whateverman

whateverman's Activity

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   whateverman added a post in a topic bestdressed/ ashley    Tuesday at 3:37 AM

   oh wow, this really is the end... and so suddenly too. OT but i just wanted to say that it's been a great couple of months w you guys!! I first hopped on after lurking for a while because I was really pissed that someone defended ashley about going out to buy paint when the cases of covid-19 were literally exploding in nyc and we were all too afraid to leave our houses. someone said later that she bought the paint online?? idk my point still stands, considering she also invited ryan over and then acted like she hasn't touched a person in months after he left one week later while the city was digging graves in parks . anywho, nyc is now phase 4 so i guess it's become full circle.
   though i felt bad to talk shit about someone i didn't know, i also feel like i have grown to become much more critical of influencers and to be more mindful/skeptical of my digital consumption. also, in a way, the thread helped me sharpen my argumentative skills, which have prob regressed since i graduated from college
   anywho, it was really great getting to know everyone (though i guess not personally). i don't think i'll be getting involved in any gossip threads any time soon, but i'll definitely be lurking around... maybe i'll jump in if ashley does something particularly egregious but yeah.... it's been real!
   and i guess to ashley, so that my post becomes relevant to the thread - actually seek help instead of relying on your fans. walk the walk, not just talk the talk. life isn't a movie. and most importantly, make good use of your huge platform and speak out against racial injustices, especially what you learned from that Yale course; BLM doesn't magically end when you want it to
   

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   whateverman added a post in a topic bestdressed/ ashley    Monday at 9:03 PM

   i wonder if Ashley would ever speak out on anything :-/
   just a few weeks ago, she took a whole African-American studies online course from ~yale~ (or at least showed us the first lecture of that course) and she can't even say anything about the mistreatment of Black workers by her precious Reformation???? it truly is virtue-signaling (or, in her words, value-signaling). what's the point of taking a course if she's not going to stand up for things that directly pertain to her, i.e. FASHION, even more specifically - REFORMATION
   

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   whateverman added a post in a topic bestdressed/ ashley    Monday at 7:07 AM

   hi! so people were able to find ashley's parents based on her last name. she has a public linkedin and it wasn't too hard to find her personally due to her editing for "the sorry girls" on yt and her last name is unique. both her parents 2017 salaries are public because they work for public universities in maryland
   

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   whateverman added a post in a topic bestdressed/ ashley    Monday at 2:26 AM

   great minds think alike
   

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   whateverman added a post in a topic bestdressed/ ashley    Monday at 2:19 AM

   you can find some calculators to determine!! though it depends on state, "Pew defines the middle class as those earning between two-thirds and double the median household income. This Pew classification means that the category of middle-income is made up of people making somewhere between $40,500 and $122,000."
   here's a really helpful investopedia article with a calculator, breaking down the medians of each income tier by state: https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0912/which-income-class-are-you.aspx (scaled to a 3-person household)
   i also took some screenshots:
   here's maryland (ashley's home state) - people found that her parents collectively make $400K+ (which is pretty damn close to the 1%, according to pew, which is $421,926), so that's way above the median of the upper income household:
   more states below:
   

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   whateverman added a post in a topic bestdressed/ ashley    Sunday at 8:34 PM

   yes, exactly this!
   you said this so much better than i could (i eventually gave up )
   
   not trying to come at you either, but there's something a lil disingenuous about the argument "well I've never heard of the stereotype." well, great! i know plenty of wonderful women in mainstream sororities like tri delta who, gasp, aren't comms majors. but just because you never knew about the stereotype doesn't mean that it's not being perpetuated by people. women-dominated majors/fields, like nursing, communications, teaching, are constantly looked down upon compared to their male-dominated counterparts - medical field, business/banking, higher academia. coupled with her suuuuper gross and misguided comments about housewives just a few weeks earlier in her quarantine vlog, ashley seems to differentiate the women she will root for (capitalistic #bossbitches in their 30s and 40s "making a difference in the world") and the women she will put down (housewives and sorority girls)
   this sorority comment is not the most egregious thing she's said (peep her tone-deaf comments on race during BLM) but it's still harmful to put other women and women-dominated majors down in any case
   

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   whateverman added a post in a topic bestdressed/ ashley    19 July

   yep!! and just wanted to add - i didn't go uni in the south nor did i join a sorority, but i knew some girls in sororities like tri delta and a lot of them were pre-med/pre-law majors or did CS or banking or something that ashley would see as "respectable" in her eyes.
   even though she didn't say outright "comms is useless and girls in sororities like tri delta are bullies," she's never stood up for women, to begin with. she put down housewives, she put down other beauty youtubers who plaster a fake smile on their face and upload october favorites. it's not surprising that she would also look down on sorority girls from the south and believe they'd major in comms. i think she has this complex about being an underdog so she always puts down women who are more idk mainstream or tend to be popular whether in high school or at university
   also - it's really ironic that ashley would go on rants about feminism when she, herself, perpetuates some of these stereotypes about other women
   

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   whateverman added a post in a topic bestdressed/ ashley    18 July

   This guy did a video on kelly stamps too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahnOch67OCk so I'm thinking he picks these younger popular female YouTubers to "analyze" and get more views
   I skimmed the entire thing, I didn't really care to watch some random guy gush over ashley for 12 minutes straight. he is right that the qualities he picked up in the videos (her vulnerability, showing mistakes like stuttering over a word or accidentally stepping on a plant or hitting her head on something, giving a glimpse into the inner world/anxieties/problems) are the reasons why she is so popular and why I, too, was drawn to Ashley back in 2018 pre-David. but idk it's a very heavily crafted narrative that falls apart once you know the background and actually think about who she is and how much money she's making from these videos/IG posts.
   to be more relatable - she heavily downplayed her family's financial background and pushed this relatable young 20-something, fresh out of college, formerly smalltown girl from maryland ~tRyInG tO MaKe It In tHe BiG aPpLe In A tInY sHoEbOx~ narrative. but it falls apart when you realize that 1. Ellicott City is an incredibly wealthy suburb, not some rural village in the middle of nowhere, 2. she can find a much bigger apartment with $2000/month in other neighborhoods in Manhattan, 3. she's making like what? around $30K/month due to these YT videos? (based on @Sipi's estimates) so $360K?? that's more than SIX times my YEARLY salary and I'm also a 20-something, fresh out of college. for example, I don't understand why, just a couple of months ago, she made a big deal about sleeping on a jacket on the floor when she was moving to NYC. she didn't have a pending job offer. she decided to live in NYC because LA was making her unhappy and she just bought plane tickets without securing a place in NYC first. she has the money to buy an inflatable mattress or an Air BNB, etc.
   these 'relatable' things fall apart when you realize that she forces them upon herself. also - not removing the stutters and little "imperfect" mistakes are calculated. her bestmess video shows that she'd repeat the same 20-sec joke for minutes just to get it 'perfect'
   I don't think she took out loans because based on how much she tries to be relatable, she would have moaned about them. when she was in college, she also never mentioned getting finaid from UCLA or filling out fafsa, etc and for someone who overshares everything and made being this 'broke college student' her identity, this would have been the perfect opportunity to show how ~broke~ she was as a college student
   

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   whateverman added a post in a topic bestdressed/ ashley    18 July

   yiikes everyone pretty much said what I wanted to say - the vibe of this video was suuuper off.
   I feel like she was trying to pull-off this sarcastic NYC comedian at an underground comedy club vibe with the jazz music in the background and john mulaney-like delivery but I don't really think she pulled it off with the weird snapping dancing around in the beginning à la west side story and the super passive-aggressive jokes
   also, this is just me but I HATE it when transplants make all these references to nyc that mean very little -- like she talks about a cool girl on the L train who will one day compliment her outfit or how she knows a "cool spot on 7th and 1st." girl, you've been here for 4 MONTHS like calm tf down. tbh I am also a transplant, though I've been in the city for years, but as a fellow transplant, I keep my head down. I don't act like I own the city or that I'm a new yorker and make all these cringy references as if I've been here my whole life
   anywho, I kinda just wanted to talk about each outfit & what I think (by no means am I a professional fashion expert). this gets really long so you can ignore what I wrote lol:
   

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    whateverman added a post in a topic bestdressed/ ashley    14 July

    you make really good points and even though i'm more optimistic about ashley pursuing film instead of youtube, honestly, i also don't see ashley becoming someone like Bong Joon-Ho or an esteemed screenwriter/director in the industry anytime soon and i can't even say she'll make it in the film industry to begin with. however, i think, instead of youtube, it may be better for her (in terms of personal development) to at least try screenwriting? i think experiencing failure, like truly truly experiencing it instead of hiding behind her shield of fangirls, would benefit her in the long run. but, as you said, based on her behavior now of deleting comments and deflecting, it feels like a remote possibility. i still think she should go for it, though i don't know or think she will
    

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    whateverman added a post in a topic bestdressed/ ashley    13 July

    i've said this before and i'll say it again, but i 100% agree - i think ashley should go back to screenwriting or the film industry. no matter how many times she says she never saw herself in the film industry, she obviously did, right? the fact that she turned down stanford/columbia to go to film school in LA, the fact that she saw herself living in LA for the rest of her life, the fact that she had the fancy red dress in her closet cleanout video that she wanted to wear to the oscars? it's like that quote - "The only people who never fail are those who never try." ashley can say she never saw herself in the film industry because she doesn't want to say she failed at pursuing film but she never failed because she never tried to begin with aside from those one-off internships over the summer.
    i don't think ashley is on the level of great screenwriters atm, but she's mentioned that a screenwriting professor said she has talent. the admissions committee of ucla film school must have seen the potential in her script or her videos of her high school portfolio that could be honed and refined. i've mentioned it before but i can see ashley writing a breezy, snappy rom-com, nothing too deep. it might be really hard for her to get her screenplay secured at first, but what are the barriers to entry? she has the money and the time and the degree. i'm sure her summa cum laude @ ucla film school will open a few more doors than someone in the mid-west who is starting out without a film degree or any connections to the industry at all
    i've watched jenn im literally since she started as clothesencounters and over time, jenn has grown more complacent, passive-aggressive, and bitter despite her growing "success." of all the people who should go back to grad school, i think it's jenn. but anyway, aside from jenn, youtube does look like the easy way out to make money but it just seems soul-sucking
    

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    whateverman added a post in a topic bestdressed/ ashley    11 July

    yeppp and it's even more hypocritical when she makes ~eDgY~ jokes about capitalism like...... girl, your entire career is built on capitalism
    

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    whateverman added a post in a topic bestdressed/ ashley    11 July

    and I think what's worse is that she would thrift nice pieces from goodwill and other thrifting places, flip them, and then UPSELL them on her website. i think she took all those down after we called her out on that and for selling her PR, but there's something so gross about a young woman from a financially well-off family benefiting from places that lower-income families HAVE to frequent because they can't afford to shop more expensive retail. she had plenty of opportunities to donate them to a shelter, but nope, gotta make that coin 🙄
    

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    whateverman added a post in a topic bestdressed/ ashley    11 July

    Yep! He roasted her streamy's outfit here (link hidden) - 3:30. he was calling her out for not serving a look despite being one of the "fashion girls" and just didn't like any of the pieces she wore
    
    i really like Luke/HauteLeMode, but i don't think he'd roast her in a separate video, though i would like to see what he says about her style. he seems supportive of YT creators (he did a whole video on micarah tewers recreating red carpet looks, which was really nice), as well as non-famous people, like his series on Say Yes to the Dress. i think he's very critical of celebrities and their looks on the red carpet because they have the means and ability to give a fashion-forward look, but instead, they always turn to a boring/"safe" choice, and i don't think ashley is at that level of fame yet. maybe if ashley gets invited to paris fashion week and other fashion shows, then luke could talk about her look like he did with emma chamberlain and the dolan twins
    also, i think the overall comment about ashley about being a UO clothes-hanger is warranted. like the whole channel is called "best dressed." i like UO and all, but i'm expecting more than a crop top and shorts when i come to the channel, you know? and i know she's tried to serve a more daring look in the past, but they fail because they look terrible, i'm sorry. if you're going to create a channel that provides thrifted diy dupes of UO and reformation, don't call it "best dressed"? that's my biggest complaint with her fashion imo. as someone who is sizes bigger than ashley and much more softer/bottom-heavy, i can't wear what she wears
    ALSO - i've mentioned this before, but for a "FASHION NERD," she did an absolutely terrible job on her NYFW videos. like, cool i get a glimpse of backstage and marc jacobs, but i'm here for the FASHION. i'm here to see what the show is like, who the designers are, what their pieces look like, what the designers' theses are, the main inspiration, the overall theme of the show, etc etc and she gave us literally none of that
    

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    whateverman added a post in a topic Jenn Im | imjennim | clothesencounters    11 July

    I'm sorry but in her new video, Jenn sounds so dumb when she was talking about The New Yorker. if she took 5 minutes to google, she would have found that there are other publications that provide similar investigative journalism OR fiction writing: the economist, granta, the paris review (which i really enjoy!! esp the author interviews), the atlantic, etc. like idk why she says the dumbest shit without ever really thinking about what she's saying 🙄
    

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