In Ancient Rome, crowds used a simple technique to decide the fate of the losers of gladiatorial fights. Thumbs up, they lived. Thumbs down, they died. Shocking, right? Social media gives us a similar platform for convenient condemnation today, where we have the power to cancel a celebrity’s career in seconds. All it takes is a click of a button to tweet “#cancel,” and your voice becomes part of an unceasing virtual mob.
‘Cancel Culture’ holds public figures accountable for their offensive actions. In 2018, the world ‘cancelled’ actress Roseanne Barr as a result of a series of racist tweets she posted. She was subsequently removed from her own television show on ABC, and she still hasn’t been able to revive her career. In her own words, being cancelled “cost (her) everything.”
However, many argue that cancelling culture is simply a performative stunt that has little real-life implications. In 2018, comedian Louis CK was ‘cancelled’ after he admitted that the sexual harassment allegations made about him were true. However, in two month’s time, he was back on stage cracking jokes about engaging in inappropriate actions in front of women without their consent. Many attribute his immunity to his white male privilege.
In the cases mentioned above, the celebrities were ‘cancelled’ over extremely serious allegations. However, ‘cancel culture’ is becoming increasingly pretentious, as it is branching out from condemning people who do irrevocable harm, to bashing anyone with isn’t “morally pure.” In 2016, Taylor Swift was cancelled over a doctored phone conversation that showed her lying to Kanye West. Her cancellation was one of the most famous ones of all time, albeit over an insignificant offence.
While the tangible consequences of ‘cancelling culture’ may vary in their seriousness, there is no underestimating the psychological damage it does. “When you say someone is cancelled, it’s not a TV show. It’s a human being,” Swift told US Vogue. Admittedly, ‘cancelling culture’ is not concerned with forgiveness, progress, or learning from mistakes. “It is an apocalyptic culture that is not interested in wounded hearts. It wants to destroy, not heal. It wants retribution for moral impurities,” says psychologist Dr. Pamela B. Paresky.
Since celebrities have a profound influence on their impressionable fans, it is imperative that they are held responsible for their actions. When it comes to punishing unacceptable behavior such as racism, sexism etc., ‘cancel culture’ seems completely appropriate. However, we must be more sensitive toward the reasons why we choose to cancel people. While we need to be careful about what happens, we should cancel our attitude of moral superiority that causes us to cancel celebrities for their human slip-ups.
