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It’s Time to Cancel Cancel Culture
WRITTEN BY SARAH LI // ILLUSTRATED BY MADELINE INGRUM Cancel culture, it’s like that exboyfriend who only hits you up late at night, the bag of potato chips lying under the mountain of vegetables in your shopping cart, the open Netflix tab right next to your assignment that’s supposed to be due the next day. Whether you want to admit it or not, you can’t help but get sucked back into it, even though you know it’s not good for you. It seems as if someone new is getting canceled every week. Usually, the lifespan of a trend on the Internet is brief, but cancel culture has rapidly snowballed into a bigger issue. It doesn’t matter who you are, from A-list celebrities to your smalltown friend group, anyone can be a target of cancel culture. Cancel culture has become a gray area that can’t be defined anymore, which is why it’s become so dangerous. Though not a new concept, the term “cancel culture” was coined pretty recently. This social phenomenon has exploded within the past couple of years to “cancel” people, brands,
or even movies and TV shows for promoting or doing something offensive. However, there’s a fine line between canceling someone or something and actually holding said party accountable for their actions. Accountability is calling someone out for wrongdoing on their part and also allowing them to show growth and maturity through their apology (if there is one) and future actions. It works the same with TV shows, movies, and books, too. This past year, Netflix was put under fire when they released the award-winning French film, “Cuties.” The promotional poster, which depicted a group of pre-teen actresses showing a lot of skin with their backs arched, sparked a lot of controversy with the film crowd and other critics. The hashtags #CancelNetflix and #BoycottNetflix were soon trending on Twitter after people began calling out Netflix for releasing a movie that portrayed the sexualization of underage girls and the normalization of it. What cancel culture fails to do is
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allow people to take accountability for their actions. A virtual mob constantly attacking someone or something distracts everyone from having a productive conversation on how to reflect and apologize. In some cases, many people hop on the bandwagon and cancel someone for the sake of cancelling something. With cancel culture, it’s good to address the mistake, but there is a lack of education on the latter part. There is no chance given to learn from the mistake. However, we can’t help but feed into the drama. As soon as we see that hashtag trending on Twitter, it’s too late. We want to be constantly updated on who’s being canceled and their response to it all. The Internet has become a ruthless place to be if you have a platform at all. Twitter users have developed FBI-like skills in digging up old tweets and posts from a decade ago that would definitely be incriminating if someone were to tweet something like that today. It doesn’t matter how private you
