To Cancel or to not Cancel. Essay About Cancel Culture

Imagine you are a celebrity and you have worked your whole entire life to build up your career. You have made many personal sacrifices to make it where you are and you are finally at a point in your career where you are on top and then one day, you hear that you have been canceled. Your career is over. All your hard work was for nothing. It is likely that your favorite celebrity has been canceled. Some of the celebrities that have been canceled are Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato, Jimmy Fallon, and even Ellen DeGeneres. Cancel culture is the” phenomenon of promoting the “canceling” of people, brands and even shows and movies due to what some consider to be offensive or problematic remarks or ideologies” (Kato).  Cancel culture should change its ways of execution because it leads to personal attacks on celebrities, and it can also ruin opportunities for people, and it doesn’t allow people to have opinions and doesn’t give them an opportunity to grow and learn from their mistakes.

“She does crack why she laughing” (Saunders) This is one of the many comments that Demi Lovato received after posting a 21 Savage meme. The meme was about 21 Savage being British and possibly getting deported. Although, she was in the wrong for posting that. It is no reason to make fun of her drug addiction. Demi Lovato has overdosed on heroin in 2018, after six years of sobriety. She could have died and that is a serious situation, not something that should be ridiculed. Cancel culture can affect someone’s emotional health. They can become depressed. This would not be a good mental state for someone who has a drug addiction to be in. Instead of attacking her, we could have educated her on why what she did was wrong. This would be a more productive and will make a less toxic culture. Another example is when Ashley Judd posted a tweet about teams playing dirty in march madness. She is a big fan of the Kentucky Wildcats. There is nothing wrong with that because it’s her opinion, but she was slammed for it. Called a slut, whore, and even threatened with sexual violence. Later she tweeted “when I express a stout opinion during #marchmadness I am called a whore, c---, threatened with sexual violence. Not okay” (Scheff 94 ). This is very wrong. People should be able to have opinions without having to deal with this type of harassment.  If you disagree, provide a counter-argument with sufficient evidence, but there is no need to result to personal attacks.

Furthermore, cancel culture can ruin opportunities for people. An example is Kevin Hart with the Oscars. He had to step down because of a tweet he made in 2011. He tweeted “Yo if my son comes home & try’s 2 play with my daughters doll house I’m going 2 break it over his head & say n my voice ‘stop that’s gay’.” (Sutton). At the time, the tweet was made 7 years ago. This means someone brought it up with the intention to cause some type of destruction the Kevin’s life.   The Oscars gave him an ultimatum saying that he has to apologize or they will find someone else to host the Oscars. He chose not to apologize so he stepped down. He later said “I’m not going to continue to go back and tap into the days of old when I’ve moved on and I’m in a completely different space in my life.” (Sutton) This was something that he dreamed about doing and it is opportunity of a lifetime. He said when he was first offered the position “For years I have been asked if I would ever host the Oscars and my answer was always the same…I said that it would be the opportunity of a lifetime for me as a comedian and that it will happen when it’s suppose to” (Sutton). It’s not fair that A celebrity can lose everything they worked for because of a joke they tweeted years ago. Cancel culture shows us that no matter how small the mistake is, you won’t be able to reconcile. As a society we are quick to cancel but not to forgive. Everything that celebrities do is magnified and they will always have haters and people who are not looking out for their best interest. Another instance is Monica Lewinsky and the affair with Bill Clinton. Since then, she has never worked in politics again. Though what she did was wrong, she was young and new into politics. Someone should be able to make a mistake and their future shouldn’t be ruined. In addition to that, she was called a slut and other things.  In 2015 she did a Ted talk and said “When this happened to me seventeen years ago there was no name for it. Now we call it cyber bulling and online harassments” (Scheff 164) . Not many people would be able to handle that type of public humiliation. The point is, that someone career should not be ruined because of one mistake.

The number of mistakes a person can make in lifetime is countless unless you are a celebrity. You are also are not allowed to have an opinion if you are a celebrity. For example, J.K Rowling was cancelled for having an opinion on Transgenders. She tweeted “if sex isn’t real, there’s no same sex attraction. If sex isn’t real the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak truth” (Aviles and Sopelsa) For this, people wanted to boycott her books and wanted the publisher to stop paying royalties. Cancel culture creates a lack of respect and understanding of other people’s opinions. In cancel culture there is only one opinion, the opinion of the public. It takes away individuality of thoughts and opinions. Everyone should have a chance to learn and recover from the mistakes that they have made. Jimmy Fallon wasn’t given that chance. He was cancelled after a video resurfaced of him in blackface imitating Chris Rock. This is something he did early in his career when he wasn’t his own boss. Most likely it wasn’t his idea and he was just doing what he was told.  So, this shouldn’t come back to haunt him especially because he hasn’t done anything like that since then. He has clearly learned from it and saw that it was wrong. People can change and when they do change old shouldn’t be brought back up to degrade someone reputation.

In certain situations, cancel culture is appropriate. An example of this is a celebrity who has been accused of pedophilia or rape these would be valid reasons to no longer support them. Overall, people should educate and give the celebrity an opportunity to learn from their mistakes. Then if they repeat the action then you can cancel them, but it is important to give the opportunity to grow. Celebrities shouldn’t be cancelled for having an opinion though. It takes away individuality. It also creates a real toxic culture by not letting people express themselves. Unless, it is something radical for example, saying slavery should have never ended. There should be repercussions for that. 

As a society we need to band together and stop attacking each other. The world is so divided today because of politics and difference of opinions. At the end of the day, we are all human and we all bleed the same color. As a society we should have empathy and sympathy so that we can understand each other. In conclusion we should “cancel” cancel culture.