Dramageddon III: Youtubers Dragged Into the Limelight
As the voices of online activists continue to grow louder, Youtube personalities, Shane Dawson and Jeffree Star are being held accountable for their racist past and sexual misconduct.
Hashtag Congregations
Two of the newest worthy hashtags in today’s society are Twitter’s #blacklivesmatter and Facebook’s #savethechildren or #saveourchildren. Users of these hashtags leave no stone unturned and no person untouched when seeking answers and demanding justice.
#Blacklivesmatter rallies Americans together to help put an end to police brutality as they call for change and publicly shun racists. Wired and the BBC both have educational articles depicting the hashtag’s crawl from a single post to become the name of a national ideology.
Twitter is the epicenter for this new age of the civil rights movements. Spreading ideas and educating the public about the criminality of this country, has never been more straight forward.
Meanwhile, on Facebook, their infamous hashtags, #savethechilren, and #saveourchildren have gathered attention on and off the platform as users speak out against pedophilia and the institutionalized sexual horrors that may be perpetrated under our noses.
Heavy reports the difference between the two hashtags’ meanings and the audience they attract, as this is a crucial part of understanding the hashtag.
Though more controversial than any hashtag to date, as it is considered a conspiracy theory, #saveourchildren and #savethechildren were seen to have good intentions at first, focusing on protecting the world’s children from harm.
Body+Soul explains why hashtags can be dangerous even though they started meaningful conversations about the dangers of child sex trafficking.
According to an analysis of Google search data, these topics have erupted and stayed in the minds of the public since their creation. They allow for whole social media websites to follow along together, to see the growth of an ideology.
Whole states have been taken over by the popularity of a single hashtag marking where each population of interest exists separately and how these hashtags coexist together across the country.
At least somewhere in the United States, almost everyone has interacted with these hashtags. The map depicts that most Republican states focus on discussing #saveourchildren, as it is attached to the far right wing propaganda group, QAnon. While the rest of the country, mostly Democratic states, center their google searches around #blacklivesmatter, as it is more popular.
As they have similar intentions to protect the countries most vulnerable citizens, #blacklivesmatter and the Facebook hashtags have set the social political climate for the online reckoning of Internet celebrities.
Cancel Culture
Shane Dawson and Jeffree Star, have both been run off the internet this year. This is the third time they have been in the limelight, criticized, and shamed for their actions. Yet, Dramageddon III has had the most serious implication, as these Youtube superstars’ racists and pedophilic pasts were being uncovered.
When looking at Google search data, it shows that Dramageddon exploded on June 21st and lasted for a few weeks. This time Shane Dawson began his downfall by “leaving” the beauty community, kicking up drama from Dramageddon II, and leading people to research his past accounts.
In these searches, as seen in the peak of the graph, Shane Dawson’s followers found the youtube star performing in blackface, reinforcing stereotypes, making light out of pedophilia, having inappropriate discussions with children, confessing sexual attraction to an underaged Willow Smith, among other heinous acts. The Insider goes deeper into the drama and has full details of Shane Dawson’s fall from grace.
Jeffree Star has always been popular on the Youtube platform, he has moments of celebration, where he’s overcome by love and support, and moments of disaster where social activists, try to cancel his career. As shown in the Google trends data, searching Jeffree is always peaking.
As there are many attempts to cancel Jeffree’s career, Vulture has created a full list with all of his transgressions. When coming for him during Dramageddon III, Jeffree’s enemies pointed out how he participates in subtle blackface during ad campaigns, the past use of the phrase, “lipstick nazi,” and his silence when his former bandmate was being put on trial for raping children.
In comparison, James Charles a smaller youtube celebrity stayed out of the drama and minded his own business during this process and it shows in his Google search line. There are bumps and peaks but they are much smaller and correspond to his video releases and tweets, rather than having his career destroyed online.
In the current political climate, no one is safe from the sins of their past. Not the racists or pedophiles for sure. As we stay on social media and watch the interactions between content producers and consumers, there is now an increasing trend to hold those in power accountable. “Cancel Culture,” is here to stay.
