by Allison Lee
As long as you own a smartphone and haven’t been living under Patrick’s rock for the past decade, you probably know about the internet phenomenon known as cancel culture.
There are several definitions of this term floating around the net, but they all mean: A unanimous decision between a group of people to block a person from advancing in their career, be it through ostracization or deliberately rejecting their work. Celebrities are often the main target of cancel culture when a transgression of theirs is exposed, be it a sexual assault claim or homophobic statement.
Now, we know that trends like these manifest the fastest and spread the widest through social media. Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and more have provided everyone a chance to speak up, benefitting marginalized voices who previously have not had the chance to critique social happenings. This freedom of expression warrants every person’s opinion to be valid and Twitter has risen to be a prominent court of speech, proving to be the ideal hotbed for cancel culture to take flight.
Cancel culture started as calling out public figures for their egregious behaviors and slowly became weaponized against bigotry. In recent years, those who have been on the receiving end of this trend are Kevin Hart, R. Kelly, Kanye West, J.K. Rowling, Taylor Swift, James Charles, Louis C.K., and Harvey Weinstein, just to name a few.
Make no mistake, celebrities don’t get their reputations tarnished randomly out of Twitter users’ boredom. Among the names mentioned, some are alleged sexual predators, some are entertainers who have slid in racial jokes on their shows, and some just had out of the blue offensive moments that were unearthed by netizens.
Throughout the years, cancel culture has been viewed as an agency for everyday people to reprimand authorities or stars who have abused their platforms, putting those public figures at risk of a declining future.
The #MeToo era was a defining moment in this culture, made known by Harvey Weinstein who faced accusations of sexual misconduct by over 80 women and was later charged with predatory sexual assault. Netflix severed connections with Louis C.K. after the stand-up comedian admitted to masturbating in front of other female comedians. Michael Jackson was indicted on child molestation counts, Woody Allen was accused of sexual abuse, and Bill Cosby was found guilty of aggravated assault. These well-known names have been harassed and shamed on the internet (prominently Twitter) ever since their victims worked up the commendable courage to tell the truth, hence earning those victims the support of other users which ultimately led to the ‘cancellation’ of those mentioned.
Twitter users did more than just target figures who disrespected women. Author J.K. Rowling’s transphobic tweets have upset her fans so much that they claimed the Harry Potter series belongs to their readers, not the author; there are even videos of people painting over Rowling’s name on the books and replacing it with ‘Daniel Radcliffe’.
Racing back to 2016, Taylor Swift was hit with the bomb when Kim Kardashian released clips to contest Swift’s claim that Kanye West never told her about a provocative lyric in advance. The video showed West telling Swift about the lyric and Swift thanking him for the notice. Despite Swift’s defense, the hashtag #TaylorSwiftIsCanceled trended in no time and people flooded her Instagram comments with the snake emoji (which Swift later cleverly turned into a whole pop album). With four years in passing, the truth has surfaced to vindicate Swift, painting both Kanye and Kim as liars for the tailored video. Nevertheless, this is a prime example of how fast this internet culture works to erase somebody’s accomplishments.
Then, there are harmless instances where fans took it too far to cancel someone who never meant true mischief. Take, for example, when Beyoncé and Jay-Z attended the NBA finals courtside. A video posted by ESPN showed Nicole Curran (wife of Joseph Lacob who is the owner of the Golden State Warriors) leaning around Beyoncé to have a conversation with Jay-Z. Curran was canceled by Beyoncé’s fans for ‘disrespecting the queen’.
Many have argued that the rise of cancel culture has initiated necessary conversations and change and escalated complaints and charges regarding sexual assault, gender and racial discrimination, and more. We can also say that if it weren’t for the uncovering of these public figures’ wrongdoings, they would’ve continued to act the same way instead of being punished like everyday people do.
In recent cases, the death of George Floyd has spurred the ‘cancellation’ for businesses that discriminate against the black community and the four officers who were the cause of Floyd’s death. Had the social pressure not been this large-scaled, Derek Chauvin might still be roaming the streets freely and abusing his power as a police officer.
Despite news of officers who are accused of police brutality being prosecuted and sex offenders being put behind bars, how effective is cancel culture?
Even after the call-outs and ‘cancel parties’, most of the accused have managed to get away unscathed, with their careers shouldering only a small dent. Louis C.K. stumbled for a little before he returned to performing sold-out shows. R. Kelly and Michael Jackson’s music are still recipients of constant streams in spite of their sexual assault allegations.
Could it be that canceling someone actually does more good than harm to their career? Think about it: When #PersonIsOverParty or #PersonIsCanceled trends on Twitter, the craze spreads like wildfire to other platforms by angered mobs. The person being canceled is, in theory, receiving free publicity even though they’ve never asked for it. Just like mentioned in an article from our June issue, “Not only is there no such thing as bad publicity, bad publicity is often the very best publicity.”
While it’s great that Twitter and other social media platforms are amplifying the voices of minorities, this trend has grown horrifically effective and scary enough for us to beg the question: Is it fair to demolish someone’s life this way?
We can’t assume that Twitter users are equipped with all the knowledge and information they need to judge the accused; after all, nobody knows the truth better than the accused and the victim, so who are we to play justice and slam the gavel on someone’s future? How can we be certain beyond doubt that Beyoncé was genuinely mad at Nicole Curran and rushed to defend her when perhaps, in reality, Beyoncé didn’t need defending?
The danger of cancel culture is that it’s not limited to big-time celebrities and public figures anymore. There is no rule saying that we can only threaten to discontinue the careers of Billboard’s top 100 artists, Oscar winners and nominees, or government workers, so those undeserving of this vast amount of hate are on the receiving end too.
We need not look far for examples; TikTok star Lil Huddy (Chase Hudson) responded to cheating allegations by dragging other TikTok users down with him, a careless act that led to his ‘cancellation’. Many other influencers have faced the same issue, whether they’re from YouTube or TikTok; they devote their time and energy into creating content they believe in for their fans, and one little misstep could cost them their entire future. These are young adults we’re talking about, people whose lives have barely started.
As Taylor Swift said in a Vogue interview: “When you say someone is canceled, it’s not a TV show – it’s a human being. You’re sending mass amounts of messaging to this person to either shut up, disappear, or it could also be perceived as, ‘kill yourself’.”
We all know how it feels to be singled out for our actions by one or two people, but we’re talking about tens of thousands or even millions of people attempting to pull the stops on someone’s future. That is a tremendous burden to take, and this culture partially stems from the fact that we hold public figures at a higher standard and expect them to radiate perfection all the time.
Instead of canceling someone out of an adrenaline rush, shouldn’t our aim be to educate them? When we cancel people and try to erase them from the internet be it through boycotting their services and products or unsubscribing from their channels, we are stripping away their second chance at repentance, at proving that they could grow into a better version of themselves.
Of course, this is meant only for mere stumbles, not matters as serious as sexual assault allegations, child molestation, or racial discrimination – those should be punished as the law sees fit.
From time to time, we have to step back collectively and put ourselves in the shoes of others. How would it feel to be written off? To be permanently shamed and have no shots at redemption?
Here’s some food for thought raised by Aja Romano, an internet culture reporter for Vox: Is cancel culture an important tool of social justice or an alternative form of merciless mob intimidation? If canceling someone rarely works, does cancel culture even exist? Or does the very idea of being canceled work to deter potentially unacceptable behavior?