Natalie Wynn (born October 21, 1988) is an American
left-wingYouTuber, political commentator, and cultural critic. She is best known for her YouTube channel, ContraPoints, where she creates
video essays exploring a wide range of topics such as
politics,
gender,
ethics,
race, and
philosophy.
Wynn was born on October 21, 1988, in
Arlington, Virginia,[8] and raised in the same state.[9] Her father is a psychology professor and her mother is a doctor.[10][11] After studying piano at
Berklee College of Music,[12] she attended
Georgetown University and studied philosophy, then enrolled at
Northwestern University to pursue a PhD in philosophy, also serving as an instructor.[9][11][13][14] She left Northwestern with a master's degree (subsequently stating, "The idea of being an academic for the rest of my life became boring to the point of existential despair"), and moved to
Baltimore, Maryland for a relationship, which ended up failing.[9][15] After quitting her PhD program, Wynn taught piano, and worked as a
paralegal,
Uber driver, and
copywriter, eventually deciding to begin making video responses to the
alt-right and
Gamergate on YouTube.[16][17]
YouTube career
Wynn started publishing YouTube videos in 2008, initially focusing on
criticism of religion and her position as an
atheist and a
skeptic. In 2016, she began the ContraPoints channel in reaction to the
Gamergate controversy and the increasing prevalence of
right-wing YouTubers, shifting her content to countering their arguments.[9][13][18][19] Early ContraPoints videos also covered subjects such as race, racism, and online radicalization.[9]
In her videos, Wynn utilizes philosophy and personal anecdotes to not only explain
left-wing ideas, but to also criticize common
conservative,
classical liberal, alt-right, and
fascist talking points.[13][20][21] Wynn's videos are said to often have a combative but humorous tone, containing dark and
surreal humor, sarcasm, and sexual themes.[13] She often illustrates concepts by playing different characters who debate one another.[1] The videos have been noted for her production choices such as dramatic lighting and elaborate costumes.[22] She borrows some aesthetic cues from
drag performance.[23]
In a Wynn 2018 interview for The Verge, author and
Information Science student Katherine Cross notes a difference between Wynn in-person and how she presents herself on YouTube, explaining that the channel projects a "blithe, aloof, decadent and disdainful" image, whereas Wynn, personally, "can be earnest—and she cares deeply, almost too much," with Wynn concurring: "Contra has
BDE. I do not."[24]
In February 2020, Wynn set all her videos from before August 2017, the time when she began her
gender transition, to private, stating that they "no longer represent the person I've become".[28] She posted transcripts of older videos on her website.[29]
Reception
Jake Hall, writing for Vice, called Wynn "one of the most incisive and compelling video essayists on YouTube".[9]New York magazine states, "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."[13]Nathan J. Robinson of Current Affairs calls ContraPoints a "one-woman blitzkrieg against the YouTube right."[1]
Media often describe the channel's content as suited to a millennial audience, due to its style and attention to online culture.[1][22][30]
Her analysis of right-wing use of memes and coded symbols has been cited by the
Southern Poverty Law Center in an article explaining the right-wing use of the
OK sign.[21] Journalist
Liza Featherstone, in The Nation, recommends the channel, saying that Wynn 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.[31]
In November 2018, after a ContraPoints video about
incels reached over one million views, The New Yorker carried a report on the channel, describing Wynn as "one of the few Internet demi-celebrities who is as clever as she thinks she is, and one of the few leftists anywhere who can be nuanced without being boring."[32]The Verge has called Wynn's "confident and indulgent" persona in ContraPoints as "
decadent" in "the mold of Oscar Wilde by way of Weird Twitter," commenting on her
postmodernrococo set design and the "bewildering" variety of characters she deploys.[4]
The Atlantic praised the channel's sets, lighting, and music, opining that "the most spectacular attraction [...] is Wynn herself."[30]Polygon named her video on incels one of the 10 best video essays of the year 2018.[14] In May 2019, she topped the Dazed 100 list, which ranks people who "dared to give culture a shot in the arm."[33]
ContraPoints won Best Commentary at the
10th Annual Streamy Awards.[34]
In 2020, in a video titled "Shame," she came out as a
lesbian.[10]
Pronouns and transmedicalism controversies
In September 2019, Wynn described on
Twitter feelings of awkwardness when asked in some contexts to describe her
preferred gender pronouns.[37] The tweets were criticized as dismissive of
non-binary people who use pronouns other than "he/him" and "she/her".[38]
Linguistics professor
Lal Zimman said about pronoun introductions, "Wynn is absolutely right that people engage with that practice in ways that can be somewhat problematic".[37] Following constant negative
harassment, Wynn deactivated her Twitter account for a week, then posted an apology.[38] Shortly after, Wynn's video "Opulence" featured a quote from
John Waters read by transsexual
pornographic actorBuck Angel,[39] whose views on transgender and non-binary people have attracted criticism, including by some who see Angel's views as being
transmedicalist.[38][39] Wynn was criticized for using Angel in the video.
At the time, Wynn and other YouTubers associated with her channel were widely harassed online.[38][39]
Wynn's January 2020 video "Canceling" addressed both criticism of her and harassment, and the broader context of
cancel culture. Her stance was praised by
Robby Soave of Reason.[40] In a
Guardian interview on her January 2021 video "J.K. Rowling", in which she addressed cancel culture in the context of
trans-exclusionary radical feminists, she stated she is "less interested in cancelling Rowling – whose books [...] she enjoyed as a child – than in prompting her [Wynn's] viewers to consider the possibility of their own lurking
transphobia," adding that she tries to "take a more humanistic perspective when it comes to the topic of
bigotry."[10]
In the video at 02:42: Reeve: "Natalie quit a philosophy PhD program in 2015..." Wynn: "Dropped out of grad school. 'I'm going to write fiction!' That didn't go anywhere. I was like driving Ubers. Just teaching piano lessons, being a paralegal, doing copywriting. Just like anything. It was because of [?] dark moment that I even decided to do something as suicidal as make video responses to alt-right people."
^
abMahdawi, Arwa (September 13, 2019).
"He, she, they ... should we now clarify our preferred pronouns when we say hello?". The Guardian.
Archived from the original on November 8, 2019. Retrieved January 6, 2020. There's this paradox where I can go to a sports bar in North Carolina and be miss/ma'amed all night, no question. But in self-consciously trans-inclusive spaces I have to explain my pronouns and watch woke people awkwardly correct themselves every time they say 'you guys'.
^
abcdEarl, Jessie (October 21, 2019).
"What Does the ContraPoints Controversy Say About the Way We Criticize?". Pride.com.
Archived from the original on January 6, 2020. Retrieved January 6, 2020. [The] criticism from the larger trans and nonbinary community [...] exposes an unfortunate rift within progressive online spaces and illuminates a growing need for larger understanding of nonbinary identities. In our increasingly polarized culture, it has also demonstrated the growing issue surrounding an inability for criticism to become constructive.