I consider myself an easygoing person. I’ve been raised to believe that everyone is trying their best in their own ways, and that we shouldn’t judge people if we don’t know their whole story. It’s always been hard for me to really hate or dislike people just for being themselves.

That being said, I do not like Gregory Jackson. At all.

Gregory Jackson, James Jackson or more popular known by his online name, Onision, is a YouTube star and internet personality. In 2009, “Banana Song (I’m a Banana)”, a video where Onision dresses up like a banana and jumps around screaming, went viral. Since then, his YouTube channel has featured a variety of controversial content including giving mental health advice along the lines of “X”, critiquing and judging teenage female bodies and comedy skits making fun of gay and trans people. In more recent news, he’s currently facing investigation for allegations involving child allegation and abuse.

Now, Greg has a lot of awful and irredeemable traits, but for the purpose of this excerpt, I’d like to focus on the ones that relate to hegemonic masculinity. In “Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept” by R. W. Connell and James W. Messerschmidt, hegemonic masculinity is defined roughly as “the pattern of practice (i.e., things done, not just a set of role expectations or an identity) that allowed men’s dominance over women to continue.” There are many facets to the practice, but it basically embodies the ideal way of masculinity that all other masculinities are in relation to.

As stated by the authors, there aren’t many people (if any) who are able to exemplify hegemonic masculinity by its definition. However, due to power assertion, homophobia and mistreatment of women, I’d like to argue that Onision’s character can be understood and explored through hegemonic masculinity, or at least most of the toxic parts.

To start, I’ll focus on more on the superficial parts of masculinity dealing behavior typically to males. Male behavior is typically associated with competitiveness, dominance and power among other facets of assertion. This exhibition of strength is an important part of hegemonic masculinity. To explore this in real life, let’s go back to Gregory.

In November 2019, Onision’s patreon account (a website that allows creators to make subscription-based content for money) was deleted after doxing a woman. In response, Onision posted a series of videos depicting him reacting angrily and manically to the ban. The most popular of these videos, “wow”, shows him taking off his shirt, pouring kombucha on himself, and screaming like a wild chimpanzee.

It’s a gigantic mess to say the least, but I think it’s interesting to see that, in retaliation to his loss of power, he appears to revert to this primitive, uncivilized male.

I might be stretching a bit, but the fact is that when his back was against the wall, he took off his shirt and jiggled his penis for all the internet to see. I don’t think this position would be even remotely the same if the gender was reversed, simply because female genitals aren’t associated with the assertion of power that male genitals are. I believe this is indicative of how society views masculinity in relation to

As discussed in Connell and Messerschmidt’s piece, heteronormativity and hegemonic masculinity rely on one another. Homosexuality is inherently not masculine due to its deviation from what the sexual part of masculinity is considered to be. Some men react to homosexuality by attacking and denying it in an attempt to protect their own masculinity. This happens because masculinity is something that needs to continually be achieved and reinforced for it to work.  Traits of such behavior can once again be seen with Onision. In his past, Onision has constantly called out and invalidated trans people and as well as insulting other bisexuals and gays in the community. It’s not cute at all and this is behavior that should not be encouraged or inspired in our society.

Gregory Jackson isn’t just rude to gay men and trans people. He also is ridiculously manipulative and abusive towards other women. Through all his relationships, there’s a constant theme of abuse and domination. The Chris Hansen interviews and investigations as well as his own content have shown his romantic relationships to have elements of violence and emotional abuse. Even when he talks to his predominantly young teenage fanbase, he constantly shames and belittles the female body. It’s immoral and disgusting but it’s unfortunately behavior that’s rooted in hegemonic masculinity in some of it’s more toxic variants. It still relates back to the belief that women are subordinate to men.

In conclusion, Onision sucks. I’m sure there’s a lot of his behavior that can be attributed to things outside of masculinity like narcissistic personality disorder or sociopathy, but there are definitely signs that point back the same old gender construct that continues to be ever present in our world. Hegemonic masculinity is not exactly a pleasant subject, but I believe by exploring and analyzing we can then look for ways to counteract and combat some its more negative repercussions.