Welcoem to posts!!
in the future - u will be able to do some more stuff here,,,!! like pat catgirl- i mean um yeah... for now u can only see others's posts :c
Happy Disability Pride Month! Just like for June, I highlighted the diversity and visibility of queer politicians, I'll be doing the same this July for disabled politicians in Australia. I'll be demonstrating the wide range of people we've had in our parliaments past and present, but also how our parliaments have improved accessibility as a result. Let's celebrate disability pride together.
[Image description: the disability pride flag. A black background with five coloured diagonal stripes. The meaning of each element is as follows:
Green – Invisible and undiagnosed disabilities
Blue – Mental illness
White – Sensory disabilities
Yellow – Neurodiversity and development disabilities
Red – Physical disabilities
The diagonal line represents the cutting though the barriers people with disabilities face. This is to contrast the straight line from keeping the disability community isolated. The black background represents the people with disabilities who have died.
End description.]
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Pride month is over! As promised, I wasn't discouraged by the queerphobia in the comments but, instead, I learned a few things about how those shorts were treated and by who. For those who don't make lots of content: YouTube's analytics are fascinating and can provide a lot of insight into your audience. Let's break down where that negativity came from, and why it isn't as normal as some people would think:
My target audience is younger Australians to help them understand how the political system works, and for most of my videos I'm reaching the right people. But, for June, when every single short was LGBTQIA+ related, suddenly the audience skewed quite heavily towards the older 45+ crowd - with a fair decent 65+ viewership. In fact, my older viewers DOUBLED for June.
But also, a higher proportion of viewers weren't in Australia. Despite being entirely and narrowly Australian focused, my content has never been 100% viewed by people geographically in Australia. However, some pride month shorts had LESS than 25% of viewers located in Australia!
It also tells you how many new viewers you get vs return viewers, and if they found videos by searching, recommendations, external links, etc.
There's more info to dissect but let's skip all the technical stuff and get to the conclusion:
I can infer a couple things here. One is that mention of "pride month" gets overlapped with US-based content and so I got an influx of American viewers thanks to the algorithm. But also, there were a lot of queerphobic comments from entirely new viewers, which makes me think that some of these viewers are either actively seeking it out, or don't understand that commenting is engagement and so are being recommended more and more simply because they hate-comment on it. It seems like it might be a case of some angry retirees not understanding that the algorithm is feeding what makes them react the most.
And finally, it implies that homophobic/queerphobic attitudes are shifting. Shorts with less dislikes were viewed by less older people. This doesn't mean that all older people are angry homophobes, but it illustrates the exact kind of phenomena that I was trying to demonstrate with my pride month shorts: that discrimination in the past silenced, discouraged, and prevented LGBTQIA+ people from running for public office, hence that we have a lot of historic firsts when it comes to queer representation within the past 30 years - most of which are less than 20 years old. These angry commenters are the living examples of the culture from decades past that limited queer people's options in life when it came to public service.
But, as I also strove to demonstrate with the pride month series: queer people exist all across the political spectrum. We've had queer people elected from Greens, Labor, Liberal/National, Australian Democrats, as well as independents, and more. That's how it should be. Politicians shouldn't be judged on the basis of being queer or not, they should be judged in respect to their policies, their actions, their ability to do their jobs as elected officials - and we're reaching a stage where that is happening.
We're still in the early era of historic firsts, and it's still notable and important to celebrate representation and visibility of the queer community. I can reassure everyone that things do change, things do improve, and as I persevered making pride month videos the frequency of the queerphobic comments declined. While it seemed like there were a lot to begin with, it seems like it, at least partially, was motivated by some dedicated angry commenters who weren't reflective of my general audience. Discrimination still exists and that's why celebrating pride is still important - but I'm glad to see the level of support and positivity that many others have brought throughout the month to show that there's a lot of acceptance too.
Thanks everyone for the kind words during the month.
I hope you all had a happy pride.
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While I expected some negativity to my recent celebration of Pride Month by highlighting LGBTQIA+ politicians, I am astounded by the amount I've gotten with comments that need deleting and unnaturally high ratio of dislikes to likes. As the series of shorts demonstrates, there has been a shift in social attitudes that has allowed queer people to more openly and freely participate in the democratic process - but there are still those who react negatively to any mention of queerness, and thus contribute to the discrimination that has historically excluded LGBTQIA+ people from being able to be part of Parliament.
This will never discourage me from celebrating LGBTQIA+ pride. This only demonstrates why pride is necessary. Everyone deserves to be judged on the merit of their actions and their ideas, not discriminated against based off a natural part of their identity.
As I've said from the very beginning of Auspol Explained: politics is for everyone and that means that discriminatory attitudes that seek to silence and attack a group of people is unacceptable and antithetical to a healthy democracy.
Happy pride, everyone. Now, and for every year to come.
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I don't know about you, but I'm feeling 32 - because it's my birthday today! I hope everyone got me my favourite things: $1 million in cash and the secret to getting 8 hours uninterrupted sleep. I would appreciate either of those things! Alternatively: sharing Auspol Explained with a friend, family, or foe, so that the project can grow and others can enjoy learning about Australian politics. Either one works. Thanks!
[Image description: face and lovely curly hair photoshopped onto Taylor Swift's body as she dances in a white shirt against a red backdrop. I'm holding a cupcake that says "Happy birthday." One of the backup dancers has a purple circle with a white outline of Australia inside of it overlaid onto his face. It's the AEC logo. Beneath it says "enrol to vote" in text. The text on top of the image as a whole reads "I don't know about you but I'm feeling 32."]
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Opening weekend SOLD OUT! Wow! Thank you so much for the support for Extraordinary Auspol thus far! It's such a thrill to step on stage and have all the moments I worried may or may not be funny be met with raucous laughter (and also a relief to not blank on my lines).
For those in Perth who haven't come along yet you've only got 2 weeks left! The final night is 9th of September and it won't be extended because I'm off to a long belated honeymoon! Get your tickets ASAP: blueroom.org.au/events/extraordinary-auspol/
(Also shoutout to the person who gave me money for the Mary Gilmore scene - that was just a joke for the scene. Please come hi so we can give you a gift.)
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We open NEXT WEEK! If you haven't gotten tickets for Extraordinary Auspol yet then find a night that works for you - because some nights are selling fast! blueroom.org.au/events/extraordinary-auspol/
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Just over a month to go before I step onto the stage of the Blue Room Theatre and dazzle you all with the funniest show you've ever seen to do with Australian political history (which is a high bar and a bold claim, I know, but I think I can pull it off).
Get your tickets here: blueroom.org.au/events/extraordinary-auspol/
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Hey people in Perth! I'm writing a show - and starring in it too! If you enjoy whacky and funny stories about Australian history then oh boy you'll love Extraordinary Auspol! I've uncovered some bizarre and unusual tales from Australia's political history from how a single egg led to the creation of the AFP, how Victoria's golden mace was (allegedly) stolen and taken to a brothel, how Mary Gilmore (who is on the $10 note) found her husband in the jungles of Paraguay while living in an experimental socialist commune, and many more stories! It'll be hilarious.
So if you can check it out at the Blue Room Theatre from 22nd August to 9th of September. You can get your tickets now: blueroom.org.au/events/extraordinary-auspol/
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Hi! Welcome to Auspol Explained. This is an educational youtube channel that focuses on explaining everything to do with Australian politics. From how voting works to the role of Governor-General, to what Prime Ministers do after they retire. I'll cover it all and more. Have you got a question you want to learn? Comment on one of my videos and I'll answer it!
My aim is to make an accessible educational resource for everyone. This isn't about arguing to vote for a specific political party it's about how the political system as a whole works.