Bobby
In the last week of blog post, I have shared about my opinions of whether cancel culture is a right thing at a right time. We have obtained rise a preliminary answer, on top of that, discussion could be stretched by unfolding other perspectives of cancel culture. For reaffirmation, the ascend of “cancel culture” and a familiar pattern is found in cancellation nowadays: A celebrity or a public figure does or says something offensive.
Several examples of celebrities cancelled have been tabulated last week. For instance, Johnny Depp was replaced from the third film in the “Fantastic Beasts” and criticized by feminist groups about his honor of film festival reward, as he was accused of repeatedly assault towards his ex-wife. Also, Ellen DeGeneres’s famous TV programme “The Ellen Show” has been returned because she was accused of indulging a working environment with fear and discrimination. I have mentioned that cancel culture might be a right thing, only if it is in an appropriate time and context. Nevertheless, accompanying with the blossom of cancel culture, distortion is being revealed in several context.
Recently in the United States, not only occur of cancellation of celebrities who own wrong, inappropriate opinions but also cancelling the old things in old days. Gone with the Wind, a classic Hollywood film in 1939, was temporarily removed from the HBO Max streaming platform as castigation for ideologies of racism from the public. The film faced a tidal wave of criticism that was criticized that the film has ignored the panics of slavery, perpetuated the most painful stereotypes of people of color, and romanticized the antebellum south and Confederacy. Moreover, in the United States, some mainstream ideas proposed that they would like to boycott the fantasy stories of Snow White and Aurora because the prince has kissed the princess without her consent, which is a sexual assault in a certain extent. Countless examples of cancellation are emerged in all sorts of artistic work, even those artworks are already the creature of the age. What is more, former presidents were condemned of being slaveholder in the past, such as Washington and Jefferson. As we can see, cancel culture has evolved, and stepped across disciplinary, time and space.
When the prevailing trend of cancel culture is getting stronger and stronger in several societies, it has alarmed us to reexamine the moral legitimacy of cancellation. As for me, the cancellation of artistic work with inappropriate values cannot cure the problem itself, likewise censoring Gone with the Wind does not help anything of racial discrimination in current era. On the contrary, we should learn from the history instead of pretending that it does not exist. The absence of respect towards the people who uphold opposite opinion is very much severe in today’s society. Cancel the cultural artifacts that bear the weight of values in the past is not a vivid idea as one day we will forget the lessons of history. Frankly, cancel culture may exceed the proper limits when people are imposing today’s morals and values on the predecessors and ruthlessly cancelling them if they are not fit in today’s benchmark. In this new digital era, we must keep our mind cleared. And let’s wait and see what cancel culture bring for us in the future.
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