The Orbiter

Bianca Devins posted from her Instagram

This post has been sitting in my draft section for over a year now. This was a topic I wanted to research more on which sent me down a year-long rabbit hole to a group of individuals that I am most likely going to devote a whole dissertation to in the future. Long story short Bianca Devins was a victim of a phenomenon, a bigger picture of the internet that has been developed around mental health, despair, and the darker sides of the human psyche.

The Tradegy of Bianca Devins

Bianca Devins was a 17-year-old girl from Utica, New York. She suffered from depression, anxiety, and had suicidal ideations at times. Bianca's Instagram today has 163,000 followers with only having 10 posts at this time. Bianca suffered from troubled home life and sought refuge on the internet as most people do today. She befriended Brandon Clark through the internet and would eventually meet in person during her high school graduation. Bianca and Brandon were only friends even though Brandon wanted more and she was aware of it. Brandon also came from a troubled home life witnessing his father abuse his mother and even holding his wife at knifepoint. Both Brandon and Bianca could find sympathy in each other. Bianca saw Brandon as someone she could talk to and to trust while Brandon saw Bianca as someone he could be in a relationship with in the future. Rumors of friends stated Bianca and Brandon were sexually active through Brandon taking advantage of her when they were high. Other rumors stated that Bianca would be sexually active with Brandon so he could supply her with drugs. Brandon expressed that she was his girlfriend while her friends never believed this. On July 14th, 2019. Bianca and Brandon would go to a concert and would meet up with another friend named Alex. Brandon would witness Alex and Bianca kissing at the concert which he believed Bianca did deliberately to anger him. This would lead to a heated argument between Bianca and Brandon in his car on a dead-end road. Brandon would then proceed to attack Bianca and slitting her throat with a knife so deep that it almost decapitated her. Brandon would take pictures of her mutilated body, post it on social media, call his family, and when police arrived, stab himself in the next which he survived. The photo of Bianca's body would gravitate through the internet and may still be out there as of today.

Before I move forward, I am not putting blame on Bianca and on her part. Some people believe she got what she deserved due to her past internet history but I for one believe that she was manipulated and completely unaware of the harm and abuse that she faced. Bianca was labeled as an e-girl or someone who spends their time on the internet and having most of their social interactions through the internet. An e-girl may have a large following on social media and has a group of people that follow their posts, donate them money, and compliments them through their comment section. These followers admire the e-girl and in someway will worship them in the form of comments or donations. These girls make money, I mean, a lot of money

The Rise of E-Girls

Belle Delphine posted from her Instagram

Here is a fun little history lesson for you. A doomsday cult in Japan during the 1990s caused deadly sarin gas attacks in the Japanese subways. The cult is known as Aleph but was firmly known as Aum Shinrikyo. The followers worshipped Shoko Asahara and loved him so much they would drink his bath water. So why did you need to know this? Well lets talk about e-girls and their own followers. The photo above is Belle Delphine, an internet personality who sold her own bath water to her  "thirsty gamer boys". For 30 dollars you too can get a jar of her bath water. She almost instantly sold out of the bath water which was quite alarming. Belle Delphine is one of many Instagram models who find their wealth through posting lewd photos on the internet. Belle Delphine's networth alone in 2020 is 500,000 where she makes money from snapchat, pateron, and only fans. Belle's followers that donate money for a chance to get special photos of her. Paying 35 dollars a month can get you access to almost nude photos of her which she is bringing in by the thousands. Even though Belle may have paved the wave of this phenomon, this would lead to more internet personalities to flock to only fans to make money on their lewd and nude content. The massive success of this platform has made some accounts so popular that they can afford luxerous houses, cars, and high financial lifestyle. Seeing this success will lead to more coming to the site knowing that they can make triple their salary of a normal job just posting lewd and nude photos on the internet. The e-girl phenomon is the new era of what people are seeking in their relationships. The belief that me giving them money will show them that I support them and that they are giving me what I """"""""rightfully""""""""" deserve, their naked body. This form of worship can be strange and unsettling, but with a global pandemic, any form of connection can be intoxicating. No matter the price. 

Notice Me

Pokimane posted from her Youtube

Enter stage left, Imane Anys, also known as Pokimane. Imane is a twitch streamer where she plays video games for a live audience. The audience can interact in the chatbar and donate money to her stream. Donating money can offer perks such as her acknowledging you on the stream, giving you a shot out, or her just knowing you were there. Imane's networth is around 1 to 2 million dollars with most of her money coming from her streams. She does not have an only fans and has never really posted in lewd content. Overall she is a friendly streamer but can get into drama with other internet personals. A couple of months back, some controversary came about in her possibly having a secret boyfriend which led to her subscriber count to dwindle. Why is this such a big deal, well many of her fans didn't like her being in an actual relationship with someone in real life. Imane's fans having donated hundreds of dollars to her stream just so she could notice them. I want you to think what you could spend a hundred dollars on at this given moment. Would you give 100 dollars for someone to say your name. Literally to say "thank you ____ for the donation, you are amazing", and that's it. Many other twitch streamers will pull this type of branding and they rack up the money.

Now taking Belle and Imane's situation, does this seem like a bad thing. Well, not really. If someone can make my yearly salary in just a month, clearly they are doing something right. When discussing only fans website, sure these photos may come and haunt you the same way pornstars have struggled to get out of that field but the twitch streaming, all you do is play games, with clothes on, and talk to your fans. All that power and success can bring more people in following the same line of work. When I saw how so many gamers can make money on twitch, I wanted in. Bianca Devins may have had the same gameplan in getting the attention and desire she wanted through the internet. These fans began to rotate their life around these e-girls and became the topic of this post.

The Orbiter aka The Simp

Posted from Neekolul TikTok

Queue, Neekolul (Nicole), aka "OK Boomer" girl. Nicole made a popular video where she sings a song while wearing a Bernie Sander's shirt. A simple video that led to many boys and men following her on Instagram, twitch, and tik tok. With the worshipping and praise she was receiving many people began making fun of her fans calling them simps. Simps is a term used for the men who constantly worship women on the internet giving them money and praise. The former term of this was know as an orbiter, someone who is always gravitating around these e-girls. These men are believed to be loners and find their self-worth in the acknowledgement of the e-girls. Nicole is just another product of Inmane and Belle which has gotten her notirity. She also has a boyfriend which led to fans being outraged and flagging her content and eventually getting her banned from some social media. This type of harrassment is scary and not easily enforced by the law. I can easily make up an account, hide my IP, and tell anyone on the internet to kill themselves with no consequence coming from my end. The orbiter have this obsession that the e-girl is their girlfriend and theirs alone. For them to know that they are donating their own money and their e-girl is with another man seems to be a form o betrayal and that they were lied to and misguided. Not having that sense of "power" they had in this imaginary relationship can lead to so much distraught that they will do anything to punish them. As real fanatics believe, "if I can't have them, no one can". 

The Bigger Picture

Bianca Devins posted from her Instagram

Bianca did not deserve to die. Brandon Clark was an obsessive and possessive orbiter who could not accept the fact that Bianca was not his to keep. Only through drug use was he able to get what he wanted from Bianca and if his needs were not met by her he would throw her away. Bianca was planning to pursue a bachelor's degree in psychology. It has been reported that she enjoyed the e-girl scene when she was younger as older men found her attractive and orbited around her. She knew how much she had control over the situation and would mock those that could not have her. She was a teenage girl with mental health issues. This is not a sentence for a brutal death. The internet was her drug of choice to cope with her hardships as well all have in one shape or another. With orbiters losing money and not having their unrealistic needs met by the e-girls, a sense of self-hatred can lead them to act out. On the other hand, an orbiter may have complete deniablity and blame the e-girl or a female in their personal life for not showing affection towards them. This hatred towards women has brought rise to the group known as incels (involentary celebites) who believe that women only go for superior alpha men through looks, money, or affiliation. This group has been radical at times and has carried out single person terrorist attacks in Russia, Canada, America, and other countries. That is another topic for another time. 

So what is the point of all of this? I believe we are in a shift when discussing healthy relationships and interaction in the modern era. This new line of work through social media can be addicting but can become harmful and lead to people losing their lives. It's not just the internet anymore with Bianca losing her life at the hands of an orbiter. With that being said, what would happen if these e-celebrities expressed that harm and harrassment of others. We have seen people have their social media completely eradicated through harrassment, what is to say this could not happen in the future. You have borderline cult worship of the e-girl movement and now a counterculture group of angry men that believe women should be punished. At the end of the day it all rotating around men. I believe a compromise is needing to be met on both ends. Men should not be giving away their entire paycheck to e-girls but yet they should not also harrass and attempt to harm them. On the other side of the coin, women should not give up their own goals of quick profit through the internet. Bianca was just another victim of the radical movement on both sides and she never deserved any of it.