Cara Cunningham (formerly Chris Crocker; born December 7, 1987), is an American
transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...
Internet personality
An Internet celebrity (also known as a social media influencer, social media personality, internet personality, or simply influencer) is a celebrity who has acquired or developed their fame and notability through the Internet. The rise of social m ...
,
songwriter
A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...
,
recording artist
A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wri ...
,
YouTuber
A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006.
Influence
Influent ...
, and former
pornographic film actor
A pornographic film actor or actress, pornographic performer, adult entertainer, or porn star is a person who performs sex acts in video that is usually characterized as a pornographic movie. Such videos tend to be made in a number of dist ...
. , Cunningham's videos had received a combined 50 million plays on MySpace, and her
vlog
A video blog or video log, sometimes shortened to vlog (), is a form of blog for which the medium is video. Vlog entries often combine embedded video (or a video link) with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded in ...
channel on YouTube was the 100th-most viewed of all time in all categories, with over 205 million video views, before Cunningham closed her YouTube account in September 2015.
Her work consists mainly of short-form, self-directed
monologues
In theatre, a monologue (from el, μονόλογος, from μόνος ''mónos'', "alone, solitary" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes a ...
shot in her grandparents' home.
Cunningham gained fame in September 2007 from her
viral video
A viral video is a video that becomes popular through a viral process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhong Lan, Alexander Haupt ...
"Leave Britney Alone!", in which she tearfully defended pop singer
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer. Often referred to as the " Princess of Pop", she is credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s and early 2000s. After appearing in stage productio ...
'
comeback performance at the
MTV Video Music Awards
The MTV Video Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as the VMAs) is an award show presented by the cable channel MTV to honour the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video category) ...
; the video received over four million views in two days.
The video gained international media attention, hundreds of parodies, and criticism for Cunningham,
which included accusations of
narcissism
Narcissism is a self-centered personality style characterized as having an excessive interest in one's physical appearance or image and an excessive preoccupation with one's own needs, often at the expense of others.
Narcissism exists on a co ...
,
melodrama
A modern melodrama is a dramatic work in which the plot, typically sensationalized and for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue that is often bombastic or exces ...
tics,
histrionics, and using Spears' personal shortcomings to bolster her own fame.
Others have accused Cunningham of acting in the "Leave Britney Alone!" video, although Cunningham insisted it was genuine on a September 2007 appearance on
Maury Povich
Maurice Richard Povich (born January 17, 1939) is an American retired television personality, best known for hosting the tabloid talk show '' Maury'' which aired from 1991 to 2022. Povich began his career as a radio reporter, initially at WWDC ...
's ''
Maury'' show.
Cunningham produces and acts in her own videos, and is a self-described
edutainer
Educational entertainment (also referred to as edutainment) is media designed to education, educate through entertainment. The term was used as early as 1954 by Walt Disney. Most often it includes content intended to teach but has incidental en ...
.
In most of Cunningham's adolescent works, she presents herself as an
openly gender non-conforming
Gender variance or gender nonconformity is behavior or gender expression by an individual that does not match masculine or feminine gender norms. A gender-nonconforming person may be variant in their gender identity, being transgender or non-bina ...
person and
effeminate
Effeminacy is the embodiment of traits and/or expressions in those who are not of the female sex (e.g. boys and men) that are often associated with what is generally perceived to be feminine behaviours, mannerisms, styles, or gender roles, rather ...
Southerner in a "small-minded town" in the
Bible Belt
The Bible Belt is a region of the Southern United States in which socially conservative Protestant Christianity plays a strong role in society and politics, and church attendance across the denominations is generally higher than the nation's aver ...
. During her teenage years, Cunningham used "Crocker" as a
stage name
A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...
in order to keep her identity and location secret, due to death threats she received.
In 2014, ''
Queerty
''Queerty'' is an online magazine and newspaper covering gay-oriented lifestyle and news, founded in 2005 by David Hauslaib. As of June 2015, the site had more than five million monthly unique visitors.
History
''Queerty'' was founded by David ...
'' stated that with thousands of
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
and
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
followers, Cunningham is "one of those self-invented social media icons".
Early life
Cunningham was born in
East Tennessee
East Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. Geographically and socioculturally distinct, it comprises approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee. East Tennessee consists of 33 count ...
to a teenage couple and was raised by her grandparents.
Cunningham said she "raised eyebrows" by bringing
Barbie
Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by American toy company Mattel, Inc. and launched on March 9, 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration.
...
dolls to kindergarten for
show and tell
Show and tell (sometimes called show and share or sharing time) is the practice of showing something to an audience and describing it to them, usually a toy or other children's-oriented item. In the United Kingdom, North America, New Zealand and ...
rather than the toys or
action figure
An action figure is a poseable character (arts), character model figure made most commonly of plastic, and often based upon characters from a film, comic book, military, video game or television program; fictional or historical. These figures are ...
s more conventionally associated with boys.
Cunningham continued to live in Tennessee throughout her youth, and was
homeschooled
Homeschooling or home schooling, also known as home education or elective home education (EHE), is the education of school-aged children at home or a variety of places other than a school. Usually conducted by a parent, tutor, or an onlin ...
in response to constant "death threats,
bullying
Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by others) of an imba ...
and glares at her clothes and makeup"
specifically after reportedly being "harassed by a
homophobic
Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred or antipathy, m ...
high school gym coach".
Cunningham lived with her
fundamentalist
Fundamentalism is a tendency among certain groups and individuals that is characterized by the application of a strict literal interpretation to scriptures, dogmas, or ideologies, along with a strong belief in the importance of distinguishing ...
Pentecostal
Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement grandparents who continued raising her when her teenage parents were not able. While her grandfather reportedly knows little about her Internet fame, her grandmother has reluctantly appeared in some of her videos.
Internet career
Cunningham is best known for her Britney Spears video, uploaded to YouTube on September 10, 2007. The first part of the infamous work was posted September 9, 2007, called "Leave Britney Alone pt.1" to her MySpace page, while the better-known "LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!" (part 2) was posted to both Myspace and YouTube. In "Leave Britney Alone pt.1", an emotional Cunningham stated that she did not want fellow Southerner
Britney Spears to spiral out of control like
Anna Nicole Smith
Anna Nicole Smith (born Vickie Lynn Hogan; November 28, 1967 – February 8, 2007) was an American model, actress, and television personality. Smith started her career as a ''Playboy'' magazine centerfold in May 1992 and won the title of 1993 ...
, who had died in February 2007. , the video had been viewed over 35 million times and had accumulated a total of over 500,000 comments. It is just a few seconds shorter than the second part, and Cunningham, although emotional, remains relatively calm and composed, becoming teary only at the very end.
In the videos, Cunningham condemns gossip columnists such as
Perez Hilton
Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr. (born March 23, 1978), known professionally as Perez Hilton, is an American blogger, columnist, and media personality. His blog is known for posts covering gossip items about celebrities, and for posting tabloid p ...
and
reality TV
Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...
star
Simon Cowell
Simon Phillip Cowell (; born 7 October 1959) is an English television personality, entrepreneur and record executive. He is the creator of ''The X Factor'' and ''Got Talent'' franchises which have been sold around the world. He has judged on t ...
who criticized Britney Spears' onstage music performance at the
2007 MTV Video Music Awards
The 2007 MTV Video Music Awards, honoring the best music videos from the previous year between June 2006 to June 2007, took place on September 9, in Las Vegas at The Palms. The 2007 VMAs were the smallest VMAs ever held in MTV history, eliminati ...
in
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
.
Within the first 24 hours of its posting, the video had accumulated over 2 million views.
, it had accumulated a total of 24 million views and was the second-most discussed video of all time on the site (in all categories), with over 350,000 comments.
"LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!" was one of YouTube's fastest "climbing" videos, reaching the minimum seven million views needed () to be included in the "Top 100".
The video was nominated in the Commentary category in the 2007
YouTube Awards
The YouTube Awards (also known as the YouTube Video Awards) was a promotion run by the video-sharing website YouTube to recognize the best user-generated videos of the year. The awards were presented twice, in 2007 and 2008, with winners being vo ...
.
The video received worldwide attention and earned Cunningham interviews on
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...
,
Fox News
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...
,
MSNBC
MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...
, ''
The Today Show
''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It was ...
'', ''
Maury'', ''
The Howard Stern Show
''The Howard Stern Show'' is an American radio show hosted by Howard Stern that gained wide recognition when it was nationally syndicated on terrestrial radio from WXRK in New York City, between 1986 and 2005. The show has aired on Howard 100 a ...
'', ''
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. The nightly hour-long show debuted on January 26, 2003, at Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywood, Los ...
'' and
Ryan Seacrest
Ryan John Seacrest (born December 24, 1974) is an American media personality and producer. He is the co-host of ''Live with Kelly and Ryan'', as well as the host of multiple media shows including ''American Idol'', ''American Top 40'', and '' ...
's
KIIS-FM
KIIS-FM (102.7 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Los Angeles, California, United States, and broadcasts to the Greater Los Angeles area. The station airs a top 40 format. Owned by iHeartMedia, KIIS-FM is the origin of the conglomer ...
morning show. Cunningham and her video were also commented upon in the mainstream media by shows like ''
The View'' and ''
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jay Leno that first aired from May 25, 1992, to May 29, 2009. It resumed production on March 1, 2010 and ended on February 6, 2014.
The fourth incarnation of the ...
''.
YouTube said "the melodramatic two-minute clip made
unninghaman instant YouTube star" and named it one of the top videos of 2007.
''
Wired
''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fra ...
'' magazine named it the top video of 2007.
Prior to the attention from her September 2007 ''Leave Britney Alone!'' video, Cunningham was seen as a viral video sensation and was asked by MTV vlogger and news staffer Matt Sunbulli to provide video for MTV's website which also broadcasts on MTV itself.
Cunningham indicated that she hoped to develop her acting career; she agreed to develop ideas for a TV show with
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
producer Glenn Meehan and met with representatives from MTV's gay-themed channel
LOGO
A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...
.
According to ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'', Cunningham signed a development deal with
44 Blue Productions
ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE (officially abbreviated as P7S1, formerly ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG) is a German mass media & digital company. It operates in three segments: Entertainment, Dating and Commerce & Ventures. The company is listed on the Fran ...
to create a "docusoap"
reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...
show, which would be called ''Chris Crocker's 15 Minutes More''.
Rasha Drachkovitch, the production company's co-founder, stated, "It's going to pretty much be the Chris Crocker experience. We consider
era rebel character that people will find interesting.
he's
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
going to be a TV star."
Although sometimes shown in conjunction with news footage of Spears' performance, the "pure
performance art
Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...
" video became its own story, with the news media and the gossip industry offering opinions on the phenomenon, joking that Cunningham could be "an insidious
satiric
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...
mastermind" and comparing her to
Andy Kaufman
Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman ( ; January 17, 1949 – May 16, 1984) was an American entertainer and performance artist. While often called a "comedian", Kaufman preferred to describe himself instead as a "song and dance man". He has sometimes b ...
.
In the video, Cunningham proclaims, "All you people care about is readers and making money off of her. She's a human! Leave Britney alone!"
Cunningham stated that although she is often acting in her videos, her emotions were genuine and "straight from the heart"; although she described the clip as a "second take" in one interview, she clarified on ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' that she meant that it was the second part of a longer video, the first part being "Leave Britney Alone pt. 1".
The "Leave Britney Alone!" video became a
satire
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...
target, with parody videos, references in mainstream television spoofs, and films.
Actor
Seth Green
Seth Benjamin Green ( ''né'' Gesshel-Green; born February 8, 1974) is an American actor, producer, and writer. Green's film debut came with a role in the comedy-drama film ''The Hotel New Hampshire'' (1984), and he went on to have supporting ...
's parody, which included him applying eyeliner several times and promoting his show ''
Robot Chicken
''Robot Chicken'' is an American adult animated stop motion sketch comedy television series, created and executive produced for Adult Swim by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich along with co-head writers Douglas Goldstein and Tom Root. The writers, ...
'', called for people to "leave Chris Crocker alone!"
Some video responses characterized Cunningham as a
drama queen, and ''Wired'' magazine stated that the video "sent world
Schadenfreude
Schadenfreude (; ; 'harm-joy') is the experience of pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from learning of or witnessing the troubles, failures, or humiliation of another. It is a borrowed word from German, with no direct translation ...
levels zooming to heights unseen since the
Fatty Arbuckle
Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle (; March 24, 1887 – June 29, 1933) was an American silent film actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. He started at the Selig Polyscope Company and eventually moved to Keystone Studios, where he worked w ...
scandal
A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way. Th ...
."
The January 2008 parody film ''
Meet the Spartans
''Meet the Spartans'' is a 2008 American parody film written and directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. The film is mainly a parody of the 2006 film ''300'', although it also references many other films, TV shows, people and pop cultural ...
'' used pop culture references and met with generally poor reviews; the ''Electronic Urban Report'' called Cunningham's cameo the "film's funniest moment".
Both Cunningham and the video were also parodied in the ''
South Park
''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boys Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand th ...
'' episode "
Canada on Strike", with a cartoon Cunningham running around in a fight between various
Internet meme
An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...
s, telling it to "leave the others alone". In March 2008, a "
trance
Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...
remix
A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...
" dance single "Leave Britney Alone" was released on
iTunes
iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...
and other sites by "Double J" featuring quotes from Cunningham's video.
While numerous news and media outlets reported on the viral video,
Fox News Channel
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...
's morning program ''
Fox & Friends
''Fox & Friends'' is an American daily morning news and talk program that airs on Fox News. It premiered on February 1, 1998, and is currently hosted by Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade on weekdays. Will Cain, Rachel Campos-Du ...
'' commentators questioned Cunningham's gender and compared the fabric backdrop in the video to
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...
's videos.
Cunningham produced two response videos – ''Poor FOX "News"..'' and ''Rosie O'Donnell was right about FOX "News"'' (originally posted as ''"Dear Fox 'News'"'') – addressing what she characterized as biased treatment while she called Fox News the "
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
, conservative,
homophobic
Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred or antipathy, m ...
channel".
Cunningham's stated concerns were the commentators calling her a "
she/he
A third-person pronoun is a pronoun that refers to an entity other than the speaker or listener. Some languages with gender-specific pronouns have them as part of a grammatical gender system, a system of agreement where most or all nouns have a va ...
" and what she felt was needless questioning of her gender instead of commenting on the content of the video.
Cunningham deactivated her YouTube channel in 2015. In March 2016, Cunningham interviewed for Contrast Magazine and opened up about why she deleted her YouTube channel.
In February 2021, Cunningham created an
OnlyFans
OnlyFans is an internet content subscription service based in London, United Kingdom. The service is used primarily by sex workers who produce pornography, but it also hosts the work of other content creators, such as physical fitness experts ...
account.
In the same month, following the release of the ''New York Times'' documentary ''
Framing Britney Spears
''The New York Times Presents: Framing Britney Spears'' is a 2021 American documentary film directed by Samantha Stark, reported and produced by Liz Day, and produced by Liz Hodes, Mary Robertson, Jason Stallman, Sam Dolnick, Ken Druckerman an ...
'' led to broader public reconsideration of how media treated Spears in 2007, Cunningham released a statement on
Instagram
Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...
framing her experience as a
teachable moment
A teachable moment, in education, is the time at which learning a particular topic or idea becomes possible or easiest.
In education
The concept was popularized by Robert Havighurst in his 1952 book, ''Human Development and Education.'' In the co ...
. She described the backlash she faced as a visibly
genderbending teenager for expressing the same then-unpopular opinion as straight media critics such as
Michael Moore
Michael Francis Moore (born April 23, 1954) is an American filmmaker, author and left-wing activist. His works frequently address the topics of globalization and capitalism.
Moore won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for ' ...
as
transphobic
Transphobia is a collection of ideas and phenomena that encompass a range of negative attitudes, feelings, or actions towards transgender people or transness in general. Transphobia can include fear, aversion, hatred, violence or anger tow ...
. She also said that she was verbally and physically assaulted by members of the LGBT community for making them look bad in the media. Cunningham said that the backlash made her fear for her life as a gay teenager without much money living in the South.
Other ventures
![YouTube Celebrity](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/YouTube_Celebrity.jpg)
Cunningham has been involved in various projects. In a June 2007 autobiographical
comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...
, where she discusses future plans, she states, "I'm going to make the leap from living with my
Pentecostal
Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement grandparents to living with
drag queen
A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and part o ...
roommates. I'm going to star in my own TV show. I'm going to make the leap from
outhouse
An outhouse is a small structure, separate from a main building, which covers a toilet. This is typically either a pit latrine or a bucket toilet, but other forms of dry toilet, dry (non-flushing) toilets may be encountered. The term may als ...
s to
bathhouse
Public baths originated when most people in population centers did not have access to private bathing facilities. Though termed "public", they have often been restricted according to gender, religious affiliation, personal membership, and other cr ...
s...to my very own house."
In October 2007, Cunningham opened
Fox Reality
Fox Reality Channel was an American pay television channel. It was launched on May 24, 2005, and was owned by the Fox Entertainment Group. It featured many shows that were originally on the Fox network (or produced by Fox). The channel also featu ...
channel's "
Reality Remix ''Reality Remix'' is a daily, half-hour American television show that recaps events in the world of reality television.
It was one of the original shows on the Fox Reality Channel. ''Reality Remix'' was hosted by former MTV veejay Lisa Kennedy Mont ...
Really Awards".
Cunningham was one of
Lily Allen
Lily Rose Beatrice Allen (born 2 May 1985) is an English singer-songwriter and actress. She is the daughter of actor Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen. Her music career began in 2005 when she made some of her vocal recordings publi ...
's Internet correspondents on the February 2008 premiere episode of
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
's ''
Lily Allen and Friends
''Lily Allen and Friends'' is a British TV talk show presented by Lily Allen. The programme was produced by Princess Productions for BBC Three. It was first shown on 12 February 2008.
The audience consists entirely of Lily's online friends, who ...
'' where she posed questions for the guest celebrities, in this case
David Mitchell and later,
Cuba Gooding, Jr.
Cuba Mark Gooding Jr. (born January 2, 1968) is an American actor. He is the recipient of an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Emmy nomination.
After his breakthrough role as Tre Styles in ''Boyz n the Hood'' (1991), he appeare ...
On May 23, 2008, rock band
Weezer
Weezer is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1992. Since 2001, the band has consisted of Rivers Cuomo (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Patrick Wilson (drums, backing vocals), Scott Shriner (bass guitar, keyboards, backing v ...
released a viral
music video
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...
for their song "
Pork and Beans
Pork and beans is a culinary dish that uses pork and beans as its main ingredients. Numerous variations exist, usually with a more specific name, such as Fabada Asturiana, Olla podrida, or American canned pork and beans.
American canned pork a ...
" – "a natural anthem for the self-expression that's been taking shape on YouTube" – which featured various
mash-ups of viral videos and
YouTube celebrities
YouTubers are people mostly known for their work on the video sharing platform YouTube. The following is a list of YouTubers for whom Wikipedia has articles either under their own name or their YouTube channel name. This list excludes people who ...
, including Cunningham, all playing themselves.
On May 22, 2009, Cunningham made a video showing a
Grammy
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...
plaque that she received for her contribution to the band's video. On July 9, 2009, Cunningham appeared on the
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...
show ''
Tosh.0
''Tosh.0'' ( ) is an American television series that aired on Comedy Central from June 4, 2009, to November 24, 2020. The series is hosted and produced by comedian Daniel Tosh, who provides satirical commentary on online viral video clips, inter ...
''.
Cunningham released her first single, "Mind in the Gutter", in 2008. She released her first EP titled ''
The First Bite''
digitally on iTunes March 19, 2011. "I Want Your Bite" was then released as the second single. Later that year, Cunningham released the songs "Second to None", "Tug of War", and "Taking My Life Back". In 2012, Cunningham released the songs "Locked Up Lovers" and "Lucky Tonight".
Cunningham's second EP, ''Walls Down'', was released on March 14, 2013, under her new stage name Chris Cunningham-Crocker. The EP is a departure of her previous dance style, mainly consisting of ballads and features a duet with her mother. The first single from the EP, "Breaking Up", was released on January 24, 2013.
Cunningham announced in August 2011 that a film documenting her life over the past few years would be released, titled ''
Me at the Zoo
"Me at the zoo" is the first video uploaded to YouTube, on April 23, 2005, 8:31:52 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, PDT, or April 24, 2005, at 03:31:52 UTC. The 19-second video features YouTube's co-founder Jawed Karim, who was 25 years old at ...
''. The film also explores how video sharing and social media have shaped the way people share her stories and go about her lives.
On January 17, 2012,
HBO Documentary Films
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television, premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office busi ...
secured the US broadcasting rights to the film.
It premiered at the
2012 Sundance Film Festival
The 2012 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 19 until January 29, 2012 in Park City, Utah.
64 short films were selected for the festival from 7,675 submissions, including 27 international shorts from 3,592 submissions.
Non-competition ...
on January 21, 2012 and on
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
on June 25, 2012.
In July 2011, it was announced that Cunningham had been signed by
Chi Chi LaRue
Larry David Paciotti (born November 8, 1959) is an American director of pornographic films. He appears as the drag-diva persona Chi Chi LaRue (), and has been credited as director under the names "Lawrence David" and "Taylor Hudson".
Career ...
to appear in a
pornographic film
Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, sex films, and 18+ films are films that present sexually explicit subject matter in order to arouse and satisfy the viewer. Pornographic films present sexual fantasies and usually include eroticall ...
. She made her adult film debut in October 2012 for Maverick Men. In 2014,
Lucas Entertainment
Lucas Entertainment is a New York-based gay pornographic studio started by porn star Michael Lucas. It is one of the largest such studios in the world. The studio is known for lavish, big-budget films, and it contends that its 2006 film ''Mic ...
digitally released ''Chris Crocker's Raw Love'', which features Cunningham in a scene with her then-boyfriend Justin Dean.
Cunningham stated that acting in porn was going to be more than a single event; "it was going to be the porn and then a website, with the same companies." She said she was focused on setting up a future with her then-boyfriend and getting a house and a mortgage. "I said, 'Well if I'm going to do it, then let's make it worth it.' So, then we broke up a week before the porn came out. So then, yeah, it kind of ended." She added, "You have to contractually, and things, promote a porn. So I regret doing it with my ex more than I regret doing it in general." She said she could do porn again, but wondered how she would extend that into a viable career. "
ere is the reality show? And where are the people that have seen how interesting my life is? Not that many people were, like, the first of their kind to be an Internet celebrity—what happens after that?" she said. "What happens after you extend your 15 minutes of fame to 30 minutes of fame, and it's six, seven years later, and you're still living at home in Tennessee? I think that's an interesting story, a little more than ''
Honey Boo Boo.''"
Personal life
Appearance, transition and gender identity
Following her mainstream success, Cunningham gradually began to change her image from feminine to masculine, eventually adopting a predominantly masculine appearance by 2012.
Cunningham said that although she understands she is more socially or traditionally attractive, she dislikes people saying it and "the most irritating thing" is when men she finds attractive say they find her more attractive this way. She felt that people should accept all of her instead of only the masculine side, and that dating is difficult because "
he guyscan't always accept that
heused to dress up or that that's a part of
erstill and that
he still dresses up"
She identifies with the acceptance she received from her grandmother, who always wanted her to present as masculine, but she also finds it upsetting because she did not accept the way Cunningham was before.
Cunningham previously said that her
gender
Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...
was not male and female, but a combination of both, although it is more so a different gender at times, and that it was not a conscious effort for her to become more masculine.
"I started gradually. I was wearing less makeup and pushing my hair back and putting it in a pony tail instead of curling it or wearing it long." She stated that she "never realize
the changes that are taking place. They literally just happen" and that "
erhair extensions got shorter and shorter and
hewent from 26-inch extensions to shoulder-length extensions." She said that the process was the same with regard to "dressing like a girl," adding, "It's little by little."
With regard to the gender she was more comfortable as, Cunningham stated, "I definitely feel the most connected with myself I've ever felt. Maybe that's because before I began to explore my more masculine traits, I thought I was going to go through with a boob job." Cunningham said she had now "explored both sides" and felt she knew herself well.
Cunningham has expressed discontent with the
LGBT community
The LGBT community (also known as the LGBTQ+ community, GLBT community, gay community, or queer community) is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay men, gay, bisexuality, bisexual, transgender, and other queer individuals united by a comm ...
not understanding her
genderbending and accompanying gender expression or
gender identity
Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the i ...
: "I can understand straight people being confused but within the gay community? The gay on gay hatred or the gay on gay discrimination is what I find so puzzling." She said "when other queer people say, 'If you were really transsexual...' – because I lived as a girl for three years and people ask, 'Was that all an act?' That's the biggest thing that I get disgusted by." Cunningham said if it were all an act, she would not have gone through the trouble for three years; for example, using women's bathrooms and therefore encountering problems in airports.
Cunningham said she thought the whole point of being
transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...
is being what you feel on the inside. "For me, I wonder why do you have to just feel like a woman trapped in a man's body? Or vice versa? Why can't you identify with both genders and tap into those without being accused of dressing up as a girl for attention?" Cunningham feels that she was "fulfilling whatever vibe
he wantsto go with at that time." She "
ries Ries is the German word for a unit of paper ream, derived from the Arabic word ''rizma''.
The term can refer to:
Geography
* Nördlinger Ries, a large circular depression in western Bavaria, Germany.
* Ries (Graz), a district of the city of Graz ...
to block out people's voices in
erhead and just go with how
he feels
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
"
She acknowledged, however, that her masculine look being "easier on
erfamily and society" factored into her presenting as masculine.
In a ''
Queerty
''Queerty'' is an online magazine and newspaper covering gay-oriented lifestyle and news, founded in 2005 by David Hauslaib. As of June 2015, the site had more than five million monthly unique visitors.
History
''Queerty'' was founded by David ...
'' February 2014 interview, Cunningham stated that she was reconsidering whether or not to
transition to a female gender identity. "I think I'm getting tired of that chameleon lifestyle," she stated. "Like I said, I know I would be 100 percent happy living as a girl. But it's a lot of work, and it's a lot of therapy you have to go through. And I'm willing to put in that work." She added, "Some people get a haircut. I change genders or gender aesthetics. I don't know that I'll ever be content just one way or another." Cunningham said that she is on a journey when assessing that part of her life, and that she would not mind completely transitioning.
She said that while living as an "everyday guy", she wanted to see if she liked the experience, but that she was unhappy living that way and it did not work because that is not who she is.
In August 2021, Cunningham came out as transgender and changed her first name to Cara. She also said she would be beginning
feminizing hormone therapy
Feminizing hormone therapy, also known as transfeminine hormone therapy, is hormone therapy and sex reassignment therapy to change the secondary sex characteristics of transgender people from masculine or androgynous to feminine. It is a comm ...
.
Onch promotional deal and lawsuit
In October 2007,
TMZ
TMZ is a tabloid news website owned by Fox Corporation. It made its debut on November 8, 2005, originally as a collaboration between AOL and Telepictures, a division of Warner Bros., until Time Warner divested AOL in 2009. On September 13, 202 ...
reported that Cunningham was being sued by
Onch Movement Jewelry for $1 million for fraud and breach of contract, and provided a copy of the civil complaint filed in Los Angeles.
Jewelry designer Nelson Chung, professionally known as Onch and a fan of Cunningham, hired her as a celebrity spokesmodel for more than two days' worth of publicity work as well as appearance at World of Wonder's ''Just Britney'' art show in exchange for airfare.
It was speculated by DMW Media that Cunningham had no legal representative as the agreement seemed unbalanced.
Cunningham did make appearances including at gay club Rage and the art show where she was interviewed by MTV showing artwork of her in homage to Spears.
Onch's YouTube channel also posted videos of appearances which were later removed.
[ Link too recent for Internet archiving use.]
Image and style
Cunningham's uncensored
vlogging
A video blog or video log, sometimes shortened to vlog (), is a form of blog for which the medium is video. Vlog entries often combine embedded video (or a video link) with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded in ...
has been attributed to her isolation as an "
effeminate
Effeminacy is the embodiment of traits and/or expressions in those who are not of the female sex (e.g. boys and men) that are often associated with what is generally perceived to be feminine behaviours, mannerisms, styles, or gender roles, rather ...
, Southern, flamboyantly
gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
" adolescent in a "small-minded town" in the Bible Belt."
Her
sexual orientation
Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. These attractions are generall ...
and outspokenness have been described as a "subtext... rarely addressed directly and never completely accepted" in her hometown.
According to Cunningham, when her grandmother found out that she was gay, she initially "said that
eneeded an
exorcism
Exorcism () is the religious or spiritual practice of evicting demons, jinns, or other malevolent spiritual entities from a person, or an area, that is believed to be possessed. Depending on the spiritual beliefs of the exorcist, this may be ...
".
Cunningham has further commented on her town's lack of
gay culture
Gay men are male homosexuals. Some bisexual and homoromantic men may also dually identify as gay, and a number of young gay men also identify as queer. Historically, gay men have been referred to by a number of different terms, including '' ...
, saying, "The only gay
pride parade
A pride parade (also known as pride march, pride event, or pride festival) is an outdoor event celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer culture, queer (LGBTQ) social and self-acceptance, achievements, LGBT rights by country o ...
where I live is in my bedroom" as she held up a rainbow frosted cupcake.
She added, "We don't have
pride
Pride is defined by Merriam-Webster as "reasonable self-esteem" or "confidence and satisfaction in oneself". A healthy amount of pride is good, however, pride sometimes is used interchangeably with "conceit" or "arrogance" (among other words) wh ...
and
rainbows
A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc. Rainbows ca ...
here. We have MySpace. We don't have
bathhouses, we have
outhouse
An outhouse is a small structure, separate from a main building, which covers a toilet. This is typically either a pit latrine or a bucket toilet, but other forms of dry toilet, dry (non-flushing) toilets may be encountered. The term may als ...
s."
Communications lecturer
Michael Strangelove
Michael Strangelove (born 1962) is a Canadian writer and academic, currently a lecturer in the Department of Communication at the University of Ottawa. His two most notable works include ''Watching YouTube: Extraordinary Videos by Ordinary Peopl ...
described Cunningham as a trailblazer for
vlogger
A video blog or video log, sometimes shortened to vlog (), is a form of blog for which the medium is video. Vlog entries often combine embedded video (or a video link) with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded in ...
s, especially LGBTQ vloggers, being genuine and
campy
Camp is an aesthetic style and sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its bad taste and ironic value. Camp aesthetics disrupt many of modernism's notions of what art is and what can be classified as high art by inverting aes ...
while criticizing popular culture.
Cunningham's earliest experience with online networking was as an editor of an
e-zine
An online magazine is a magazine published on the Internet, through bulletin board systems and other forms of public computer networks. One of the first magazines to convert from a print magazine format to being online only was the computer magaz ...
, where she met her first boyfriend, with whom she was only able to interact online and by phone. Cunningham later found another online forum, where her acting skills helped her blend in on a free phone party line run out of Los Angeles "filled with flaming black men, black
drag queen
A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and part o ...
s, and
ransgender peoplefrom
Compton
Compton may refer to:
Places
Canada
* Compton (electoral district), a former Quebec federal electoral district
* Compton (provincial electoral district), a former Quebec provincial electoral district now part of Mégantic-Compton
* Compton, Que ...
", where she was outed as white and dubbed "
cracker
Cracker, crackers or The Crackers may refer to:
Animals
* ''Hamadryas'' (butterfly), or crackers, a genus of brush-footed butterflies
* '' Sparodon'', a monotypic genus whose species is sometimes known as "Cracker"
Arts and entertainment Films ...
".
In June 2006, Cunningham began uploading self-produced videos, characterized as her "singularly bizarre and angry take on gay life and
erintolerant town".
Although her video defending Britney Spears drew the attention of the wider public, Cunningham had already become one of the most-watched video producers on MySpace and YouTube, having gathered what
MSNBC
MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...
described as a "
cult following
A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...
".
Prior to Cunningham's defense of Spears, some of the more than sixty videos she had posted to the two
social networking
A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...
websites had already been viewed more than a million times each, and her YouTube channel was in the top rankings.
Some of the videos were only posted on one site or the other, many becoming "
viral video
A viral video is a video that becomes popular through a viral process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhong Lan, Alexander Haupt ...
hits".
In May 2007, Cunningham was the subject of a lengthy profile in the Seattle
alternative weekly
An alternative newspaper is a type of newspaper that eschews comprehensive coverage of general news in favor of stylized reporting, opinionated reviews and columns, investigations into edgy topics and magazine-style feature stories highlighting l ...
''
The Stranger'', which discussed her Internet fame prior to the "Leave Britney Alone!" video, and the adversities she has faced.
Dave Schlenker of the newspaper considered her videos to be bold and seething "flares sent up by a young gay man marooned in a sea of
rednecks
''Redneck'' is a derogatory term chiefly, but not exclusively, applied to white Americans perceived to be crass and unsophisticated, closely associated with rural whites of the Southern United States.Harold Wentworth, and Stuart Berg Flexner, '' ...
" who is stuck in a small town that "can't tolerate homosexuality and punishes flamboyance."
He stated that Cunningham's videos include "sex-filled confessions" and "wild
monologue
In theatre, a monologue (from el, μονόλογος, from μόνος ''mónos'', "alone, solitary" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes a ...
s" talking "about everything from
AIDS
Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...
to pubic hair."
In many of the videos, Cunningham portrays characters, such as an older deeply religious woman in "The Earl Annie Edna show" series and exaggerated comic characterizations of Southern stereotypes.
Cunningham believes that the ''Leave Britney Alone!'' video and performing in porn have hurt her chances of pursuing an acting career. "A lot of people think the Britney video is what got me famous and what gave me all these opportunities, but if I were to have gone to L.A. as an unknown actor—I probably could have gotten a lot more work." She said, "I don't regret it necessarily; I think it just gives me more hurdles to overcome... Which, you know... and obviously doing the porn thing didn't necessarily help me."
Cunningham described the porn aspect as having tarnished things, but said that it is up to her "to make those little calculated moves".
"It kind of created a whole other box that I have to overcome," she stated. "But when you're known as the Britney-boy, or you're in a '15 minutes of fame' box, it's very interesting, because the offers start coming at you really quick. And when they dwindle, you don't know what to do."
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crocker, Chris
1987 births
20th-century LGBT people
21st-century American actresses
21st-century American comedians
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American singers
21st-century LGBT people
Actresses from Tennessee
American actors in gay pornographic films
American bloggers
American dance musicians
American women pop singers
American women comedians
American YouTubers
YouTubers who make LGBT-related content
Internet memes
LGBT people from Tennessee
LGBT pornographic film actors
American LGBT singers
LGBT songwriters
LGBT YouTubers
Living people
People from Bristol, Tennessee
Pornographic film actors from Tennessee
Singers from Tennessee
Transgender actresses
Transgender comedians
Transgender women musicians
Video bloggers
YouTube channels closed in 2015
YouTube channels launched in 2007
OnlyFans creators
Transgender musicians