Cancel Culture & the Entertainment Industry
Most days it seems like cancel culture a phenomenon hits social media influencers and YouTubers but it also applies to other industries such as the entertainment industry and the music industry, even more specifically the people involved in such industries such as actors, directors, writers and singers.
With social media, no one can escape scrutinisation for any of their wrong doings. Social media platforms give everyday people access to celebrities and gives them a channel to voice their opinions on certain situations.
In an interview with Harvard press, actress and activist Jameela Jamil, explained that there must a differentiation between call-out culture and cancel culture and this is down to the fact that “celebrities are snowflakes” as they are not used to receiving certain criticism. They believe that criticism is something that people receive. Presumably the influencers and social media personalities that receive the criticism that ultimately leads to them being cancel culture, are viewed as normal people and not celebrities. Jamil notes that celebrities do not know how to handle being called-out for their wrong-doings which is why when they care called out they cry “cancel culture”.
Cancellation as opposed to being called-out, is when a person is de-platformed, their rights have been taken away and their finances have been severely harmed. When a celebrity is called out, it is simply when people believe that that celebrity has done something that doesn’t align with people’s views and values.
Through a personal decision for individuals, cancelling by the masses really started to come into force post #MeToo movement era towards the end of 2017 around the same time when the Harvey Weinstein accusations started to emerge. Actress Alyssa Milano stated that if every woman who had been sexually assaulted simply posted the statement ‘me too’ then its would give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem. Since then the hashtags ‘Me Too’ was used on social media either in solidarity or by victims of sexual abuse, a number of them attached to accounts recorded by men and women who worked in the film industry — and the most prominent voices belonged to big names in Hollywood. Generations of women were told not to talk about such events, some even being silenced through non-disclosure agreements drawn up by their abusers.
Here’s a look at some Hollywood big-wigs that have been cancelled and why:
- Harvey Weinstein: The bulk of stories about the acclaimed director and his history of rape, sexual harassment and assaulted prompted people to stop watching films from ‘The Harvey Weinstein Company’ ever again. Weinstein was eventually charged with one count of third degree rape, one count of criminal sexual assault in the first degree, and 23 years in prison. If one were to do a quick Google Search for Harvey Weinstein as part of his description he is listed as a ‘convicted sex offender’.
- Johnny Depp: he filed a libel suit against ‘The Sun’ after they allegedly published an article calling Depp a “wife beater”. Earlier that year, Depp was accused of domestic violence by his wife Amber Heard, and as it came out people proceeded to cancel him. He was dragged by multiple media outlets, dropped by Warner Brothers and Disney therefore dropping him from his iconic roles in Pirates of the Caribbean and the Crimes of Grindelwald series. However throughout the case, it came to light that it was she who had instead hit Depp. It emerged that Depp has once been spotted with a black eye allegedly given to him by Heard for being late to her 30th birthday party.
- A recorded telephone call hears Heard arguing with Depp over the semantics of a “punch”, claiming that she had in fact “hit” Depp.
- With the mountain of evidence it came as a surprise to Depp’s own lawyers as well as the public, that the court ruled against Depp in the case, and in light of that same evidence, people turned their cancel culture radar towards Amber Heard herself. Seeing as Depp had been dropped by his studios, people were angry over the fact that Heard was still set to star in the ‘Aquaman’ sequel.
- Robert Downey Jr. in support of Depp, publicly announced that he would not move on with the third adaptation of his ‘Sherlock’ film series if Depp would not be cast alongside him.
The Johnny Depp situation shows how flawed the cancel culture system is. Seeing as Depp’s situation emerged at the height of the MeToo era, people were quick to jump the gun and implicate Depp of the alleged acts. When first it was Depp who seemed to be in the wrong, people started a witch-hunt to cancel him. However when later it was Amber Heard who appeared to have been the one to instigate the abuse in the relationship, people deemed it was she who in-turn had to be cancelled. Even at the time then the accusations against Harvey Weinstein were still allegations, most of the stories or statements appearing on Twitter were very much a cases of he said/ she said and in reality, no average person has the right to cancel such person based on alleged accusations.
People within the film and tv industry have been cancelled for other offences that have nothing to do with the #MeToo movement such as:
- Rosianne Barr: In 2018, the ABC sitcom ‘Roseanne’ was pulled off the air after the shows namesake, director and lead actress, Roseanne Barr posted a tweet comparing former White House adviser Valerie Jarett to an ape. The network green-lit a series with the rest of the cast titled ‘The Conners’ where they killed of Roseanne’s character as they felt that the cast still had more stories to tell and since they did not share Barr’s views, they did not have to be fired from the network or the show.
- Hartley Sawyer: Now former ‘The Flash’ actor, Hartley Sawyer was fired over offensive tweets made in 2012 and 2014. In light of the Black Lives Matter movement at the time of the George Floyd incident, people were fishing the internet to see if ‘white’ celebrities who were supporting the BLM movement had to be held accountable for past views on the matter. It emerged that Sawyer had posted mysognistic and racist tweets such as “Enjoyed a secret boob viewing at an audition today” or “Date rape myself so that I won’t have to masturbate”. In light of the situation, the writers of ‘The Flash’ decided to fire Sawyer.
Social media givers everyday the people the power to dig up old news stories, tweets, photos, anything that they feel is relevant to current situations such which would be grounds for that celebrity to be cancelled. This has happened when the MeToo movement started, when the Black Lives Matter movement started trending online, if allegations of assault surfaced and so on.
The difference between Sawyer and Roseanne Barr is time and reaction. The fact the people have posted a statement or said something in the past does not mean that they still feel the same way now. It could be that from statement until present they have gained awareness, learnt from their mistake or just simply been educated on why their views might not necessarily be correct. Sawyer apologised for those tweets and mentioned that at the time in his mind the came from a place of humour and were made for him to gain some sort of attention, he is aware that those tweets were hurtful and unacceptable and he was ashamed. Roseanne Barr on the other hand made those tweets in 2018, an age where she would not be considered young and naive. Barr also did not apologise for her statement which is what rubbed fans the wrong way. The attempt to rectify the values displayed in those past tweets by Sawyer was there, with many fans on social media claiming that he in fact should not lose his role as ‘Ralph Dibny’ on ‘The Flash’.
It is this idea of accountability following the #MeToo era and Black Lives Matter movements that sparked fans to turn their attention towards celebrities in the music industry. Cancelling in the music world works quite similarly to the film industry. When damaging stories emerge, people stop buying that artist’s music and stop contributing to their success financially, stop attending concerts and stop following them on social media. Music platform, Spotify itself added a feature in 2019, which in a way could be seen as an encouragement towards cancel culture. Spotify decided to add a ‘Mute Artist’ feature which means that any music by that particular singer, apart from songs they are featured in, will not be shown on your account or playlists.
Below are some of the music artists who have been cancelled and why:
- Iggy Azalea: the singer and rapper was cancelled in 2019 for appropriating black culture and abusing black culture through her rapping. She was even accused of using a black-accent just so her music could generate more sales.
- R-Kelly: A six-part docu-series ‘Surviving R-Kelly’ was released. It was released towards the end of the #MeToo era, and the sexual abuse allegations made against him, pushed his record label to drop him, listeners to ‘mute’ him on Spotify and stop contributing to his success.
- Doja Cat: this rapper and singer was temporarily cancelled in 2020 for making claims that the pandemic was just a hoax and not taking the pandemic seriously until she herself tested positive for the virus and changed her tune.
Finally, cancel culture reared its ugly heart towards popular author, J.K. Rowling. Similarly to Roseanne Barr, Rowling’s cancellation was not a result of old tweets dating back to her younger years or an ignorant statement made ‘back in the day’, it is also not for a random tweet she posted which came off as insensitive in light of a current situation. Rowling’s cancellations was in-fact due to a long-standing view on the LGBT community that she would not apologise for. In June of 2019 she was cancelled for using the phrase “people who menstruate” instead of “women” so as to differ from biological women and trans-women.
As a result of her views, publishers saw in drop in sales of Harry Potter books even though in 2019, the sales of actual fiction books was on the rise that summer. Fan forums removed statements and quotes made by the author so as to distance the stories from the author.
There were people who got rid of her books and stopped watching the films to stop supporting the author, whilst others defended her stories saying that they did not want to boycott the franchise as it brought them closer to friends, it created a safe space for them. What they wanted is to stop supporting the author herself.
Many opinion pieces on the matter have stated that it will be hard for Rowling to recover from being cancelled especially because she was cancelled over a belief, even though in June 2020, Rowling made an attempt to recover by expressing her love for the trans community but not before mentioning that she was in fact weary about gender transitioning.
Cancel culture is a complex landscape to navigate especially since the outcome varies from person to person. While it’s punishments can be severe and at times does not give the opportunity for the victim of cancel culture to recover, educate themselves and move on, it may serve in fact to point out societal problems such as racism and sexism. Cancel culture is a reminder that accountability reigns high in the intersection of digital media and perhaps should be taken as an opportunity to learn from it — make a mistake, own it and grow from it without making excuses for oneself.