As I alluded to before, Jenna Marbles is by far the most popular female-identified vlogger on all YouTube. At first glance, her gender performance seems to offer nothing all that different from what we’ve seen on every other billboard or Hollywood movie screen since the 1950s: she’s thin, blonde, big-chested, and according to plenty of boy viewers, the object of many a not-too-creative fantasy.

People are confused by Jenna Marbles. Across the internet, she receives both praise for her “revolutionized” brand of feminism, and scorn for her over “general overtone of gender stereotypes” and slut-shaming. So is Jenna a feminist or isn’t she? And how can people possibly have such divergent views on whether or not someone is a feminist? Is it really that complicated?

Simple answer: yes. In its root sense, feminism may mean equality of the sexes, but in practice that “equality” means many different things to many different people. “Feminism” will never be a simple monolithic concept. As for whether or not Jenna Marbles “is” a feminist…that’s just asking the wrong question, because no one “is” anything; people change all the time! In my experience, from Nikki Minaj to Beyonce to Jenna Marbles, whenever someone provokes a strong, contradictory response among different groups of feminists, they’re probably performing a feminine masquerade, which exaggerates feminine traits to highlight their performative nature, while still existing in the frame of the male gaze. Jenna masquerades all the time. The vast majority of her videos play off a “guys do one thing, therefore girls do the other thing” dichotomy that does, at first glance, seem to both uphold pre-existing gender norms, and to suggest that these norms are not only mutually exclusive but also essential. However, if that were all the videos were trying to say, what would make them funny? Humor theorists (yes, they exist) think that most, if not all, humor comes from irony, or subversion of expectation. So yes, we know Jenna’s being sarcastic, but it’s more than that. By creating an over-the-top gender performance, Jenna points out the gap between our essential selves and our gendered selves: it’s like she’s in drag for her own sex.  Here’s her most popular video, “How to Trick People Into Thinking You’re Good Looking:”

This “human optical illusion” that Jenna mentions is basically the masquerade. By putting on make-up, an almost exclusively feminine practice, Jenna uses her own skill and ingenuity to “look nothing like herself.” Jenna points out that beauty standards for women are so narrow and unrealistic that women have internalized the message that their looks are the main project of their lives. She says, “You’re way too ugly for that,” but she means, “As a woman, you’ve been dealt a shit hand. How are you going to get up when society has you down?” Jenna makes this point not by ostracizing women for wearing make-up, but by poking fun at herself for going along with it.  It’s okay to conform, she seems to say, Just know that what you are doing is a cultural norm, not a universal truth, and that it is a choice. In fact, once you know that your feminine role (symbolized by the make-up) is a choice, it’s actually more freeing, because you can use your looks to your advantage. Jenna knows she is pretty, and she wears make-up to make her social interactions easier. But, by stepping back and holding her femininity at a distance, she can use the tools of the patriarchy–make-up–and turn them into instruments of her own power. As she says in a different video, “Women are majestic fucking creatures. Men keep trying to break us open like a pinata, but they’ve got no idea what’s inside.” The make-up is the pinata: it’s a superficial defense that gives Jenna control over her body, in a world that constantly tells her that her body is not hers. Here’s her explanation of how sports bras work, also a before and after comparison:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag4C0MFRnmE

Although not informed by explicit gender theory, Jenna repeatedly points out how men constantly assume that women’s bodies only exist for male pleasure–or even, that they cannot possibly exist outside of the male gaze: “It’s as if tits are ghosts, and they only exist if they are up in your face.” She also points out that women have alternative social structures that exert a power that men may not know about (top secret titty club). The stereotypical, popular portrayal of a feminist hates bras and make-up because they exist for men, but Jenna co-opts them and shows that they actually exist for women.

Don’t get me wrong: Jenna Marbles is not the next Gloria Steinem. She often crassly equates “women” with “people who have vaginas,” which is an existentialist view of gender that directly contradicts a lot of her points:  If the bra is not an essential part of gender, then maybe the boobs aren’t either, but Jenna does not go there.  Nevertheless, she deserves a lot more credit fro her ironic twist on gender performance, and her pride in feminine power, than she often gets credit for.