Three weeks ago, Dan and Phil uploaded a video titled “Are Dan and Phil in a Relationship? The Truth.” Since they both came out as gay in 2019, clickbait titles like “Finally Revealing Our Secret,” “We Are In A Relationship,” and “Dan and Phil Finally Tell the Truth” have appeared on their shared and individual channels for announcements and regular videos due to the long standing and widespread speculation about their relationship.
This video, however, is different. It opens with a direct confirmation of their relationship in the first ten seconds, after years of vagueness and avoidance of the topic. Dan and Phil’s early audience was very young, and the boundaries between internet personalities and their followers were unclear.
Casual, more authentic content about a person’s real life on the internet was a new phenomenon in the 2000s when Dan and Phil’s online career started. They did not set out looking for the massive following and fame that found them, but as they rocketed to internet stardom, the idea that Dan and Phil were dating also became popular. As Dan put it in their recent video, “The problem is this became so big we could not ignore it… We were being left with a choice of either address it or suppress it.”
And for years, it went unaddressed. Dan and Phil were both still closeted, and the aggression and hostility from some of their followers surely did not inspire confidence in how a confirmation of their relationship might be received. Eventually, in 2018, their joint channel went on an indefinite hiatus, which they have since stated was motivated in part by the pressure of speculation, assumptions, and violations of their privacy.
During this break Dan and Phil’s audience grew up and calmed down. Their coming out announcements and other content appearing on their individual channels were met with support and respect. Five years later, the joint channel made an unannounced comeback. This new era immediately felt different and more authentic as both Dan and Phil were now open about their sexualities, and the audience stepped back to give them the privacy they had lacked in the early days of their career.
After the revelation that Dan and Phil are, in fact, “collaboratively gay,” their content and relationship to their audience has once again shifted. In the first episode of their new podcast “Hard Launch,” Phil said, “In all honesty, it was such a nice reaction, I feel heartwarmed and not scared anymore.”
This new era post-hard launch video has a more authentic, free feeling than their earlier content. Back in 2018 when both of them individually posted videos coming out as gay, the following content had a similar feel. In the current climate we find ourselves in on the internet, authenticity is both encouraged and frowned upon in a curious way. Dan and Phil seem to exist in an amazing place where it is only encouraged.
Honesty with their audience seems to allow them to make content that brings them joy, not just out of obligation, and that kind of joy comes from existing in a community that has grown, learned, and gained understanding of boundaries since the original Dan and Phil era, many years ago.
A whole internet community being able to grow and everyone involved being the better for it is very beautiful. All of us could keep this kind of honesty, judgement, and respect in mind as we continue to navigate online interactions going forward.
Thanks to our dads Dan and Phil for teaching us this lesson, and growing with us these past 16 years.
Featured image: Instagram
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