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Lilly Signhis hoping to have a conversation with fellow YouTuber PewDiePie after he criticized her for speaking out about the wage gap.
On Dec. 3,Forbesreleased its list of the highest-paid YouTube stars of 2018, which did not include any women. A day later, Singh, 30, tweeted about the gender disparity.
“2 years ago it was almost even between male & female, last year it was just me and this year there are no females at all. Something I predicted in my instagram caption last year. I’m concerned the digital space is going to repeat the mistakes of ancient industries. Hope I’m wrong,” she wrote Dec. 4.
After some criticized her tweet, Singh released another statement on Twitter days later: “I tweeted about seeing no women on the YouTubers Forbes list and as a result I received some angry tweets from men. Remind me why YOU are mad again? Im not playing a ‘gender card’ I am literally stating facts about results in an article. Let’s do better. I’m not your enemy x.”
“You know, maybe this is a crazy idea, but maybe you should plan a campaign or something like that to increase your revenue,” PewDiePie, 29, said to Singh during his Pew News segment.
He also took a jab at her recent decision to take a break from making videos tofocus on her mental health.
“Something about mental health and then just come back and sell a bunch of merch afterwards,” he continued. “That would be a great idea. Maybe that would help you earn more revenue.”
PewDiePie alleged that gender doesn’t play a role when it comes to YouTube personalities getting paid.
In a series of eight tweets, Singh clarified that she didn’t care about not personally making theForbeslist, but rather her concern was that no women were represented.
“Shout outs to everyone who uses their voice and influence to spread love, acceptance and inclusion. I understand that is a choice. You could just as easily be mean spirited and hateful. I appreciate you for making that choice,” she tweeted. “I know there is little point in clarifying anything on the internet but in my heart, I feel I do want to clarify the following because I believe true feminism is a conversation led with compassion and understanding. It’s a conversation for everyone…”
Singh explained that she was not “attacking Forbes or YouTube,” but rather “simply pointing out a concerning cultural pattern/trend that I see within the industry. And as woman and honestly, just as a human being, I feel it’s important to be concerned about patterns like this.”
“So to everyone who is down to have a conversation about this with insightful thoughts, let’s do it. But to everyone tweeting me saying ‘maybe girls just don’t make good content’ hit me up when you’re ready to exchange meaningful dialogue,” she said. “And if standing up for my fellow women/sisters makes me a target for attack, then I’ll learn to live with that. I say this with love in my heart and a smile on my face. Zero desire to create drama. I love my mind too much for that.”
In a friendly tweet directed at PewPieDie, she publicly shared her hope to speak with him in the near future.
“Hey @pewdiepie, I just followed you,” Singh tweeted. “Please follow me back again so I can DM you. Speak soon hopefully =) x.”
source: people.com
