Why Colleen Ballinger’s Backhanded Apology Video Is So Problematic
Colleen Ballinger's (popularly known as Miranda Sings) apology video makes light of a serious situation.
Instagram Colleen Ballinger, otherwise known by her YouTube personality “Miranda Sings,” posted a YouTube video on June 28, 2023, addressing the many accusations that have recently been levied against her — more specifically, grooming allegations.
Her response video, titled “hi.”, seems to be a direct response to a damaging exposé released by HuffPost on June 26, 2023, and various videos uploaded by former fan Adam McIntyre. The publication worked directly with several victims including McIntyre, a social media influencer, to release evidence and bring her behavior to light.
Colleen Ballinger’s ukulele apology video is a problematic non-apology.
Ballinger’s entire shtick is singing, and so she decided that the best way for her to move forward with some kind of address to the accusations was to… sing and play the ukulele.
“Uh, hi everyone. I’ve been wanting to come online and talk to you about a few things even though my team has strongly advised me to not say what I want to say,” she said in the video after a brief prologue accusing the accusers of spreading “toxic gossip” and untruths. “I recently realized that they never said that I couldn’t sing what I want to say,” Ballinger said, ukelele in hand and strumming along to a tune.
Ballinger's "apology" trivializes very serious accusations.
While a song may have seemed normal from her perspective (though how could it ever), to everyone else this sing-songy “apology” immediately downplays and trivializes the real experiences of those involved and attempts to disparage the mountains of evidence against her.
It also isn’t an apology. She says that she’s sorry twice — once sarcastically that is followed by “I didn’t realize that all of you are perfect,” and the second one is her saying sorry that she isn’t going to say she is 100% in the wrong.
She denies the claims against her and says, “Many years ago I used to message my fans, but not in a creepy way like a lot of you are trying to suggest. It was more of a loser kind of way.” She talks about how in her early fame she didn’t realize “boundaries” should be set and claims that she often “overshared” details of her life.
However, the accusations against her suggest there was more than a lack of boundaries and some oversharing. To put it into perspective, she would frequently ask McIntyre, and others, sexually invasive questions when he was still 14 or 15 years old. Things like “Are you a virgin?” and “What’s your fav position?” She would also share details about her then-husband, Joshua Evans.
At some point in the late 2010s, Ballinger claimed that some of her lucky fans would be receiving her “ugly” and unused clothes, but what McIntyre received in the mail was actually Ballinger's underwear — a bra and panties. In 2020, Ballinger confirmed that this happened and said that it was “completely stupid” of her.
She allegedly got far closer with her fans than any celebrity should get — especially in the subject matter she spoke about and when those fans are minors. Although she claims that she never had any bad intentions, her behavior was emotionally manipulative.
“I was so involved in this woman’s life that it’s embarrassing to look back on,” McIntyre claims. “There were some days, on a school night, I would be up until like 4 a.m. trying to calm her down.” This kind of emotional manipulation is part of the many issues that these victims are trying to speak out about, and that’s what’s so harmful about her video.
Victims should be believed and never blamed.
Ballinger actually does the exact opposite and throws shade at her accusers. Instead of accepting responsibility and taking accountability for her actions, she accuses them of “dramatizing their lies” and “monetizing her demise” because they want to ruin her life.
She’s employed DARVO tactics in her response to all of the accusations and basically amounts everything to “mistakes” that she’s made in her past, even saying, “So I just wanted to say that the only thing I’ve ever groomed is my 2 Persian cats.”
“I’m not a groomer, I’m just a loser,” she said immediately after, seeking sympathy for the way she’s feeling like she’s being unjustly attacked. This discredits the accusers who should be believed. Although grooming itself isn’t against the law until an act of abuse takes place, it’s still incredibly wrong — those accusations should not be taken lightly.
Photo: Twitter / @theadammcintyre
McIntyre in response to her video posted a tweet that reads, “As much as colleen discredited & made fun of me, I'm glad her video did ONE thing, show you all EXACTLY the type of evil woman she is, that a lot of us have experienced over the past few years behind the scenes, the mask has slipped…everyone meet the REAL Colleen Ballinger.”
Perpetuating a victim-blaming culture and refusing to hold yourself accountable is dangerous. It makes victims feel powerless and can sometimes convince survivors not to speak out because they feel like it doesn’t matter if they do.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor for YourTango who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics.