Soft White Underbelly

No.

Yes.

[quote]Has this been discussed here before?

So many times, OP.

What’s the story with the photographer who runs it? I came across these videos last night when I could not sleep and now a can’t for the rest of the week.

Oops should have done a search.

Sugar baby is a thing?

This new interview is suspect to me. Polish guy who said his family moved to US when he was two years old. If so, why does he have such a strong accent. I've interacted with many Poles in NYC and their accents when speaking English never sounded like this. He sounds to me like has an Israeli (aka Hebrew) accent.

Also, I'm also quite suspicious of any male claiming to be a gigolo exclusively with female clients. I'm not saying it's impossible but very unlikely. Usually they are forced to see male clients too since there aren't enough females out there willing to pay for sex with a male.

Sugar Baby is a truly deluded fuck up.

I found the SWU videos last year and for a number of days I was just sucked into them.

I eventually came to my senses; realized I was feeding on tragic lives; confessed my sins and gave them up.

R7 is frightening.

R6 He came to the states when he was 11. He said his mom took off when he was 2 but he was still in Poland where he was raised by his Baba and aunt.

IMHO he looks Polish, and sounds like a lot of Slavs who move to NYC. He was probably in Greenpoint or other parts of Brooklyn that have many Polish stores and restaurants. He mentions NJ too, where there is a large Pole scene.

R6 interjects the age old, hotly contested DL topic of male escorts with a strictly female clientele.

New Soft White Underbelly, FTM sex worker Haskell. Munchkin sounding voice (check), facial hair (check), hypersexuality (check)

"I love to be a slut and be paid for it."

Haskell having sex with two cis gender males-

Get me a re-write on that dialogue. Oy vey!

Had a binge phase with this channel but eventually became disgusted with myself. Grief/tragedy/porn/porn.

This one is scary and depressing. What a waste.

True, it’s misery porn. Depressing. One should stay away from it.

Apparently, attractive people are not psychiatric cases or addicts in that carefully curated world of the maker's asshole.

I had no idea Satan worship was so prevalent in the sex industry! I wonder why that is??

Are there any long term health consequences to having anal sex multiple times a day, 5X or more a week, with strangers?

Yes you gonna gape 2 death

Other than wet farts now and again…not really.

R6 Agree that 99% of women don't pay for sex. Perhaps he offers platonic escort services i.e., "a walker" to wealthy older women.

R23 There are so few women needing this service.

These guys at the least allow men to blow them or do muscle worship as they jack off.

R20 Ive never heard of any snap consequences except for prolapse but I know a woman who said her female friend was such a whore that she lost complete control of her pelvic muscles. I guess she’s piss herself all the time because she couldn’t hold it. She was in her 40s.

Lol r25 women don't lose control of their pelvic muscles because of sex. Vaginas are designed for intercourse. Women's pelvic floor muscles may weaken after childbirth, though.

R25 is retarted

I love the one featuring the hacker Gummo. He’s a programming genius from a hardcore white trash Florida background who made a fortune in early telecom and then mining bitcoin. Its very moving especially when he talks about his wife, who stuck by him at his lowest point.

What the hell is that creepy thing OP posted?

These are tragic and we should feel empathy for them, but if R7 video subject says “literally” or “obsessed” one more time, I’ll kill it with fire.

I only watched the one about an incest family and I felt disgusted afterwards. Those people just need help and intervention, not some filmmaker filming it for the Youtube clicks. Depressing.

This guy films people SO badly. Everyone looks rolled in dirt.

r23 = Joe Buck

This is misery porn and exploitative. The guy who produces them is often in Joe Rogan and full of himself.

The guy who films these videos pays the performers and he is known as a “talking trick”.

It feels performative and exploitive.

Well, at least he has a job.

The creator is a highly accomplished commercial photographer.

It’s interesting that his day job is perfecting merchandise to the utmost degree in slick images, and his personal obsession is these grimy, burn out, broken people.

I sometimes wonder if Mark fucks his subjects. Or is he just a ‘talking trick’ as R35 says.

In memory of Soft White Underbelly interviewees who have passed away

Here's gay sex worker Stephan's original video, who according to the video above is now deceased.

[quote] This guy films people SO badly. Everyone looks rolled in dirt.

I think he lights them well and it's actually flattering, IMO.

I would bet money that he (Mark) was highly influenced by Avedon's "American West" photos.

Just watched the in memoriam video at r40 earlier this morning. Very moving and thought provoking. Should be required viewing

[quote]R42 I would bet money that he (Mark) was highly influenced by Avedon's "American West" photos.

Yes! Though I was at first thinking it resembled a collection by Mary Ellen Mark.

But you’re right, i was thinking of that 1985 Avedon book.

Yet another straight guy getting involved in sex with other guys to get drug money. I actually thought this interviewee, Brandon, was gonna reveal he was FTM during this interview but he never did so I guess he really is a biological male.His voice sounding a bit like somebody speaking after sucking in some helium was what threw me off.

The upload today, Cameron, is a gay guy. His drag queen persona is "Elleven DiVine". I'm only half way through it but i can already tell he's trouble. Not bad looking as a dude but I feel sorry for anybody befriending him.

He says he didn't realize he was raped by two neighborhood boys while growing up with until speaking with his therapist and discovering he suffers from repressed memory trauma. (Eye roll). He's been to rehab dozens of times including one in Hawaii he went to and he wasn't even living there at the time.

I don’t think the guy at R45 is straight.

R40 So much darkness and each person experiences a different kind. I know the approach is debatable but the universal lesson is a lot of us are living in our own sort of hell.

Just some light entertainment.

I spent 15 years in and out of meth addiction, I hustled for a bit and quit the moment I could get a real job in NYC. I met a lot of people like this along the way. Addicts crave something to fill the gaping hole they have inside themselves from rejection, indifference, and not getting enough love or feeling secure as children. You see this again and again in these interviews.

My childhood wasn’t the best, but there were good aspects and I lucked out as a teen with people that guided me along the way. I had as much fun as anyone ever could ever have getting high without dying- and walked right up to the edge of the abyss before I stopped. That was 12 years ago, and I have a life beyond my wildest dreams sober now.

Yet I shudder when people say that being an addict is a “choice”, OR those that have been sober for awhile get smug about it.. Being smug is dangerous.

Sobriety is a carefully calculated prearrangement of conditions, accountability, suggestions and awareness of consequences which “prop” up the choice to stay sober. It’s easier to do inside a fellowship of other addicts striving to as well than alone. If you are an extremely private person, free spirit or an alpha personality, you will have an extremely hard, almost impossible time doing so- because you will eventually need to relinquish control to others, deflate the ego, and lean on them for support, and surrender your will.

You could say it’s their surroundings, poverty, or being outcast, but I would argue it was instead these people died because they absolutely refused to do any of that. RIP

R50 Who asked you, bitch? Shut up. Who fuckin asked for your story?

Is r51 drunk?

R51, bless your heart.

I piped up because I am NO different than any of those portrayed in these videos and have swam in the darkest depths of despair just like them. I once read an interview with a priest that helped addicts and he put it like this-

“The soul needs the struggle than it may grow stronger”.

Agreed R51!!! Shut up ElderFuck

I saw the guy who does this channel on joe rogan and he seems really skeevy and not at all that empathetic to me

ElderSage R50, you hit the nail on the head. Overcoming your pride and seeking help from others is the hardest part.

How did those people die?

If he goes on the Joe Rogan show then he's probably an asshole

r40, geez, Soft White Underbelly has killed more people than Glee and Celebrity Rehab combined

That r50 r51 exchange cracked me up

If you go to YouTube search, there are many critical videos about Mark Laita. The comments are filled with his fanboys defending him to the hilt; he has almost a disturbing cult like following. It’s really easy to be lulled into these kinds of videos. They are highly branded in their style and even Mark is branded himself usually wearing a size too small white t-shirt. They aren’t one off documentaries; it’s a never ending income producing misery train under the guise of ‘awareness’. What bothers me most is he has no mental health credentials, but he asks people who are highly ignored and vulnerable to unpack all their emotions and traumas then leaves them high and dry and moves in to the next ‘trick’. It’s a modern voyeuristic form of a side show or how Victorians used to visit mental asylums as entertainment.

R61 has it.

He is giving a voice to the voiceless!

New interview up- Professional Gambler interview, Mikki Mase

This guy has a very interesting perspective on life imho. Do you think he's who he depicts himself to be? Many commenters to this video on youtube don't think so.

SWU YouTube posters are usually very supportive, veering into gullible, IMO. So, if they’re calling bullshit, it’s usually pretty blatant.

I saw the about the antinatalist. She was “interesting” to say the least.

The more I'm reading about this Mikki Mase interviewee, the scarier it gets.

It seems he has that dark triad personality type-

The Dark Triad refers to three interconnected personality traits – narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy – that are characterized by callous manipulation, selfishness, and ruthlessness. Individuals with dark triad traits are motivated by their own gain with little regard for others.

Also, redditors found out his real name-

Michael David Meiterman

R64- I stopped watching after 5 minutes (which I never do on that channel) I just hated this guy the minute he started talking.

Mikki is FTM trans FYI

[quote]because you will eventually need to relinquish control to others, deflate the ego, and lean on them for support, and surrender your will.

Speaking as a former addict myself, I just want to jump in here and say this is complete bullshit.

11 years sober here. And I didn't "turn my life over" or "relinquish control" to anybody.

Stop trying to perpetuate the bullshit idea that AA/NA is the only way to get sober. Just because that is the only way that worked for YOU doesn't mean that others cannot get sober powered by their own willpower.

This is a report of Mikki's (mike's) dad from when he went to Federal Prison. Like father like son.

There is one of these kids in every rehab /halfway house/ AA meeting across America. Classic pathological ONE UPPER. Dude takes bits and pieces of everyone else's story and somehow concocts it into his own and whatever you have done hes DONE LIKE 10X that bro. I fucking smoked 50 roxi 30s while 6 girls waited in bedrooms to lick my penar" and then he actually believes it himself which is amazing. This interview should be in college campuses for psychology nationwide.

R70 I agree with you, that it's possible to self correct, I did with drinking at 30. I'm also very disciplined, stubborn and willful. Some people do better with the groups, as far as I'm concerned, self improvement is self improvement. If AA helped some, great, it's not for everyone, I'm agnostic so doesn't really have the same wt for me as it does others.

You're very black/white in your post. That all/nothing thinking isn't the healthiest way to navigate the world.

Exactly, R70! Addiction is a FARCE! Fuck these nucka faggets like Teacake!

R51 R54 YOU shut the fuck up, you fat lump of shit.

Today's upload interview had a gay element to it. 26 year old guy from Delaware, Jason, who is a Fentanyl and Crystal Meth addict in LA. When asked how he makes money he says he begs but also says he turns tricks. ZI thought he was another gay for drug money type junkie. But no. Later on, he talks about being gay and being too afraid/ashamed to tell his father.

I'm curious, where are these homeless gay for drug money junkies finding their customers/johns. I know the female ones hang out on the street in drug heavy areas like Kensington Ave in North Philly but I have no idea about the male hustlers. No I'm not interested in being a client myself, I'm just curious. Any ideas?

Sure Jan.

Another YouTuber named Tyler (seems like an asshole) went over to the Whittakers house in West Virginia. To "investigate" what Mark (SWU creator) is doing with all of the money in the Whittaker GoFundMe. Betty Whittaker, I guess, did not stick up for Mark.

Mark posted this rebuttal. The GFM was set up to help the Ws buy the $200K house next door to their shack. However, the Ws constantly ask Mark for $ (couple thousand, few thousand) here and there for, e.g., a new car b/c they just wrecked the old car. And Mark gives them the money. Hence, there's never enough to buy the house.

Mark is so dumb when it comes to money (maybe he's OK with his personal finances, but he's dumb in how he tries to administer charity), but I believe his story.

The Whittakers are so dumb and poor that you can never teach them about saving money and delayed gratification. (Even if they got that house, I think it would be in a shambles within a short period.)

ANYWAY, Mark said he's done with the Whittakers. He was pissed at Betty for not setting the record straight with Tyler, the other YouTuber. We shall see if Mark is really done with the Whittakers.

For those who don't know, the Whittakers are a severely inbred family. Mark posts videos of them on YouTube and has developed a friendly relationship with them and is always giving them money.

The Whitaker videos were the only ones I cared to watch…I’m just fascinated by the way they live in that squalor and how they communicate. Mark doesn’t seem like a very bright guy, to be honest. His interviewing skills kind of suck. Very repetitive questions, not well organized or professional at all. I think he does mean well, but he seems surprisingly naive for someone who has been at this for so long. He’s both an exploiter and exploitee in a way.

Yeah, he's not the best interviewer. He does pay people (not sure how much) for being interviewed. Hence, lots of drug addicts.

His best views are that trans woman Rebecca. Her story is tragic and she will be dead soon. Mark has been helping her for years and she only gets worse. Mark will be devastated when she passes. She is profoundly mentally ill, but Mark has a huge soft spot for her.

He. He’s a man. In a wig.

Mark is awesome. He has a couple million subscribers, is working on the second book. and treats people with respect, so he's alright with me. I saw he is branching out a bit, talking to a divorce lawyer, Navy SEAL, other interesting people.

85 his conversation with divorce lawyer James Sexton was so interesting that I got Sexton's audiobook (equally interesting). Made me satisfied to NOT be married

Lisa Rinna called.

I appreciate his channel. I want to know the intimate details of all kinds of peoples lives. In my life I’m very rarely going to encounter drug addicts and prostitutes and I admit I am curious about their lives. Maybe it’s exploitative but they are getting money and help from him.

What Mark makes is what I consider the Most High Art. I think there is a sacredness and holiness to seeing the most outcasts of our society. He’s showing us America. Yet you judge him for showing you what is happening in our country? He’s a Studs Terkel with a video camera. Also, Mark’s eye and aesthetics are *impeccable.*

I also think that these people matter, their lives matter, and they deserve to be heard, even if they aren’t sober, because that’s the version of who they are right now. I can totally understand someone not wanting to see the marginalized of our country because it is indeed disturbing. But I still say their lives matter, their stories count too, and for most of them, it’s the only time they’ve ever felt heard or seen, ever. Many of them say the comments really filled them with immense joy and they felt love from people, love as a human being who is suffering. So if you comment, chances are they read it, and you are at least letting them know that they matter, that you’re glad you heard their story.

Life isn’t fair, it isn’t pretty. There are winners and losers. But what Mark hopes for, as does Peter Santanello, is that they can cover creating awareness, then someone else can deal with the solutions. And the solutions are incredibly complex. Underneath homelessness is addiction, under that mental illness, under that incarceration and gangs and pimps and sex work, and under all that is massive childhood trauma. Building tiny houses won’t fix this problem because it’s much much deeper.

Mark isn’t perfect. But I like that he brings the topic back to the same central themes: no role models, no stability, full opportunity to do anything with their lives, etc etc etc. These people are a living billboard for what childhood trauma can do to lives. I hope Mark never stop until someone who works for the government sees it and it motivates them to bring change to our policies.

I tried to watch a video featuring "Rebecca." I didn't find it compelling.

They aren’t always compelling r90. But Mark has gone over 4,000, so there is a lot variety.

R91, yes, I've seen many of his videos. I'm referring only to the Rebecca videos. Mark & his audience seem to find Rebecca compelling and there are multiple videos featuring Rebecca.

I love his interviews but I find Rebecca exhausting.

If every drug addict started a Go Fund Me…..

I think it says something not entirely flattering about the types of people who are drawn to these videos. It's almost a form of low-key sadism.

R95 Not quite. It’s more a desire to learn from others’ life experiences and choices.

It's exploitative and it's tragedy porn, r96. Don't try to elevate it into something it's clearly not.

You watch these to make yourself feel better about your own shitty life choices, that's about the extent of it.

THIS VIDEO IS PRIVATE

Wonder what happened r99. It wasn't private in 2023

Yikes!!!! I found the one with 'Mateo' on YouTube and I couldn't turn away. It was so profoundly sad and beautiful and heart-wrenching and funny.

MARY r101!!!!!

Why does she have Lisa Rinna lips?

I was enthralled by this strange creature, Mateo. He talked about how happy he is and didn't care what anyone thought of him. He said he had an idyllic, untroubled childhood (even though he began sex work at 16). But just before the end of the interview he said who he was voting for in 2024 without giving any reason. Now I know he is the embodiment of untreated mental illness.