Fascinating

February 17, 2023 9:15 AM

Soft White Underbelly is photographer Mark Laita's Youtube Channel where he has 20 - 30 minute interviews with all kinds of people that many would consider outsiders, downtrodden, criminal, or a mix: addicts (crack, fentanyl, opiates, sex, meth, booze, plastic surgery), gang members, Compulsive Gamblers, the inbred, a Dominatrix, hoarders, strippers, survivors (skydiving, human trafficking, Doomsday Theorists, Only Fans models, cross dressers, prostitutes and their tricks, Klan members,cops and ex-cons, the homeless, and many more.
posted by dobbs (14 comments total)

Ooo yeah I've watched a bunch of these. Mark seems like a pretty decent guy to a lot of these folks, although I sometimes find the headline terminology to be stigmatizing and damaging, ie, "child prostitute" or "xyz addict" - like language that we shouldn't use to describe people as it's not "person-first." I feel like I can only handle these in small doses because they're a huggggge bummer and kind of like, trauma-pornesque. I do like how he pays them though, he understands that by his subjects agreeing to tell their stories they are engaging in actual work.
posted by erattacorrige at 9:22 AM on February 17, 2023 [7 favorites]

I quite liked this one about a hacker.
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 9:24 AM on February 17, 2023 [2 favorites]

the programmer in in me is wondering where the closing parenthesis is after "survivors".
posted by dismas at 9:30 AM on February 17, 2023 [6 favorites]

the programmer in in me is wondering where the closing parenthesis is after "survivors".

My best guess is after "trafficking", but we'll have to run the unit tests to be sure.
posted by gurple at 9:52 AM on February 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

The one about the "inbred" Whittaker family is (in my perception, at least) the best-known. (I still can't quite parse "double first cousins.") Yes, I've watched it but I felt uncomfortable about it and very much like a poverty tourist. I think anyone would agree that a lot of the interviews are trauma porn. On the one hand, it's good he pays them for their time; on the other hand, the whole "your story deserves to be told" approach almost seems disingenuous. That said ... I tend toward the voyeuristic and apparently so do a lot of other people.
posted by scratch at 10:25 AM on February 17, 2023 [3 favorites]

I love this channel but also can't watch too much because it can be so depressing.
posted by riruro at 10:34 AM on February 17, 2023

Does Blue Oyster Cult know about this? ;-)
posted by Splunge at 11:15 AM on February 17, 2023 [4 favorites]

This is great. Thank you so much for posting here -- Best Of The Web indeed
posted by dancestoblue at 11:27 AM on February 17, 2023

> can't watch too much because it can be so depressing.

Antidote is this delightful couple
posted by ASCII Costanza head at 3:46 PM on February 17, 2023 [2 favorites]

I quite liked this one about a hacker.
So did I... be sure to follow it all the way to the end because it takes an interesting turn.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 3:53 PM on February 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

I have mixed feelings about some parts of this but I am also finding them fascinating to watch.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:51 PM on February 17, 2023 [2 favorites]

I started with the fentanyl one, Isaak. Man, that was depressing and heartbreaking. Amazing interview, too, but man, I was not ready for that right now.
posted by Chuffy at 6:20 PM on February 17, 2023

Peer to peer skill sharing. Extraordinary knot tying skills. Methods and materials.
posted by Oyéah at 7:01 PM on February 17, 2023

I watched a bunch of these when he started and for a year or two afterwards. However, the "tell me about your childhood" narrative comes across as leading. People are more than their problems, and their problems are more than a reflection of their chilchood circumstances. Its probably less obvious in small doses, and perhaps for each individual it doesn't matter, but after a while I found that Marks perspective was being reflected in the manner of his subjects responses.
posted by bigZLiLk at 4:06 AM on February 19, 2023