Trigger Warning: Sexual assault and slut-shaming
Disclaimer: I only discuss females in a male-driven rape culture in this article. That is simply to keep it in the context of Jenna Marbles’ video, “Things I Don’t Understand About Girls Part 2: Slut Edition,” not to ignore or undermine how males or other gender expressions are impacted.
I kind of missed the whole Jenna Marbles train on the grand frontier that is YouTube. It wasn’t because of personal dislike or any strong feelings towards her videos. I was simply distracted by other YouTubers who catered more to my interests, such as Rooster Teeth and millions of pug owners video taping their dogs. That’s not to say I haven’t seen any of her videos (who hasn’t?) and thoroughly enjoyed those videos. Jenna is hilariously blunt and approaches these mostly “Venus-and-Mars” topics with a fresh and funny attitude (plus, she quite possibly has the two cutest dogs in the entire world). I remember after watching the videos I came across I would always think, “Man, she would be an awesome woman to be friends with.” Jenna Marbles and I peacefully coexisted in the YouTube Universe where I was mainly unaware of her and she was completely unaware of me.
This all changed one day when I saw an Internet-wide uproar about “Jenna Marbles’ latest video!” She was getting absolutely slammed by the feminist stratosphere of the ‘net and I was quickly linked to what was causing such a stir. This video, entitled “Things I Don’t Understand About Girls Part 2: Slut Edition” made my jaw drop. This wasn’t just some funny (if not slightly overdone) commentary on gender tropes. This was a YouTube personality with an enormous audience of young women, many of whom look up to her, practicing slut-shaming at its finest.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I have a very visceral reaction to the word “slut.” My skin crawls, my hands clench, and I’m almost positive my eyes shoot real laser beams at the perpetrator. This is due to a few things: a) I’m a woman b) I’m a feminist and c) I’ve been called a “slut” in many different ways by many different people. Women. Men. Family. Society. Each time it’s felt like a potent mix of sexual violation and bullying, a “death by a thousand cuts.” I’d rather not know what has driven ladies like Jenna Marbles to degrade a fellow female in such a personal way - but, as a feminist, I DO know why slut-shaming is still so prevalent in our world, and the logic behind it all is disheartening. This leads me to my next point, which is that this is not an attack on Jenna Marbles personally (though she says she “doesn’t regret” the video, which admittedly makes me want to throw something and definitely excludes her from the feminist club). This is a discussion on our problematic society and the issues slut-shaming can encompass.
I have a couple of big issues with this video. First and foremost, almost everything Jenna is using as “qualifiers” for what makes a girl a slut is based solely on what she, personally, prefers. There is nothing WRONG with preferring monogamy and strong feelings to casual sex. What is wrong is when you lord that over other women and tell them they deserve no respect from you because of what they choose to do with their sex lives. This supports the idea that a woman’s value is in her body. Who cares if she’s intelligent, hard-working, kind, or funny? She has no value and does not have the right to be respected for her mind because, well, she’s a slut! Jenna summarizes historic oppression and fear of female sexuality by making these sexist and patriarchal claims. In a wonderful response article to this video, Chelsea Fagan says, “We are raised to see the sexual premium of female chastity as a collective thing, something another woman could “damage” by not taking it seriously enough. If a woman embraces her sexuality in a way that is different than we do, we are taught to ostracize her and shame her into believing it is wrong... The sexuality of a woman, for all intents and purposes, is never fully her own.”
Another HUGE problem I have with this video is that it epitomizes the slippery slope where slut-shaming becomes victim blaming. Jenna talks at length about watching out for other women at clubs or parties who are blackout drunk and about to go home with a man. I have absolutely no problem with this idea - in fact, I agree 100%. If you see a visibly intoxicated woman leaving with a man, talk to her. Make sure she’s okay. Try to discourage her - but not for the reasons that Jenna goes on to say: “Help the sluts of the world make less bad, slutty decisions.” This is an incredibly problematic statement. If a woman who is “blackout drunk, alone, and doesn’t know where she’s going” goes home with a man, you’re not saving her from a “bad, slutty decision.” You’re saving her from being sexually assaulted. You’re saving her from being raped. This kind of thinking (that women who go home with men when they’re drunk are being slutty and, hence, don’t deserve respect) makes some men feel OKAY about taking advantage of and disrespecting her. It does not allow these girls (or those men!) to know what assault is; it only makes women internalize their “decisions” (which implies a two-way street, which leads straight to victim-blaming) and make themselves vulnerable to it happening again. The discussion Jenna tries to have, besides looking out for one another, is incredibly counterproductive and probably made many of her subscribers question terrible things that have happened to them. After all, 1 in every 6 women have experienced attempted or completed rape - with more than 8,000,000 subscribers, we can be sure that a good portion of girls who look up to Jenna were shamed for traumatizing events in their lives.
The last issue I would like to discuss is something she brings up at the end of the video. She says, “There’s one theory of human sexuality that actually resonates with me a lot.” She picks up her little Chihuahua and describes how he, as an animal, “just wants to bang everything.” She then points to her head and says, “The thing that sets us apart is that we have this big THING that controls logic and reasoning, and it functions differently than other animals. Anyone can be a slut, but it takes some logic and reasoning to be like, I think I’m just going to be with one person and not sleep with the world.” In that line of reasoning, she compares “sluts” with their “slutty decisions” to animals, which dehumanizes them. This, again, makes it more okay to blame women for being raped and for men to sexually violate females - if they’re sluts, then they’re animals, which means they’re not human, which means they don’t deserve respect. This thinking is very dangerous and is the bad guy behind rape culture.
When I first saw this video, although it was upsetting, I hadn’t lost hope for Jenna. I still liked a lot of her previous videos and I thought in many ways she was a role model to her base of fans. However, her response to the backlash was to ignore it for months on end, and then to say, in a very recent article, that she felt “crucified.” Jenna also stated that she “doesn’t regret the video, but plans on avoiding similar topics for now.” This was an extremely disappointing reaction, both for me and for many of the people who were still rooting for her. As an Internet personality, especially with her particular demographic, it would have been important for her to publicly address where she went wrong and commit to not making the same mistake. Instead, she’s simply swept it under the rug, which I choose to take that she has not changed her opinion on “sluts.” I’m sure Jenna is a wonderful person, and we all make mistakes (luckily most of us are not enough in the public eye to be called out on such a huge scale). However, I would not call Jenna Marbles a feminist, and as long as she continues to brush off what happened rather than address it I will continue to think of her as someone who perpetuates sexism and rape culture, and that is not feminism.
I’m not hating on Jenna as a person or on anyone who likes her videos. Just don’t be expecting me to subscribe any time soon.
Autumn Farrell is a short, tea-loving Latina who hails from the poetry, theater, and dance scene in Phoenix, Arizona. She has a stash of horrible smelling herbs in her underwear drawer and is probably the biggest fan of ironic swag rap you will ever meet. If she can talk to you about astrology she will love you (she's a Gemini). Before she dies she wants to be a famous pole dancer.