As apps like TikTok continue to exist, the biggest fear for some is not their Chinese spy who makes their for you page, but the fear of getting canceled. Can you imagine one of your darkest secrets getting out into the media, and without context, people deciding they hate you after declaring their love to you the day before? Cancel culture is something that most influencers fear, but it is the reality of social media today.
What even is the point of cancel culture anymore? It’s been around for about a decade and is something anyone with a following fears. Cancel culture is when people who are considered “influential” do something problematic, such as being racist, homophobic, and, more relevantly, pedophilic.
James Charles has been in the spotlight for as long as most can remember. The majority of avid YouTube watchers remember his popular makeup tutorials along with his insane collaborations. Some of these consist of Kylie Jenner, Kesha, and Iggy Azalea. However, some like to remember his famous friend group collaboration videos: Sister Squad.
If, like me, you were chronically online as a kid, you were aware of this infamous friend group who would post their daily lives. It consisted of Ethan and Grayson Dolan, James Charles, and Emma Chamberlin. These four were the peak of YouTube in 2019, as everyone with a conscience wanted to be part of their friend group. They were the “it” friend group of the 2010s until they weren’t. Day by day, week by week, month by month, the collabs began to stop, and the Sister Squad began to disappear. No one knows what went on between the group, but the Dolan Twins addressed it in their 2020 video by saying, “Basically, we were all just at very, very different parts of our careers and our lives, and we needed to go in different directions.” We then watched this iconic squad dissolve before our eyes.
Whilst James was at the peak of lifestyle YouTube, he was also thriving in the makeup world. His known makeup BFF, Tati Westbrook, was also seen as his mentor as he was navigating his newfound fame in the makeup industry. This mentorship eventually led to his short-term cancelation. Allegedly, there was inappropriate talk from James to a straight waiter, and Tati was quite angry. As she allegedly continued to say throughout her 2019 Bye Sister video, “There is a time and a place, and you did it at my birthday dinner.” This video, by Tati, discussed how she believed that James was disloyal, manipulative, and had severe inappropriate behavior habits. When released, the video grew exponentially, and everyone wanted to jump on the wagon of the “downfall” of James.
One day later, James came out with a video titled Tati, explaining his side of the story, the hurt he felt, and that he was betrayed by one of his mentors. During the video, he addressed all of the allegations that Tati had mentioned about him and tried his best to disprove them. Over the next two to three days James lost over three million followers, while Westbrook’s channel was continuing to grow and grow. On Apr. 30, 2019, James released a video named No More Lies. The video, as of right now, has over 58 million views. The 41-minute video contains James continuing to address the allegations, and sharing his complete side of the story and the betrayal he was faced with by someone he looked up to.
This video was made to try and shift public perception and make James and Tati’s audience understand what happened. Throughout the video, he used receipts and screenshots to prove his point of betrayal. This video ultimately put an end to the drama that happened between the two. But then, a month later, Tati allegedly released another video that contained her retracting a lot of the main claims that she made against him, while still maintaining her disapproval of his behavior. Although these videos are imprinted in many chronically online YouTube fans’ memories, they have since been taken down.
After James had “won” this beef between the two, he was thriving online again. His videos on YouTube went back to doing amazing, and he started doing collaborations with influencers on TikTok, which was thriving. When the pandemic started, nothing changed for him because everyone was aspiring to gain his makeup skills during the lockdown. However, fame can go away just as fast as it can come. In 2021, it was revealed that James Charles was caught sending inappropriate messages to a few 16-year-old boys. When this news was released, it caught fire immediately, ultimately ruining James’s career. He began to lose contracts with companies like Morphe, who were sponsoring his makeup palette.
Charles’s career began to crumble. No one had the same respect for him, and they decided it was time to stop supporting him because no one wanted to support someone who was okay with texting underage people. This ultimately led to James taking a hiatus from social media and YouTube. This was a big deal for the makeup community, as James was one of the main content creators who had success on both TikTok and YouTube. For someone like James, who posted twice a week, taking a three-month hiatus was quite surprising.
However, when he returned, he made a video called An Open Conversation, where he addressed all of the rumors. In a very emotional video, he addressed the allegations of being a pedophile. He discussed how there were lots of assumptions being taken out of context, and he was not aware of the ages of the people he was messaging. This news allowed for a lot of speculation about James, and he became hidden from the spotlight.
This controversy was at the beginning of 2021, and since then, many have not heard much about Charles. Maybe they heard about his makeup brand or his newly released music, but his name was not as prominent as it used to be. He was certainly not the top creator on YouTube anymore.
On June 28, 2024, James made a TikTok about one of the presidential debates, making fun of the presidential candidates, and his sound went viral. This ultimately brought James back into the limelight. Since then, Charles has been known to make funny videos, appealing to the Gen Z audience, some of which include his video of being the “first American” back on TikTok after the short-term ban.
However, the question remains: Is James Charles canceled? Is cancel culture that impactful nowadays compared to previous years? Cancel culture is a quite principal part of Gen Z, as it can inform us about offensive things that our favorite influencers or people may do. However, most, including myself, do believe that, to a certain extent, influencers and creators should not be scared of everything they say.
Stories like this are not unfamiliar to the internet, especially with the back-and-forth decisions of liking people due to the unreliability of cancel culture. Rather than relying on what the internet decides, which is what drives cancel culture, people should begin to form their own opinions.
