Cancelling out cancel culture
It's over
Riddle me this…
What's harder to cancel: an Amazon Prime subscription or a male celebrity?
The rise of Bluesky has got me thinking about the early days of cancel culture, when Twitter was the court of public opinion and one poorly timed joke could ruin your entire life.
It's probably fair to say that this was, at times, far too extreme - with Twitter eventually becoming a place where you'd be scared to say anything in case you became the Main Character for the day.
Following its rebrand to X, Twitter has gone from being the stocks in the market square to a place where anything goes. I don't think either of these was the right approach, but now it feels like nobody is held accountable for anything…
Are we in the Wild West era of the internet?
How did we go from ruining the life of someone who tweeted a single racist joke (not condoning this, by the way) to electing a convicted felon into the White House?
The answer is that we have become desensitised after seeing dozens of awful people face the mouldy tomatoes, only to be given a World Tour the following year.
A few examples that come to mind are Seann Walsh, a bang-average comedian who you've probably seen filling the last chair on a comedy panel show. The most interesting thing about him is that he was the subject of Why Did You Stay - a memoir by Rebecca Humphries.
For a relatively unknown writer to lay out her experience of an abusive relationship at the hands of a famous comedian, I’d argue this was very brave. But braveness means nothing when there are no consequences. I was at the Edinburgh Fringe just a few months ago and saw Walsh’s smarmy face plastered all over as he promoted his gig. He might have lost out for a year, but he’s back bigger than ever.
We’ve gone too far the other way.
One Black Mirror-worthy example of this is Ellen Degeneres’ Netflix special, wherein she was not only paid $17 million for the show, she also made ‘jokes’ about her own cancellation.
You can’t be mean and be in show business. No, they’ll kick you out. No mean people in show business. I’m out. Yeah, y’all heard I was mean. Everybody heard that I was mean. Everywhere I go, I know everyone’s heard that I’m mean. I know when I walk into a restaurant, people are watching, waiting to see if I’ll be mean.
Now, this is a level of self-awareness that only someone completely untouchable would have. Honestly, it reminds me of this classic Trump quote:
And when you're a star they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything
While I hate to agree with Trump, the evidence is there - if you’re a star, you can do anything. A few other scumbags who have bounced back from what should have been life-destroying allegations include:
Louis C.K. (Accused of sexual misconduct in 2017, sold out Madison Square Garden in 2023)
Philip Schofield (Grooming allegations, back on TV within 15 months with a Channel 5 show)
Shia LaBeouf (Ongoing legal battle with ex-FKA Twigs who accuses him of emotional and physical abuse, starred in Ford Coppola’s 2024 $120m magnum opus, Megalopolis.)
Armie Hammer (accused of sexual misconduct and weird cannibal shit, returning to the big screen in 2025 for Frontier Crucible.)
These are just the first few that come to mind. Can’t quite put my finger on what they all have in common…
Is cancel culture really over?
It’s no coincidence to me that we are seeing op-eds discussing the end of cancel culture alongside the comebacks of some of the era’s most notorious men. What’s the point in holding anyone accountable for their actions when there are no real consequences anyway? If Donald Trump can be found liable of rape in a court of law, and still re-elected to the White House, how can we expect anything more from the world of celebrity?
Hollywood has always had a selective memory, this is nothing new. Everybody’s favourite babygirl, Andrew Garfield recently said Mel Gibson “deserves to make films.” Gibson is a known antisemite who blamed his abusive, homophobic, and racist behavior on an alcohol abuse problem in the 90s. He was out of the loop longer than most, but don’t fear, when you’ve got the likes of Garfield on your PR team, it’s only a matter of time before you’re back on the big screen.
Not to hate on Garfield, but I was watching his episode of the A24 podcast with my own personal babygirl Harris Dickinson and they both spoke highly of Tom Cruise, how working with him was so amazing and what a professional he is. I expected more from you, Harris.
Need I remind you that Tom Cruise is the second in command at the Church of Scientology, an organisation that sees women (including the wife of the leader of the church) ‘disappear’ for years. I, for one, can’t wait for the day we see a documentary uncovering whatever Cruise has been doing behind the scenes; there is a very obvious reason why his ex-wives (and even his daughter) want absolutely nothing to do with him. But that won’t stop him churning out Mission Impossible films until the cows come home.
The scale of these comebacks and lack of consequences for the men in question is more significant than ever before. What we, as a society, are saying is that you can do anything you want, and it might *at most* take a year or two off your career trajectory. But don’t worry; you’ll be back on top with a seven-figure Netflix special in no time.
On Tuesday, I went to see Mercury Prize winners English Teacher, live at the Boilershop in Newcastle. There’s been a bit of an indie revival of late, and I think some of the bands are lacking the originality that we need - English Teacher is not one of them. Highly recommend giving their latest album a listen.
Other things I’ve also enjoyed this week:
📺 Slow Horses (Apple TV) - We’re late to the party, but we love this show.
📺 Industry (BBC iPlayer) - I have no idea what’s going on in the banking world but I like all the juicy drama.
See you next week,
Ellen x
If you like the audio version of this newsletter, you can listen to them all over on Spotify. Here’s last week’s:
💌 About this email
I’m Ellen, and I write about mental health for the chronically online. I am a freelance copywriter, strategist and web designer, and I work from home with my husband, Craig, at Content By The Sea. We have two rescue greyhounds, Potter and Harmony, and a toddler.
I started this newsletter in March 2020 and have sent over 200(!) emails; currently, I have over 1,200 subscribers. I write about a wide variety of topics, including diet culture, my love of running, jealousy, my life falling apart, mam guilt, and this dystopian world we all live in.
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I’m starting to learn that Cancel Culture only works on people with a conscience and that a worrying amount of public figures are devoid of shame 🥴🥴🥴
Wonderful, as always 💎