A transgender internet celebrity popularized through his association with the Mr. Beast franchise is under fire after past tweets resurfaced showing a hostility towards women’s rights and an extreme affinity for anime.
On April 6, Chris Tyson, known ubiquitously as being a regular sidekick of YouTube mega-star Jimmy Donaldson, announced his transition through Twitter. Tyson, 26, responded to a user comparing photos of him confirming he had been on hormone replacement therapy for 2 months.
The news immediately set the internet ablaze as Tyson is known for being a companion to one of YouTube’s most popular channels.
Mr. Beast currently has over 144 million subscribers, making it the fourth-most subscribed to channel on the platform. While it does not explicitly state which demographic it directs its content towards, a recent shift in its content towards boisterous displays of wealth has made it popular amongst young boys.
Tyson’s transition was met with mixed reactions, with trans activists praising the news and others expressing concern for Tyson’s family.
Tyson has a two-year-old son with a woman he married in June of 2018. Speculation amongst Mr. Beast fans dating as far back as 6 months ago rumored that Tyson had quietly separated from his wife, with some noting his wedding band had disappeared from videos. In a tweet from March, Tyson confirmed that he and his wife, who is reportedly a devout Christian, have been separated for “little over a year” and divorce proceedings were under way.
Days later, Twitter users began circulating a screenshot from Tyson’s Snapchat showing his young son, Tucker, wearing high-heeled shoes.
“Tucker chose to slay today,” Tyson wrote in his Snapchat spotlight, later addressing the “rude comments” the photo received on his alternate Twitter account.
In recent days, Tyson’s social media history has come under intense scrutiny. In particular, one post began circulating which had some disturbing undertones.
Posted to Tyson’s official, verified Twitter account in 2016, the tweet read: “Nothing gets my knob a cranking like some Loli,” an apparent reference to masturbating to the content.
“Loli” is a term which refers to female child-like characters popularized by Japanese animation, but has become synonymous with pedophilic depictions of sexualized young girls in animated pornography. The tweet, first posted by user @basedspinach, was hastily deleted after it began to go viral on April 12.
Tyson’s Twitter history reveals he had an obsession with Japanese animation, and frequently posted about the franchises he was invested in as a fan.
In several tweets over the years, Tyson refers in particular to female characters in the anime shows he has a fondness for, even going so far as to show photos of model statues of those characters he has purchased. One of those characters, from anime franchise Re:ZERO, is supposed to represent a 17-year-old girl.
But in addition to the hundreds of tweets about anime Tyson has posted, there have been a number of anti-feminist tweets now picking up attention.
Tyson appears to have held extremely hostile views towards women’s rights movements, and has multiple tweets referring to feminists as “privileged” and “entitled,” as well as “cunts.”
In one tweet from 2017, Tyson responds to a parody account dedicated to mocking women. While the tweet is presently unavailable, Tyson writes: “This is bullshit. I grew up working in the fields at 12 when my sisters got to sit in the AC all day. Fuck these privileged feminists.”
In another tweet, Tyson mocks a young woman with facial hair, first making a joke about the possibility of having had sex with her, and then correcting a user who confused her for a male.
“It’s actually a girl haha. She just grows a mustache because feminism,” he wrote.
Among the more disturbing tweets includes Tyson gloating over a video which reportedly showed a woman or women being assaulted. While the account that posted the video is now deactivated, contextual responses from other Twitter users provide insight into what the tweet had included.
To the video, Tyson responded: “Feminists are rethinking that whole equality thing.” In the comment section, Tyson elaborates further in response to another Twitter user, ostensibly irritated by the comments from people who were outraged on behalf of the victim.
“Look at the replies, dude. [It’s] literally AIDS. ‘You shouldn’t hit a girl,’ bitch starts hitting me I’m dropping her too,” Tyson wrote.
Despite having only been openly transgender for a week, Tyson is already promoting medical transitioning.
On April 5, Tyson tweeted that “informed consent HRT” saved his life, and called the “hurdles” that gender non-conforming people face in getting hormone therapy “wild.” Informed consent refers to when an individual patient is trusted to make the decision of whether or not the proceed with a treatment. In the case of hormone therapy, informed consent typically means an individual self-identifying as transgender is provided hormones without the insight of a mental health professional or other prerequisites.
Tyson has been taking cross-sex hormones for 2 months, but claims he is already seeing changes in his appearance.
“Pre HRT, my hairline and facial shape has already started to change so the photo that’s being used for articles doesn’t even look the same,” he tweeted last week. “The amount of body positivity I’ve gotten in just 2 months is insane.”
Despite having only been on HRT for a short period of time, many have noted that Tyson’s appearance had changed dramatically over the course of the past year in Mr. Beast videos, when the YouTube-popular sidekick began shaving his face, growing out his hair, and sometimes even wearing fake nails or nail polish.
The timeframe in which Tyson’s look began to change corresponds with previous fan observations about the absence of his wedding ring and wife.
EDIT 4/14/23: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the status of Tyson’s relationship with his wife was unclear, but it has been confirmed that the two are separated and finalizing divorce. The article has been updated to reflect this.
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