Dramageddon 2.0, a major drama in the Social Media beauty community involving the Beauty Gurus James Charles, Tati Westbrook, Jeffree Star, and others, in May 2019 became a topic people talk about again after the launch of the Conspiracy Collection (ShaneXJeffree). Here are the reasons why and my two cents why Jeffree at the time did not show receipts. With some followups. (opinion)
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Followups: Cancelgeddon 2020 / Karmageddon 2020
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| After the official launch of the Conspiracy Collection (here the Conspiracy Eyeshadow Palette) from the ShaneXJeffree collaboration many fans are waiting for more episodes of the YouTube series "The Beautiful World of Jeffree Star" on Shane Dawson's channel which was filmed in parallel to the making of the collection. Everybody wants to know what happened behind the scenes on launch day when the congestion crashed the ecommerce platforms and they want to be fed with some more details on Dramageddon 2.O. |
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Dramageddon 2.0 was a big thing in May 2019 on Social Media (mainly YouTube, Twitter, Instagram) and construed from the
trailer of the Beautiful world of Jeffree Star Dramageddon 2.0 was supposed to be part of the YouTube docu series Shane Dawson and Andrew Siwicki were filming since the beginning of 2019 while Shane Dawson, Jeffree Star and the teams of Jeffree Star Cosmetics and Killer Merch created the Conspiracy Collection (makeup collection with two eyeshadow palettes, liquid lipsticks, lip gloss, lip balm, fashion and other merch).
But then the series changed its course and became more intense about the process of creating a beauty product, the creativity, the business side of things, and the contracts between influencers and big companies in the beauty industry (
The Secrets of the Beauty World: Shane Dawson und Jeffree Star lüften Geheimnisse der Beauty-Welt) than about the drama situations in 2018 (often referred to as "Dramageddon OG") and 2019 ("Dramageddon 2.0").
When the final ShaneXJeffree collection was revealed in episode 6 at the end of October 2019, the YouTube series had a kind of happy ending at this point. Everybody was happy, all dramas seemed to be forgotten and everybody was excited to purchase the products of the collection soon.
But: where are the episodes of the Launch Day and Dramageddon 2.0?
Though everything had been so well planned to make the launch day a great experience for everyone it did not go as planned: the demand was enourmously high and the (external, well-known and specialized) ecommerce plattform used by jeffreestarcosmetics.com and those of other online-retailers holding these products were not able to handle these many purchases in a timely manner for a couple of hours. But at the end of the day nearly everything was sold out.
After that day, people were waiting to see the behind the scenes of this day in the next episode of the Shane Dawson docu series on YouTube.
And there was another issue: in the trailer of the series, Dramageddon 2.0 was mentioned and people reacting to it were shown but not so in the series - yet. And some people were eager to hear what Shane and Jeffree really thought about it.
A few days passed and nothing happened.
Shane Dawson speaks out
Then Shane Dawson went on Instagram Live to talk with his fans about this pressure on his shoulders. He felt that the beauty community was now in a better place than months ago when the fans of the different parties of Dramageddon 2.0 were hating and fighting each other on Social Media. He was debating solutions to this challenge. Rich Lux, a YouTube drama channel from Houston, Texas, published the whole
Shane Dawson monolog/dialog on his YouTube channel.
We don't know yet what solution Shane Dawson will come up with. Maybe he will address these topics in extra videos on
his YouTube Channel outside of the series and/or split those topics between him and Jeffree Star and their YouTube channels if they want to speak their minds separately. We have to wait and see.
By the way: there will be a new Jeffree Star video today (10 November 2019, 10 am pst, 7 pm in Germany): Jeffree Star playing with the Conspiracy Collection and he will be giving some revelations on his behalf not shown in the series. Obviously he will be talking about why he, his boyfriend and their dogs are moving, why he went to see a doctor yesterday, and maybe he will speak out on above mentioned topics.
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Back to Dramageddon 2.0?
When Dramageddon 2.0 happended - started by Tati Westbrook saying publicly "Good Bye, Sister" to James Charles mainly because she felt used and betrayed but also because she was seeing James Charles developing into a person manipulating others with his money and influencer status in an awful way (see
Social Climbing in den sozialen Netzen ist keine Einbahnstraße - Drama um James Charles, Tati Westbrook und später Jeffree Star, Dramageddon 2.0 - , it is in German, please use a translator app).
Jeffree Star did not handle the situation the best way possible - as he said in his video "Never Doing This Again" himself (see down below).
Actually, I cannot really blame him for most of it. I think Jeffree and Shane threw themselves in at first to stand by Tati's side as friends since her fanbase is much smaller compared to James Charles', which was in good intention.
Later Jeffree went in hard because he felt he had to protect members of his family and other young people (I do not name these people since I think they do not want that kind of public attention especially not on this subject) and his emotions made him say some things, you do not say publicly if you do not want to end up in court - you or the other party to be sentenced. And what he said to James Charles' brother was mean.
Some of what he said he deleted right away - but the Internet is faster. He apologized to James Charles' brother from the bottom of his heart - I am convinced he regretted what he said deeply. To James Charles he apologized for not having been a better friend by not having it handled in private from the start. Yes, I agree!
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Some people speculated he did not show receipts on Social Media for his accusations against James Charles as he had announced because he had none, others speculated that James Charles had threatended everyone with a lawyer.
In my opinion, it was a good decision by Jeffree Star not to show receipts and that he kept quiet until today, and probably will for a long time (I can't wait for his autobiography part 1). Why?
- For the reasons he mentions in his video "Never Doing This Again" on YouTube himself.
- He was not the victim. If the alleged victims wanted to come out they could have themselves, they are adults. Nobody must push other people to talk about something they do not want to talk about in any kind of media - in the age of the Internet it would be there for the rest of their lifes.
- I think he did not want to ruin James Charles life, who may have made mistakes and wrong decisions (allegedly) - but should he be destroyed at this young age? He had already gotten a hefty warning and knows he is watched now in terms of specific behavior.
- For business/network reasons. I could imagine that Morphe Brushes, Tati Westbrook, may be even YouTube asked him to stop that public fight. Many people (employees, business partners etc.) depend(ed) on Jeffree Star especially in the middle of the making of that Conspiracy Collection - ShaneXJeffree collab, it would have been to risky and could have ruined the whole (online marketing) project with a lot of time, love and money invested.
In my opinion, it was good that Jeffree Star apologized and left it at that.
Followup 6-26-2020 and 07-06-2020: Cancelgeddon 2020 and Karmageddon 2020
As an influencer, destiny can turn against you very quickly. In Social Media are people who feed on the blood of influencers they "bring down" by spreading hate. Sometimes they bring up things from more than 10 years ago, sometimes with a twisted narrative, often hearsay, sometimes lies, sometimes though the truth - everyone on the Internet should be careful what and whom to believe and not just go with the masses spreading hate and ruining people's lives and mental health just for the adrenalin rush and feeling powerful for a moment.
Jeffree Star and Shane Dawson have been on the haters' attack list forever because both had done stupid and awful things in their past - at a time they had not yet known each other afaik -, but they have apologized (e.g.,
Jeffree 3 years ago,
Shane 5 years ago) and worked on becoming better people.
Concerning Jeffree, I more than once wondered whether there are brands or organizations behind the attacks who use those little haters like puppets on a string year after year (with new ones who were not there when Jeffree (and Shane) had been accused the last time and already had apologized) to harm Jeffree's business or him as a person with bringing his past up because he is so extra (imho adorable) and a competitor to some bigger brands now, others of these haters are plainly and self-righteous homophobic. There are many possibilities, I would not even be surprised if some investor is trying to force Jeffree into selling (parts of) his company for a lower price than its estimated value before drama.
At the moment it is mainly Shane Dawson who is under fire since old videos were brought into daylight (which were on Youtube for all these years) originating from Shane in his earlier years on YouTube. I did not watch them at that time and I do not want to now, but allegedly they are inappropriate in a way that some people say cannot be forgiven ever and those people are not the usual teenagers feeling important by spreading hate. I do not know whether the presentation of the allegation is fair or if the judgement by some of those people is right. I mean they say they are Christians, but they will not ever forgive? Although from what I heard, those sketches about children were made to point out how some parents present their children in an non-appropriate way on the Internet? I do not want to address the Shane-Cancelgeddon in my blog any further (not sure yet, if it is Dramageddon 2.2, Dramageddon 3.0 or Cancelgeddon 2020 - everybody is getting canceled in 2020 for something, from CardiB to Jenna Marbles for their past), since this is not a drama channel and Shane Dawson never sincerely was part of the beauty community. But one comment I need to get off my chest: if Shane, like he says, never cared about the money why did he not take those old videos down years ago after he learned that they hurt and trigger people, I mean he had apologized for them, so he was aware of them being problematic or could be misunderstood. I personally do not want to judge Shane (or anybody) without knowing what they have to say to defend themselves addressing the latest (twisted) accusations. And the same questions that Shane gets should also be asked YouTube, who did not critisize his old videos, though they were there all the time, but now punishes Shane, allegedly even demonetized his channels, though, I can see them right now 07-06-2020, may be they had to undo that.
A few days later: Oh, now
Tati Westbrook, who had started Dramageddon 2.0 a year ago, and the hater mob following her narrative try to turn Dramageddon into a Cancelgeddon or Karmageddon against Jeffree Star and Shane Dawson. In a new video Tati Westbrook claims, she was manipulated by Shane and Jeffree to turn against James Charles a year ago. Whaaaaaaat?
I remember her sitting with this same I-am-so-hurt-attitude and a tear in her eye in front of the camera to finish James Charles: because he did not preach her vitamin pills though she and her husband had done so much for him and because he allegedly approached some young men inappropriately thinking that was alright ("I am a celebrity"). She had talked about how embarrassed she was at her birthday party because her grandmother had to hear inappropriate language from him (and she mentioned how cute Jeffree Star and her grandmother were together), she even attacked James Charles' mother for not educating and taking care him and his brother properly. By throwing James Charles under the bus in public she gained millions of subscribers last year and was finally able to sell her vitamin pills and new makeup products to them. She allegedly made millions of US-Dollars of it.
To those who spread on the Internet, Jeffree wanted to bring James Charles down, because he was a competitor: In my opinion that is ridiculous.
Jeffree Star had no reason to call out James other than to protect alleged victims. James was not just a fellow YouTuber and a kind of friend whom he had supported to get big by doing videos with him when Jeffree had way more subscribers, had given him business advises and whom he even helped buy his very first car, James Charles was also a customer of Killer Merch and every sold sister apparel piece put money in Jeffree’s pocket, since he is a co-owner of Killer Merch. In my opinion, when alleged victims had talked to Jeffree he became so agitated he felt he had to protect these young men and he stood up for what he thought was right and did not care that it would harm the Killer Merch business and his own and his business partners' income. In the big picture of things James Charles actually is no competition to Jeffree Star who used to be a MySpace phenomen and a Rockstar and who now owns several businesses one of them being his own makeup brand he built from nothing after his music career with extraordinary products now being sold all over the world.
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Now she twists the story and I cannot help but wonder what she will be trying to sell next...
This is ridiculous and she imho is not a credible person anymore. Now, when I look through her videos it seems like a scheme: she is always hurt or betrayed by friends, subscribers not watching her videos... Actually, now it comes to my mind that
she used to (try to) be an actress!
My personal opinion on her changed over time: at first I thought she was just a bit boring and had an arrogant aura, I only watched her channel because of her collabs with Jeffree Star. When she went in deeper into the vitamin selling business after her Bye-Sister-Video throwing James Charles under the bus, I lost interest in her content totally and what little respect I had for her as an artist because imho vitamin pills (not only hers) are mainly a cash grab, talking people into paying for having expensive pee.
And now imho she repeats her tactic from last year by twisting her story. Again she is the victim and others are the villains.
Today I think, all the years she probably had been jealous because she was not as successful as James Charles or Jeffree Star both their subscriber numbers just exploding on YouTube (and their collabs were always successful for both of them), though she was longer in the YouTube business - but actually she was good in using makeup in an everyday way, but she was not exciting, not makeup-wise nor entertainment-wise. I mean Jeffree who is all about the fan experience took her doing their makeup on a private jet on their way to Vegas and other things (and btw. he and James Charles went on a
hot air balloon ride), also James by himself did more interesting things (I liked him letting the animals in the zoo do his makeup - I am not a subscriber of him anymore for other reasons).
But Tati was boring, which is okay, I am boring too, but she obviously wanted more attention, more admiration etc. but her numbers did not improve the way the subscriber numbers of Jeffree and James did. Today I think it must have been preying on her mind. When she did her Bye-Sister-video (Dramageddon 2.) I believed her at that time - also because some young men who allegedly had felt being manipulated by James Charles had spoken up on videos and on Twitter (more on this in my blogpost
Why Jeffree Star should not be cancelled), others had been kind of exposed, so those who payed attention knew who they were. So this is why at that time I thought her story of that time was true. But now that she is doing the same thing again, she is playing the hurt woman and victim of bad friends again, I am not sure anymore whether she even is a decent person or was ever credible. This time she is claiming she was manipulated into making the Bye-Sister-Video ... I mean she was about 37 years old at that time, the oldest of them! And in the video she had mainly spoken about her own experiences with and feelings towards James Charles... Sorry, but no, Sis!
Imho, she seems to be the queen of manipulation playing the boys/men off against each other.
It's a shame but Karma will get her too.
But this is just my opinion.
Read more
Episodes of the Shane-Dawson-Jeffree-Star-Docu-Series until today:
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