J.K. Rowling is one new addition to the group ‘Celebrity Casualties’ comprising of legion celebrities including Ellen DeGenres, Priyanka Chopra and Gal Gadot. In fact, in 2019 alone there were several celebrities who received the #RIP treatment like R. Kelly was accused of being a sexual predator; and comedians like Shane Gillis and Kevin Hart were recipients of public backlash as viewers condemned their racist and homophobic jokes.
Breaking down this online toxic trend.
Let’s break this concept with the help of an example: Gal Gadot asked her fellow celebrity friends to come along and sing John Lennon’s widely acclaimed song “Imagine” to lift up our spirits. Imagine extremely opulent celebrities, who we look up to, singing “Imagine no possessions” from their castle-like mansions. It sounds a little offensive, even down right deplorable for some. But is it right to destroy someone’s career or in popular terms ‘Canceling’ someone?
Cancel culture, in the most simplest terms, means barring or ‘canceling’ celebrities, shows or brands because some people find their ideologies problematic or offensive.
Despite what most people think as this trend being a more millennial thing, I personally feel that this has been there since a long time. Sure, this trend has gained more momentum in the past few years but that is only because of the fact that the number of outlets to raise our voices have also increased making our opinions more visible now. Cancel culture is a more modern form of the practice -‘banishment’, the roots of which have been present throughout the human history.
So is cancel culture a tool towards empowerment or just a mere herd mentality? Does ‘cancelling’ someone actually work?
Are we shutting down the opinions we don’t agree with?
Call-out culture arises when we are intolerant towards opposing views. Online shaming has now become a trend making it easier for people to dissolve complex issues in vessel full of sarcasm and hatred. We must realise that our words and actions have indelible consequences; so many editors lose their jobs because their opinions are considered ‘controversial’, journalists are asked to refrain from writing on certain issues, and shows are recipients of incessant backlash because a few clumsy mistakes.
Some crimes are just impossible to ignore, like when Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein were accused of sexual abuse and rape their careers were over and they were officially cancelled; or when Roseanne Bar had to cede her tv show because of the racist tweets she made. However, most of the celebrities do not suffer career setbacks, sure they transition into a panic mode but nothing else, at max they are termed as egregious but that’s about it. For instance, Jimmy Fallon soon became a victim to this trend after a video of him imitating Chris Rock surfaced on the internet. While people came together to destroy him, all their efforts went down the drain when they received opposition condemning Jimmy Fallon’s cancellation.
It all comes down to two issues-
A. How we treat others.
B. The indifferent attitude of powerful people towards their actions and its consequences.
Yes, some mistakes cannot be ignored and should be condemned at all costs, but at the same time we need to keep some room for forgiveness. Everybody makes mistakes, and it is startling that we as consumers of entertainment keep our opinions and egos above forgiveness, and atonement. As much as an empowering tool it is, let’s just give people some room to grow. It's high time we cancelled cancel culture.
Comments