TikTok’s Revenge Against ”Mean Girls”: The Selena Gomez Effect

tiktok!!

What does our obsession with violent retribution say about us?

If you or someone you know is being bullied, please check out these resources below!
https://www.stopbullying.gov/
https://www.learningforjustice.org/topics/bullying-bias

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Hi! I’m Shaniya but I use the moniker Shanspeare on Youtube. I’m 24, use they/them pronouns, and love all things pop culture! My channel has a lot going on: think Shakespeare meets Baz Luhrmann meets insufferable jester in a relevant but silly costume. I have a bachelor’s in English Professional Writing (and basically Literary Analysis–long story) which aids me in the creation of my content. Above all, I wish to emphasize teachability and critical engagement through a fun lens.

Sources:
1. Karl Wehmhoener, ” Social norm or social harm: An exploratory study of Internet vigilantism.” https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/3ecf8068-df0f-4cd8-ac9b-e8ce451116b5/content
2. Paul Ziel, “Eighteenth Century Public Humiliation Penalties in Twenty-First Century America: The “Shameful” Return of “Scarlet Letter” Punishments in U.S. v. Gementera.” https://web.archive.org/web/20140513195408/http://www.law2.byu.edu/jpl/papers/v19n2_Paul_Ziel.pdf

Videos Used:
Subway Surfers Game Play: https://youtu.be/ChBg4aowzX8
Slime ASMR: https://youtu.be/YAZOCtLMNmI

timestamps:
0:00 Revenge Intro
5:38 Revenge in Wuthering Heights
8:41 Other Instances of Revenge
9:35 The Selena Gomez Effect
19:22 “Mean Girl Energy” and Examples
28:27 Where Are We Going Wrong?
29:31 Interrogating Public Shame
50:39 Closing

Tags:
tiktok hailey bieber selena gomez cakegate video essay kylie jenner kylie cosmetics eyebrowgate kendall jenner hailey baldwin tik tokk

24 COMMENTS

María Andreina García

usually the internet’s revenge against “mean girls” is far worse than what said mean girls did in the first place

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M Fuentes

I feel like lot of this type of ‘drama’ could be avoided if fans/stans stopped reading into surface level situations and having celebrities ‘comment’ on the drama as well because it just adds more fuel to the dumpster fire.

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M Fuentes

The amount of videos I’ve seen claiming that Hailey is/was a stalker of Selena and Justin is low key making my brain rot. I’m not a supporter or fan of either side, but it’s really ironic to me how stans/fans forget how they all acted in their adolescence when it came to worshiping their own celebrity idols. Her actions seem harmless compared to what I’ve seen other people do and since she came from a wealthy/famous family, she had more direct accessibility to form a relationship with him.

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D

the whole drama shows how bad parasocial relationships have become as a result of social media. there’s no way you should have so much venom in your heart to be sending death threats to any public figure, no matter what you’ve heard about them. It makes you a bully as well. reminds me of those girls on tt who got doxxed and fired because they mocked this girl and it was caught on camera.

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death of a beebo

Those recent cases are yet again another case of the internet’s incurable allergy to nuance and never ending to be part of something – even if that something is bullying people in name of.. antibullying. Open comments sections and social media platforms make people forget it’s not their job to be other people’s karma.

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Li Speaks

this video brings up so many good points. i’ve come to refer to the people who engage in these bullying campaigns as “opportunistic bad people.” they see themselves as too morally upright to attack someone unprovoked, but when they decide they’ve been provoked, they’ll give themselves an unlimited pass to be as cruel as they want and convince themselves they’re in the right for acting this way.

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CC Black

The subway surfer clips drawing my attention back to you from my second screen had me in tears. Well played.

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moonxliqht

i think it’s absolutely insane that people would dox someone for being mean. yes, it was rude, but it wasn’t the end of the world. their lives are forever ruined because they were mean once? even the person who posted the video said this has gone WAY too far. this is disgusting.

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ruby dearest

I don’t care what anyone says doxxing is definitely a line that shouldn’t be crossed. You could get that person literally killed and half the time the internet doesn’t have the full story so everyone could be entirely wrong and put an Innocent person in danger bc they gave “mean girl energy” (which is so stupid) and an apology will never be enough for that.

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orchidweaver

The saddest part about this phenomenon is that people get so defensive and feel so self-righteous when you tell them to relax their vigilantism – so it feels like they’ll never understand any of this 😭

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Twiggle Downtown

Also history is repeating itself like Taylor VS Kim, Britney VS Christina, and Hilary VS Lindsay.

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Just someone

I think people are seeing Hailey and her friends as mean girls because they’re women who come from a wealthy background and praised for their unattainable beauty, which reminds us of the mean girls(popular girls) we experienced growing up with their drive to their popularity being their beauty, which made their bad behavior more acceptable. I think a lot of people in school growing up didn’t have the influence to actually speak against the mean girls, so it feels satisfying for people because now they can finally speak against “mean girls” through the internet. Selena Gomez could easily get away with her bad behavior(actively fueling the fire to the Hailey hate and writing unnecessary comments under hateful videos about Justin or Hailey often praising the user) because she didn’t necessarily come from a wealthy background but also for a lot of people the Selena they remember is the Disney channel Selena, but any body can be a mean girl, even if they don’t fit the stereotype.

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kikii x

I’ve always said that we can’t just dog pile on someone when they do bad. 9 times out of 10 they will double down, and go complete Joker. Public shaming and dog piling doesn’t leave room for a defensive person to learn and grow and actually facilitate change. And the majority of us are defensive in this world- it’s a mode of survival.

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mal!

i always found it ironic how fans respond to bullying allegations … with more bullying? dog pilling on top of one woman dubbed the internets villain with little to no reason, other than a string of seemingly shady videos all in the name of internet justice just seems like an excuse for twt and tt users to have their own mean girl moment.

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sleepyinsomniac

How did people go from shitting on influencers who film random people without their consent, to doxxing and wishing death upon random people who unwillingly got caught in an influencer’s video and clowned her for it….

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Abrielle Wright

Trying to fight bullying with even worse bullying is so weird but unfortunately matches the maturity of so many people on the internet.

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Aquatic Sausage

I can’t with the grown adults justifying these witch hunts with the “I have two school aged daughters” bullshit lol. From one parent to another, stop using your kids as an excuse to publicly flog strangers on tiktok.

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Atlas Industries

Something I found especially wild about the fiasco around Jackie and those two girls was the fact that like….it didn’t even stop with the two college girls getting doxxed and whatnot. People came after their FAMILY MEMBERS and their partners and it’s like???? Is this justice? Is coming after this college girls AUNT somehow “justice” for Jackie???

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Taylor Bennett

It’s unfortunate that we can’t call out bad behavior without attacking one’s appearance or livelihood. It’s almost better to just NOT say anything as to not contribute to the public witch hunt.

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katrina a

while I don’t think the girls in the stands were nice, it’s kind of weird for the picture taking girl to go to a public place and just use random people as background props for her photo shoot. I was surprised everyone defended her but people think it’s their right to post photos of strangers on the internet.

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bj

these people on tiktok are actually evil. doxxing someone is ten billion times worse than being rude at a baseball game.

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Eric Carabetta

I wish all these “mean girls”, could direct their energy for vigilante justice, towards the billionaires and CEOs that are running the country into the ground for personal profit.

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Katie Bailey

I do wish we’d put some of the energy we put into punishing ‘mean girls’ to harassing the billionaires who control our country.

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