If you’re consistently up to date with occurrences on social media apps like Twitter and TikTok, you have probably heard these two words: “They’re canceled.” It’s pretty much a way to refer to a celebrity or an internet personality that has lost their popularity or the support of their fanbase because they committed an act that most people wouldn’t agree with. The issue with asking for the cancellation of an artist for any inconvenience is that it becomes a word that is thrown around for any type of action, and ends up not being taken seriously. This type of continuous online shaming has evolved into the term “Cancel Culture,” and canceling has become a type of online culture or trend. Let’s take a look at the evolution of it and what is the true purpose behind it.
Cancel culture is defined as the phenomenon or practice of publicly rejecting, boycotting or ending support for particular people or groups because of their socially or morally unacceptable views or actions, and the term “canceled ” goes back to the 2010’s where it originally circled throughout the Black community on Twitter against discriminatory racial issues, and it had a round in Tumblr as well. Originally, the purpose of this movement was to create awareness and promote that people’s actions have consequences or establish justice in moments where the public believed it wasn’t applied properly. However, recently it has become performative to the point that it became a prevalent trend online. Instead of being about holding people accountable, it’s become a way to call out little things to the point that canceling doesn’t provoke major consequences in certain cases, but for less known people with lesser offenses can have harsh repercussions. Matter of fact, if they are famous enough; it might actually benefit them in the long run.
That is when you may ask yourself, does the judgment of a famous person truly matter once their fame is established? This can be analyzed with two contrary online personalities who were “canceled” for actions that were considered morally wrong. The first example is an online beauty creator known as James Charles; he was declared canceled back in 2021 for grooming allegations and claims of sexual conversations with minors, and some of these were confirmed by him. These accusations provoked a lot of negative feedback from the general public, and forced him to take a step back from the spotlight. Apparently, this accident wasn’t enough to end his career because Charles has crept back into the limelight by using his cancellation to his advantage. He says he has taken accountability and rebranded with the launch of his new makeup brand “Painted.” Additionally, he had an interview recently with Cosmopolitan that questions his being canceled online because he still owns a $7 million farmhouse, is invited to important events in Hollywood like Heidi Klum’s Hollywood Party and the People’s Choice Awards, and most importantly still creates content on TikTok that receives a lot of support. Which makes you think, can these people actually be canceled if they don’t allow it?
Photo by John Nacion and retrieved from WWD
The second example is the ex-YouTube content creator Jenna Nicole Mourey, also known as Jenna Marbles. She was canceled in 2020 after certain controversial skits she created resurfaced. These videos from 12 years ago included commentary and behavior that could be considered offensive such as slut-shaming, blackface impersonations of artists like Nicki Minaj, and racial comments. Mourey used her last video to take accountability of her actions and apologized for them, but it didn’t end there. She also announced that she would be leaving YouTube and any other type of social media platform (sadly these videos can’t be found on her account since it was taken down). This demonstrates that her leaving was truly a decision that she took into consideration after reevaluating past actions, not only because of the internet’s demands. Especially, because she took accountability but part of that process was giving up her online presence.
This demonstrates to us that cancel culture does complete its function of publicly shaming public figures or even unknown people, but when it comes to extremely famous people who have already established their celebritydom, it doesn’t provoke actual consequences in their lives unless they decide to act on it as Jenna Marbles did. Hence most famous people after being “canceled” will benefit from that attention because, even though it’s negative, it keeps them in the spotlight, like James Charles. Even after scandals, he keeps making money and people keep viewing his videos. There are many other famous people in similar situations, which makes us think, does Cancel Culture have an important purpose, or is it all for show and tea?