Explained: What is ‘cancel culture’?
The term ‘cancel’ is a relatively straightforward one; a purchase is ‘cancelled’ if it isn’t needed any more
Merriam Webster says an advertisement campaign is ‘cancelled’ if it is inappropriate or is an unsuccessful marketing strategy. A television show is ‘cancelled’ if it manages only abysmal ratings. For the longest time, the meaning of the term ‘cancel’ hasn’t been very complex, but sometime in the past decade, it has acquired a new definition, particularly in context of internet lingo.
Today, everything and everyone can be ‘cancelled’ if the internet collectively decides that it needs to be so. The term ‘collectively’ is important here because the cancelling of something is really a result of a mass movement, collective in form and force. J.K. Rowling is ‘cancelled’ because of her transphobic views. Cardi B and Nicki Minaj are ‘cancelled’ because they made homophobic comments. Trump is ‘cancelled’ because of his racist, inappropriate conduct and words towards women, people of colour and immigrants
Cancel culture is relatively new; it only surfaced in the last five to six years and has been largely a product of internet culture. One of the reasons why the term’s exact meaning is still being ascertained is perhaps because it is relatively new and its scope is still evolving with developing online behaviour. The most visible examples of cancel culture occur when a celebrity or public figure says or writes something or engages in an act that is deemed offensive and inappropriate by the public
One of the characteristics of cancel culture is also the tendency to ‘pile on’, where social media users engage in mass behaviour by specifically targeting the individual who is being publicly called out. Last month during a speech that he made at Mt. Rushmore, US President Donald Trump appeared to call out “cancel culture”, perhaps because he himself has been a target so often, particularly since he first announced his presidential campaign. It is “the very definition of totalitarianism,” and “completely alien to our culture and our values” with “absolutely no place in the United States of America”, Trump had said
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