David Dobrik: Shame Retribution
By Gianna Anzalone
In January 2013, there was large attention towards a site that set the path for many video-sharing creators today. This short-form video hosting service was known as Vine, where users could share six-second-long looping video clips. Many users reached popularity through finding innovative ways to entertain an audience in such little time. One of these ways was through “skit” videos, as this was engaging content content that could be easily consumed in the small amount of time. Some skit creators would develop characters or personas within their videos, helping build their own comedic style. This also allowed for large collaborations, fussing different comedic styles and personalities for more engaging and sharable content. One of the largest creators on this app was David Dobrik, obtaining over 15 million followers before the deletion of Vine. Dobrik was known on Vine for the humous skits and pranks he would create with fellow star viners. By collabing (and even dating) with these stars in the beginning of his career, he was able to greatly increase his visibility on the platform.
In 2015, Dobrik decided to increase his audience and quality of videos by transitioning to YouTube. YouTube is one of the biggest video sharing platforms in todays digital age, with over 2.1 billion Youtube users out of 5 billion people who access the internet. Youtube has cultivated its own community, having a shared space for open discussion and opinion on videos. Dobrik cultivated his community within the Youtube space by launching his own self-titled channel, continuing with his skit and prank type content and welcoming his audience of 15 million on Vine to transition over. His comedy sketches contained numerous users that he would collab with on Vine, centering his content on this group of people known as “The Vlog Squad”. His videos were infamous for the pranks or personas that were displayed on these members.
Dobrik used multiple shame tactics within his content, and many of these examples were not brought to light until he was facing shame himself. This would range from filming friends being sexually assaulted without consent to displaying a slut or fat persona on many females that would participate in his content. Course concepts that will be examined in this case include the definition and difference of shame in his video context versus shame inflicted on himself, how shame can affect identity, the commodification of shame, and the effectiveness of holding powerful people accountable institutionally versus socially.
Defining Shame In His Videos
Defining shame can be a difficult task. According to Klonick, something that can be agreed upon is that shame is different than guilt or embarrassment, as it is external and enforced socially. Since shame is enforced socially, an element of the shaming process that is essential is exposure to the public eye. David’s friends (or The Vlog Squad) are constantly put in this public eye, as he films their interactions on a daily level. Filming and editing his own videos allows him to construct the reality of the personas of these characters to his audience, inviting them to laugh and join in at his jokes revolving around their appearance or actions. Creating these personas invites people to scoff at their identities, as their actions become their identity.
Online shaming involves similar elements to cyberbullying, as it involves repeated verbal aggression over time. The one key difference is that it involves the attempt to enforce a perceived violation of a social norm. Within these videos, Dobrik often attacks the physical features of his ‘friends’ not aligning with norms, and uses these abnormalities as jokes. As Klonick stated, social norms empower society to influence individuals' behavior by assigning social significance to different actions they undertake. This means that rather than facing harassment for their actions in the vlogs, they face shame for this tying to their identity.
When it comes to the two female main characters in his videos, Corinna Kopf and Gabbie Hanna, he shames the characteristics of them having numerous sex partners or being overweight. He also induced shame onto one of the members Seth Francois for being tricked into kissing another man, which will later provide insight on the effectiveness of holding powerful people accountable.
When someone was no longer comfortable with being shamed for these insecurities, they were no longer apart of the group.
How Shame Can Affect An Identity
![](https://www.google.com/images/icons/product/drive-32.png)
Corinna Kopf
When negative emotions are consistently approved or linked to certain individuals or groups, people may develop automatic and unconscious responses lacking empathy toward those individuals or groups (Hirdman, 2016). Individuals may find themselves reacting without empathy in an ingrained manner towards these sexist jokes at Corinna, as these negative feelings are a repetition of the character she is portrayed as. “As pointed out by feminist scholars, it is through the repetition of norms, and social forms rather than by rational argument, that the world materializes and boundaries are produced (Hirdman, 2016).” Through the repetition of these social norms of being a slut rather than a rational argument, the world materializes the treatment and boundaries of Corinna within the public sphere.
Gabbie Hanna
This same lack of empathy is seen towards fellow member Gabbie Hanna but with her weight rather than her sexual history. Dobrik constructs the reality of Hanna being a fat woman, and this is expliplified through shaming her body in irrelevant contexts. Although Hanna works out on a daily basis, since it is not included in the video it is seeming to not exist in the real world (Lageson, 2020). The societal trait of shame is very prevalent in this example, as It involves an internal evaluation of one's own shortcomings, coupled with the anticipation of how others will perceive and judge those shortcomings (Hirdman, 2016). With Hanna’s history of eating disorders, she is forced to be judged for her shortcomings in attaining a healthy physique to an unknown audience. This judgment is harshened online, as the emotional health of citizens is being more influenced by what is not considered normal when she is shown by more exposure and less free thinking (Nussbaum, 2006). An audience sees her as being shamed for her weight by numerous members of the squad, and wants to fit in with the same viewpoint of the majority. She stated that being treated this way made her believe it was all that she was worth.
Seth Francois
This idea of someone being scoffed at for their actions overtaking their identity is extremely prevalent in the case of Seth Francois. Francois articulates a sense of betrayal and exploitation, recounting his experience as a mere prop in the public domain, where he was subjected to broadcasted humiliation for being strategically induced to engage in a staged kiss with another man. The underlying purpose of the video was not only to degrade him for succumbing to the prank but also to shame him for the act of kissing another man. By reacting in a negative connotation to the shame of unconsently being with another man bestowed onto him, he only faces further shame. Coming forward about his feelings surrounding the bit, he believed his identity would become the guy who was sexually assaulted. Male victims in terms of sexual assault (which will be defined as being intentionally sexually touched without consent according to the Sexual Offenses Act of 2003) are hesitant to reach out for help due to going against the social norms of perceptions of men. One of these perceptions include that sexual assault by someone of the same sex causes homosexuality, causing him to face social rejection of his identity of being straight (Turchik et Edwards, 2012). This places him in a perceived stigmatized group as his identity, which would be homosexuals. A stigmatized group is one who suffers pain from mockery, an assault on their human dignity, and discrimination on social functions (Nussbaum, 2006). When thinking of Francois also being from an urban environment, stigmatization can be more apparent in the degrees of maintaining a facilitating environment due to a larger population, as well as how the culture of norms is enforced by the society. A facilitating environment, as mentioned by Winnicott, refers to the social and familial conditions that contribute to the emotional health and well-being of individuals (Nussbaum, 2006). It is described as a context that supports the achievement of mature and generous love, competence, and maturity in adults. Francois spoke on the shaming ritual he faced stating, “They made me that guy, I didn’t have a choice.”
Defining Shame In His Controversy
Shame operated in various ways when Dobrik himself was caught going against social norms on the platform he posts on, YouTube.
The shame he was inducing onto his friends was not recognized until an institution deemed him as socially unacceptable online. The crazy part behind this was that he was not being held accountable specifically for broadcasting shame, but rather for an entirely different controversy. In March 2018, he posted a video on his YouTube channel titled, “SHE SHOULD NOT HAVE PLAYED WITH FIRE!” which depicted a group of underage girls drinking and socializing with his group. At the end of this video, two of the girls were seen entering his friend Dom Zeglaitis' room and engaging in a threesome. Viewers took no offense to this video, as comments were filled with positive reinforcement of how funny the event was. Shame was not faced by him until an article was posted on Business Insider, featuring the events told by the girl who was involved in the threesome. She stated that she was overserved alcohol and was then raped by member Dom, calling for accountability towards Dobrik for filming and then posting the video online. She issued a fake name to the press, out of fear of being stigmatized for coming forward against such a powerful man. Stigmatization involves being unable to find employment or housing due to one’s image, and she was afraid this would happen to her, especially against someone seen as an elitist with more power.
His actions of filming drunk girls and allowing this to happen was called into action, and deemed as socially unacceptable. With society demanding for accountability, Dobrik released an apology video. As mentioned by Oravec, the act of shaming can strive people to avoid humiliation and loss of reputation, meaning ‘bad’ behaviors are avoided even if they are beneficial. We can see Dobrik attempting to avoid further bad behavior by not sharing much information on the case. Sharing his side could be extremely beneficial to himself, but it can bring upon more shame of being seen as not accepting accountability. This video only happened to be two minutes long in full, and was posted on his least popular channel. Viewers were quick to point out how he never actually apologized, and this sparked an uproar in hate.
Effectiveness of Holding Powerful People Accountable
There have been numerous efforts to hold Dobrik accountable for his actions. The only time Dobrik’s public shaming was effective was when the Business Insider article was released, as institutions no longer wanted to support him.
In response to this, YouTube demonetized his content. Demonetization refers to YouTube withholding a creator from the YouTube Partner Program, which is the ad revenue-sharing arrangement (Caplan et Gillespie, 2020). YouTube is known for its practice of sharing advertising revenue with creators, so as much as it can be shared it can be withheld. When a video is demonetized, it is seen as a penalty for violating YouTube guidelines for posting non-advertiser-friendly content. So while a video can remain on the site, the ad revenue is halted (Caplan et Gillespie, 2020). Dispo, the application he created, also issued a statement of their support towards his departure as they stated their values on his controversy did not align.
YouTube and Dispo’s decision to do this was emphasized by the social ‘cancellation’ of Dobrik, as their association with featuring and holding him accountable for violation was called into question. Canceled in this context will be referred to as Doctor Clark’s example, an expression of agency where one no longer wishes to give their presence, time, or money due to values or actions that are deemed too offensive (Clark, 2020). With the expansiveness of the internet, acts of canceling can be found within online harassment as an approach to demand accountability in these digital spaces.
The origin of cancel culture stems from a desire to establish a meaningful sense of accountability for public figures who often are answerable to no one (Romano, 2021). This idea of being answerable to no one relates to the important dynamics of the power struggles taking place on social media platforms (Lewis et Christin, 2022). Cultural conflict is often the struggle to maintain or achieve the power to define reality, and this calls into question the effectiveness of social versus institutional power (Lewis et Christin, 2022). By not aligning with the institutional norms, YouTube has the power to make widespread policy decisions to impact Dobrik’s life, such as holding ad revenue. This brings further effectiveness in accountability as this institution holds more power over his identity than former members who have spoken out. He holds more power and class than the vlog squad members, allowing him to be more in the public sphere of elitists. But, YouTube and other institutions are higher up in this hierarchy of power, so he will be much more widely affected by their decisions. With YouTube also setting this standard in the public sphere, numerous sponsors decided to de-affiliate with his name.
Commodification of Shame
Shame in these videos is not just exploited for financial gain but is transformed into a marketable entity. A commodification of shame involving public humiliation has become the culture in these videos, as a large profit is made doing so. Reflecting on a term coined by historian Nicolaus Mills, we can see a culture of humiliation within these videos. This culture not only encourages further humiliation but rewards those who humiliate others, which would be Dobrik. By attaching more and more humiliation onto the identity of his ‘characters’ he is able to continue gaining views and profit. This commodification also allows for stereotypes of these characters to be reinforced and perpetuates aspects of “othering” for those experiencing shame. Othering is termed as witnessing others who have violated social conduct and treating and perceiving them as fundamentally different than oneself (Hirdman, 2016). While these characters were not excluded from the group for their stereotyped identities, they still hold aspects of othering due to being dehumanized for their perceived identities.
With his cancellation online, numerous videos were released to provide coverage of the event as well as call out the past behavior of eliciting shame onto his friends. There is a large commercial dimension to the commodification of these videos, as significant advertising revenue results in a large profit for these creators (Lewis et Christin, 2022). This form of bandwagon hate can create an incredibly toxic mindset for the individual being shamed but can be seen as necessary for accountability. With this commodification of shame towards his name, institutions choose to distance themselves as a commodification of tabloid media expressed his values as unacceptable, and could tie them into sharing these same outlooks (Lewis et Christin, 2022).
We can see throughout this case that enforcing norms online relates to power dynamics that can control the public sphere. Those considered elitists or institutions hold the power to convey policy decisions that can impact a creator online, and hold the chances of sparking a larger debate on individuals' actions and values. The act of “cancellation” can often only be effective when payment is lost or damage to a reputation is exemplified, as seen in the numerous attempts from other members calling for his accountability and failing at achieving. The actions of his previous shaming tactics were not brought to light until he was held accountable on an institutional level, due solely to class and power.
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