The Alex Day Scandal

I have only just learnt of the Alex Day Scandal, 'only' meaning an hour ago. The learning of this news and everything surrounding it has made me feel very heavy hearted and incredibly uncomfortable. Okay, so basically I began watching Alex Day's YouTube videos about 7 or 8 months ago and I have to admit that I absolutely loved and looked forward to each and every video, I quietly supported him and was a very proud viewer who loved his content and the fact that he made me laugh and happy. But around a month ago he stopped posting videos. I often checked the comments to sort of suss out what was going on but there was nothing useful until today, when I checked. Every other time I'd only seen similar comments to mine, 'Alex where are you', 'Alex we miss you'. But today the comment section was filled with comments such as; 'he rapes kids' and 'you've been a very naughty boy'. Obviously I was very confused, so I searched all over the internet and came across a tumblr page that was basically a compilation of everything related to the Alex Day Scandal. I read every single link and there were at least 10 victims all speaking up on all the immoral things Alex had committed. 

So what has he actually done? It took me at least half an hour to find out. In one sentence he has; flirted with girls under age, manipulated young girls both emotionally and physically, cheated on many people and has taken advantage of his large audience who are made up mostly of young girls ranging from the age of 13 to 17. The common factor of each victim was that Alex was attempting to have sex or make other romantic advances on them which they did NOT consent to. The definition of consent in this context is a full and whole-hearted yes. Each victim talked about how after saying no, Alex would either make them feel completely guilty about their decision, ignore them from that point forward, or continuously, for hours after the rejection, pester the victim and bully the victim into doing the act at hand. Most victims were fans whom he'd met online. This is another problem I have with the scandal. He took advantage of the position he was in (high up on a pedestal for much of his audience) and used this position to manipulate people and get the disgusting and immoral things he wanted. It has been reported that he even waited until a victim turned 16 so that he could 'get away with it'. He abused his fan's trust and completely took advantage of it and it sickens me to the core.

I have also been in situations where I have felt both pressured and guilty for making the decisions that were right for me but I am sure as hell thankful that it was not with someone such as Alex Day; a 21 year-old man who has a large fan base who all admire him greatly. Basically the very befuddled point that I am attempting to make here is that, yes, kids are taught from a very young age that there are a lot of creepy people in the world but the thing that we are not taught is that sometimes those creepy people are the people whom we grow to fangirl over, admire and love. Stay safe kids. xx