Cancel culture, girlsplained.
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Dare to say the wrong thing, and you'll be on the verge of online cancellation.
Whoops! Watch out! Whatever you tweet, say, or even think will be thoroughly analyzed by your followers -and non-followers- to define how much noise they should make on your cancellation.
What does "being canceled" mean?
According to an online dictionary,"Cancel culture refers to the popular practice of withdrawing support for (canceling) public figures and companies after they have done or said something considered objectionable or offensive. Cancel culture is generally discussed as being performed on social media in the form of group shaming."
In other words, it's making a lot of noise around an inappropriate comment or behavior.
If you think about it, cancel culture is just the internet name for public shaming.
When I was in Middle School, you could "cancel" anyone just by saying a few magic words. I remember a particular story about a girl named Andreina. She was not popular, but she tried a lot. She used to help María Victoria, the most popular girl in my grade, with her homework. She tried to always be close to her.
But María Victoria didn't like her. Not even a little. As terrible as it sounds, she used her to get her homework ready, and that's it.
Andreína, on the other hand, thought they were friends. Until one day, María Victoria got bored and said the magic words, "Andreina has lice. She's gross and contagious."
María Victoria knew the influence she had, and she used it to publicly shame Andreina. She got "canceled" by the whole grade.
No one would talk to her because if you did, you risked getting canceled as well, and nobody wants to spend Middle School alone.
That's precisely how cancel culture works, but instead of it being in Middle School. It's on TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram.
Who has been canceled?
Hundreds of celebrities have been canceled in the last few years: J Balvin, Lana del Rey, Demi Lovato, Taylor Swift, Kanye West, Jimmy Fallon, Ellen DeGeneres, Jeffree Star, Vanessa Hudgens, R. Kelly, Ryan Adams, Michael Jackson, etc.
The list is endless.
Johnny Depp's cancellation is one of the first I remember. He had been accused of domestic abuse by his wife, Amber Heard. He was immediately canceled. Obviously, gender abuse is never right. No matter who you are.
I know what you're wondering. Some of the names I listed above are no longer canceled. Can you come back from a cancelation?
Yes, and you can also be canceled again.
That's the case of Doja Cat, a rapper who gained a lot of attention last year since her songs were viral on TikTok. She was canceled twice in 2020. "Once when she started beef with Nicki Minaj fans, and then again when she was allegedly made a racist comment on a video chat site." Reported web portal HITC.
How to know if a cancelation is forever?
There's nothing written - or I couldn't find it - about the severity of a cancelation. So I decided to make my own guidelines:
Soft cancelation:This one is more of an alert than an actual cancelation. This is the same as when your best friend gets mad at you because you didn't invite her to something. She's not really mad. She just wants to let you know that she wants to get invited next time. She's alerting you not to do it again.
For example, if an artist disrespects anyone from their team and it gets caught on camera. People will likely rant and start advising everyone to stop following them. They'd probably lose some followers, but nothing serious.
This can be fixed by them uploading a video apologizing genuinely. Also, it could all go away after a few weeks.
Medium cancelation: This one is more severe. Like when you begged your friend to go with you to an anthropological theatre experience, but you stood her up, and she had to watch two and a half hours of actors and actresses saying the same sentences in different tones. She might not talk to you for a few days.
For example, if a celebrity says a racist, misogynist, or xenophobic comment and doesn't apologizes or apologizes without understanding the actual problem. Celebrities can risk losing an important amount of followers and face thousands of hate comments.
For this to be fixed, they need to apologize and disappear for a few weeks from Social Media. Also, they can just wait for someone else to be canceled.
Extreme cancelation: This one is one of the toughest ones. This is the same as if you slept with your best friend's partner and she caught you in the moment. Does not fix quickly.
For example, if a celebrity gets abuse/rape allegations. This can cause artists to lose deals, followers, and millions of dollars in lawyers.
For this to be fixed, the allegations need to turn out as false. If they are true, they should apologize (won't mean anything but are still necessary) and disappear for a few years.
It's easier to die than to come back from this cancelation: This one applies to the grossest people on earth, such as Jeffrey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein, and their kind. There's no way to fix it. The only solution is jail.
In most cases, cancelation varies between the first two. Which means it's easier to recover from one. However, people will never forget what you were canceled for.
Also, depending on your work's quality, people might decide to separate the artist from the art and still consume your content.
The good, the bad, and the risks of cancel culture.
Cancelations are good to help others moderate their behavior, especially in relation to hot topics like racism, xenophobia, homophobia, misogyny, etc. I believe that's a great use of popular opinion and public shame.
If you say a racist comment, people will let you know why it's wrong, and you could either learn from it or be an asshole.
Cancelations are bad when people overuse them. In the end, artists, celebrities, and famous people are just people, and they're allowed to make mistakes. Putting so much pressure on them and asking them to be perfect all the time neglects the fact that they can also mess up. Also, it puts an insane amount of pressure on anyone with a medium to large social media presence.
Cancelations are also risky, especially when you don't have the complete information. This was the case of Johnny Depp. When he was canceled due to his wife's allegations, he lost a few movie deals, lost thousands of fans, and got cut out of Hollywood. Years later, it was proven that he was innocent, and it was Amber Heard's (his wife) the actually abusive one.
At the moment, it seemed like the right choice to cancel him, but that's a risk that comes with this culture.
However, I don't know about you, but I rather live in a world where bad and offensive behaviors are called out and punished - even if just online - than in a society where people let those things pass.
Look at all the things you learned today:
Cancel culture is the internet term for public shaming.
Endless celebrities had been canceled since the concept caught on.
You can get canceled more than once.
Doja Cat got canceled twice last year.
There are different levels to a cancelation.
Celebrities are safe if they were canceled in a soft or medium way. Coming back from an extreme is almost impossible.
Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein will be canceled forever.
Cancel culture is good to teach all of us to be better people.
It's bad when people overuse cancelations.
The risk of canceling people is that you might be mistaken.
Thanks for reading. I hope you learned something. If so, please recommend it, leave a comment if you want me to explain any particular topic, or buy me a beer if you truly enjoyed it.
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