I’m using past tense since I have not looked into Christine for a while. I take pride in avoiding information which I might do for difficult subjects in general but particularly here since her fetishizers and harassers have a thing for infodumping her life onto people.

It’s just so upsetting to see a fellow autist be subjected to vile ableist bullying and harassment, dehumanization, and moralization. Even in more tame aspects of her harassment it makes me so sad that many people know about her but many won’t bother to be compassionate or patient toward someone they don’t understand, instead jumping on freak show bandwagon, if not as active participant, as judgmental observer.

To clarify I’m okay with people having “problematic interests” but I’m talking about a systemic problem. CWC being broadly interesting is a byproduct of a culture of ableist gawking. As an autist who values accepting autists and their traits, even the less palatable treats, and who has seen a few autists (understated for humor), CWC is not a novelty. She’s a victim.

While this isn’t exclusively a radqueer take I think it’s heavily aligned with radqueer.

  • unicornsOPEnglish
    2·
    9 days ago

    I don’t really like elaborating but I can a bit. Also this is all gonna be from relatively distant memory, as I make a point about not looking up more information. More on why later.

    CWC is notable in that she has been made into a paraiah by a contemptuous fanbase who observe her as a freak, dishumanize her, document her, discuss her with other fans, and sometimes directly meddle in her life. She is a notable example of what some call a “lolcow” (derogatory). She is discussed on KiwiFarms (notable for transphobia) among other places. Fan documentation includes at least one wiki and a iirc several documentary series available on YouTube, including at least one really long one. Like, way too long for what the subject matter calls for.

    CWC as a freak and the extent of the documentation on her can be framed as shocking and entertaining to a general audience. Some fans take pride and pleasure divulging CWC’s thoroughly documented history to “normies”.

    “Don’t know about [CWC]? Well, you’re in for a ride! [infodump starts here]”

    My pointed disinterest in knowing any more about CWC or searching for her name on the web is a response to this culture.

    Fans have different terminology for themselves that I don’t remember. But basically fans are sometimes separated into groups. The fans that directly interact with CWC are sometimes looked down on as distasteful by the fans who observe and document without directly interacting with CWC. But it’s important to note that fans who claim a principle of not harassing CWC will still participate in demeaning online discussion and documentation. Also the point of having an interest in CWC is the entertainment of ableist “cringe”. If there are people whose interest stems from non-judgment of CWC and criticism of the commodification of disabled people as entertainment, they are outliers. The culture of the " fanbase" is one of ranging from contempt to dehumanizing observation.

    Iirc there has been at least one CWC “fan” (or maybe a few) that have developed hostile subfanbases. A Russian nesting doll of freak on freak observation…

    “Normies” who don’t know much about CWC may display the traits of dedicated fans but in a less extreme way.

    I guess CWC besides being harassed and studied is most known for “Sonichu”. I think her sharing of Sonichu is about when she started developing a (hostile) following.