So if you're somewhat familiar with Internet drama, you may have heard that Shane Dawson is in the process of, for lack of a better term, being "cancelled."
Shane is currently being called out for his history of blackface, as well as comments based on racism, transphobia, and pedophilia.
Since this post is about the beauty drama, I won't be going into every awful thing Shane has done. But if you're interested in a more thorough list, you can check out this video.
Warning- some of the content is extremely disturbing and potentially triggering- if you'd rather not see the actual videos/content directly, there are plenty of commentary youtubers that have discussed the Shane Dawson backlash in depth. You can also read this list that documents Shane's controversial past.
So how does Shane fit into the beauty world? In October of 2019, he filmed a "docuseries" called "The Beautiful World of Jeffree Star," featuring beauty youtuber Jeffree Star.
It should be noted that Jeffree, like Shane, is no stranger to controversy.
The series followed a ton of drama (coined "Dramageddon") involving beauty youtubers Tati Westbrook and James Charles.
On June 30th, 2020, Tati Westbrook released a new video to shed some light on the entire "Dramageddon" situation, unleashing what is now known as "Dramageddon 2.0."
In the video, she alleges that Shane Dawson and Jeffree Star manipulated her into making the allegations against James Charles.
She claims that she believed fame and power was getting to James Charles' head and that she was bothered by his questionable behavior around straight men. After sharing these concerns with Shane and Jeffree, they allegedly told her that James Charles was a predator, and that she should release a video about it to help other victims come forward. They reportedly showed her a voice memo featuring a victim of James Charles to support their narrative. It should be noted that she does not provide any evidence to support her claims, although she does say that she has reviewed this information with her lawyers. She also claims that James believes her and originally wanted to film the video with her.
Supposedly, her intention behind the "Bye Sister" video was to "help" James Charles by "warning" him about his behavior, and the video was orchestrated by Shane and Jeffree because they viewed James as competition.
Her video has raised eyebrows, and several people have questioned the validity of Tati's comments. On one hand, James Charles has supposedly forgiven her, anybody can fall victim to manipulation, and her explanation aligns with Shane and Jeffree's patterns of behavior. On the other hand, she does not provide any solid evidence to back up her claims and has a history of lying on the platform. Moreover, some youtubers are questioning why she chose to make the "Bye Sister" video in the first place instead of speaking personally with James Charles, questioning why the "Bye Sister" video was largely an advertisement for her vitamin brand, and questioning the strategic timing of this video (she arguably had a year to reveal this information, yet waited until Shane and Jeffree were being attacked by the Internet). If you're interested, here's a take on Tati's video that suggests she's a manipulator as opposed to a victim of manipulation.
Prior to Tati's new video, both Shane and Jeffree claimed to be unaware of Tati's plan to "expose" James Charles- now, she's suggesting that not only were they aware of it, but they were the fuel behind it.
Tati even claims that Shane offered to help her with editing.
Tati also made some claims about Jeffree and Shane which adds to the accumulating list of their disturbing actions.
She alleged that Jeffree Star is blackmailing many members of the beauty community and metaphorically "holding them hostage" with information. She also alleged that she told Shane Dawson that she was concerned that James Charles would commit suicide after the "Bye Sister" video was released, and he responded saying that James was "too narcissistic" to do so.
Shane Dawson responded to the video on an Instagram live... Kind of.
Meanwhile, Jeffree Star has been uncharacteristically quiet about everything.
That's all for now, although there will probably be a lot more drama to unfold as more people come forward and unleash receipts.
While the beauty youtuber drama isn't the most important thing in the world, once you're aware of it it's hard to ignore it- it's like a terrible movie that for some reason, you can't stop watching.
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