As we near the end of 2023, years like 2018 and 2019 are starting to seem farther away. However, whenever the subject of “Dramageddon” is brought up, many quickly remember everything that happened. Those people are usually a part of the beauty community on social media. The events of Dramageddon are a lesson about cancel culture, parasocial relationships, and the romanticization of influencer’s lives. Let’s recap the events that occurred, and assess how the past drama affects us now.
So, What Happened?
Dramageddon is a nickname for a series of events in the late 2010s. It took place on the YouTube and Twitter social media platforms. The main participants were Jeffree Star, Gabriel Zamora and Laura Lee. Manny MUA and Nikita Dragun were also friends with these key people, but they were not as involved in the central incidents that will be discussed. All of the above YouTubers are still very relevant in the beauty community to this day.
Back in 2018, the five of them were starting to become friends. They all had collaboration videos with Jeffree starting in 2017, and soon all were commonly seen out with each other. An important example is the collaboration between Manny MUA and Jeffree Star Cosmetics. Under the video in which this partnership was revealed, Jeffree referred to Manny as his “best friend,” showing how close they were. Due to these videos , all of their channels were growing because their fanbases were combining.
Before this, the majority of them had already been in hot water because of their past actions. Jeffree Star had been called out multiple times before for his alleged racist behavior. But because of his new famous friends who were all defending him, he was less hated and his past flew under the radar.
Soon, their public interactions were dwindling. Four out of the five members of the group were posting collaboration videos, with Jeffree Star being noticeably left out. There were speculations about the situation until Gabriel Zamora posted a picture of Laura, Gabriel, Manny, and Nikita flipping off the camera on Twitter. The caption read: “Bitch is bitter because without him we’re doing better.”
Around this time, there was also a documentary-style series released by YouTuber Shane Dawson called “The Beautiful World of Jeffree Star.” Audiences received a peek into Jeffree Star’s life, which gained him a lot of sympathy.. A video posted by YouTuber Dustin Dailey in 2018 includes clips of Jeffree discussing how having money can be a burden because people use him. Also in this video, Dustin Dailey expresses his opinion that Jeffree seems more “personable” and he has changed his mind about him. This is an example of how the common perception of Jeffree shifted to a more positive light.
Due to this sympathy for Jeffree Star, when Gabriel’s tweet was posted, there was immense backlash. Gabriel Zamora posted a follow-up tweet that read, “Imagine stanning a racist? I could never.” In response to this, fans of Jeffree Star dug through the social media of the group members, revealing many of their alleged racist pasts . This included digging up past posts where they said racist slurs and made racist comments.
After this, a few apology videos were released by the four members of the group, which were highly disliked. Laura Lee’s video quickly gained many views, but it became so detested that she eventually deleted the video and released a new apology video. Gabriel Zamora’s apology video was highly anticipated since he was the one who first posted the controversial tweet. When the video, titled “My Truth,” was released, many became sympathetic toward Gabriel Zamora. His video seemed more genuine because of the video’s format. It was uncut, unedited, and unscripted, which was not often seen before in other YouTuber apology videos.
The Aftermath
Laura Lee has been out of drama ever since, and has remained friends with Manny MUA. Gabriel Zamora gained more subscribers after the “My Truth” video, and eventually played an important role in Dramageddon 2. Nikita Dragun has been in many controversies since the initial series of events. Finally, there wasn’t anything that affected Jeffree Star except that he was more respected than before. However, this was quick to change within the next few years.
Dramageddon 2 – Sistergeddon
Not much later, the series of events referred to as “Sistergeddon” occurred. It is called Sistergeddon due to the involvement of James Charles, whose famous line is “Hi sisters!” in his videos. The main people involved in this controversy are James Charles, Tati Westbrook, Shane Dawson, and Jeffree Star. James Charles and Tati Westbrook are also very prominent beauty YouTubers. Their relationship was admired by fans, with James Charles referring to Tati Westbrook as his mentor.
Leading up to the main catalyst of Sistergeddon, James Charles was not very well-liked. On Twitter, YouTuber Marlena Stell revealed she was working with Netflix on a documentary about the online beauty community. In response, James Charles publicly expressed his distaste for this, stating he believes he is more qualified. This was seen as a sign of his inflated ego because James Charles is not as experienced as Marlena Stell. She has worked in the beauty community longer than him and owns her own makeup brand business.
On the other hand, Tati Westbrook was highly respected. Due to her age and her demeanor, she was seen as trustworthy and level-headed. The only notable controversy she had been in was befriending Jeffree Star, who was despised for a long time because of his alleged racist past. But, because of his recently gained respect from general audiences, friendship was not an issue at the time of Sistergeddon. So when James Charles and Tati Westbrook had their very public dispute, many immediately sided with Tati Westbrook because of the established trust fans had for her.
Everything began when James Charles wanted to upgrade his tickets for Coachella in 2019. He signed a contract to promote the popular vitamin brand, Sugar Bear because they were able to get him these tickets. However, Tati Westbrook has a vitamin supplement company of her own called Halo Beauty. James Charles was supporting a competitor, so she went to social media to complain, implying that James had betrayed her.
At this point, Gabriel Zamora gets involved. He made a video about Tati, saying if she was going to publicly complain about James Charles, she should just come out and say it. So she did. Tati released a video titled “Bye Sister” in which she spent about 45 minutes calling James Charles out for his problematic behavior. In the video, she most popularly spoke about his alleged inappropriate behavior with young men. She provides one example in which she describes when James uncomfortably flirted with a waiter at Tati’s birthday dinner. James soon released a highly disliked response video. He barely addressed the most important concerns people had about the situation, like the allegations of his predatory behavior. He mainly spends the video apologizing to Tati about the vitamin incident.
Then, Tati released a video called “Why I Did It.” In the video, she apologizes to James because she was not anticipating how big the situation would get. This video can no longer be found on YouTube, but this article from CNN gives more of a summary of the video. Jeffree Star also released a similar video because he was insulting both James Charles and Ian Jeffrey, James’s brother. In response to everything, James Charles released a new video titled “No More Lies.” He gained back a lot of credit because he provided a lot of evidence when addressing the concerns people had about his behavior. Many soon hopped on the “Team James” bandwagon.
The Aftermath
One of the most important things that happened after this was the reveal from Tati that Shane Dawson and Jeffree Star knew about Tati’s video, “Bye Sister,” before the release. Tati released a video called “Breaking My Silence” where she says Jeffree and Shane influenced her to make the “Bye Sister” video because they did not like James Charles. She also apologizes to James and proclaims she is now friends with him again, despite the ongoing allegations of his sexual misconduct. After this video was released, Shane Dawson went live on Instagram, yelling at his TV as Tati’s video played. People who were mad at Shane for these incidents dug up his controversial past, which led to him leaving YouTube for a while.
This pretty much wrapped up the first part of Sistergeddon, with everyone involved having lost something. James Charles was extremely canceled, Jeffree Star had lost the respect fans had for him after Dramageddon, and Tati Westbrook’s channel has never been as big as it was before Sistergeddon.
Why is This Important to Others?
Cancel culture is a very prevalent aspect of our society, especially in the modern age of technology, in which proof of offensive deeds is quick to go viral. However, at what point does cancel culture become toxic? An article by Melissa Lee, “Cancel Culture is #Canceled,” details the difference between complete alienation and rehabilitation. Lee says calling out people for offensive behavior is important, but giving no chance of forgiveness dissuades those who have been canceled from atoning for their actions. This obviously does not apply to those who have done unforgivable deeds, but it provides a valuable perspective on the intricacies of cancel culture, which can be seen in Dramageddon and Sistergeddon.
It is also important to the general public because it provides an important lesson on the dangers of parasocial relationships. Before Sistergeddon turned more towards James Charles’s predatorial allegations, many despised him simply due to his not supporting Tati’s brand. They took his disloyalty to Tati as a personal attack. In Dramageddon, people grew attached to Jeffree Star after the Shane Dawson series, and attacked the other four members of the group on social media without knowing the full situation. This ties into the common romanticization of influencer’s lives. We either want to be them or be friends with them. This, combined with the format of the videos being as if they were talking directly to the person watching, is how parasocial relationships develop.
As seen in present-day scandals, such as what is going on with Colleen Ballinger, a.k.a. Miranda Sings, this issue is far from over. Ballinger’s situation shows that fan relations are an issue with YouTubers. It also shows how both the YouTuber and audiences turn real experiences, like what Ballinger’s victims went through, into entertainment.
Taking these lessons from Dramageddon and Sistergeddon is essential so when this situation happens again, which it inevitably will, it will be easier to step outside of the drama to look at the situation as a whole. The fascination fans have with the lives of influencers is similar to the fascination with true crime. People see these events as amusing, even though there were real victims who were used as pawns by the YouTubers involved. We must remind ourselves this is not just entertainment, but real people’s lives.
