Call Out Culture vs Cancel Culture
I’ve noticed cancel culture has become slightly more intense during lockdown. As writer Ryan O’Connell said: “X was cancelled and then someone got cancelled for trying to cancel her a second time which, by the law of cancellation physics, means she is no longer cancelled.” To be clear, I am absolutely here for holding people accountable for things that are out of order. But there’s no need to #CANCELFOREVER someone who is trying to learn, or messed up once, or doesn’t make a cup of tea exactly the same way you do. Cancel-culture doesn’t move things on. It also doesn’t actually work — it often results in making people even more well-known via a trending hashtag, or they eventually make a ‘come back’ like nothing ever happened.
However — call-out culture is different, and necessary for progress. We’ve witnessed a whole lot of it this week. We must call things out when we see it. Calling something out means there’s a chance someone might learn something — that something might change, that we’re pushing for progress. And this doesn’t just mean calling out a stranger or a public figure on Twitter. Call out your boss, friend, family member, partner. Call yourself out. We all grow from painful conversations. I certainly have, and continue to.
Online outrage directed at public figures is symbolic for demanding change and accountability. Millions of hearts sank all around the world when JK Rowling decided to tweet her feelings about trans people this week. It really felt like a final twist of the knife. The icing on the incredibly depressing cake. I will never understand why anyone would feel so threatened by a group of people who are at most risk of harm in society. I don’t understand why anyone would feel such an ongoing motivation to dismiss another human’s existence. I don’t understand why one of the most influential and wealthy white women in the world would go on a Twitter spree knowing the damage it would do during a time where we are supposed to be lifting others up. It was good to see Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson speaking out and saying something. If you feel like donating, Mermaids UK is a good place. You can even do a monthly or annual donation so that it is recurring. Trans women are women.
Someone asked on Twitter this week: Does JK Rowling deserve to be so intensely piled on? I thought Juno Dawson said it well: “The difference is, all she [JK Rowling] has to do is log off. Trans people can’t log off. Ever. And the hate she continues to promote to her 14M followers affects our lives on the street, online and in our families too.”
At time of writing, The Sun has published a vile misogynistic cover giving voice to JK Rowling’s ex-partner who admits to slapping her. An anonymous domestic abuse survivor published a piece in Grazia explaining why this sends a dangerous message: “Whatever your thoughts on Rowling - and boy, do I have thoughts on Rowling - dredging up such things so publicly, so explicitly and so callously, shows nothing but contempt for the countless unnamed women and men who have done something miraculous: they have survived.”
Unfortunately cancelling JK Rowling won’t make transphobia go away. We all know that ‘cancellation’ doesn’t actually cancel people anyway. Cancelling politicians won’t fix society. Cancelling a CEO doesn’t mean the toxicity of a company will suddenly evaporate. Instead of #cancelling, let’s continue to call things out, privately and publicly. Call. It. Out.
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