SHOULD ‘CANCEL CULTURE’ BE CANCELLED?
By Neha Saini
Ever since 2016, the concept of cancel culture has grown wildly out of control, being normalised as part of our everyday online reality.
The concept of cancel culture rests on the core principle that people should be held accountable for their actions, and alongside this comes a plethora of public humiliation. This has especially significant consequences for celebrities given their social status and influence they hold over a variety of audiences. I am certain we all know how it works by now: a celebrity will perform a disagreeable act or say something offensive, leading to a backlash on social media, giving them no choice but to acknowledge their actions. This inevitably leads to them being cancelled, tarnishing their career.
This may initially sound reasonable, but this is not always the case.
We tend to like to rephrase the words ‘cancel culture’ as ‘call-out culture’, as a form of encouraging people to be better human beings; but is this what really happens? The reality is that cancel culture is a breeding ground for suspicion and intolerance which causes far more harm than good.
One of the most significant issues of cancel culture is that the people who fall victim to cancel culture are often the ones who don’t deserve to be cancelled. Take the infamous case of Johnny Depp:
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When allegations surfaced about his supposed abuse towards his wife at the time, Amber Heard, the #JohnnyDeppIsOver was quick to spread over social media. Because of the vultures online, he was fired from his role as Jack Sparrow, and Warner Bros asked him to resign from the Harry Potter prequel franchise, Fantastic Beasts. It is rather unsurprising that this all happened before his trial had even begun.
After evidence was revealed suggesting that Amber Heard had abused Johnny Depp, online opinion swiftly change as the new trending hashtag became #JusticeforJohnny. However, this could not mend the damage caused from the years of being referred to as a ‘woman abuser’ and a ‘wife beater’ by the media.
There is a bitter irony in the concept of cancel culture. It is a movement that preaches accountability and yet it fails to practise what it preaches.
Unfortunately, the people who continue to exhibit problematic behaviour are the ones who don’t learn from their mistakes, simply because they don’t care. This means that they don’t let cancel culture affect them. And it is even more unfortunate, that the people like Johnny Depp, who are genuinely impacted by cancel culture, do care. Depp told his fans who defended him, ‘You saved me’. Online users have developed an unhealthy habit of taking rumour and hearsay and running with it to the point of no return.
People, including celebrities should be held accountable for their mistakes; however, flooding social media pages with uncivil comments will not achieve the desired outcome. People will instead feel threatened as they become apprehensive about offending someone. It should be a normality that people can have different views and opinions, and they should be able to talk about them in rational, productive ways. Everyone should feel that they can make mistakes without the threat of losing their jobs, friends and essentially their livelihood, provided that they learn from their wrongdoings.
Calling people out is justified for those who have deliberately hurt or discriminated against others. It can be an effective way to gain some form of social justice. However, cancel culture needs to be cancelled. It is not a way of ensuring that people are held accountable for their actions. It is a method of publicly shaming people, possibly ending their career before giving them a chance to explain themselves or change and learn from their mistakes. Cancel culture is unproductive, as it cultivates a fear closing off the opportunity for any real transformative change.
Sources:
http://www.thecourieronline.co.uk/the-complications-of-cancel-culture/