The Changes in Cancel Culture
When you hear the word exile, chances are your mind goes to ancient civilizations like Greece and Rome, or to outdated Shakespearean dramas. Whatever you think of, you probably don’t associate the word with the modern day. Not only has the practice of shunning someone from general society adapted to the present, it’s becoming increasingly prevalent. “Cancel culture” is a term popularized in 2017 that describes the general public ostracizing a celebrity or other high-profile individual for something unacceptable they’ve said or done, with the process mainly carried out through social media.
Its roots stem from the 90s, where the word “cancel” first started gaining traction as a slang term for expressing disapproval in hip-hop media. It didn’t see much revisitation until the early 2010s, where it resumed its use with the same meaning. Both the term and the phenomenon started to grow in popularity, alongside other trends of social media denouncement (like the much graver #MeToo movement). In 2017, it became truly widespread: one of the first notable examples being Harvey Weinstein, who faced extensive backlash from the public after the New York Times published his sexual harassment and assault allegations. After that came names we’re all familiar with: Ellen DeGeneres, whose cancellation resulted in the real cancellation of her hugely successful The Ellen Show; J.K. Rowling, author of Harry Potter, whose transphobic tweets earned her tremendous amounts of backlash from a formerly dedicated fanbase; Dave Chappelle, a popular comedian who was shamed for making discriminatory comments; the list goes on.
PC: Laya Balamurugan
Recently, there has been a shift in cancel culture. Not only does social media seek to spurn the celebrities who commit the wrongdoing, it includes the people who consume those celebrities’ media. At first it seems logical, and to a point, it is. It makes sense to cancel willful, intentional consumers of harmful or insensitive content. But cancel culture has reached a point where the everyday person is flooded with hate comments for a 30-second song choice from a musician that is supposedly “not a girl’s girl.” Critics jump on hate trains for the sake of appearing socially conscious and up-to-date.
But there’s something interesting to observe about the tightening noose of cancel culture; it stems not from malintent, but from helplessness. Teenagers and young adults are constantly overwhelmed on social media with news of crises taking place all over the world; it feels like there’s nothing they can do to fight or prevent these global-scale issues. The only control many young people have over their lives is what they choose to consume–so consumption in and of itself, as opposed to actual creation, has become a form of expression. Each and every individual’s expression on social media is scrutinized and judged for imperfections and political incorrectness. Cancel culture has gone from judging people for the noise they make to judging them for what they hear.