Instilled with the help of social media, cancel culture involves taking away support from a public figure who does or says something that could be considered objectionable or potentially offensive. Media can also be canceled if the messages or overarching themes are found to be socially unacceptable. J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series of books, was publicly called out for her remarks about transgender people, leading many to cancel her.
“If you say something about someone who chooses something different, there’s organizations set up to start sending things around to get signatures and stuff,” Jackson said during the Variety Entertainment Marketing Summit. “And tell me this, as a heterosexual male, who’s going to send things around to get signatures based on your failures? There’s no one. There’s no organization.”
“Certain demographics have been conditioned because they’ve been taken advantage of in the earliest stages,” Jackson continued. “Once inferior, now they’re superior because we have no organization. The biggest target is heterosexual males in general.”
Jackson said he didn’t think he could be affected by cancel culture. “You gotta do something extremely bad to be canceled,” Jackson said, “and I think it’s so unfair to the people that are canceled.”
Newsweek reached out to the LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD for comment.
Many who engage in cancel culture see it as a form of participation in social justice. According to Psychology Today, one of the reasons people cancel others is because it causes division, allowing people to understand and recognize who does not share their moral values.
In October 2019, former President Barack Obama said cancel culture was an example of people being “judgmental.”
“That’s not activism,” Obama said during the Obama Foundation Summit. “That’s not bringing about change. If all you’re doing is casting out stones, you’re probably not going to get that far. That’s easy to do.”
Author Rowling faced criticism from social media users after posting about the usage of the phrase, “people who menstruate” instead of “women.”
“I’m sure there used to be a word for these people,” Rowling tweeted in June. “Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”
People responded to Rowling’s post by describing her choice of language as outdated. They also pointed out that transgender men could experience menstruation.
Daniel Radcliffe, star of the Harry Potter series of films, weighed in on the controversy in June.
“Transgender women are women,” Radcliffe wrote. “Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either [Rowling] or I.”
Some Harry Potter fansites also appeared to cancel Rowling.
“Our stance is firm: Transgender women are women,” read a statement on MuggleNet. “Transgender men are men. Non-binary people are non-binary. Intersex people exist and should not be forced to live in the binary. We stand with Harry Potter fans in these communities, and while we don’t condone the mistreatment [Rowling] has received for airing her opinions about transgender people, we must reject her beliefs.”
