Looking back on the footage, the guy definitely said "ma'am", but that was nothing editing couldn't fix.

Preston stayed up all night working on the video. It turned out a lot of the B-roll was pretty boring. He had expected way bigger reactions from the passersby. Still, there were enough uncomfortable glances and snide chuckles to edit into something decent.

There was one chunk that was totally unusable. When Preston had stopped to chat to that blonde girl, he had assumed that it would be an incredible comedy setpiece. But watching it back, it was just kind of a pleasant conversation.  After a while, he had even forgotten to keep up his exaggerated posturing. Seeing himself just hanging out, having a conversation with another girl -- with a girl -- it actually seemed almost... natural. 

The fact that the other girl was acting like he was totally normal was kind of funny, in an anti-comedy way. But that was way too niche for a prank video.

Still though, the footage was strangely rewatchable. He didn't include it in the video, but he didn't delete it either. 

The freak out in the surf store, though? That was epic. He had screamed, he had gotten in peoples faces, he had lifted a hatrack above his head -- and the whole time he was dressed like a chick! Guaranteed viral hit.

He posted the video with the title "INSANE GIRL PRANK GONE WRONG -- THEY ASSUMED MY GENDER!" then spammed the link on as many platforms as he could think of.

When he woke up the next morning, the video had 500,000 views.

...but he'd only gained about 100 subscribers. 

He called Marcus to tell him the news. "Hey dude, it got like 500k views! Not very many subs gained though."

 "People probably thought it was funny, but also they think you're a weirdo."

"Maybe... let me check the comment section."

Preston started scrolling through the comments, frowning at an overall trend. Some people had the response he expected, like "yo dude this is hilarious" but a bunch of other people were saying that his video was "transphobic"? Like, what did that even mean? He had looked up what trans meant and apparently it referred to people who were whose gender was different from their genitals, or something. But he wasn't afraid of people like that at all! He wasn't afraid of anyone, just spiders and heights.

He switched over to Twitter and posted

hey people are saying I'm transphobic but how? im not afraid of anyone. 

A few minutes later, he had about 50 responses. 

Some he ignored because they just said stuff like "lol" or "go fuck yourself", but one was actually helpful.

Just in case this wasn't a shitpost, or if anyone doesn't know, transphobia isn't the fear of transgender people, but rather hatred or discrimination towards them. (1/2)

He clicked to see the second part of the thread.

PrestonVlogs seems to think that someone being trans or gender nonconforming is inherently funny, and got mad when others called him out on it. That's pretty much textbook transphobia. (2/2)

Huh? Jeez, it was just a joke. He didn't hate anyone! 

He clicked to view the tweet's author. Whoa, it was the girl he got most of his makeup tips from! Cool, he had engagement from a celebrity! But why did she care so much?

He sent her a quick DM, not really expecting a response.

hey, i didn't mean for my video to be hateful towards anyone. Actually your channel was super helpful for me learning makeup! I'm not sure what was so bad about the video, if you could explain that would be awesome so i can do better next time :)

He was surprised by the rapid response.

I'm going to assume this is a sincere attempt to learn, but if it starts to seem like you're just a troll trying to waste my time and energy I'll block you. I already explained in the tweet, but you just wearing women's clothing isn't funny. Why do you think it's funny?

huh? i thought everyone thought that stuff was funny. Haven't you seen Jack and Jill or Ace Ventura? I don't know why it's funny, it just is. I guess because people are doing something unexpected or against the rules

People used to think blackface was funny too. I can understand why you might think it's funny, but you should try to think about how your videos might affect other people. There's already so many people who think trans people are a big joke and you're just contributing to that.

Now he felt kinda bad. He still thought it was funny, but he didn't want to hurt anyone. With a sigh, he switched back over to YouTube and privated the video.

ok i just took the video down

Thank you. I genuinely appreciate that, and I'm sure many other trans people online do as well. You've already proven yourself a lot better than many cis guys online. If you ever want to make content with you dressing as a girl again, I can help suggest ways for it to be less problematic.

would that still be funny?

Does it have to be funny?

Huh.

It did, right? That was the whole point of doing it in the first place. It was all for the meme. If he wasn't dressing up like a girl because it was funny, then why do it at all?

...but the makeup girl seemed cool, and it would be a good excuse to hang out with her. That was why.

that would be awesome! do you live in la? im in the general area, maybe we could meet up some time?