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The following article traces the difference in the kind of reactions that the no-makeup looks of Imane “Pokimane” Anys and Rachel “Valkyrae” Hofstetter got.
Back in October 2018, Pokimane hosted a live stream on Twitch with no make-up on. While some of her viewers were happy with her look and appreciated the “no-makeup” stream, most criticized her look and trolled her.
Meanwhile, Valkyrae posted a makeup tutorial in July 2020 almost two years after Pokimane had debuted her no-makeup look. Instead of being criticized and trolled for her look, most viewers seemed happy and complimented Valkyrae for her "natural beauty."
The starkly different reactions to the “no-makeup” looks of Pokimane and Valkyrae
In this throwback piece, the fact that the two streamers received vastly different reactions to their no-makeup looks has been addressed. On October 23rd, 2018, Pokimane hosted a “Just chatting” stream with no makeup on. Within minutes, a part of her chat began to talk about how she looked “ugly” without makeup.
Additionally, it must be remembered that for a major part of her career, Pokimane was known to have a large number of “simp” followers. Quite a few of her supporters responded on Twitter to the “no-makeup” incident and called people out for their double standards. They talked about how Pokimane looked pretty even without makeup, and claimed that the ones who criticized her look were not her “real fans.”
While that may have been true, the term “Pokimane without makeup” became one of the most common search terms related to Pokimane on the internet. As a matter of fact, the streamer posted an elaborate tweet with multiple “no-makeup” selfies to shut down the trolls. In the tweet posted below, Pokimane encouraged people to be positive towards others and not judge them only on the basis of their looks.
Among the people who supported her was none other than Valkyrae. She called Pokimane an “inspirational goddess” and was happy about the fact that she stood up for herself. Of course, the toxicity that Pokimane received eventually toned down, with her loyal fans not letting go of an opportunity to stand up for the streamer.
While it will not be accurate to say that the online community has changed since then, people did not come out with the same kind of reactions when Valkyrae debuted her “no-makeup” look.
Multiple reasons may have played a part. Pokimane, since the no-makeup stream, was involved in a plethora of controversies, featuring the likes of Daniel “Keemstar” Keem, ItsAGundam and Calvin “Leafy” Lee Vail.
Additionally, it might also be that Pokimane paved the way for her fellow female content creators to stream without makeup with courage. Instead of being bogged down, Pokimane stood her ground and promoted positive messages. When Valkyrae posted the following makeup tutorial video, she was not trolled at all.
Instead, fans complemented her for her “natural beauty,” while her ex-boyfriend, Michael “Sonii” Sherman, posted the following tweet.
As can be seen, none of her fans ended up trolling her, and instead were happy with her look.
While the reasons behind these phenomena are merely speculation, Pokimane might not be too concerned about the situation. She was the first truly popular female content creator who had the courage to show her fans how she looked without makeup.
The fact that Valkyrae did not get criticized at all is, at least in part, due to how Pokimane and her fans stood up to the trolls when she was criticized back in October 2018.
