Cancel Culture Audio Essay Draft

Audio Essay

Intro Music

Dialogue at the end of the music video "Look What You Made Me Do"

That's Taylor Swift taking a satirical approach to being canceled. Taylor Swift isn't the first person or brand to be canceled. Many other's such as James Charles, ChickFilA, Chris Brown, R. Kelly, Gucci and several others have been canceled. But what does it mean to be canceled? Jonah Bromwich from The New York Times writes that canceling something is the "total disinvestment in something (anything)." Basically, when a celebrity, politician, brand, or organization acts in a way that is problematic the public will take to social media to denounce support and affiliation with said offender. This can mean cutting off the offender's political backing, financial support, and even recognition of their existence. Cancel culture goes hand-in-hand with call-out culture, or idea that if a brand or person has made or makes a mistake, the public can call them out on that, typically on social media.                                                                                                                                                                                             Cancel culture and call out culture can be accredited to the fact that people's lives have been documented almost daily by the presence of the internet for the last twenty years. Even so, social media has been a key source of the beginning of canceling a person. People can search the entirety of a person's tweets—from the creation of their account to the last post they made.

Insert Tana Mongeau clip of her apology video over racist tweets resurfacing

            With people and brands being canceled almost every week, the question has to be asked: What are the limits of cancel culture? Many critics of the call out culture phenomena speculate that call-out culture cuts out any room for forgiveness and growth. It marginalizes mistakes people have made in their past and doesn't allow for them to evolve or live authentically as the newer version of themselves.         

            Another side to this is making people and brands take responsibility for their harmful behavior. It allows the public to question if a politician with a past of sexual assaults is really fit for office, or if their money should benefit a celebrity who has made sexist remarks, or to support a brand that releases designs that emulate black face. As society evolves and becomes a globalized space where consumers are diverse and their ideas are too, cultures are shifting to maintain inclusivity in these spaces. Political correctness, or way someone speaks around subjects often excluding offensive language, is becoming the new norm of communication. Whether or not you believe in its effectiveness, audiences and consumers are now expecting to be communicated to this way.   

Insert the View Dixie Chicks and Cancel Culture clip

            So should cancel culture be canceled? Should people expect those in power to be held to high standards and maintain perfection now and throughout their entire lives? Or should we continue to hold them responsible for abusive behavior and derogatory comments? As for now, cancel culture seems to be here to stay.

Fade out music