Alright, I must say that during the process of writing, the more I try to understand this new kind of phenomenon, the more confused I'd become. I don't know if it's just me, or social media in general always keeps on being the most unpredictable field to explore just on the surface, if not trying to dig in a lot deeper. The only question that I ask for now is just how severe a scandal involving famous person can become in order to consider one guilty party "cancelled"? It's seems like thanks to mob mentality, throwing haze and hatred on social media is easier rather than just terrorize someone using a slew of fake and anonymous accounts.
Let's start on what the hell is this "cancel culture", and how is this type of behavior affects parties involved in a feud or an online spat. The term is derived from the word "cancel", which means "to nullify", "to revoke" or "void". It can also be interpreted as "to call something off". Cancel culture in itself (at least according to dictionary.com) is the act of withdrawing support for public figures or any entities after they have done or (at the very least) say something that can be considered as inappropriate at best or offensive at worst. Someone can be "cancelled" if these allegations, whether legitimate or not (more on that later on) is big enough to cause a massive drop on popularity to the parties involved. Any social media platform (usually Twitter) can be a media for someone (or group) to carry out these "cancellations". It possibly derived from the earlier "call-out culture", which is the act of public shaming online, with most of the target is typically a celebrity. But what make these two different then? While calling out someone on various past accusations doesn't mean that the celebrity in question would lose popularity, by getting "cancelled", that unfortunate party is guaranteed to lose their fanbase and career, sometimes in the matter of seconds.
Apparently, someone can be cancelled if there is either a past scandal involving racist remarks, sexual misconduct, or a new scandal so severe, that it's being brought to the attention of the masses. One of the most famous case of cancel culture in action is when a beauty YouTuber named James Charles was being called out by another YouTuber Tati Westbrook back in 2019. To put this into a perspective, Westbrook was the one that introduced Charles (19 years old by the time of the scandal) into the YouTube beauty community, after previously became the first male cover model for make-up product Cover Girl, subsequently became his mentor. Before the scandal, Charles had over 16 million subscribers on his YouTube channel in just 2 years. The beginning of the end for Charles was when he posted an endorsement video with a vitamin company on his social media platforms. Seems pretty harmless at this point, except for the fact that the company in question is a rival of Westbrook's own vitamin line. Knowing the events that transpired, Westbrook felt "betrayed" and "used". She then made a 43-minute long video (the original video was deleted, but someone has re-uploaded it) exposing Charles's worst behaviors behind the scene. Aside from endorsement of rival vitamin company, she told in greater detail on how Charles, a gay man trying to trick straight men into thinking that they're actually gay. And to make things even spicier, Charles had said many times on his Twitter account about "hooking up with hot straight guys". According to Westbrook herself, she was shocked when she found out that Charles had told his father that "every man is a little bit gay". Okay. I know some of the guys have some bi-curious phase somewhere, but to say that every man is a little bit gay is pushing it, even by today's standards. When push came to shove, after the video went viral, Suddenly, James Charles' beauty empire came crashing down faster than a NASCAR Cup-spec Stock Car reaching 200 mph on the backstretch of Talladega Superspeedway. He reportedly lost 5 million subscribers in the space of hours, some of them are famous celebrities like those of the Jenner-Kardashian clan. Another beauty influencer and former scene queen Jeffree Star, who was close friend with the condemned beauty YouTuber also stated his support on Westbrook, calling Charles "a danger to society" in a now-deleted tweet. And thanks to the video (in which has gathered over 35 million views) as well, Westbrook saw her subscriber count soaring from an abysmal 6 million to over 9 million subscribers. And for that reason, they say, James Charles is officially "cancelled".
Former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein is also "cancelled" and currently serving 23-year prison sentence for rape and sexual assault of a former assistant and a former young actress. In the wake of those allegations, plus countless others, he was fired form his own company, The Weinstein Company, several companies sever ties with the disgraced producer, and was stripped of his membership by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTAS), The Producers Guild of America (PGA), and Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS). during the trials, Weinstein denied all the accusations. Despite that, he was still convicted, and on March 11, 2020 sentenced to 23 years of incarceration, 7 years shorter than the maximum penalty of 29 years. In contrast of the pervert producer, comedian Louis C. K. was once accused of masturbating in front of a woman without her consent back in 2017, which Louis himself confirmed to be true. In a typical mob mentality fashion, he was dropped by TV networks and associates, but nevertheless, that didn't stop him from coming back to the comedy scene, now rejuvenated than ever. His unannounced appearance in New York in August 2018 was met with ovation from the audience; and performed the set like the sexual allegations earlier was never existed.
It is indeed that every human being is not perfect, and cases above proved it. But sometimes, people (at least in the social media realm) are over-reacting to a scandal to the point that the celebrity's entire existence must be cancelled, removed, forgotten, and erased from the pages of history, even if the mistake happened long ago. But thanks to social media, people are able to uncover past behaviors that otherwise should be kept away from preying eyes of the masses. It seems like no matter what influence you laid out on the entertainment business or any achievements you gain, one scandal or past scandal resurfacing to present time could just be a one-way ticket to pandemonium. One wrong word or one slip up could be enough for you to be "cancelled". And to end this, stay safe, always clean yourselves, and always remember, 2 meters apart at all times when being outside.