ContraPoints

ContraPoints
Personal information
Born (1988-10-21) October 21, 1988
Arlington, Virginia, U.S.
Residence Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Occupation YouTube personality
YouTube information
Channel
Years active 2008–present
Subscribers 270,000
Total views 12.6 million
Subscriber and view counts updated as of October 14, 2018.

Natalie Wynn (born October 21, 1988)[1] is an American YouTube personality and director who specializes in comedic and educational videos about gender, race, politics, and social justice on her channel named ContraPoints.

Content

Wynn launched ContraPoints in 2008, featuring videos about atheism, but later shifted her content to responding to arguments of right-wing YouTubers,[2] a user community that has greatly expanded on the website in the late 2010s.[3] Formerly a philosophy graduate student and instructor at Northwestern University, Wynn uses philosophy, sociology, and personal experience in her videos to explain, and often counter, common alt-right, classical liberal, and conservative talking points.[2] Additionally, other videos on the channel relate to her experience as a trans person.[4] ContraPoints videos often have a combative and humorous tone, containing dark or surreal humor, sarcasm, and sexuality.[2] Wynn often illustrates concepts by playing different characters, complete with elaborate costumes, who engage in heated debate.[5]

Katherine Cross, in an August 2018 interview for The Verge, notes a significant difference between Wynn and Contra, the character she portrays in her videos. Contra is blithe, aloof, decadent and disdainful while Wynn can be earnest—and she "cares deeply, almost too much."[6]

Reception

ContraPoints' videos have been praised for their clarity, nuance, and attention-grabbing sense of humor. In an article contrasting her personal sincerity and her ironic sense of humor, The Verge describes her as the "Oscar Wilde of YouTube."[6] Nathan Robinson of Current Affairs calls ContraPoints a "one-woman blitzkrieg against the YouTube right," describing her videos as "unlike anything I've ever seen ... She shows how debate should be done: not by giving an inch to poisonous ideas, but by bringing superior smarts, funnier jokes, and more elegant costumes to the fight."[5] New York magazine states, "The YouTube channel ContraPoints is very good. Regardless of the viewer’s interest or lack thereof in internet culture wars, YouTube Nazis, or any of the other wide-ranging subjects covered in its videos, they’re funny, bizarre, erudite, and compelling."[2] Journalist Liza Featherstone recommends the channel as well, saying that ContraPoints does a "fabulous job" acknowledging her opponents' valid points while debunking weak arguments and revealing the influence of a sometimes-unacknowledged far-right political agenda.[7]

Personal life

In a video published on her YouTube channel in March 2017, Wynn identified as genderqueer. Since then, she identifies as a transgender woman and began transitioning in July 2017.[2]

References

  1. ↑ @ContraPoints (July 19, 2018). "Alright, alright astrologers. October 21, 1988. 8:00 AM. Arlington, VA. Tell me about my soul" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Singal, Jesse (October 30, 2017). "This YouTuber Is Figuring Out How to Counter the Alt-Right’s Dominance of the Site." New York (NYMag.com). Retrieved 2018-07-17.
  3. ↑ Herrman, John (August 3, 2017). For the New Far Right, YouTube Has Become the New Talk Radio." The New York Times Magazine (NYTimes.com). Retrieved 2018-07-17.
  4. ↑ Kronfeld, Ezra (May 8, 2018). "ContraPoints on YouTube, Social Justice, and Transphobic Feminists." Out Front. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  5. 1 2 Robinson, Nathan (May 6, 2018). "God Bless ContraPoints." CurrentAffairs.org. Retrieved 2018-07-17.
  6. 1 2 Cross, Katherine (August 24, 2018). "The Oscar Wilde of YouTube fights the alt-right with decadence and seduction". The Verge. Retrieved August 25, 2018.
  7. ↑ Featherstone, Liza (June 7, 2018). "I Think My Friend Is a Jordan Peterson Fan. What Should I Do?" The Nation. Retrieved 2018-07-17.
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