Lily Ayotte
Equinox Staff
Shane Dawson has been a widely loved YouTuber since he started his first channel in July of 2008. In the past, Shane was known for creating skits using different characters that he portrayed himself, but recently, his fame has taken a more controversial turn.
His current main channel, shane, has more than 18 million subscribers all tuning in to watch his conspiracy theory videos – as well as and more importantly, his series on some of the biggest and most controversial names on social media today. The first episode of this series was with another popular YouTuber, grav3yardgirl, whose channel had been slowly declining in viewers for a while. After the series with grav3yardgirl did well, Shane went on to create the series with more controversial issues and people. He revealed the truth about the failed TanaCon, dove into the dark past of Jeffree Star and, in part five of his eight-part series, is delving into why Jake Paul, one of the most controversial people on the internet, does what he does.
Jake Paul with help from his “posse” Team Ten, has lit furniture on fire, duct taped someone to a wall, and has performed other destructive actions that have lead to some questionable fame. So when Shane announced his new series would be on, “The Mind of Jake Paul,” people weren’t totally on board. They were claiming that Shane shouldn’t be giving a platform or trying to make viewers feel bad for someone who in general doesn’t seem like the best person. But that’s not where the problems stopped.
Throughout the series, Shane Dawson asks the overarching question, “Is Jake Paul a sociopath?” and even has a therapist come on the video to talk about the traits of a sociopath. However, the video raises questions and issues, because while talking to the therapist, horror-like music and B-roll is edited in. Viewers claimed this was not the way we should be discussing mental health and that the portrayal of sociopaths was viewed as “evil” and unfair.
Now, even Shane knew that the editing of the video could and should have been better. Is this the right way to talk about mental health? Some would say that at least it’s being talked about, which in and of itself is a step in the right direction, but having this sort of conversation on an entertainer’s platform? Maybe not the right idea.
A couple days after the video where Shane talks to a therapist, he posted an apology on Snapchat, saying that he edited it the way he did to make it entertaining. Shane Dawson is not to blame for everything. However, talking about such a big issue like mental health can be problematic. Especially on a YouTube channel made primarily for entertainment viewed by both young kids and adults. Doing just this creates the challenge of whether the subject is being discussed properly and without bias. I believe that this can open discussions about mental illness that are truly necessary to have in today’s world and that’s the purpose it should serve. It’s not the end all be all of diagnosing sociopathy, or any other kind of mental illness and as far as entertainment goes, it lives up to the Shane Dawson standard.
Lily Ayotte can be
contacted at
layotte@kscequinox.com
