# Rowan Ellis > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Rowan_Ellis > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Rowan_Ellis.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rowan_Ellis > Source revision: 1347321675 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|British YouTuber and author}} {{Use British English|date=January 2025}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}} {{infobox social media personality | name = Rowan Ellis | image = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = | birth_place = | death_date = | death_place = | nationality = | other_names = | education = [Durham University](/source/Durham_University) | occupation = {{Hlist|[YouTuber](/source/YouTuber)|author}} | organization = | website = {{URL|rowanellis.com}} | youtube_handle = @HeyRowanEllis | youtube_display_name = Rowan Ellis | youtube_years_active = 2014–present | youtube_genre = {{Hlist|[Feminist theory](/source/Feminist_theory)|[queer theory](/source/queer_theory)}} | youtube_subscribers = 317,000 | youtube_views = 26 million | stats_update = December 23, 2025 }} '''Rowan Ellis''' is a British [feminist](/source/feminism) [content creator](/source/content_creator), author and [LGBTQ rights](/source/LGBTQ_rights) advocate. ==Early life== Ellis graduated with an English literature degree from [Durham University](/source/Durham_University).{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/style/article/dark-academia-tiktok-aesthetic-cec|title=A guide to 'dark academia,' the TikTok-popular aesthetic with preppy style and an intellectual focus|work=CNN|first=Scottie|last=Andrew|date=29 January 2022|accessdate=7 September 2025}} ==Career== Rowan Ellis began uploading videos to YouTube in 2014.{{cite web|last=Watson|first=Libby|date=2017-03-17|url=https://gizmodo.com/youtubes-restricted-mode-is-hiding-some-lgbt-content-1793382337|title=YouTube's Restricted Mode Is Hiding Some LGBT Content|work=[Gizmodo](/source/Gizmodo)|access-date=2025-01-01|archive-date=9 January 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250109115142/https://gizmodo.com/youtubes-restricted-mode-is-hiding-some-lgbt-content-1793382337|url-status=live}} Her videos focus on analysing popular culture through the lens of [feminist](/source/Feminist_theory) and [queer theory](/source/queer_theory).{{cite web|last=Anderson|first=Cade|date=2021-03-27|url=https://dailyutahchronicle.com/2021/03/27/a-youtuber-for-all-lgbtq-film-geeks-rowan-ellis/|title=A YouTuber for All LGBTQ+ Film Geeks: Rowan Ellis|work=[Daily Utah Chronicle](/source/Daily_Utah_Chronicle)|access-date=2025-01-01|archive-date=19 February 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250219193119/https://dailyutahchronicle.com/2021/03/27/a-youtuber-for-all-lgbtq-film-geeks-rowan-ellis/|url-status=live}} In September 2016, Ellis was served a notice from Google, which told her that one of her videos on LGBTQ history was to be restricted from receiving ad revenue. The notice, which was also received by other content creators, was criticised for [censorship](/source/Censorship_by_Google).{{cite web|date=2016-09-16|url=https://eaglenews.org/15982/entertainment-and-lifestyle/content-creators-speak-out-against-youtubes-ad-friendly-censoring/|title=Content creators speak out against YouTube's 'ad-friendly' censoring|work=Eagle News|access-date=2025-01-01|archive-date=11 February 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250211124420/https://eaglenews.org/15982/entertainment-and-lifestyle/content-creators-speak-out-against-youtubes-ad-friendly-censoring/|url-status=live}} Soon after, Ellis and other LGBTQ creators began complaining that their videos were being demonetised, age-restricted and de-listed.{{cite journal|last=Maurer|first=Layla G.|year=2022|title=Cyber-Silencing the Community: YouTube, Divino Group, and Reimagining Section 230|url=https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1321&context=wjlta|journal=Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts|volume=17|issue=2|page=177|archive-date=6 June 2024|access-date=1 January 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240606125938/https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1321&context=wjlta|url-status=live}} In total, Ellis found that 40 of her own videos had been restricted. In March 2017, Ellis drew attention to the restriction of LGBTQ content on YouTube with her video "YouTube is Anti-LGBT?" She pointed out that videos containing LGBT topics had been deemed "[inappropriate](/source/Inappropriateness)" by Google's content moderation polices. She added that such restrictions made access to support more difficult for LGBTQ youth and called on YouTube to adjust its policies.{{cite web|last=Shu|first=Catherine|date=2017-03-19|url=https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/19/youtube-lgbt-restricted-mode/|title=YouTube responds to complaints that its Restricted Mode censors LGBT videos|work=[TechCrunch](/source/TechCrunch)|access-date=2025-01-01|archive-date=9 January 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250109033113/https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/19/youtube-lgbt-restricted-mode/|url-status=live}} Ellis was concerned that LGBTQ videos were being restricted, even when they were about apparently innocuous topics, as it implied that LGBTQ content is inherently more inappropriate than content made by straight people. This video was also restricted by Google and its comments were turned off. Ellis' video prompted other LGBTQ content creators to look at the restrictions on their own videos, with many finding that their content had been deemed "potentially offensive" by Google's content moderation.{{cite journal|last=Bishop|first=Sophie|year=2018|title=Anxiety, panic and self-optimization|journal=Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies|volume=24|issue=1|page=71|doi=10.1177/1354856517736978}} YouTube apologised for the blocking, demonetisation and age-restricting of LGBTQ videos, claiming it to be an "accident", but a year later creators continued to find their videos were being demonetised for LGBTQ content.{{cite book|last=Monea|first=Alexander|year=2022|chapter=Overblocking|chapter-url=https://digitalcloset.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/i2a3g68w/release/1|title=The Digital Closet: How the Internet Became Straight|publisher=[MIT Press](/source/MIT_Press)|isbn=9780262046770}} In her 2018 video "Do I Have Privilege?", Ellis explored the issues of [intersectionality](/source/intersectionality) and [social privilege](/source/social_privilege), from her perspective as a queer woman who benefited from [class privilege](/source/class_privilege) and [white privilege](/source/white_privilege).{{cite book|year=2021|last1=Glatt|first1=Zoë|last2=Banet-Weiser|first2=Sarah|chapter=Productive Ambivalence, Economies of Visibility, and the Political Potential of Feminist YouTubers|editor-last1=Cunningham|editor-first1=Stuart|editor-last2=Craig|editor-first2=David|title=Creator Culture: An Introduction to Global Social Media Entertainment|publisher=[New York University Press](/source/New_York_University_Press)|isbn=9781479879304|doi=10.18574/nyu/9781479890118.003.0006|page=53}} In her 2019 video "The Evolution of Queerbaiting", Ellis identified common forms of LGBT representation and misrepresentation; of the latter, she included [queer coding](/source/queer_coding) and [queerbaiting](/source/queerbaiting). Ellis also coined the term "queer catching", in which a piece of media markets a character as LGBTQ, sometimes retroactively, but fails to follow through with it in the text. Among the examples she presented of "queer catching" were [Dumbledore](/source/Dumbledore) in the ''Harry Potter'' series and background characters in ''Star Wars'' briefly kissing.{{cite journal|last=Mintierio|first=Luci|year=2021|title=Personal Reflection on 'Boy Crazy: A Screenplay About Gay Fanfiction, Queerbaiting, and Asexual Identity'|url=https://cedar.wwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1441&context=wwu_honors|journal=WWU Honors Program Senior Projects|issue=441|page=13}} In another 2019 video "A Children's Show With Gay Characters?", Ellis reported that she had received messages from people describing [LGBTQ representation in children's television](/source/LGBTQ_representation_in_children's_television) as "inappropriate", which led her to consider such representation to be a revolutionary act.{{cite journal|last=Toudic|first=May|year=2022|title=Queering History: Anne of Green Gables, Literary Re-vision and the LGBTQ+ Community|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360473402|journal=Emergence|volume=12|issn=2041-8248}} The video also discussed how the [Hays Code](/source/Hays_Code) resulted in Hollywood movie villains being coded as gay.{{cite journal|last=Mintierio|first=Luci|year=2021|title=Personal Reflection on 'Boy Crazy: A Screenplay About Gay Fanfiction, Queerbaiting, and Asexual Identity'|url=https://cedar.wwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1441&context=wwu_honors|journal=WWU Honors Program Senior Projects|issue=441|page=12|archive-date=17 April 2023|access-date=1 January 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417000704/https://cedar.wwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1441&context=wwu_honors|url-status=live}} In her 2020 video "Why is Cottagecore So Gay?", Ellis presented the [cottagecore](/source/cottagecore) aesthetic as one that provided lesbian women a safe space without homophobia or discrimination.{{cite web|last=Beards|first=Lilly F.|year=2021|title=Curated Bliss: What the rise of cottagecore says about lesbian domestic trauma|url=https://www.academia.edu/67826717|website=Academia.edu}} ==Personal life== Ellis is an asexual lesbian.{{Cite book|title=Here and Queer|first=Rowan|last=Ellis|publisher=Frances Lincoln Children's Book|date=2022}} ==Bibliography== * {{Cite book|title=Here and Queer: A Queer Girl's Guide to Life|publisher=[Frances Lincoln Children's Books](/source/The_Quarto_Group)|year=2022|isbn=9780711264755}} ==References== {{reflist|2}} ==Further reading== {{refbegin|2}} *{{Cite journal|last=Abidin|first=Crystal|year=2019|title=Yes Homo: Gay influencers, homonormativity, and queerbaiting on YouTube|journal=Continuum|volume=33|issue=5|pages=614–629|doi=10.1080/10304312.2019.1644806}} *{{cite thesis|last=Brand|first=Alexandra|year=2018|title=Fake News and Editing: Marketing Techniques used to Spin Controversies in Video Mediums|url=https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/honorscollege_theses/166/|publisher=[Pace University](/source/Pace_University)|archive-date=15 March 2025|access-date=1 January 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250315052653/https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/honorscollege_theses/166/|url-status=live}} *{{cite encyclopedia|last=Ng|first=Eeve|year=2021|title=Queer Production Studies|encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication|doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.001.0001|doi-broken-date=1 July 2025 }} {{refend}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, Rowan}} Category:21st-century British women Category:Alumni of Durham University Category:Asexual women Category:British asexual people Category:British YouTubers Category:English lesbian writers Category:Feminist theorists Category:Living people Category:LGBTQ YouTubers Category:Queer theorists Category:Year of birth missing (living people) --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Rowan Ellis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rowan_Ellis) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rowan_Ellis?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.