The curious case of Gemma Sullivan has niggled at me for weeks now.
Have you heard of her? Gem Gem. Yeah, that one – the Gemma of ‘Don’t f*ck with Gem Gem’ fame.
Gemma is ‘Facebook famous’, which unsurprisingly is where I first found her. She dropped into my peripheral vision in a viral video that was doing the rounds among my friends.
“What the hell is wrong with her?” read one share.
“OMG,” said another, “SO FUNNY. Literally crying.”
Of course, I clicked. That’s the horror of the modern world of the internet – we click, and don’t know why. I’m sorry I did: the video of Gemma Sullivan and her boyfriend Justin Ryan (also ‘Facebook famous’) was awful. They seemed a little strange. They were responding to online bullies who were harassing them. It all felt really wrong.
And yet, here were people I knew and respected in my social media web sharing the video as entertainment. They were laughing. Laughing? I was lost.
And to be perfectly honest, I still am. The situation is exactly as it initially seemed: people are making fun of a young woman who could be struggling.
I cringe even to write this piece because I don't know what Gemma's situation is. I do know from her videos that something is up with this young girl, and yet she's still fair game to the internet's trolls.
In those videos, Gemma swears like a trooper, is aggressive, often has heavy makeup smudged on her face, smokes pot, and talks a lot about her sex life. She's the perfect target for bullies, and yet this is what it is to be an online celebrity in 2016: she loves it. Or appears to.
Top Comments
I have known Gemma for many years, she went to primary school with my daughter.
Gemma was raised by her grandparents whom did an AMAZING job but sadly the bullying drove Gemma into a horrible direction.
She hated being bullied and told she was ugly, poor girl was born with some sort of bone issue which distorted her little face, she had operations to correct this as much as possible.
Her year 6 formal was approaching so my girlfriend and I did her hair and makeup to make her feel pretty, I went with her so she would have a “mum” figure like the other kids.
My father and step mother used to take her to church and I spent many hours on the phone with Gemma and spent time defending her to the online bullies but it appears Gemma learnt to embrace the bullying.
She wanted what all girls want, a boyfriend to feel loved and this lust for love was her downfall.
Gemmas online fame even led to a horrible assault.
Gemma is a young lady with feelings and a sweet little heart, I really hope she has found a better direction these days.
I have known Gemma since she was 5/6 and myself and my family know that nothing she has done or says is an act. She does have something wrong, but that's who she is. People hav abused her for years and when a few of the first videos had risen onto the web, myself my mother and my sister, who was best friends with Gemma for years, jumped to her defence because not only does Gemma not deserve all the crap that gets said and thrown at her but no body deserves it. Online bullying and bullying in real life has become such a huge issue for the last few and current generations and it's such a shame that it will be future generations issues.
If someone like Gemma were your relation, any decent human being would defend her/him because you love them for who they are. People seem to think that because she isn't related to them that it's perfectly okay to follow the crowd to mock and laugh and put her down, but they need to ask themselves, "what if she were my daughter".
Countless attempts at suicide and such other things as smoking cigarettes and marijuana have been the outcome to this bullying. Not only is it stabbing at her self esteem but the negativity is a risk to her health and wellbeing.
My only question is, "how can people be so cruel? We are one species. We are one big family. We are all connected. Regardless of what videos or photos go on the net, and what memes or trolls get put out there, how can anyone be so nasty? Protect what is yours. The earth is ours and Gemma is apart of our world."
I was best friends with Gemma's sister, and am currently still a huge part of her life, and the results of Gemma's online, and real life abuse has made an impact on her family. You aren't putting down one human being, you're insulting a vast range of the people that love and care for her.
Imagine if one nasty comment was enough to push Gemma over the edge to end her life. Everyone who has ever made a snide, mean, rude comment should have just held the gun to her head and pulled the trigger. The blood gold Gemma and the sadness and loss of her family, would be in your hands.
Well, hopefully her friends and family are more important than people on the internet. Still funny as hell though.
Anybody who doesn't see her for what she is and feels the need to insult her are the sort of ppl who hate themselves. To me the sad part is finding out how many people need to even just like themselves more let alone love themselves and constantly put others down to make themselves feel better. They never feel better as really they are telling that person what they think of themselves. The laughers are apathetic