“Cancel culture” has been weaponized by the court of public opinion in an attempt to hold wrongdoers accountable, yet ultimately fails to “cancel” anybody at all.
There have been numerous examples of celebrities being canceled throughout pop culture history, but in the end, these individuals resurrect themselves from the grave and brush off the dust from any scandal.
Cancel culture refers to the popular practice of withdrawing support for (or canceling) public figures and companies after they have done or said something considered objectionable or offensive, according to Dictionary.com.
Cancel culture has become such a big movement recently that it has entered political discourse. This seems to be a major theme with Republican party leaders including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz or Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley.
They talk about the “woke mob,” referring to liberals on the internet who cancel people. But who has actually fallen victim to cancel culture? Very few people, it seems.
Consider the case of Chris Brown, who pleaded guilty to the felony assault of his then girlfriend Rihanna in 2009, according to a June 23, 2009 CNN article.
Though the public turned on him initially, Brown continues to make music, having made nine studio albums and most of his singles receiving platinum status, according to the Recording Industry Association of America website.
Cancel culture has indeed failed if someone as vile as Chris Brown can rehabilitate his image so well that there’s a cheeky reference to his “controversial past” in the song “Freaky Friday” made in collaboration with rapper Lil’ Dicky.
The assault charges are so far in the pop culture rear-view mirror that most people have chosen to forget about them.
A more recent example is British TV host Piers Morgan, who left his job on Good Morning Britain after he made controversial comments about Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, according to a March 19 CNN Business article.
According to a March 12 post on his Instagram, Morgan believes he is the internet’s latest victim of cancel culture but doesn’t consider himself fully canceled, which sums up just how ineffective cancel culture actually is.
Sure, he’s currently jobless, but that could be attributed less to cancel culture and more to the fact that he walked out of his job on live television.
On the other hand, cancel culture has proven effective in exposing cases of sexual assault allegations against some powerful men.
The downfall for people including Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby, who’ve had the whole media turn on them, had less to do with cancel culture and more to do with the fact that they were actual criminals who got caught.
Both Weinstein and Cosby were found guilty in a court of law and are now convicted rapists who are only now paying for their crimes.
Although justice was served, the men were effectively canceled by the internet long before court charges stuck.
Another recent case is “The Mandalorian” actress Gina Carano, who was fired by Lucasfilm over posts in which, among other things, she compared Republicans to Jews in the Holocaust, according to a Feb 16. article in The Hollywood Reporter.
Though Carano had opportunities to apologize, she has not.
She bounced back fine and signed on to star in and direct a film with conservative media source The Daily Wire, according to a Feb. 12 article by the same news site.
J.K. Rowling, author of the “Harry Potter” series, has also come under fire for transphobic comments on Twitter.
Rowling has not faced lasting consequences and continues to collect more royalties than anyone can spend in one lifetime from “Harry Potter” books, movies and video games.
If cancel culture was the behemoth ruining careers left and right, as some have made it out to be, then it might be an issue.
But at best, it can call attention to some legitimately bad people and at worst, a really stupid thing to use as a scapegoat.
So who has cancel culture actually hurt? People found to have committed sexual assault.
Everyone else seems to get off scot-free. So much for being canceled.
