By: Livi Cudd
In today’s pop culture, the term ‘Cancel Culture’ seems to be used whenever a celebrity gets massive amounts of hate. By this point, we all have an idea of what Cancel Culture is in our society, but according to Merriam-Webster’s definition, Cancel Culture is “the mass withdrawal of support from public figures or celebrities who have done things that aren’t socially accepted today.”
The question is, does Cancel Culture ever benefit anyone, or make the situation better? Throughout modern culture, it has been common for celebrities to be victims of ‘Cancel Culture.’ Many celebrities have been bullied off social media platforms, been stripped of followers, and have had mental health issues that have affected them deeply because of a hate mob they experienced.
A very recent example of the Cancel Culture phenomenon has been the drama involving Hailey Bieber and Selena Gomez. Hailey had been accused of body shaming/bullying Selena, by posting a TikTok of her, Kendall Jenner, and Justine Skye lip-syncing a popular audio that says, ‘I’m not saying she deserved it, but God’s timing is always right.’
People started speculating that the TikTok was directed at Selena Gomez, being that she was being body shamed for recent photos of her, looking like she had gained weight to some viewers. Hailey had come out and told everyone that the TikTok was not directed at anyone, and that they were just doing a random TikTok audio for fun.
Many people, particularly Selena Gomez fans (or commonly known as ‘Selenators’), didn’t believe Hailey’s defense and continued to bash her on social media and send hostile messages her way, along with sending her death threats. The model has lost multiple followers since the situation came about and people are calling her a ‘bully’ and a ‘mean girl.’
I’m not really a fan of Hailey Bieber nor Selena Gomez (however, I do like a few of Selena’s songs and I really want some of her beauty products), but it seems like this is a prime example of how Cancel Culture is ruthless and how anything you say or do can be misinterpreted into a reason for getting canceled.
No matter if you are a fan of Hailey Bieber or Selena Gomez, the idea of canceling someone just because they do something you don’t like is toxic and childish. You can’t control what people do in life, and you can’t throw a tantrum and have everyone harass a person just because you disagree with what they are doing. That isn’t how you handle problems.
This is often a common way of how the younger generation (Gen Z) handles issues with their peers now. If one friend does something that another friend doesn’t like, that friend who didn’t like it will have the other friends in their group gang up against that one friend to try and establish power.
Many people, including myself, have been on the receiving end of this phenomenon and it doesn’t help resolve anything. It only causes more resentment and feelings of being alone and excluded from everyone else. Also, when there are constantly people who are harassing you and your character, it can cause major self-esteem issues. This world is already harsh enough with unrealistic beauty standards and discrimination, and we don’t need another factor for making people have mental health issues.
So, to answer the question, does Cancel Culture benefit anyone? The answer is, no. It doesn’t help anyone involved, not even the people who are canceling. People only make themselves look stupid by attacking other people, and at the end of the day, they are still mad. Cancel Culture needs to grow up and stop acting like playground bullies.
So, next time you have a disagreement with someone, ask yourself, will canceling them solve anything? Or will it just add fuel to the fire?
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