Is Cancel Culture Morally Just?
“I was in a not well state for many months. I had to deal with a lot at once, when I was 15. It was distressing.” This anonymous young student was considered to be canceled her sophomore year, and fell into an extreme depression. Not only was she ostracized for her actions but she also received threats from people at her school. This is one of many examples of what cancel culture means in a school setting, and how it can affect people for their entire life.
According to Vox’s “The second wave of “cancel culture” ”, the roots of cancel culture were first seen in Nile Rodgers’ song, “Your Love Is Canceled”, and then later again in an American film called, New Jack City (1991), which presented the idea of a whole person being canceled. Ultimately an episode of Love and Hip Hop: New York inspired the more frequent use of the term online — first by people on Black twitter and then eventually on mainstream media. Although cancel culture can be defined in many ways, it originated as a way to hold people accountable for their actions by bringing their homophobic, sexist, racist, or hateful behavior into a spotlight and boycotting them, especially on a worldwide scale. The act of canceling has frequently taken place online with many celebrities, but over time cancel culture has filtered into schools and small communities, harming many in the process. In a recent article, “What Students Are Saying About Cancel Culture, Friendly Celebrity Battles and Finding Escape,” Chloe B, a student at Miami Country Day School says that, “‘Cancel culture’ has created censorship on the internet insofar as not being able to have meaningful debates or conversations without the fear of being ‘wrong’” (Network).
This culture exists within the social media platforms, but it also has expanded into communities across the country. House representative Marjorie Taylor Green, a Georgian republican, was “stripped of her House committee assignments following her support of conspiracy theories including QAnon, as well as racist social media posts”(Kurtzleben). Her fellow Republican house rep from Ohio in attempts to defend her said… “Everyone has said things they wish they didn’t say. Everyone has done things they wish they didn’t do. So who’s next? Who will the cancel culture attack next?” (Kurtzleben).This showcases how large an issue cancel culture is, as it has made its way into American politics and been argued alongside threatening free speech.
Cancel culture in many ways makes perpetuators of a systematically corrupt society such as sexist, racist, and homophobic people accountable for a violation of human rights. Yet it also isolates those being canceled and can ultimately lead to mental health issues for them. In can also lead to a society that censors themselves in fear of being canceled in the future. In today’s polarized and censored society, applying cancel culture to a school setting is simply bullying due to the repercussions it has on young adults. Cyberbullying, according to stopbullying.gov, is “Bullying that takes place over digital devices like cell phones, computers, and tablets. […] cyberbullying includes sending, posting or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else. It can include sharing personal or private information about someone else causing embarrassment or humiliation”(Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs (ASPA)). These tactics are very similar to those used by cancel culture, and therefore cancel culture is on the verge of being cyberbullying . According to “A QUALITATIVE CASE STUDY OF CANCEL CULTURE AMONG PUBLIC FIGURES AND PRIVATE FIGURES” by Karmen Yap, cancel culture is deemed as morally correct in society by some because of the social activism structure that is the backbone of cancel culture. But ask yourself, do you deem cyberbullying as morally correct? If not then why is cancel culture?
While small-sided disagreement and holding people accountable for their actions is valid, especially celebrity perpetrators of human right violations, attacking a person’s personality instead of informing them on the ways to learn from their mistake is counter intuitive and harmful. Students these days are taking less risks by censoring themselves academically for the fear of being canceled in the future. Within a survey in 2021 by the College Pulse, where 37,000 students were surveyed in 159 colleges, more than 80% of those students recall censoring themselves and their viewpoints some of the time at college, representing the lack of academic risks (“2021 college free speech rankings”). The silencing effect that cancel culture has had on society has not only been those directly affected or in situations where people have been canceled, but the majority of society has been affected especially in educational settings. Many people learn from hearing different perspectives and having their own ideas challenged, especially in the classroom. Cancel culture does the opposite by creating an echo chamber of politically correct ideas, and limiting growth and open mindedness.
Most people’s first experience with cancel culture was on youtube, when big YouTubers such as James Charles were canceled. James has been canceled twice by the public and other beauty gurus such as himself for accusations regarding non consensual and illegal sexual behavior with minors. Over this course of a couple years many collaborating companies ended their contracts with James as well. In James’s case after already being canceled once and apologizing, his career didn’t stop as he gained popularity again. Following his rise, he was canceled once more for similar accusations, yet he still regularly posts on instagram with 22.1 million followers. Is cancel culture even capable of holding someone accountable for their actions and making them learn, or just a harmful process?
Within a log by the New York Times of teenagers and cancellation, they dive into many personal accounts in which cancel culture has invaded teenagers’ lives. One that stuck with me the most is a story from L, where all her friends cut her off and she states, “This put me in a situation where I thought I had done all these things,” L said. “I was bad. I deserved what was happening.” Later going on to say “I have issues with trusting perfectly normal things,” she said. “That sense of me being some sort of monster, terrible person, burden to everyone, has stayed with me to some extent. There’s still this sort of lingering sense of: What if I am?”(Yar and Bromwich), representing the lasting impact that cancel culture can have on small communities and people.
Many people have seen first hand the detrimental aspects that cancel culture can have on young adults. Jane a current senior in high school has seen cancel culture takes its spot on our community states, “I think that it is always important for people to be held accountable for their mistakes, but I think that cancel culture has become very unhealthy and perpetuates this issue that we see with people not being willing to speak out and if someone is immediately written off it prevents them from getting better”. In the most developmental ages of the juvenile years it is important for children to understand the freedom of speech and be able to develop their own ideas without the harmful repercussions of being canceled.
Recent research results from Newport Academy, an American based mental health program, reveal the negative impact that cancel culture has on brain development: “But cancellation in high school isn’t just a teaching moment; it’s a harsh punishment and public shaming. And it’s especially damaging because this age group is so sensitive to the opinions of their peers. A review of research on media and adolescent brain development found that teens are particularly vulnerable to social influences because the regions of the brain involved in the social aspects of life are still maturing. Brain imaging studies show that social rejection literally hurts: It lights up the same parts of the adolescent brain that are activated by physical pain”(“The mental health effects of teenage cancel culture”). Not only does cancel culture and social media highly affect the brain development of an individual, but the isolation of cancel culture can also be seen to lead to depression, trauma, anxiety and other conditions that exist amongst these such as substance abuse according to Newport Academy.
Many people like the first anonymous interviewed student have come forward explaining the mental repercussion of being shunned by communities. One example being James Charles, who was talked about previously, when speaking about his support system after being canceled and ostracized worldwide he states “‘If I didn’t have that, I would be dead right now,’ he explained, ‘Like, I say that not even being dramatic. I don’t think I would have made it through everything that went on without them being with me and making sure that I was okay and waking up in the middle of the night to check on me every 10 minutes to make sure I didn’t, like, literally do something dangerous” (Aspinall). Cleary James Charles was in a suicidal mindset and very unhealthy during the time after his public cancelation. Not only has James publicly spoken on the repercussions of being canceled but so did Chrissy Teigen. Chrissy Teigen was canceled in 2021 for resurfaced twitter chains of her bullying peers. She took responsibility for her actions by saying she was “ Ashamed and completely embarrassed” and spoke out saying, “”Going outside sucks and doesn’t feel right, being at home alone with my mind makes my depressed head race” (“Chrissy Teigen addresses mental health struggles after being “cancelled” over bullying claims”). Mental health issues seem to be continuing today after folks are canceled due to the isolation that follows. How much pain are we as a society willing to cause people to learn from their mistakes?
Cancel culture has seemed to progress more and more especially when the world went online in 2020 due to the pandemic. Statistics show “…a significant increase in the average time U.S. users spent on social media in 2020: 65 minutes daily, compared to 54 minutes and 56 minutes the years before” (Published by S. Dixon and 2). Since more time was spent online, many examples of cancel culture have surfaced, notably in recent years. From a worldwide perspective, stopping the aggressiveness of cancel culture matters because it causes more division in an already polarized world. An alternative to cancel culture can be as simple as showing empathy and sympathy for the persons whose actions are at hand while still steering them in the right direction to learn from their mistakes and try to make amends with those harmed. In the same NPR article, “When Republicans Attack ‘Cancel Culture,’ What Does It Mean?”, they mention the idea that cancel culture has changed so dramatically, and “Mounk is especially concerned about the fact that even non public figures have lost jobs as a result of online pile-ons, as he detailed in The Atlantic. To him, that is a clear sign things have gone too far”(Kurtzleben). Even later in the article it states that cancel culture has turned into a semantic bleaching, or a new defined term changing the previous meaning, in this case cancel culture is referred to as a “political weapon”.
While originally cancel culture fought for social justice and holding people accountable, especially famous people, cancel culture has taken a turn for the worse. It produces more detrimental effects in small communities such as schools, from the use of cyberbullying tactics that lead to mental health issues, while also promoting a sense of political correctness and self censorship that lead to a never ending echo chamber.
Works Cited:
“2021 College Free Speech Rankings.” 2021 College Free Speech Rankings, reports.collegepulse.com/college-free-speech-rankings-2021.
Aspinall, Georgia. “James Charles Has Opened up about the Mental Health Effects of Being Cancelled.” Grazia, Grazia, 12 Sept. 2019, graziadaily.co.uk/celebrity/news/james-charles-tati-westbrook/.
Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs (ASPA). “What Is Cyberbullying.” StopBullying.gov, 5 Nov. 2021, www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/what-is-it.
Camp, Emma. “I Came to College Eager to Debate. I Found Self-Censorship Instead.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 7 Mar. 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/03/07/opinion/campus-speech-cancel-culture.html?smid=url-share.
“The Cancellations of James Charles: The Rise and Fall of Beauty YouTube’s Biggest Star.” Yahoo! News, Yahoo!, news.yahoo.com/cancellations-james-charles-rise-fall-170100194.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAME-4GrsMkb8EKt-Q7oFHc63YBt8-W90RcVhdBOv_yinACBoPz6eUr6GzJC1k3FpsLAKTkkyjYZd09m5MZujk5Lwz92M2oPOiK0Wftsa7r54ToD0CIRHaC9YV3PB6bnxZAUCTw8wD8QlqFbhR3RsT_s0vE_FgGlVWwX3_xixtTVD.
“Chrissy Teigen Addresses Mental Health Struggles after Being ‘Cancelled’ over Bullying Claims.” E! Online, 15 July 2021, www.eonline.com/news/1289510/chrissy-teigen-addresses-mental-health-struggles-after-being-cancelled-over-bullying-claims.
Kearns, Madeleine. “Cancel Culture Is a Teenage Nightmare.” National Review, National Review, 29 Dec. 2020, www.nationalreview.com/2020/12/cancel-culture-is-a-teenage-nightmare/.
Kurtzleben, Danielle. “When Republicans Attack ‘Cancel Culture,’ What Does It Mean?” NPR, NPR, 10 Feb. 2021, www.npr.org/2021/02/10/965815679/is-cancel-culture-the-future-of-the-gop.
Network, The Learning. “What Students Are Saying about Cancel Culture, Friendly Celebrity Battles and Finding Escape.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 19 Nov. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/11/19/learning/what-students-are-saying-about-cancel-culture-friendly-celebrity-battles-and-finding-escape.html.
Published by S. Dixon, and Jun 2. “Social Media Average Daily Usage by U.S. Users 2022.” Statista, 2 June 2022, www.statista.com/statistics/1018324/us-users-daily-social-media-minutes/.
Romano, Aja. “The Second Wave of ‘Cancel Culture.’” Vox, Vox, 5 May 2021, www.vox.com/22384308/cancel-culture-free-speech-accountability-debate.
Staff, Newport Academy. “The Mental Health Effects of Teenage Cancel Culture.” Newport Academy, 26 Oct. 2022, www.newportacademy.com/resources/mental-health/teenage-cancel-culture/.
Yap, Karmen. “A Qualitative Case Study of Cancel Culture among Public Figures and Private Figures.” ScholarWorks, 1 Jan. 1970, hdl.handle.net/20.500.12680/pg15bm457.
Yar, Sanam, and Jonah Engel Bromwich. “Tales from the Teenage Cancel Culture.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 31 Oct. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/10/31/style/cancel-culture.html.
