On apps such as TikTok, it’s extremely important to be self-aware and know your target audience. If not, one controversial video can lead to the internet harassing, bullying, and doxxing you.
You might have seen random edits of a middle-aged woman with brown hair, fair skin, and blue eyes on your TikTok ‘For You’ page. Some videos feature “The Brisket Song,” or AI-generated music with lyrics about the woman. This woman is Ashley Caselman, also known as “Mama Owl” on TikTok.
A Mama Owl backstory
Mama Owl is a TikTok creator who amassed over 2.4 million views on her main page @mathmanx. Alongside her career as a middle school math teacher, Mama Owl gained popularity in 2021 with her storytime skit videos about school life. In her videos, she reenacts stories that have been submitted by her audience. Her stories range from heartfelt, empowering anecdotes and funny comedic skits to traumatic events.
In these videos, she plays every role, with many of the characters being children. In addition to her skit videos, Mama Owl also posts commentary content and streams live on TikTok to share her opinions with fans. Her content is boundary-pushing, and many people praise her for spreading awareness on issues like abuse and bullying.
However, many people also heavily criticize her content as well, claiming that her portrayal of children enduring traumatic events is inappropriate and exploitative. Some also think posting such content is particularly unacceptable for a teacher. Users have voiced concerns for the safety of her children and students due to her frequent posting.
The “Brisket Song” incident
In August 2023, Mama Owl posted a now-deleted video where she reenacted a trans student being sexually assaulted by a substitute teacher in graphic detail. The video contained an in-depth trigger warning at the beginning to let viewers know that the video addresses serious subject matter. In the video, the substitute teacher tells the trans student, “You’re going to pay your penance now,” before enacting the assault in graphic detail.
As the video began to circulate, numerous viewers found it disturbing and odd. Soon enough, a plethora of memes arose. Impersonation accounts began to appear, taking photos and clips of Mama Owl and editing them in a comical and satirical way. They would also spam the phrases “Hold on Mama Owl…𝓲𝓶 𝓰𝓮𝓽𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓪 𝓬𝓪𝓵𝓵” and “You’re going to pay your penance now.”
Mama Owl addressed the situation in a now-deleted 5-minute TikTok video. She blamed the widespread harassment on an isolated incident while she was live on TikTok. Caselman then showed a clip of her addressing spammers on live. She also claimed that talking about atheism led to widespread bullying due to her “mocking Christianity.”
Public opinion on the Mama Owl situation
The Mama Owl controversy is utterly dividing the Internet. One popular take is that Mama Owl needs to lighten up and not take the memes and jokes so seriously. After all, she is a public figure online and should expect this sort of reaction. Plus, the more users enjoying the memes and parody accounts, the more views she will amass.
There’s also a huge group of people who find the entire situation uncomfortable. The fact that Mama Owl went into great detail to reenact child sexual assault is highly unsettling, especially since she is making money from her TikTok page. TikTok user @Gunk wishes there were more boundaries set in Mama Owl’s content.
“I get wanting to share the story, but there should be boundaries when sharing stories of children.”
@gunk
The internet has a history of dogpiling content creators deemed to be “cringe.” For example, Chris Chan, an autistic internet personality, was bullied relentlessly on the internet for decades. They would then be sentenced to jail time for incest. More recently, TikTok user “Kuromiboy” has been made fun of for a video posted back in 2020. In the video, they donned a string of lights over their face as an accessory. Gabriel, a Gen Z Florida native, sees the Mama Owl situation as a reflection of this less-than-savory internet behavior.
“I wish I knew of a specific example, but it really reminds me of late 2010s trolling where people spammed the same amount of insults or trends when something goes down with a content creator.”
Gabriel
This dogpiling is essentially a tame form of “cancel culture.” Users, especially Gen Z and Gen Alpha, see the behavior as harmless, but it could quickly lead to illegal activities, such as stalking, assault, and theft.
Did Mama Owl deserve this?
This week, Mama Owl’s TikTok page was banned. She made an alt account explaining the situation to her fans and stating that the trolls mass-reported her account. Mama Owl is fighting to regain access to her account, yet people are still flooding the comments with harassment. Her address has also been leaked online, and she was fired from her teaching job. Did Mama Owl really deserve that level of harassment and bullying?
The “pay your penance” video is wildly inappropriate. While it may have been made with the honorable intention of spreading awareness, it was far too graphic, especially since it depicted the assault of an underage trans student. There is a moral dilemma when making content online about traumatic events involving minors. Mama Owl’s content feels exploitative in its discussion and reenactment of traumatic events.
However, doxxing and harassment are wrong, period. People have taken things too far and are now putting Mama Owl’s family and former students in danger. It is clear that she has made mistakes, but the people who are openly harassing her are equally guilty.
