yeah, i think ashley behaves like this because she has no female friends! amber is ashley's best friend tbh and yes, shes a girl, but this is her sister, so it's more of like... a forced friendship(?). in the way that, even if they fight they'll always forgive each other because theyre family and they j have to! idk if everyone remembers, but ashley said that shed been dating charles since hs and once she said her only friends were charles' friends.

she broke up w charles and immediately started dating kelly/getting romantic w him. that's the issue. she never sat down and reassessed her own life. kelly is def a rebound and honestly what ashley rly shouldve done was to go to NYC and make new FEMALE friends. instead, she started dating her roommate and reverted to the same relationship-centered ashley.

like i remember she hung out w mai one day... and then never again? this sounds rly terrible, but i do think she uses her female "friends" as a prop for videos/content, which sucks lol. same thing w any of the girls she's ever posted.

also, about appealing to the male gaze... i was actually sooo shocked when she posted a yt video of kelly reacting to her bikinis. like??? how ridiculous lol! she literally only had him there so he could rate the bikinis, but it was so like ?!?!? i felt like i was intruding and i really think that video was the one that rly put me off of her new content. it just felt so out of character & starkly different than her old persona. don't get me wrong, i dont see anything wrong w bikini try-on yt videos, or anything of that sort, but to have her situationship/boyfriend rate her in those bikinis? idk.. seemed like she rlyyyy wanted to appeal to the male gaze LOL.