Team maalvika
how to birth an icon
If you have not been privy, a plagiarism scandal hit Substack this week. User Katie Jgln accused Substack bestseller maalvika of plagiarizing her work.
Here’s Katie’s post which details the similarities.
maalvika explained she saved Katie’s piece in her notes app and simply forgot they were not her own words...
To view any of maalvika pieces you’ll have to connect your credit card. They are all now hidden behind a paywall.
I watched people flip the fuck out over this. Dragging her for using her beauty to advertise her writing, questioning her ability to be a PhD student while simultaneously running a popular Tiktok account, and screaming at Substack to ban her at once.
I even felt within myself this desire to punish her. Watching people decorate her social media posts with accusatory comments. Sailing over to her Instagram and TikTok profiles to relish in the “plagiarist!” comments. I sat in my bed, vindicated. Yes, she was getting what she deserved!!! We’re showing her!!!!
All the while, maalvika remained firmly on the top rankings of Substack’s algorithm, with nearly every post on the notes feed talking about her, and even more people discovering her writing now more than ever. Even though a loud majority were accusing her of plagiarism, there was still a large portion who were not privy to her plagiarism and were subscribing nonetheless.
The truth is, we don’t know the full truth of what happened. If maalvika really did make an honest mistake or if she purposely did rip off Katie’s writing. But, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter.
You’ve already made her famous.
The nature of “canceling” is that it does not exist. “Canceling” refines your fanbase into your truest, most extreme fans. Have you heard the 1000 true fans theory? How all you really need are 1000 dedicated fans who are willing to spend $100 on you per year. “Canceling” pinpoints you right to them.
Right now, maalvika is crystallizing her most intense fan base. Her 1000 truest readers. When you make someone a villain, you immediately inspire a team by her side to form.
I’d always swore to myself I’d never watch Love Island USA. I was loyal to UK. But, when Huda Mustafa and her emotional theatrics reached my TikTok algorithm, my interest was piqued. Who was this ridiculous person and why did everyone hate her so much?
I watched her explode again and again, and the comments were inflamed. People asking, “How could the producers keep a person like this on the show?” — “She needs to be removed immediately for the other cast members’ well-being.” — etc.
My god, I thought to myself. I need to watch this show.
I proceeded to watch every episode of the show thereafter, becoming supremely obsessed with the US franchise. This ended up being the most watched season of Love Island USA. With Huda, in result, becoming the most followed cast member.
At this point, if you are publicly dragging someone, we can just say that you are actively pursuing making them an icon. Pointing your finger at something and saying it’s wrong, will only give more attention to said thing. It will only increase its power. Only helping it find its truest fans. Its ride or dies. Be conscious of that.
All your discourse over Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle ad? Over Kim Kardashian’s Skims face wrap? You are making sure these things succeed and get connected to their intended buyers.
I think we have to admit we live in a lawless universe. “Bad" people are often rewarded. But, your personal universe expands upon what you pay attention to. If the energy you expound on something which you hate is higher than that of which you love, you are expanding the universe of that in which you hate. You are ensuring its success. Things need attention to survive.
If we all ignored Trump when he began his campaign for the 2016 election, would he still have been elected?
If we did not direct so much energy towards him — could something else have succeeded?
I’m not sure, but personally, I believe our hate gave him a vehicle. Influencing the right to fully unhinge itself and dislocate into its own separate universe. He engineered our energy into pure, clean fuel.
All I feel when I see people complaining about maalvika are people standing outside of a building huffing and puffing wondering why the world isn’t RIGHT.
You make the world right.
Now truly, I believe plagiarism is lazy and abhorrent. It is the complete opposite of what writing is about to me. Writing is the chance for you to communicate with something greater than yourself. For you to mix your thoughts with that of the atmosphere. Connecting things you never would have connected before if you did not place pen to paper, finger pad to keyboard. These realizations can only happen when you take the risk to face the blankness of the page.
I do wonder what the balance is of accountability and making sure you don’t feed the energetic beast of something.
I’m curious to see how maalvika will transmute all this energy towards her. How she will create a new narrative of herself. She already has all of our eyes.
And beyond her, I’m just wondering if we’ll ever get past social media dogpiling because this behavior inherently backfires. You want to hate something and then you surge it into popularity. Can we simultaneously be fired up by these instigators, yet use our built up energy elsewhere?
What if we internally registered in ourselves how wow, this person is revealing some kind of ignited passion in me, some kind of reservoir of energy — and instead of directing it towards them in an argumentative fashion, what if we pooled our energy into what we believed deserved it.
If anything, maalvika revealed to us that Substack needed some kind of glue. A type of culture on here that would allow a stickiness of conversations. One that binds us together and creates some kind of community separate from the other social media sites.
If anything, she made it more interesting to be on here.
I’m team halleta