bookworm39
Well-known member
Reminds me of the "sad girl" images off of Tumblr about a decade ago, mixed with Victorian ghost children imagery. Very, very weird. And a bit creepy. Ruby, are you ok?
- Notice
phantomsbaebe
New member
So, I haven't posted on here for ages and to be honest I haven't watched Ruby for a while either but this afternoon, she came up on my feed and I watched one of her vlogs from Oxford. She looks so so sad, overwhelmed and in way out of her depth. Oxford has always been a double-edged sword. My cousin did his undergrad there and barely survived. The constant pressure, the feeling that you HAVE to do well otherwise its all just a waste and what are you even for if you can't survive there nearly broke him. I asked him once if he would go back to do his Masters and his reply was that he valued his life above a piece of paper. Ruby looks like she is white-knuckling her way through this course. I also think the books she reads to make her feel well read don't actually add any value to her bank of knowledge. I can't think of anything worse than Sartre if I'm feeling low or any of the high-brow stuff she reads.
The way she speaks has changed so much too. The overly poetic but metaphorically weak descriptions of things is so vague and mealy-mouthed. I mean, I'm much more of a fan of literature that draws blood and demands the readers attention and action like Plath or Du Maurier. But like everything else in Ruby's life, all the fire, passion and sheer chaotic wonder of the world is boiled out like white rice and unseasoned chicken. I worry for her because she's trapped herself in this gilded tower of Oxford with no escape route. She can't leave because she doesn't want to fail but I think if she stays, she's going to really suffer for it. She seems so isolated, so alone and utterly incapable of admitting that the dream was a fantasy and that its all a horrible mistake. To be so young and so crippled like that is a tragedy. I know she's privileged, I know she's slightly ridiculous, I know she's travelled when she's meant to be doing important stuff but still, Ruby needs help. I honestly believe that and I pray that one day she works out that life is short and doesn't care about a piece of paper with a seal on it to prove your worth.
The way she speaks has changed so much too. The overly poetic but metaphorically weak descriptions of things is so vague and mealy-mouthed. I mean, I'm much more of a fan of literature that draws blood and demands the readers attention and action like Plath or Du Maurier. But like everything else in Ruby's life, all the fire, passion and sheer chaotic wonder of the world is boiled out like white rice and unseasoned chicken. I worry for her because she's trapped herself in this gilded tower of Oxford with no escape route. She can't leave because she doesn't want to fail but I think if she stays, she's going to really suffer for it. She seems so isolated, so alone and utterly incapable of admitting that the dream was a fantasy and that its all a horrible mistake. To be so young and so crippled like that is a tragedy. I know she's privileged, I know she's slightly ridiculous, I know she's travelled when she's meant to be doing important stuff but still, Ruby needs help. I honestly believe that and I pray that one day she works out that life is short and doesn't care about a piece of paper with a seal on it to prove your worth.
Griftwood
VIP Member
the sheer fucking condescension in that last phrase, I can’t
She’s acting like her sloppy videos are meticulously researched and edited instead of her airing out her empty brain and blabbering into the wind, and acts all affronted when people politely point out a particularly obvious error.
FolderDuvet
Active member
Hot take but the stalls are some of the worse seating in the ROH.
Acoustics are way off there (or at least they were for Madame Butterfly). You're best off in the lower or middle circle (though we were up in the nosebleed seats for swan lake and the acoustics were great up there, bring a small pair of binoculars though).
It's a shame she says she doesn't like comic opera, because I know for a fact the Oxford Gilbert and Sullivan society puts on some smashing productions. Their Pirates of Penzance was great this year.
For all she talks about loving that sort of music (opera, classical, whatever "highbrow" thing you like), we never see her taking advantage of that in Oxford. There's always something on, and the St John the Evangelist Church down on Iffley Road is always busy with it. It's very hard to take her "love" of Opera seriously when she doesn't engage in it outside of sponsored trips, but then sure I don't need to tell you lot that.
Acoustics are way off there (or at least they were for Madame Butterfly). You're best off in the lower or middle circle (though we were up in the nosebleed seats for swan lake and the acoustics were great up there, bring a small pair of binoculars though).
It's a shame she says she doesn't like comic opera, because I know for a fact the Oxford Gilbert and Sullivan society puts on some smashing productions. Their Pirates of Penzance was great this year.
For all she talks about loving that sort of music (opera, classical, whatever "highbrow" thing you like), we never see her taking advantage of that in Oxford. There's always something on, and the St John the Evangelist Church down on Iffley Road is always busy with it. It's very hard to take her "love" of Opera seriously when she doesn't engage in it outside of sponsored trips, but then sure I don't need to tell you lot that.
missmina
VIP Member
The most stupid thing is that no one would even super judge her for what she’s wearing (still acknowledging she dresses worse than my 80 yo grandma) if she wasn’t insisting specifically on ootd posts over and over. Like Ruby I promise you no one cares about your ootd, no one wants to dress like you. Similarly with showing us your disgusting meals - it’s not appetizing, it’s not inspirational, fuck off.
Griftwood
VIP Member
Her breakfast. I don't even care if it's blue. The teacup:
View attachment 2879038
Her porridge in the teacup:
View attachment 2879035
Good lord, with the pen cap next to it for size comparison and the fact that the teacup is also not filled to the brim, how big a portion was that exactly??
View attachment 2879071
Thankfully she added 6 slices of banana and about 8 blueberries.
View attachment 2879047
That's a hearty meal right thereRidiculous ed bating packaged as 'whimsical'.
Her “lunch” is even worse - her cucumber sandwich is a single slice of white bread cut in half, and then she has another slice with some whipped cream from a can, a sliced strawberry, and the world’s saddest cupcake, again with whipped “cream” because “I don’t like icing sugar.” She’s really veering back into the blatant ED baiting, and while she may just be looking for attention with this nonsense, I also have no trouble believing she has some sort of a problem with eating, because only a starved brain would choose three different carbohydrate-based elements and call it a meal after having had pure carbs for breakfast as well.
It honestly bothers me so much how scruffy Ruby is with her rumbled, stained, filled-with-holes clothing. She is gifted such expensive clothing and she gets it all rumpled or she dresses so poorly with that money. She looked as if she is was trying to emulate a nun with that skirt.
It is the same with her house with how scruffy the family are and I was just shocked with all the books that were in the attic. I don't know if it brought me memories of being at home with my parents who are borderline book hoarders. They have bags of books all around the house and piles everywhere, including one pile in their bedroom that is about six feet high and about eight feet across!
I don't know how Ruby can get away with being so scruffy other than the fact that she is middle /upper class. You just know that people would be looking down their noses if she was working class and there would be comments online about it. Then again, Ruby is given a constant feedback loop with her young followers and her family, I think that other than here, the only place where she would get criticism is on her essay feedback.
It is the same with her house with how scruffy the family are and I was just shocked with all the books that were in the attic. I don't know if it brought me memories of being at home with my parents who are borderline book hoarders. They have bags of books all around the house and piles everywhere, including one pile in their bedroom that is about six feet high and about eight feet across!
I don't know how Ruby can get away with being so scruffy other than the fact that she is middle /upper class. You just know that people would be looking down their noses if she was working class and there would be comments online about it. Then again, Ruby is given a constant feedback loop with her young followers and her family, I think that other than here, the only place where she would get criticism is on her essay feedback.
threeSMEGfridges
VIP Member
I knew academics was going down the toilet but DR ROOOOOBEEE ? Give me strength
yeya
Member
In her IG story where she’s recording herself donating to charity (so she can’t be accused of not doing it 
) she has a tab open for an Oxford DPhil 
. I’m not sure what the deadlines are like for PhD but surely she would know by now if she’s going…? So what do we think? Has she already got an offer from Oxford? Is she taking a gap yaahr and applying for 2025/2026? I feel like if she had a PhD offer from somewhere else she wouldn’t be looking at the Oxford one.
) she has a tab open for an Oxford DPhil . I’m not sure what the deadlines are like for PhD but surely she would know by now if she’s going…? So what do we think? Has she already got an offer from Oxford? Is she taking a gap yaahr and applying for 2025/2026? I feel like if she had a PhD offer from somewhere else she wouldn’t be looking at the Oxford one.
gossip_guy
VIP Member
And Ruby continues to scream from the rooftops that she's the most vegany vegan who ever veganned while choosing to go for the not-at-all-vegan 'Aero Bubbly' donut at Krispy Kreme.
Binx
VIP Member
that's Dr Granger to you!
yeya
Member
Her house really is gorgeous. This moulding on the walls, the massive windows, the high ceilings. It’s such a pity that their sofas look like they came from the local dump. It makes me so sad because the house just looks so dirty, empty and uncared for. It’s like they don’t take pride in it at all. To Ruby’s credit her bedroom is actually decorated quite nicely (except for that horrible blanket she uses as a rug). I mean ‘nice’ is generous but compared to the rest of the house it may as well be in an interior design magazine.
I just can’t get over how sad and empty this room looks
literally looks like they’ve just moved in. I do wonder if Ruby is embarrassed of the state of her house or if she doesn’t realise. She’s always refused to do a house tour but that might be because she doesn’t want to come across as ‘too rich’.
I just can’t get over how sad and empty this room looks
literally looks like they’ve just moved in. I do wonder if Ruby is embarrassed of the state of her house or if she doesn’t realise. She’s always refused to do a house tour but that might be because she doesn’t want to come across as ‘too rich’.
Whisper2Me
Well-known member
omg Her latest vlog.
1. She starts out with very foreboding music. OMG! Spring flowers and eating breakfast outside! The horror of it all!
2. Flowers, pretty. Her voice and claw, awful. It went downhill from there.
3. Bizarre grin of delight about putting stickers on her ugly planner. Oxford Masters student? About to turn 24? Now that is something scary.
4. Apparently never occurred to her to actually decorate the front of her dull planners with artwork or a design before sending it to the printers.
5. Dresses up like Marion the Librarian, pulling her hair severely back, for her ultimate academic look. Also, the serious look on her face. Playing.
6. "Buttered toast is one of the best food on the planet." Okay. Take all the rest of the food away from you. Let's see how your health survives.
7. Watching her eat like a 2 year old is really getting on my nerves. No one is interested in seeing you bite and chew your food, moron.
8. ANOTHER VPN ad. Woman. Get on with your life.
9. She got the "best seat on the bus, mind you!" Excuse me? Validating our entitlement? Why would anyone even say something like this?
10. She seems to take great pleasure in vlogging closeups of her ugly face. What is her deal? Nothing there worth seeing.
11. Adman stuff. Lots and lots of adman stuff to do. lol Forget the thesis. Adman is more important.
12. Did she just call Silas Marner "Silas Mariner"? omg Oxford Masters student. I can't.
13. Has never read anything by George Eliot and is a graduate in English Lit and loves the Victorian Age? wtf? She really does live under a rock.
14. Cannot speak without flaying about her arms and hands.
15. Is in awe over Post It Notes. Um. Sure.
16. Why is her dorm wall so filthy? What has she done now??
Ruby. Grow up. Get a life. Behave like an adult. Learn how to read, how to pronounce, how to live life outside social media. Learn to drive. Get a job. Gain independence. Do something worthwhile for others instead of being so self absorbed. Learn to eat without filming it. Learn to shop in a bookstore without filming it. Put away your ootd, your phone, your camera. Embrace the very short time you have left at Oxford and build yourself a life worth living. Stop playing at being a child or naive. It isn't cute. It isn't charming. It isn't normal behavior. And it is getting old and disturbing.
1. She starts out with very foreboding music. OMG! Spring flowers and eating breakfast outside! The horror of it all!
2. Flowers, pretty. Her voice and claw, awful. It went downhill from there.
3. Bizarre grin of delight about putting stickers on her ugly planner. Oxford Masters student? About to turn 24? Now that is something scary.
4. Apparently never occurred to her to actually decorate the front of her dull planners with artwork or a design before sending it to the printers.
5. Dresses up like Marion the Librarian, pulling her hair severely back, for her ultimate academic look. Also, the serious look on her face. Playing.
6. "Buttered toast is one of the best food on the planet." Okay. Take all the rest of the food away from you. Let's see how your health survives.
7. Watching her eat like a 2 year old is really getting on my nerves. No one is interested in seeing you bite and chew your food, moron.
8. ANOTHER VPN ad. Woman. Get on with your life.
9. She got the "best seat on the bus, mind you!" Excuse me? Validating our entitlement? Why would anyone even say something like this?
10. She seems to take great pleasure in vlogging closeups of her ugly face. What is her deal? Nothing there worth seeing.
11. Adman stuff. Lots and lots of adman stuff to do. lol Forget the thesis. Adman is more important.
12. Did she just call Silas Marner "Silas Mariner"? omg Oxford Masters student. I can't.
13. Has never read anything by George Eliot and is a graduate in English Lit and loves the Victorian Age? wtf? She really does live under a rock.
14. Cannot speak without flaying about her arms and hands.
15. Is in awe over Post It Notes. Um. Sure.
16. Why is her dorm wall so filthy? What has she done now??
Ruby. Grow up. Get a life. Behave like an adult. Learn how to read, how to pronounce, how to live life outside social media. Learn to drive. Get a job. Gain independence. Do something worthwhile for others instead of being so self absorbed. Learn to eat without filming it. Learn to shop in a bookstore without filming it. Put away your ootd, your phone, your camera. Embrace the very short time you have left at Oxford and build yourself a life worth living. Stop playing at being a child or naive. It isn't cute. It isn't charming. It isn't normal behavior. And it is getting old and disturbing.
Yeah I feel like if Americans saw nationality/ethnicity like we do in Europe their communities wouldn't be as diverse either lol. Like in my Italian class we had people with Belgian and Czech great-grandparents, it never came up except when we were actually discussing like surname origins or ancestry. My own great-grandmother was Flemish and I had no idea for most of my life because it has zero impact on who I am as a person or what my family is like.
The only time you would actually feel the need to specify someone's nationality is if someone was an actual first generation immigrant. But even then, making a big deal out of it would feel a bit rude, like you're trying to emphasize that they're different and "othering" them.
londongirl92
Active member
Totally agree about the Royal Opera House gifted experience. And once again, she films so many people in the building and doesn’t give them the respect of blurring their faces.
Random thought, a few years ago she was really into gymnastics, she had that expensive equipment in her garden and often included in her vlogs that she’d practise often (who knows if she actually did!) but I remember her filming walk overs, flexibility etc. and being good at it? She also attended trampolining and stuff at Exeter. Did she just give all of this up? Feel like Oxford would have lots of great facilities for this!
Random thought, a few years ago she was really into gymnastics, she had that expensive equipment in her garden and often included in her vlogs that she’d practise often (who knows if she actually did!) but I remember her filming walk overs, flexibility etc. and being good at it? She also attended trampolining and stuff at Exeter. Did she just give all of this up? Feel like Oxford would have lots of great facilities for this!
Rumblemumble
Active member
The least she could do is not show her toe sticking out of her ripped stocking, but even that's too much of an effort and thought and common sense, I guess.
And that comment
And that comment
Whisper2Me
Well-known member
I always get the impression that she isn't able to settle down in one place anymore, like she did when she was a kid, and concentrate on studying for a long period of time. She is too worried about taking pictures, getting selfies, moving around from library to cafe, back to library, too concerned about social media content. She never seemed to have settled well in her room at Oxford for long. I think the days of devoted concentration left her years ago, especially as the work material became more intellectually challenging and dense. In a nutshell, she is not the amazing student she always defined herself as, and it is showing. She probably spends far too much time gazing out the window, checking her iPhone, looking up answers on the internet and finding ways to get an easy information for her thesis. Then she goes off and add more depressing pictures to her Pinterest account.
gossip_guy
VIP Member
We can only speculate about her Masters since she's said almost nothing about the content of her degree or her actual experience studying at Oxford, but...
She mentioned that it took 5 tries to get her tutor just to come up with an idea for an essay question that was acceptable for her first essay there. That's just the basic thesis question for what would've been her easiest essay there, so it doesn't bode well for her managing to come up with an actual essay of any merit or quality for that essay or the rest.
She's mentioned absolutely nothing about her grades. Ruby's always been hyperfixated on her grades and has always seemed and acted practically entitled to the highest one. Despite her occasional 'GRADES AREN'T AVVERYTHING' lip service disclaimers, if she's ever got a high grade or top marks before (even high-but-not-the-highest grades that she's "disappointed" by), she'll always rush to announce it and VARRY HOMBLY brag about it in her next video, even if it's completely unrelated to the video. At Oxford she's said nothing at all, suggesting that her grades have been dismal.
She posted vague Insta stories about how she was having bad mental health days right around grade feedback time of her first term. Possibly unrelated, but the timing is noteworthy and seems to support the above.
She's taken an unprecedented hiatus from content creation during the essay period of her second term and long after. The only videos she's posted during this time have been a rushed vlog titled 'the inevitable stress of essay season' in which she mentioned that she'd been feeling highly anxious about filming during this period (but refused to say why), and then this latest mental breakdown of a video. If she did badly on the first round of essays, there was more pressure to miraculously do better on her second, harder batch of essays to pull her grades up, which doesn't seem likely, and this new video doesn't exactly suggest she knocked it out of the park.
She's looked absolutely miserable practically every moment at her "dream school". In libraries, on campus, while studying, she's looked increasingly morose. No surprise that she's looked hopelessly miserable every time she's had to film herself in a library filled with other, much smarter students doing far more work. The only time she's looked remotely happy there is doing small social things completely unrelated to studying with the one friend she's made there.
Independent thought has never been her strong suit and she's always floundered massively when expected to come up with her own ideas and do her own work. It's why she hit a wall with her dissertation. At Exeter she was almost completely reliant on grade inflation, her dodgy system of academic shortcuts and her major rhymes-with-Cakeknee crutch to get her through while doing as little of her own work as she could. At Oxford, the bar will be massively higher, with infinitely more expectation from tutors for a student to showcase independent, original thought in essays. Ruby's not built for that, so it's not at all surprising that she's hitting bottom academically now she can't skip the required reading, recycle the ideas of other scholars and copy Blakeney's homework.
All signs point to her wading into Oxford expecting an easy ride where she'd slap together a few essays from ChatGPT extracts, recycled lecture handouts from AXATAR and copy-and-pasted academic quotes, then spend all her time twirling round libraries trying to rub everyone's noses in the fact that she's an AWKSFWUD STEEYOODONT who's JANUINELY living out her wildest dark macadamia Hogwarts daydreams. Reality seems to have hit her instantly and won't stop swinging.
StatusWoe
VIP Member
Aaand we're back to talking about the seasons. My heart sank when Ruby said she was going to read a poem about the bluebells.
POV: you're enjoying a ride on the teacups until your friend makes it weird.
I'm still not a fan of these shots where Ruby eats something while maintaining oddly intense eye contact.
POV: you're enjoying a ride on the teacups until your friend makes it weird.
I'm still not a fan of these shots where Ruby eats something while maintaining oddly intense eye contact.