Trying to find out if there’s already content filling the niche I’m considering, I asked a bunch of trans friends for youtubers who explain trans things to the cis perspective. Here’s what they suggested…
Jackson Bird
Is explaining things, but seems to talk very fast, and assumes a certain level of knowledge (eg talking about trans feminine people and HRT and passing without glossing).
Not exclusively content to trans people, but also not exclusively discursive/explanatory/dialogue. Seems to be explaining things that he wants to talk about/thinks are important to talk about, which is fair enough! But doesn’t fill the niche I’m thinking about, which is to archive and make accessible online the kinds of questions and answers I give everyday.
Eg https://youtu.be/bFOWGDKXR1I
nb, Bird does mention a lack of non binary representation in the YouTube community
Ash Hardell
Non binary! Cool at explaining stuff, still kinda talking about what they wanna talk about/what’s hot on the YouTube trend.
[This is helping to clarify my idea of literally taking questions and answering them – is somebody is cis and confused, or even hostile, they are unlikely to navigate through a whole bunch of 20 min videos and language they don’t understand in the hope that they’ll come across an answer to one of their questions. They might be more likely to ask a specific question and then watch the response to that question. That’s a point on how I can make my content accessible – make short videos and title each one with the specific question it answers? Like Yahoo answers, but personal and including body language etc
Are there better ways to take questions? That would enable more dialogue? Eg radio programmes with live phone ins – except I can’t give my phone number out, as a question of safety. Get a burner phone? It’d still be susceptible to trolls. Facebook live might be an option, but I don’t know anybody who actually uses that to search for content, and especially not the target audience of my mums friends or my coworkers (the people who ask me trans questions). It can also be hard to keep an eye on the live comments whilst talking, and would probably end up messy. Maybe I should try it, but I’m suspicious of live questions.
Could eliminate the tech issue and just take life questions irl, performance art style. Could still film it and put it on the YouTube for archiving purposes.]
to the touch 