Exulansic on a live stream now on Youtube!

[RVN123]

Live now on Youtube and taking questions! Pop over if you have time.

She’s really good to watch - I’m glad to see a community forming around her with this and she’s really hitting her stride. I think that ‘The Mess we’re in’ should try this format; do an additional programme using the live chat.
It was interesting and a bit chilling when she said ‘time is of the essence- we must stop this before it becomes an established religion” or something along those lines.

I don't understand the admiration this woman attracts. I think her propensity to diagnose mental illness, genetic problems, and physical issues based on reality tv or pop videos is dangerous. She has an overblown sense of her own medical expertise. I think she's unnecessarily cruel about the young people who's lives she dissects for a form of intrusive entertainment.

Just a reminder that those young people whose videos she is analysing, are creating the videos themselves. They create them for many reasons. But the one common reason they all have created them is to influence other young people that medical transition is needed and desirable.

If her videos stop one more person from medicalising their body that is a good result. She is a detransitioner (although not medicalised) so uses that perspective to help attempt explain things.

Of course, like everyone creating content, she is not always right. She is human with her own set of issues, her own boundaries and her own agenda.

But, Cruel? I witness the effect these affirming tik tok videos can have on vulnerable teens on a daily basis through seeing my own teen’s friends (at one stage 5 out of 7 declared themselves trans). Whatever the motivation these young people are posting their videos for, the cruelty is making other young people feel that medicalising their transition will bring happiness, better mental health, and glamour in some cases.

Cruel is a world where the negative risks, the negative outcomes of these procedures are portrayed as ‘just part of the journey’ and to be minimised because they are not to be discussed honestly and clearly. Cruel is social media platforms allowing videos that glamorise these procedures, but most importantly, allow these videos to be consumed by children and teenagers.

If her videos stop one more person from medicalising their body that is a good result

Should be

If her videos stop one more person from medicalising their body, when that is not the correct treatment for them, that is a good result.

I agree she sometimes makes medical diagnoses based on rather flimsy evidence, but she shows great compassion for her subjects. Her series on Jazz Jennings shows far more empathy for Jazz than his own family ever have.

She has an overblown sense of her own medical expertise.

This I agree with. When she said something that was flat wrong about my own area of medical expertise, I challenged her, politely, with an explanation and references. She doubled down.

She reminds me very much of a medical student who's done all the reading, can recite the list of rare complications of whatever, but who hasn't the clinical experience to put them into any sort of context.

So, in the past few Jazz episodes we have her repeating that Jazz has a puberty blocker induced form of Prader-Willi (not possible, it's a specific genetic disorder, and Jazz doesn't present that way anyway). And, in the latest, rattling off all the horrors that a head injury can cause, including delayed death. And, well, maaaaaybe. But most falls end in nothing worse than the odd bruise. I see nothing in the footage we have to suggest this fall has caused even the most minor of head injuries.

It's endless catastrophising, which sounds convincing, but doesn't stand up if you have any relevant knowledge. And that undermines how much weight I give her when she talks about the dire and predictable consequences of gender reassignment surgery.

I know nothing about those surgeries. But, when I know she's wildly exaggerating or just plain wrong on things I do have professional expertise in, then it means I take everything else with a pinch of salt. Which is a shame, because it undermines her core message.

Motorina I do understand your criticism - I think that she does tend to over diagnose medical issues when it is not necessary and the diagnosis are in any case unprovable.
She has a point though how Jazz Jennings rapid weight gains are being explained by his family as an issue of Jazz’s ‘self control’ and Jazz is blamed and lectured constantly about over eating but any link between all of the puberty blockers and surgery that Jazz went through is not mentioned or explored at all.

@Xoxoxoxoxoxox yes, she absolutely has.

And the broader point that Jazz's complex needs are managed ad hoc by friends and/or random people brought in by the show is totally valid. Jazz is being let down. She needs medical expertise which can look at her weight (and other health issues?) in the context of the broader medical, hormonal and psychological context, rather than random smoothies and friends making her jump on boxes.

All those criticisms are 100% valid.

It doesn't mean she has Prader-willi.

I expected my comment to receive push back and on the whole I completely agree with what's being said here. I just don't trust her judgement.

I used the word cruel because she sometime smirks and snorts in derision at the worst of people's misfortunes, particularly in the surgery videos. That's not compassion.

I have found some of her videos very interesting particularly the series on phalloplasty. I think she has raised a lot of awareness of the effects of surgery and hormones on young women/girls which on the whole is talked about a lot less.

I think the criticisms above are a fair point though. I feel like there's a bit of a correlation between the success of the channel and some of the more questionable content. This is the case with many you tubers though, once they have a decent sized audience.

On the positive side her channel has really taken off and she is getting some serious viewing numbers now which overall raises awareness. I think she might be reaching a different audience to the Brit youtubers like Posie or Glinner.

Her content reminds me a bit of the true crime psychology channels which have large US viewerships and regularly pull in 1M plus views (a lot of those lean armchair diagnosis too).

That said anything that has the ability to speak to a US audience and raises awareness without being right wing content I consider a bonus at the moment.

Motorina, I completely agree. It's essential that people stick to facts and solid explanations. Otherwise it undermines what I think is a very valid questioning of what is going on with treatements like those which Jazz has been the subject of.

In this instance I think commentary on the family dynamics has been enlightening - and quite painful to watch. But I was unsure how useful or credible a hypothetical speculation about medical issues was.

@unwashedanddazed

I expected my comment to receive push back and on the whole I completely agree with what's being said here. I just don't trust her judgement.

I used the word cruel because she sometime smirks and snorts in derision at the worst of people's misfortunes, particularly in the surgery videos. That's not compassion.

I think sometime things are so bonkers that's all you can do. On the other hand there's been times when she's been so horrified she's moved to tears.

I don't think I'd ever come across I Am Jazz any other way, but some of the horrendous things the family and producers do to Jazz - deliberately throwing spanners in the works to get Jazz stressed and overeating - are completely unconscionable.

Exulansic is harsh but fair, I think. And a lot of people she puts the spotlight on need someone to be.

I agree that some of "diagnosis's" she gives are a stretch on occasion.

Her delivery style is certainly very dry and I can see how at times it could be perceived as cruel.

On the other hand I think she does some good work in challenging the expectations that transition surgery is straightforward.

The euphemism "bottom surgery" brushes over just how complex these procedures are to many young people watching transition videos and it's so sad to see many off them suffering from awful complications saying "they don't regret it" and that these complications are just part of the process and "revisions" are to be expected.

When she's on form pointing out that not being able to urinate and having multiple UTI's to the point of being drip fed antibiotics in hospital is actually pretty serious for example and how these "revisions" are complex surgeries that are risky in themselves, then I think she does a good job in highlighting the gaping chasm between expectations and the reality and risks of genital reassignment surgery.

It has been really heartbreaking, and informative, to see some bits of the actual realities of some of the surgeries being performed. (I can't watch much, find it too upsetting).

And I think the commentary is generally compassionate and sometimes angry, which I think is a fair response to watching some of these videos.

She has never said that the blockers have caused Prader-willi. Or a form of it.

What she has said, is that they have caused damage, and the resulting damage has symptoms similar to those shown in Prader-willi.

Don't criticise her for something that she has not said. Leave that to the other side

I used the word cruel because she sometime smirks and snorts in derision at the worst of people's misfortunes,

I get the impression she has outbursts of laughter at the madness of it all, not that she is laughing at the people damaged by it.

She repeatedly says the surgeries are barbaric and should be banned.

A slight tangent as I know nothing about Exulansic: As someone who lost 10+ years of my life to binge eating disorder, I would assume that is what Jazz has, rather than something akin to Prader-Willi syndrome. It seems an entirely predictable response to what Jazz had been through.

@Motorina

She has an overblown sense of her own medical expertise.

This I agree with. When she said something that was flat wrong about my own area of medical expertise, I challenged her, politely, with an explanation and references. She doubled down.

She reminds me very much of a medical student who's done all the reading, can recite the list of rare complications of whatever, but who hasn't the clinical experience to put them into any sort of context.

So, in the past few Jazz episodes we have her repeating that Jazz has a puberty blocker induced form of Prader-Willi (not possible, it's a specific genetic disorder, and Jazz doesn't present that way anyway). And, in the latest, rattling off all the horrors that a head injury can cause, including delayed death. And, well, maaaaaybe. But most falls end in nothing worse than the odd bruise. I see nothing in the footage we have to suggest this fall has caused even the most minor of head injuries.

It's endless catastrophising, which sounds convincing, but doesn't stand up if you have any relevant knowledge. And that undermines how much weight I give her when she talks about the dire and predictable consequences of gender reassignment surgery.

I know nothing about those surgeries. But, when I know she's wildly exaggerating or just plain wrong on things I do have professional expertise in, then it means I take everything else with a pinch of salt. Which is a shame, because it undermines her core message.

I am starting to notice this too more & more.

@lovelyweathertoday

I used the word cruel because she sometime smirks and snorts in derision at the worst of people's misfortunes,

I get the impression she has outbursts of laughter at the madness of it all, not that she is laughing at the people damaged by it.

She repeatedly says the surgeries are barbaric and should be banned.

She does but the sneering is increasingly puts me off her content, particularly in some of the Tik Tok videos showing post-operation people.

Maybe some of it's nervous laughter, but her words are at odds with her derisive facial expressions and body language.

But presumably doctors are not permitted to make YouTube videos criticising other doctors? So if people like Exelansic, who have at least some relevant expertise, don't comment, there will be no comment at all.

It's no good waiting for the medicos to speak out, they can't.

She seems very empathetic to me, and a good narrator of all this madness. Is there a 'correct' facial expression which she ought to wear, faced with some of this lunacy?