Cancel Culture in the Media

James Charles, Trisha Paytes, and Shane Dawson; what do all these names have in common? These social media influencers have all been canceled for doing or saying something controversial on social media.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, cancel culture is defined as the mass withdrawal of support from public figures or celebrities who have done something that is not socially accepted, often occurring on social media platforms.

Chi Upsilon Sigma, a national latin sorority on campus, hosted a discussion about awareness of Cancel Culture in the Media. In a presentation, they taught us about how men are more likely to be familiar with the term over women, and democrats are more likely to understand and use the term over republicans. Now you may be wondering where the term came from, and to my surprise, it’s been around for a while. The term was highlighted after the trial of the death of Trayvon Martin in 2014 and the rise of the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag.

The term cancel culture was originally a justice movement. There are negative effects of Cancel Culture including: decline in mental health, invasion of privacy, and victims tend to be women and minorities because they are held at a higher standard than men. Along with these negative effects, comes positive ones as well, including holding people accountable for their actions and combatting important topics like racism, sexism, and abuse and harm to others, to name a few.

People are so quick to judge and cancel others before thinking about what happens behind the scenes. For example, when Simone Biles withdrew from the individual all-around competition at the 2021 Olympics, people were quick to say that she was a quitter. When in truth, Biles knew that her mental health took priority.

Mbaiba Nying, the President of Chi Upsilon Sigma, shared the values of the sorority saying, “we focus on political, social, cultural, and educational awareness during our ‘week of wisdom.’” When asked why their sorority decided to host a presentation about Cancel Culture, Ashley Nesmith said, “ because it is relevant and a lot of people talk about it, but many people are misinformed. We are educating and bringing awareness to students at Radford University.”