IN NOVEMBER 2018, The New Yorker magazine published a profile of ContraPoints, describing the woman behind the Youtube channels as:
one of the few Internet demi-celebrities who is as clever as she thinks she is, and one of the few leftists anywhere who can be nuanced without being boring.
High praise indeed, but who is she?!
ContraPoints is the YouTube Channel name for American YouTuber, Natalie Wynn.
Using multiple characters, elaborate costumes, a background in Philosophy and an ingenious tongue-in-cheek sense of humour, Wynn has become a YouTube sensation, amassing 21 million views and over 440,000 subscribers.
Wynn dropped out of Northwestern’s (Meghan Markle’s alma mater) Ph.D programme in philosophy three years ago. She launched her YouTube channel in 2008, and supported herself by driving an Uber. Her Patreon page, which has enough patrons to fund her, says that her:
…political aim is to counterbalance the hatred toward progressive movements that is so common online. Stylistically, I try to appeal to a wide audience and avoid merely preaching to the choir. I try to make the videos I’d want to watch: well-produced, informative, funny, and entertaining.
Wynn’s videos really took off in 2014, after she responded to a disturbing growing trend she’d noticed on YouTube, namely that hyperbolically titled videos such as ‘why feminism ruins everything’ were garnering millions of views.
Utilising her extensive knowledge of philosophy, Wynn decided to fight back and create videos that directly addressed the anti-progressive videos, videos we could now call ‘alt-right’.
Wynn’s videos focus on a range of topics and issues: race, gender, politics, sexuality, sex, philosophy and social justice.
All the topics you would want to avoid at a family event so that all members of your family remain on speaking terms by the end of the night.
These topics can be mighty heavy, and at times full of jargon that only academics can comprehend, but Wynn cogently breaks down any language barriers. She also uses a lot of puns, unsubtle penis jokes, and ridiculous voices to add humour to what could be a dry rambling of a left-leaning political activist.
Sounds bizarre?
Yeah, it really has to be watched to be understood.
Here’s her most recent work, entitled ‘Are Traps Gay?’, which responds directly to an alt-right meme that says that transgender women who look like cis-gender women are ‘traps’.
Of the video, Wynn commented underneath the video:
Risky title I know. I really did my best to avoid making this video, but sometimes an idea nags you for month after month and you can’t stop thinking about it, and when that happens it’s sometimes best to trust your creative instinct and hope you aren’t out of your mind. Of course sometimes you are out of your mind. And maybe I am. But that’s not for me to say.
The word ‘traps is a slur, but Wynn feels it is important to confront head on the derogatory language used and explains why she has used the word in the slur.
After explaining why it’s an offensive meme, and after referencing the many trans women in the U.S., especially those of colour, who get murdered for being transgender, Wynn says:
If I simply argue that [the meme] ‘Are Traps Gay?’ offensive, then here’s what happens: first a lot of people simply don’t give a s**t and in fact me telling them what to do only makes them what to say it more…there’s really nothing I can do about those people.
But another group of people, the socially progressive liberals, will say ‘Okay, so since you’re offended by it, I won’t say the word trap anymore’ and they’ll be super woke about it and post Twitter call outs cancelling anyone who uses the word ‘Trap’…[but] years later when their son brings home a transgender girlfriend we’ll suddenly watch all that shallow wokeness vanish.Real acceptance has to be built on real acceptance. So it’s not enough for me to argue that “Are Traps Gay?” is offensive, I also have to argue whether traps are gay….so are traps gay?
As you can see, Wynn doesn’t pull any punches.
Another video worth watching is one on Jordan Peterson.
I may have heard a collective groan there. Many of you may have heard the name Jordan Peterson being floated around recently. You may, in fact, have even googled him but immediately stopped reading after you read he justified the gender hierarchy with men on top as being logical because lobsters have hierarchies (yes, he really did).
ContraPoints makes the excellent argument that Peterson is not going away anytime soon, so it’s better to ‘know thy enemy’ rather than cover your ears any time you hear a faux-woke guy mention Peterson the Lobster Lover when he explains to you why women are under-represented in government.
Wynn doesn’t see those who support alt-right ideas as a lost cause, and believes that the magical medicine of education with a dose of sugary humour is the solution to turning Trump-loving climate deniers into vegan, prius-driving democrats….Well, maybe vegetarian at least.
