Cancel Culture
By: Kate Wroblewski
In today’s age of social media, different outlets give many creators the platform to make it big. Many creators have made it so big that they are even a household name. This big of a following can give a person the illusion that they are powerful and untouchable. It creates a blinding to some of the content they post, or how they acted before the fame. In the past couple weeks, a big social media star has been the target of cancel culture. “Cancelling” someone means to stop giving support to that person. The act of canceling could entail boycotting an actor’s movies, no longer reading or promoting a writer’s works, or unfollowing someone on socials. In this blog I am going to discuss the cancellation of David Dobrik that has happened over the past couple weeks. David is one of the biggest social media stars out there, with millions of followers, and a huge power dynamic over anyone he works with.
Many girls came forward in the last month about the severe trauma they had to face after being a part of David Dobrik’s vlogs. In a vlog that was posted a couple years ago, a group of girls came over to David’s friend, Durte Dom’s, apartment. These girls were contacted through Direct Message on Instagram. They were told they could come over if they were to sleep with Dom for the vlog. These girls, obviously star struck, and wanting to meet David, agreed to these terms. Once they got there they did not want to go through on the plan anymore. David, wanting a vlog for the week, asked one of his friends to get them alcohol to loosen them up. These girls were blacked out drunk when Dom coerced them to sleep with him. Some of the girls stated that the next day they did not even remember what happened. This vlog was posted and made it seem like the girls wanted to sleep with Dom, when in reality the vlog romanticized the sexual assault they endured. The internet found out this information and immediately called for the cancellation of David. David went silent for a little bit, but after he started losing all of his sponsors like Honey, Doordash, and HelloFresh; he finally made an apology video. At first glance his apology looked like a good one. He took accountability for his actions and not understanding the huge power dynamic he had in the situation. After the internet took some time to process the apology, they realized one of the only reasons he was trying to save face, was because of the loss of all his sponsors. David’s friends, or “vlog squad”, have also been trying really hard to save face for David because he is their “cash cow” according to Trisha Paytas (another social media star).
David has been quiet ever since his apology video, but I am sure more information will come out in the next following weeks. I am usually one against cancel culture, because I believe something someones done in their past does not always show who they are. People change and grow every single year. I would like to think I am not the same person I am last year. But, in this particular case of David Dobrik, I believe the cancellation is very necessary. David did not just use an offensive term on the internet, or go out partying during a pandemic, but permanently effected these girls lives. I am interested to see if David stays cancelled, or will make his way back onto social media. I also hope David finally getting what he deserves puts the victims of the vlog at ease, and they continue to heal from what happened to them.