Overview

Lindsay Ellis' "Mask Off" Video is an hour and forty minute long video posted by critic and YouTuber Lindsay Ellis in which she discusses a recent controversy she found herself in and cancel culture in general. The video divided onlookers, with many arguing it was a lengthy overreaction to a controversy when a simple apology would have sufficed and many others arguing it made valid points about Twitter culture.

Background

On March 26th, 2021, Lindsay Ellis tweeted that she found the film Raya and the Last Dragon and the cartoon series Avatar: The Last Airbender similar, writing, "Also watched Raya and the Last Dragon and I think we need to come up with a name for this genre that is basically Avatar: the Last Airbender reduxes. It’s like half of all YA fantasy published in the last few years anyway." The tweet is now deleted.^[2] She received some backlash for the tweet due to some people believing she was implying that Asian-inspired properties are the same. She responded to the claim by tweeting,^[1] "I can see where if you squint I was implying all Asian-inspired properties are the same, especially if you were already privy to those conversations where I had not seen them. But the basic framework of TLA is becoming popular in fantasy fiction outside of Asian inspired stuff" (shown below). The "squint" comment was interpreted by some as anti-Asian racism^[3] and led to people calling for her to be "canceled."^[2]

Ellis tweeted she was tired of having her opinions taken in bad faith,^[4] and stopped tweeting for several weeks. On April 15th, 2021, she uploaded an hour-and-forty-minute-long video titled "Mask Off" where she addressed the controversy as well as some of her past incidents and mistakes, including her Movie Bob Snub, and discussed cancel culture and Twitter's "villain of the day" ideology. She clarified in the beginning of the video that it was neither an apology video or a video complaining about cancel culture. The video gained over 754,000 views in less than 24 hours.

Developments

The video proved divisive among followers of the scandal, with some feeling it was overkill to the controversy and others finding it insightful. In the former camp, Twitter user @roslyntalusan^[5] wrote, "lindsay ellis saying she got canceled when she was the one who deleted her twitter because she didn’t want to accept that she did a racist… white women victimhood unparalleled," gaining over 940 retweets and 5,000 likes (shown below, left). User @artoflaineho^[6] tweeted, "It's disappointing that criticism by Asians in regards to Lindsay Ellis's tweet comparing Raya to ATLA has been subsumed by the overwhelming idea of cancel culture, and what it means, to a white person. She's centered herself in what was criticism about asian microaggression," gaining over 880 retweets and 3,100 likes (shown below, right).

Others thought the video was insightful and that the criticisms towards it came from those who assumed it was merely an anti-cancel culture rant. User @blockbustedbod^[7] tweeted, "Already seeing takes mocking Lindsay Ellis for "posting a 2 hour video on cancellation instead of just apologizing" but if you remotely pay attention to Twitter it will be abundantly clear that everyone saying "just apologize" is already eager to clown on that apology in any form," gaining over 300 retweets and 4,100 likes (shown below, left). User @dumbcerb^[8] tweeted, "Gonna hold the L and say the Lindsay Ellis video is actually real good and is neither an Apology Video nor a This Is Why I'm Right Video but instead a "yeah here's dumb shit I've done, now does this deserve a decade and a half of harassment that lead to this" which, Good vid," gaining over 110 retweets and 1,900 likes (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References