Faceless content creators Corpsehusband, dream, and Ranboo have gained massive popularity on the internet
disembodied voices have always been something that’s intrigued and maybe even scared people. One of the earliest examples being the radio show war of the worlds which when first preformed caused panic as they believed that aliens were taking over. From the days of radio to modern day faceless content creators there has always been a particular fascination with the idea of appearance when the connection between voice and body are severed.
Radio for a long time was a very dominant media for story telling both fiction and nonfiction, it was also an entirely auditory medium where the only thing you can perceive about the person telling the story was the voice. Kaja Silverman theorized that feminine voices over the radio were seen too many to be more intimidating over the radio without a body to men because taking away the body took away the power of objectification from the male listener and so many female radio hosts were often highly publicized with pictures of themselves to give listener an image behind the voice. On the flip side male radio hosts could lose their career with one face reveal lost their entire career because they did not match the way that people thought they should look based on the voice. there is this obsession with the expectation of what a person looks like based on their voice and they must see it and it must look the way people expect.
In a modern day setting you have the obsession and fascination with Faceless content creators. Some of the biggest content creators on the internet are those who have yet to reveal what they look like to the public and this is especially true in the gaming community. Creators like Corpse husband, Dream, and Ranboo have dominated the internet for a while without a face or body. But for all 3 with their success comes the repeating trend as with the radio announcers has led to an extra obsession with them revealing their face of bodily features. Corpse husband who is by far the most private of the 3 getting famous for his deep voice and his horror narration and among us content broke the internet when he posted a picture of his hands while promoting his song “E-girls are ruining my life” that had the #Onlyhands trending (a parody of the website only fans). Fans and haters alike have pushed corpse hard for a face reveal with people who dislike the creator claiming that not having a face means he must have something to hide and have obsessively tried to “expose him”. The next creator dream is one of the biggest Minecraft content creators known for his Minecraft manhunt series and starting the DreamSMP (one of the most popular roleplay-based Minecraft servers) also famously known for his little green blob avatar with a smiley face which has become a trademark of his brand. Most recently the idea of his face reveal was all over the internet when he was announced as a guest at a YouTube event along with President Obama but not necessarily in a positive way. People were commenting that dream “better not tease” them again with a face reveal referring to when he showed up in a YouTube rewind video wearing a mask of his iconic smiley face blob. This angered many people who felt that they had been baited and even at times believed they were owed a face reveal by the creator. The final creator is another Minecraft creator named ranboo who rose to fame through tiktok because of his unique voice and comedic timing that reminded many viewers of a similar creator named technoblade who was until a year ago also completely faceless. Ranboo has done content where his body is shown but never has had his face shown because he suffers from sever facial dysmorphia. This has led to a large obsession with his face and a subsection of twitter nicknamed “Faceleaktwt” have attempted to do just what it says and go through his personal information to leak his face. The pattern that has prevailed across all these cases seems to be a certain entitlement from the people who support these faceless people to be allowed to perceive them and all of them even if the person may not want it. this entitlement leads to the question, when you are in the public eye how much autogamy do you have over your identity?
Unruly Bodies 
I loved how you explored faceless celebrities and the right to their privacy. When many fans begin to connect with their idols and act as if they’re intimate friends, this fantasized relationship results in the illusion that they are close enough to know everything about them rather than just the influencer mask they wear. The fact that these influencers have to go to the extreme to hide their face to maintain whatever they can for a simple right to privacy so no one can stalk them or break into their home is terrifying. Unfortunately, disguising their name and their true face seems to be the only way for them to live a normal life separate from their career.
It’s really interesting to see the amount of backlash or even added publicity these creators receive for trying to escape whatever assumptions come with their physical appearance. I’m wondering if their decision to be anonymous was more strategic to further their persona or if it was a personal choice because they felt empowered and more free from judgement.
This topic has been on my mind for the longest time! I enjoyed how you dove into the background of radio and how voices can be differentiated between feminine and masculine. I find it interesting that feminine voices are seen as more intimidating like you said above. I do agree that the hype behind Corpse Husband is indeed something else. Many people are fetishizing this and honestly, through some psychology it’s easy to see why since this way many of the listeners can apply their own characteristics to him and make him the Corpse Husband of their dreams, when in reality, he’s probably doing it for the sake of privacy.
After reading your post I can’t but agree with what you are saying. With Disembodied voices, viewers/listers can only base of their opinion of these creators off of their content and their voice, but not off their physical appearance. This lack of information causes viewers to hunt down or go crazy for any crumbs of images of these creators body parts. Viewers can use their imagination to envision what these people look like to fit in their own personal fantasies. Because of this there can be back lash when images of what these content creators actually look like don’t fit what their fans envisioned them to look like.
I love this topic so much, especially as someone who doesn’t watch the three creators you named, but enjoys the general creepiness behind disembodied voices. Recently, a picture of what was supposed to be CorpseHusband got leaked on Twitter (not sure if it was actually him) but the response behind it was…less than supportive. I don’t think we talk enough about how many faceless creators are treated like they don’t deserve respect because people don’t see faceless creators as people as there’s no face to connect to voice.