Also referred to as "call out culture", cancel culture is the latest term to describe what this generation has been about.
With fame and fortune comes recognition in the media and public. Politicians, celebrities, athletes, and others whose lives are always on show, are judged constantly. Looks, actions, lifestyle choices, they're judged on it all, but above all else is their words. The comments of all kinds of well known people are torn apart when they do not align with the views of their followers. Some comments, have even ended careers.
Cancel culture can be described by Cambridge dictionary as, "a way of behaving in a society or group, especially on social media, in which it is common to completely reject and stop supporting someone because they have said or done something that offends you."
It's always been around
Cancel culture revolves around the idea that someone should be cancelled because the vast majority does not agree with he or she. For as long as humans have been around there have been disagreements and varying opinions. With that being said, forms of what we now know as cancel culture have actually been around since the beginning.
An article I looked at compared cancel culture ideas to what happened in the Salem witch trials. It also compared cancel culture to the Red Scare, a time when people feared their individualism would be stripped of them. Their fight back for freedom and their values was termed a postwar counterculture.
Recent Cancel Culture takeovers
In recent years, we have seen public figures like J.K. Rowling, James Charles, and Michael Jackson face the threat of being "cancelled". J.K. Rowling, famous author of the Harry Potter book series, recieved backlash after she made comments that the recent transgender rights movement may distract from the ongoing women's rights movement. And to make things worse, she supported her claims by making more comments against cancel culture and what they do.
James Charles, 19 years old at the time, built an empire around his makeup career through blogs, videos, makeup lines and more. But it was when he posted a promotion picture on Instagram that he lost about 6 million subscribers on Youtube in a day. Charles promoted a brand of gummy vitamins for hair growth, a brand that was in direct competition with someone he claimed to have modeled his career after, Tati Westbrook. Westbrook voiced how she had been having issues with Charles' attitude, claiming he had been rude and inconsiderate in previous encounters, but this was her final straw.
Now, even after his death, Michael Jackson is facing new allegations of sexual misconduct after a documentary examines claims against him. no family was interviewed in the documentary, but this is not Jackson's first alleged action of sexual misconduct.
As seen by the examples above, in recent years celebrities and public figures face backlash from people through a screen. However, cancel culture does not just seek out individuals with controversial opinions, companies who have not made good impressions can also be "cancelled". Goya Foods was in turmoil when CEO Bob Unanue, in talking about the company's food donation plan for July, expressed that the company was blessed to have Trump as a president. As a company who calls themselves America's largest Hispanic-owned food company, it was unsettling to some that they were showing support for Trump, who has spoken out against immigrants from Latin America.
This new digital age allows information to travel, ending a person or company's career and reputation in a matter of minutes.
It's taken a whole new meaning
Cancel culture doesn't stop at people in the spotlight. Social media has the power to make a small town comment go viral. Recent advances in media have led to more information being available to the public. Social media, especially Twitter, causes information to spread like wildfire. Temptations to jump on the shaming bandwagon have become much easier when you are protected behind a screen, and it's someone else's livelihood being threatened. Is pointing out the flaws of others wrong if done behind the mask that is social media?
So is it good or bad?
At its basis, cancel culture has good intentions, ultimately a group or individual has said something objective or offensive that they are being brought to the surface for. Many have said that cancel culture is good because it shows power in freedom of voice. But in the same sense some say it can be bad because cancel culture does not allow for people to share an apology or learn from their mistakes. In 2019, Barack Obama warned that he got the sense some young people felt being as "judgmental as possible" was the best way to force change and cautioned them that the world was "messy" and full of "ambiguities". Whether you stand with cancel culture or against it, social media is here to stay. Below are steps you or your company can take to avoid being cancelled.
Steps you can take to avoid being cancelled
be careful weighing in on social or political issues
Watch how you use humor
Don't rely on influencers to save you
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