Cancellation culture: who and why "erases" celebrities

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Sometimes one careless tweet is enough to lose reputation and popular love.

What is a cancellation culture

In early June 2020, the writer J. K. Rowling, who created Harry Potter, tweeted an article about humanitarian assistance to victims of the COVID-19 pandemic. The article said that it is important for women from poor regions to have access to hygiene products during menstruation. Only instead of the word "women" the author of the text used the expression "menstruating people". Obviously, implying that trans men also have periods, and some women, for various reasons, do not.

Rowling accompanied her repost with a scathing comment: “People who menstruate. I'm sure there was a word for it before. Help me remember. Zhinshin? Joynschiny? Junishi?"

‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?

A little later, she clarified her position and wrote that she respects trans people, but is against denying the biological gender and depreciating the female experience.

After that, a portal to hell literally opened: a storm of criticism, indignation and hatred fell on the writer, insults and threats fell on her. Transgender people, non-binary people, and women who do not have menstruation wrote to Rowling that she was wrong and that not everyone who has periods is women. But this was not the end of it.

• Harry Potter stars Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe publicly denounced Daniel Radcliffe's response to Joanne Rowling the writer.
• Major Harry Potter fan sites have announced Harry Potter fan sites distance themselves from JK Rowling over transgender rights that they will no longer publish information about Rowling.
• Her handprints in Edinburgh doused JK Rowling's golden handprints in Edinburgh vandalised with red paint and trans Pride flag with red paint.
• People began to paint over the author's name on the covers of Joan's books.
• US sales of Harry Potter plummet J. K. Rowling's Book Sales Lagging Despite Industry Boom in June.

The hateful posts on social networks were accompanied by the hashtag #jkrowlingiscancelled: "JK Rowling canceled."

In fact, this is exactly what happened to the writer - she became one of the most famous victims of the culture of abolition. That is, a phenomenon in which people, especially media persons, are literally erased from the information space and public life for controversial statements and actions.

A “canceled” person can lose his career, money, respect. Sometimes you need to do something really serious to do this, and sometimes it is enough to write a careless tweet.

In 2018, comedian Kevin Hart refused to host the Academy Awards after being bullied A Complete Timeline of Kevin Hart's Oscar-Hosting Controversy, From Tweets to Apologies for homophobic tweets from a decade ago.

In June 2020, Jenna Marbles, one of the first YouTube bloggers to run the channel since 2010 and amass 20 million passionate subscribers, announced YouTube Legend Jenna Marbles Says She's Done With Her Channel that she was leaving the platform amid persecution for old videos where she parodies people of African American and Asian descent.

The most striking example of how a cancellation culture works is perhaps the story of Harvey Weinstein. There are also known cases of other celebrities accused of sexual harassment and violence. Following the #MeToo campaign, Weinstein lost his career, money, family, health, and ultimately freedom. Although putting him on a par with other "canceled" celebrities does not seem entirely correct: nevertheless, he committed a real crime, and did not speak incorrectly on Twitter.

Does a cancellation culture work in Russia

Our reputation institution is underdeveloped. If a person is rich, famous and has connections, careless statements, and sometimes more serious "offenses" will not make him shake hands.

The first significant precedent that shook the familiar picture is the recent story of Regina Todorenko. During the interview, the presenter does not understand women who publicly talk about their experiences of domestic violence. "What did you do to prevent him from hitting you?" - Todorenko was indignant.

This statement caused a real explosion on social media. The wave of indignation gained such strength that several brands broke advertising contracts with Regina, and Glamor magazine deprived her of the Woman of the Year award.

In 2018, Ivan Kolpakov, the editor-in-chief of Meduza, will be "canceled". He molested his colleague's wife at a party, and when it became known, he was hated on social networks - and Kolpakov resigned. However, when the hype died down, he returned to the editorial office.

The presenter Ksenia Sobchak also fell under the "cancellation" rink: Audi has an advertising contract with her after her racist posts on Instagram. Ksenia first, that the essence of the Black Lives Matter movement is that those who could not succeed want to destroy rich people and other people's private property. And then laid out a video about Blm under the song "killed Negro". It was later revealed that Sobchak did this as part of the Comment Out show, in which she participated. The post has now been deleted.

In the Russian-speaking segment of Facebook, local scandals periodically erupt: a person or brand is accused of sexism, discrimination, rude attitude towards customers, they write angry comments, and the rating is brought down. But, as a rule, after a couple of weeks, the indignation subside and the story is forgotten.

What's wrong with the cancellation culture

We can say that this phenomenon grew out of the institution of reputation, but in the end it completely got out of control. On the one hand, the media personality has a double responsibility for words and deeds: thousands, and sometimes millions of people look at her, and her statements affect the situation in society. On the other hand, the culture of cancellation is now too chaotic and ruthless.

Punishment is often not symmetrical to the crime

What is happening with J. K. Rowling shows this perfectly. The writer expressed her opinion without offending or humiliating anyone, and several times explained her position in detail, calmly and reasonedly. She emphasized that she respects the LGBT community, but her views on gender and gender are the result of her experience, and she is not going to give them up.

Nevertheless, Rowling loses money, friends and continues to receive tons of hate in his address.

Or here's another story. Taylor Swift didn't like the fact that rapper Kanye West mentioned her in an offensive way in his track. There was a conflict between the singer, rapper and his wife Kim Kardashian, in which fans from both sides actively joined. A lot of negativity fell on Taylor, who did not say anything bad at all: she was accused of allegedly knowing the words of West's song in advance and did not mind. Harassment began, the hashtag #TaylorSwiftIsCanceled even appeared on the Web. It all ended, fortunately, well: no one was "canceled", and Taylor even laughed at the attacks of the Kardashians in one of her videos (she veiledly called the singer a snake, and in the video Swift appeared in the form of the queen of snakes).

Moreover, the culture of abolition is one size fits all wrong. For her, it seems like there is no difference what the accused did: he spoke inconveniently on Twitter, like Rowling, or raped women, like Weinstein. Yes, in the second case, the person received not only tons of hate, but also a prison sentence. But the rage of the crowd in these two situations turns out to be approximately symmetrical: they want to “get rid of” Rowling just as much.

Cancellation has no statute of limitations

Jenne Marbles, who closed her YouTube channel, unable to cope with the bullying, suddenly recalled the "racist" videos ten years ago: in 2011, the artist, smeared with self-tanning, parodied African-American singer Nicki Minaj.

Presenter Jimmy Fallon found himself in a similar situation - he was "canceled" for "blackface", which he showed in a sketch of 2010.

The Walt Disney Company canceled its contract with "Guardians of the Galaxy" director James Gunn due to his offending tweets, which he also posted 10 years ago. However, later he was "pardoned" and he was able to return to the director's chair.

The main problem is that during such a period a person could repeatedly reconsider his views and even repent of what was once done and said. But the Internet remembers everything, and it turns out that the media personality has no right to make a mistake at all.

The cancellation culture works selectively

Some are "canceled" almost instantly, while others get away with it.

Regina Todorenko, because of her words, lost part of her income and the title of "Women of the Year". At the same time, no one has yet deprived of titles and awards, for example, Marat Basharov, who does not hide the fact that he beat his wives. A petition has appeared on the Web, which calls for the withdrawal of the State Prize of the Russian Federation and the title of Honored Artist of Tatarstan from the actor. It was signed by 80 thousand people, but Basharov's regalia remained the same.

Natalya Sokolova lost her post as Minister of Employment, Labor and Migration of the Saratov Region, after she said that 3,000 rubles is enough for life, and "macaros always cost the same." At the same time, the deputy Ilya Gaffner, after a similar statement - he offered people to eat less, - remained in his chair.

There are many such examples. And it is often completely impossible to predict who will be crushed by the machine of public condemnation, and who will be patted a little - and left alone.

"Cancellation" of a person does not cancel the harm done to him

Here is a certain celebrity wrote on her social networks that homosexuals are bad people or women themselves are to blame for being beaten. This offended many, the statement became a stone that shook the bowl of mutual enmity and intolerance. But from the fact that the culprit will be boycotted and sowed with mud, his words will not evaporate, and there will not be less hatred in the world. On the contrary, a quote that no one really noticed 10 years ago will now be copied by all the media and bloggers, so it will offend people again and again.

The crowd could be wrong

In 2017, several men accused actor Kevin Spacey of sexual harassment. This cost him his career: contracts were broken with him, scenes with his participation were cut from films already in production. True, no one has provided any clear evidence of Spacey's guilt. Only one incident involving an 18-year-old boy reached trial. But the court dropped all charges against the actor.

There are no rules

The punishment of the "guilty" should not be spontaneous. It would not hurt to have a code or a regulation, where it would be spelled out what can be said and what not and what punitive measures are provided for a violation. But such a set of rules, for obvious reasons, does not exist: in fact, it would legalize censorship and punishment for thought-crimes. Therefore, a celebrity can "cancel" out of the blue.

If a group of people does not like someone's statement or deed, they try to "erase" the person. It does not matter at all how much this or that phrase actually hurts or insults someone. Thus, the culture of cancellation turns into terrorism and an instrument of manipulation: sit quietly, say what we want to hear, and then maybe they will not "erase" you.

Rowling recently signed an open letter with hundreds of other intellectuals against the culture of abolition. Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, Francis Fukuyama and Garry Kasparov are also among the signers. Like everyone else, they are worried that this practice leads to censorship.

Editors are kicked out for controversial publications, books are seized for alleged inaccuracy, journalists are prohibited from writing on certain topics, professors are checked for citing literary works in lectures, a scientist is fired for distributing peer-reviewed academic research, and heads of organizations are removed from their posts because of ridiculous oversights.

Letter of Justice and Freedom of Discussion

Do we need a cancellation culture at all

Society only develops mechanisms that would make influencers accountable for what they say and do. The culture of cancellation as it stands today is a dubious decision that doesn't really help anyone.

His critics honestly and respectfully express their dissatisfaction with this or that action, not "erase" people, but give them the opportunity to explain their position or apologize and correct the mistake.

To defeat "bad ideas", you need to expose them, convince those who express them, and not try to pretend that these ideas do not exist. We reject in any form the false choice between justice and freedom, because one does not exist without the other.

Letter of Justice and Freedom of Discussion

Perhaps an adequate example of the institution of the reputation of a healthy person can be considered the case of Regina Todorenko. The presenter not only recorded a video with an apology, but also filmed about domestic violence and donated two million rubles to the Violence.net fund. It all ended very well: the audience of Todorenko's Instagram account grew by 400,000 subscribers after the scandal.

In other words, the person said a dangerous and cruel nonsense, received a flurry of condemnation, reconsidered his position, apologized and made an effort to make amends. Yes, there are still a lot of dissatisfied people left. Some commentators and bloggers questioned the sincerity of the presenter and convinced that she had not changed her views, but tried to quickly clean herself up under the guidance of competent PR specialists. But in this case, the result is important: what exactly makes a media person public and how it affects the mood in society.

This practice could be useful to other celebrities who find themselves in the epicenter of scandals: do not keep silent and do not snap back, but apologize and try to rectify the situation.