Anna McCarthy

Professor Schares

GWS 2050-003

06 October 2021

Gender Portfolio #5: A Gendered Analysis of Trisha Paytas’ Twitter

Throughout the past five days, I chose to monitor the Twitter activity of extremely

popular, yet controversial, YouTuber and TikToker Trisha Paytas. While her platform grew as a

result of her funny lifestyle vlogs and mukbangs on YouTube, she has recently been in the

limelight for her untimely exit from the popular podcast “Frenemies” and her newfound fame on

OnlyFans. Web 2.0 sites such as Twitter “offer social networking and microblogging with

millions of users”, making it a platform that has an expansive reach to people with access to the

Internet (225). While anybody can access her content, Trisha Paytas’ YouTube, Twitter, and

TikTok audience is a two-thirds majority women, many between the ages of 18-24, who are

interested in topics such as beauty and fashion (“Trisha Paytas Youtube Channel Analytics and

Report”).

While much of what Trisha has shared recently seems to be trivial lifestyle content such

as a photo of her Starbucks drink with the caption “This was tasty. Pumpkin spice frappppppp

how was ur daaaay”, it is prevalent that one issue that is important to her is body positivity. As

someone who has been open about her struggles with binge eating and body image issues, Trisha

was happy to share a YouTube video announcing her twenty pound weight loss with raw, real

images of her before and after. It is refreshing to see influencers on social media sharing

unedited photos of their bodies, especially when Instagram is overrun with FaceTuned,

contorted, and airbrushed pictures that only reinforce the unattainable standard of beauty. As the
reading points out, “social media in particular have provided opportunities for activism” (231).

Trisha tackles just that with her Twitter as she spreads the idea that bigger bodies are beautiful

too.

Through her recent activity on Twitter, it is clear that Trisha Paytas does address issues of

gender on her public platforms, greatly due to the fact that she herself does not conform to the

gender binary and is known for cross-dressing. On October 1st, she released a new line of

merchandise called the “SadBoy Spooky Collection” which she promoted via Twitter. Notably,

she is selling a pair of sweatpants called “They/Them Sweats” because they have a gender-

neutral fit. Likewise, she recently shared a new YouTube video titled “Boy Shames Girl for

Playing Basketball” in which she reenacts a skit where a boy tells a girl that she should be

playing with dolls instead of playing basketball. In the end, the girl (played by Trisha Paytas)

destroys the boy (her husband, Moses) in a game of pickup basketball. The messages that Trisha

Paytas sends through her Twitter actively challenge gender norms as they advocate against the

rigidity of the gender binary. Therefore, it can be said that Trisha’s content is feminist-forward

and progressive. However, as we debated in class on Monday, the link to her OnlyFans in her

Twitter bio can be taken one of two ways. It can be seen as anti-feminist as it promotes the

objectification of women through the male gaze, or it can be seen as empowering. I believe that

Trisha’s use of OnlyFans is the latter because she is using it to make hundreds of thousands of

dollars while doing something that makes her feel confident. Unlike people who are forced into

the sex working industry, Trisha is a member of this community as a choice and she financially

prospers on the platform.

 Works Cited

Shaw, Susan Maxime, and Janet Lee. Gendered Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and

Contemporary Readings. Oxford University Press, 2020.

“Trisha Paytas Youtube Channel Analytics and Report.” NoxInfluencer,

https://www.noxinfluencer.com/youtube/channel/UCGiSY-wqHv35wFvivMKlJTA.