We've Tracked Shane Dawson’s Every Move Since Quitting The Beauty YouTuber World Two Months Ago
It’s been more than two months since Shane Dawson’s week from hell: a series of unfortunate events, which saw the resurfacing of explosive videos showing the former beauty YouTuber using blackface, spouting various offensive words against POCs, and joking about paedophilia. Tati Westbrook's disturbing new video, where she accused him of manipulating her to go against James Charles, came soon after. Man, it was a lot.
Shane did publicly address some of the allegations at the time. He released a video titled “Taking Accountability”, in which he sweepingly apologised for his past behaviour claiming it "wasn't him". He sent out a tweet or two. He also recorded a bizarre Instagram Live reacting to Tati’s claims (which we're sure he regrets). Since then, though, Dawson's remained uncharacteristically silent. In fact, his last Instagram and Twitter posts are both from the end of June.
So what's Shane Dawson actually been up to lately? Well, not much by way of public appearances, but thankfully we can look to updates from those close to him for some answers. Here, we break down everything that’s gone on in Shane Dawson's orbit ever since he infamously “took accountability”. It's not pretty.
Morphe pulls Shane Dawson's entire make-up range from its online store
At the start of July, beauty e-tailer Morphe quietly pulled Shane Dawson’s entire make-up range, revealing just how serious the situation was that Dawson now found himself in. To this day, Shane has yet to comment on his split with Morphe, Jeffree Star Cosmetics reps (also involved in the cull) have been more vocal.
Jeffree Star says he’ll still be mates with Shane Dawson
Then, a couple weeks later, Jeffree Star weighed in on Shane’s controversies. In his video called “Breaking My Silence”, Jeffree said that while he didn't support Dawson's past behaviour, he wouldn't be changing his relationship with him in any way. “I know Shane from now,” he said. “I don’t know Shane from 10 years ago, and he doesn’t know me from 10 years ago. Now do I agree with Shane’s past actions? Of course I don’t. … I know the amazing person he is today, and you don’t abandon your friends.”
Dawson's (kinda) sister-in-law Morgan Adams weighs in
Next, Shane’s future sister-in-law Morgan Adams addressed the backlash against Shane. In a video uploaded to her YouTube channel, Morgan said: “It makes me uncomfortable to watch them [Shane’s resurfaced videos] because when I watch them I’m like ‘who is that?’. I don’t feel like that’s a person that I know.”
Ryland Adams shows his support for Shane, again
A few days later, Morgan’s brother Ryland Adams, Shane’s fiancé, entered the chat. In a video titled "My Past, My Present, and My Future", Ryland explained he didn't initially want to insert himself in the drama because he didn't want to add to the existing negativity and wanted time to process and think for himself.
He went on to defend Shane, saying that while he understood it was hard for people to separate the Shane that had filmed the offensive videos in the past from the person he is today, fans should know Shane has “good intentions”. Ryland did acknowledge that Shane also had more “learning, and growing, and evolving to do.”
That same week, Ryland also shared a photo of himself and Shane on what was presumably Shane’s birthday. Sweet... if it wasn't for the whole joking-about-pedophilia sitch.
James Charles says he’s “not hurt” by Shane
OK, so by now we’d heard from fellow beauty YouTubers Tati and Jeffree, which only left James Charles. In mid-August, he finally, finally gave us his two cents, uploading a TikTok set to La Roux’s “Bulletproof”, writing: “You think you can hurt my feelings? I lost 3 million subscribers in one day and [was] cancelled over something I didn’t actually do.”
Meanwhile, Shane Dawson's cameraman Andrew Siwicki quarantines with Shane’s ex-mate, Garrett Watts
Shane’s cameraman Andrew Siwicki – credited by Shane for reinventing his YouTube channel and helping to successfully launch Shane's “documentary” series – has been the only one from Shane’s camp not to come out in his defence. In fact, two months later, Andrew still has yet to say anything.
So, could the fact Andrew chose to quarantine with Shane’s ex-mate, Garrett Watts, be the comment we’ve been looking for? While Shane and Garrett have yet to publicly discuss any kind of fall-out, Garrett hasn’t appeared in any of Shane’s videos since the start of 2019. Read into that what you will...
Dawson's fans take a side
The numbers don’t lie. Despite Shane announcing he was quitting his YouTube channel, fans continue to click that unsubscribe button. Curious, considering new content from it wouldn’t be coming up on their feeds anyway, so they're actively cutting Shane's content from their platform. Over the past month, Shane’s lost more than a whopping 300,000 followers. Jeffree Star, meanwhile, is also losing followers – but at a much slower rate. He's lost 200,000 in the last month.
Shane Dawson quietly drops new products
Finally! Actual word from Shane!... ish. In mid-August, Shane quietly added new products to his merchandising company shared with Jeffree Star, Killer Merch. Previous customers reportedly received emails alerting them to the new drops. With YouTube suspending all ads on his channel, we guess he had to keep up an income stream somewhere.
...and more new products
On the 2nd of September, we spotted (via some eagle-eyed fans) that Shane's dropped even more new products – this time via his own Official Shane Dawson Merch Store. A fan noticed he'd added a selection of pig-shaped handbags to the site's offering.
They come in pink, white or black and are, in our humble opinion, actually quite cute. (Last sentence was written through gritted teeth.) The bags join his existing pig-themed line of backpacks, tumblers and wallets.
stay tuned…
What could possibly be next here? To be honest, the only thing we can see happening next would be Shane joining the conversation himself. He can't hide forever...
This article was updated on Wednesday 2nd September to include the discovery of Shane Dawson's latest merch drop: pig-shaped handbags. More here.
Main Image Credit: YouTube
