User:Benmite/Snark subreddits

Snark subreddits are subreddits created to gossip about and express dislike toward, or "snark" on, public figures, largely female influencers such as YouTubers and TikTokers. Moderators of snark subreddits often discourage members from expressing positive sentiments about their subjects. Members of snark subreddits are known as "snarkers".

Subreddits

The subreddit r/Blogsnark was created in 2015 to discuss influencers and bloggers, with threads dedicated to subsections of influencers like family channels, food influencers, and podcasters. In March 2020, it rose 300 spots on the list of the subreddits with the most members; its membership more than doubled from 2020 to 2022, by which point it had more than 100,000 members. Geoff Weiss of Business Insider described it as "arguably the most popular" snark subreddit in 2023. r/SmolBeanSnark focuses on writer Caroline Calloway and provides updates on her life and career. r/HilariaBaldwin focuses on Hilaria Baldwin, the wife of actor Alec Baldwin, and promotes theories that Baldwin is lying about her life. r/munchsnark, a subreddit surrounding influencers that members accused of faking their illnesses, was banned for violating Reddit's rule against promoting hate. A snark subreddit for influencer Trisha Paytas, r/Trishyland, was created in October 2021, soon after her exit from her collaborative podcast with Ethan Klein, Frenemies. It had over 42,000 members by 2022, with its membership doubling after Paytas announced that she was pregnant. r/MadiaSnark was a subreddit about Brianna Madia, a Moab, Utah-based vanlife influencer. In March 2023, Madia posted a video describing how she was doxxed by users from the subreddit and stated that the subreddit made her suicidal. She then released the names of 25 snarkers from the subreddit and revealed her discovery in October 2021 that her then-husband, Keith, had posted in r/MadiaSnark. It was later taken down by moderators of the subreddit. The subreddit r/snarkingonthesnarkers was created to critique other snark subreddits for bullying and harassment.

Fundie snark and r/DuggarsSnark

r/DuggarsSnark is a subreddit surrounding the Duggar family, the stars of the TLC reality television series 19 Kids and Counting. Posts often revolve around the family's fundamentalist Baptist beliefs, their promotion of purity culture, and members' negative experiences growing up or interacting with Christian fundamentalism. The subreddit became particularly active during a December 2021 trial against Josh Duggar, whom the subreddit nicknamed "the Pest", for possessing child pornography. The subreddit grew from 8,000 members at the beginning of 2021 to 135,000 by December, while its posts shifted toward empathy for victims of child sexual abuse. The subreddit also organized a fundraiser for the Children's Safety Center of Washington County. By June 2023, the subreddit had over 174,000 members.

r/fundiesnarkuncensored, a subreddit surrounding Christian fundamentalist influencers r/fundiesnarkuncensored, had over 156,000 members by that same point.

Reception and criticism

For The Guardian, Katy Kelleher wrote that, despite occasional commentary on snark subreddits about "the expectations that are placed upon women living in 21st-century America", "snarkers" are typically "just mean". Emily Courter of Business Insider wrote that users of r/Blogsnark sometimes expressed admiration for influencers, but that the subjects of its posts were "often heavily criticized and arguably even trolled, which leads to concerns that these spaces have gone too far". Business Insider also faced online controversy in late 2023 for posting a story about the underwear brand Parade in a snark subreddit from their Reddit account. For The Washington Post, Taylor Lorenz described "the vast network of snark subreddits" as "a thorn in [Reddit's] side" in 2023 due to their being "tied to stalking, doxing, and mob behavior" and for "frequently devolv[ing] into networked harassment against women".

For NBC News, Kat Tenbarge wrote that, even if snark subreddits about "entire genres of influencers" like family channels and beauty YouTubers tended to be "more nuanced, newsy and speculative", snark subreddits about specific people could "often turn hateful". She also described r/Trishyland as "a coordinated harassment campaign" due to its members' attempts to involve themselves in Paytas's personal life while she was pregnant. Molly McAleer, a cofounder of HelloGiggles stated that snark subreddits about female influencers were "less about accountability and more about bullying, often over their target's appearance". Annie Rauwerda wrote that, because "gossip triggers the brain’s reward circuitry", there could be "positive, pro-social outcomes of shared snark", but that it had the potential to "go too far". She particularly criticized aspects of r/DuggarsSnark as being "invasive and cruel" and likened them to cyberbullying.