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mcityThis is Rebecca Black.
In mid-February, her parents paid to have a company, Apex Entertainment, record a song and music video. It was silly, and middling, and made heavy use of Autotune. Then it got posted on Youtube. Then it went viral, and is currently in the top-20 of all songs on iTunes.
If you view the comments on the Gawker post, you may notice me wading at top speed into a sea of idiots.
Notice how the very article itself tries to shift blame to Apex entertainment. I'll get to that in a second, but one point I'd like to make is that Gawker itself made several previous posts on the subject. I can't find the previous posts to confirm—and I've tried—because of Gawker Media's new and frustrating layouts.
There are several commenters blaming her parents for not "protecting" her.
None of these people every actually say how, exactly, two people are supposed to "protect" their daughter from becoming a viral sensation. Once the Internet cares about something, it's on there forever.
The chances of a random video on YouTube going viral, especially to this extent, are comparable to those of winning the lottery. There is no logical way anyone could've anticipated this.
Other comments are blaming the production company, Apex Entertainment. Even the Gawker post blames the music company, heedless of the fact that they themselves helped to promote the meme.
From one thread;
The funny thing is, no one likes to think of themselves as the bad guy. These people aren't rationalizing because they think Jesse deserved it, they're rationalizing because they don't want to think about how every link they shared, every parody they watched made it a little harder on some girl they never met. So they just slide the blame over to the next convenient target; Apex Ent. did it by making such a terrible video. Or her parents "did it" for wanting to make their daughter smile in the first place. No one wants to own up to their responsibility, and it's really kind of sad.
Somewhere, a teenager—a child—has to live with the fact that a lot of people are mocking her because her parents paid for her to be in a music vide for fun. Sure, she's likely getting a lot of money on iTunes, but oddly enough, money is not exactly known for its ability to mend a broken little heart.
In mid-February, her parents paid to have a company, Apex Entertainment, record a song and music video. It was silly, and middling, and made heavy use of Autotune. Then it got posted on Youtube. Then it went viral, and is currently in the top-20 of all songs on iTunes.
If you view the comments on the Gawker post, you may notice me wading at top speed into a sea of idiots.
Notice how the very article itself tries to shift blame to Apex entertainment. I'll get to that in a second, but one point I'd like to make is that Gawker itself made several previous posts on the subject. I can't find the previous posts to confirm—and I've tried—because of Gawker Media's new and frustrating layouts.
There are several commenters blaming her parents for not "protecting" her.
None of these people every actually say how, exactly, two people are supposed to "protect" their daughter from becoming a viral sensation. Once the Internet cares about something, it's on there forever.
The chances of a random video on YouTube going viral, especially to this extent, are comparable to those of winning the lottery. There is no logical way anyone could've anticipated this.
Other comments are blaming the production company, Apex Entertainment. Even the Gawker post blames the music company, heedless of the fact that they themselves helped to promote the meme.
From one thread;
I do think we need to be honest about what we are doing. One of Gawker's writers compared her song to something written by a dog. Was it hilarious? Yes. Was it something that probably would make your average 13-year-old girl cry if you said it to her face? Absolutely.And we come to the center of the shrubbery maze; this is victim-blaming, plain and simple. The only difference between this and "she was askin' for it" is that they're blaming the people who have as much responsibility for this as a slice of fried ham. If Rebecca was just a few years older, they'd be dogpiling her, instead of her parents and Apex.
We tend to forget that the layer of indirection that we gain by using the Internet doesn't absolve us of our actions. These comments are still going to be read by other human beings, and we'll be judged accordingly.
That Gawker's writers come down so firmly on the side of the victim in cases of gay bullying and acted as rabblerousers against this child says something. It's saying, "We don't have a moral compass other than what our readers want to hear."
The funny thing is, no one likes to think of themselves as the bad guy. These people aren't rationalizing because they think Jesse deserved it, they're rationalizing because they don't want to think about how every link they shared, every parody they watched made it a little harder on some girl they never met. So they just slide the blame over to the next convenient target; Apex Ent. did it by making such a terrible video. Or her parents "did it" for wanting to make their daughter smile in the first place. No one wants to own up to their responsibility, and it's really kind of sad.
Somewhere, a teenager—a child—has to live with the fact that a lot of people are mocking her because her parents paid for her to be in a music vide for fun. Sure, she's likely getting a lot of money on iTunes, but oddly enough, money is not exactly known for its ability to mend a broken little heart.
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