’ll be right back to where you were before. If teach your children how to stay away from bad influences, then you won’t have to worry about the Eugenias of the world.

“But you don’t understand the damage that constantly being bombarded with unhealthy imagery can do to young impressionable minds.” You’re right, I don’t know, because my parents taught me better. However, I do know what it’s like to be constantly told “you’re not attractive, change your appearance.” You see, I hit puberty at a young age, and I started shaving in 6^th grade. When I was in 8^th grade I said “forget this, I’ll just grow a beard.” It wasn’t a very full beard like I have now, and if you watch some of my earlier videos you’ll get a better idea of what it was like. Every single day I had friends and peers tell me “your beard looks like pubes, girls think you’re ugly, just shave already.” I’m not paraphrasing, that is a direct quote, every single day, for 2 years. And it wasn’t just dumb high school kids, adult members of my family also shamed me for my beard, they just did it in a more, tactful way. It’s not like I didn’t clean it, or anything unsanitary like that. I just looked different from everyone else, and every day people told me I should change my appearance “because they cared about me and wanted me to be happy,” despite the fact that I was much happier with my beard than without. I shaved my beard once in high school, and even though I got nothing but compliments, I wasn’t happy and I’ve had it since. I empathize with Eugenia, having to deal with people who don’t know your life constantly telling you how to live it.

But this is what REALLY brings my blood to a boil. It’s the outright hierocracy of yahoo beauty. This article about “how bad of an influence this make-up and random thoughts vlogger is, sign this petition to get her banned from youtube” is mixed in with “lose 10 pounds with these tricks” and “this celebrity lost weight and is now gorgeous.” YOU are the one saying “you’re not pretty enough.” YOU are the problem. How dare you condemn a random vlogger for “accidentally negatively influencing young girls” when YOU are the one saying “lose weight so you can look like this model.” This is disgusting.

Eugenia, if you have an eating disorder, I pray that you get the help you need because eating disorders are a serious problem. This goes for anyone who may stumble upon my blog and is currently fighting an eating disorder. However, you must realize that people over the internet only have influence over you if you let them, and if you can ignore me, you can ignore Eugina, and she can ignore you. This has been catholiccontriversy, signing off, and may god bless you.