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Cancel Culture

December 7, 2018

Cancel culture, essentially, is the ending of support for a celebrity, in most cases internet influences due to problematic behavior fans have observed. “It’s a cultural boycott” Lisa Nakamura digital media and race, gender, and sexuality professor at the University of Michigan defines it.  

So, what causes a celebrity to be axed by cancel culture? Once a celebrity has been “exposed” a comment or action who has publicly made an uneducated error that includes racism, homophobia, sexism, islamophobia, antisemitism, etc, then they are blacklisted by cancel culture. 

How effective is cancel culture? Results of cancel culture may vary, but cancel culture should not be not taken lightly as it can undeniable end or deep hurt one’s career. Beauty content creator Laura Lee lost half a million of her 5 million subscribers and multiple brands deals including Ulta Beauty, Boxycharm, and Diff Eyewear. After her tweet old undermining the unjustice treatment that black people face with police brutality were discovered. In 2012 Lee tweeted “tip for all black people if you pull up ur pants you can run from the police faster.. #yourwelcome” after receiving backlash Laura Lee uploaded, the most insincere apology we have yet to see from problematic influencers, causing Lee even more damage as her apology became a laughing stalk as twitter users quickly pointed out the fake tears, bad acting in the video and failure to acknowledge the subject of her tweets. This is an example of cancel culture being used correctly. 

In theory, cancel culture serves as a fair punishment to celebrities who’s beliefs stem from a bigoted belief system. Why should a celebrity gain power from a social group they have discriminated against? The problem lies in the fact that cancel culture often writes off influencers for their statements that from years back, the culture often forgets to take into account of how the influencers behavior has changed, if they display the same amount of ignorance of if their character has shifted as individuals gain self-awareness as time progresses. 

Brother Nature aka Kevlin Pena, an influencer who is known for his videos often feeding the deer around his neighbor, his charm is adored by over 1 million twitter users as he captures his special relationship with various wild animals recently issued an apology for his racist, antisemitic and sexist tweets from when he was in middle school. “I was 12 when I started using twitter” he wrote “I apologize for 12-year-old Kelvin and I take total responsibility for my words. Everyone changes, everyone learns, and everyone makes mistakes” Pena’s tweets are undoubtedly disgusting, however, the tweets found on his twitter account is language that is so commonly spoken in a middle school hallway, at the age of 12 we’re are probably in the midst of being the absolutely worse nature of our being. To hold Brother Nature accountable for what he said when he was 12 and shows zero signs of being the same person as he was when he was an adolescence is ridiculous and an example of when cancel culture can be extremely toxic in that it brutally invalidates an internet influencers entire existence without a chance of redemption. As Pena explains, he was a boy, that has now “evolved” as a human being.   

Cancel culture focuses too heavily on canceling the wrong celebrities, all the energy used to condemn brother nature should be focused on abusers and pedophiles who still have a following today. Tekashi69 pleaded guilty of using a child (13-year-old) in a sexual performance. Yet is still successful due to the disregard by millions who continue to stream and support his music. Cancel culture cannot be effective if what a 12-year-old said can be used against him 8 years later but will not call for the immediate end of the support of a rapper who still has an ongoing case of sexual assault to a minor. If cancelling a celebrity because of racist beliefs is so important then why do we not focus on a person who still exhibits prejudices, like Jeffree Star, another beauty influencer whose racist past was brought to life, Star’s old myspace “comedy” bit video called for black women to pour battery acid on themselves to appear lighter, and to Jeffree Star’s colorist eyes “prettier” along with clips of Star harassing pedestrians on the street calling them sweaty n-words. A past that would deserve to be forgiven if Jeffree Star’s character had changed but it is evident that Star has not, as text messages from earlier this year were made public. These messages showed conversations between Star and his hairdresser, after leaving a beauty guru event Star calls his peer Jackie Aina by the n-word, followed by Star characterizing Aina as an ape. Despite Jefree Star’s racism he remains one of the richest beauty gurus on the platform.  

Finally, does cancel culture work? Technically speaking, yes, however just because cancel culture is persuasive does not dismiss how terrible it’s functionality. Cancel culture does not give certain influencers the capacity to learn from their mistakes while at the same time not lets major offenders currently with problematic behavior off with a slap on the wrist. When a mass, we as a culture become extremely powerful, but at times our “solutions” do nothing but deepen the problem. 

 

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