What Is Cancel Culture and What Does It Mean in 2024?

Cancel culture, as a concept, has swept the globe in recent years. Though born from a specific social activist group it has exploded into the mainstream. 

It was the Australian Macquarie Dictionary’s word of the year in 2019 and was also on their shortlist for word of the decade in 2021. But, since at least 2020, it’s been deployed by conservatives as a catchy phrase to incite outrage alongside other ‘“leftie” agendas like political correctness or wokeness. 

But what is cancel culture? What does it mean to cancel someone or something? And is cancel culture a myth, anyway?

You might be wondering how to define ‘cancelled’ – let’s start with the Macquarie Dictionary’s definition of cancel culture.

In other words, cancel culture is the act of collective boycotting of something or someone after a perceived wrongdoing. The act of getting cancelled is enabled by social media. 

Despite how Macquarie defines ‘cancelled’ or ‘cancel culture’, cancelling isn’t just targeted at public figures – any person, brand or thing can be cancelled. 

Author and academic Eve Ng points this out in her definition of the term in Cancel Culture: A Critical Analysis. Ng defines cancelling and cancel culture as both the practice of cancelling someone (an individual, group, organisation, brand or even nation) and the surrounding commentary about their wrongdoing. 

This means cancelling someone is less like hitting backspace and deleting their name from the page and more like striking through the name and continuing to write about it alongside other people. 

Some early cancel culture examples can be traced back to what Clyde McGrady, from the Washington Post, defines as the first usage of “cancel” in today’s understanding. The lyrics of Chic’s song “Your Love Is Cancelled”, off their 1981 album Take It Off, is a sparse track punctuated by slap-bass and an undeniably 80s flute synth, where Nile Rodgers sings the titular phrase and gives birth to the metaphor that would culturally peak decades later. 

Ten years later, the word “cancel” emerges again in a film that boasts an all-star cast including Ice-T and Chris Rock (who had his own brush with cancel culture). In New Jack City, rising drug lord Nino Brown, played by Wesley Snipes, yells “Cancel that bitch!” after a fight with his girlfriend. The same phrase and scene are directly referenced in 50 Cent’s 2005 song “Hustler’s Ambition” and in Lil Wayne’s 2009 track “I’m Single”, securing its existence in the cultural unconscious.

When the idea of cancelling re-emerges years later, the misogynistic undertones of these earlier contexts are repressed. 

But when did cancel culture start?

Cancel culture manifested itself into the online term we know and understand now heavily because of social media.

Social media was crucial in enabling cancel culture to develop, specifically the online realm of Black Twitter – a space for both serious conversation about matters that affect Black communities, but also a space for humour and entertainment, by and for a collective of Black identities. 

There, the idea of cancelling, adapting older traditions of dissing and calling out, started alongside hashtag movements like #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter, which helped spread the action and language of cancel culture further. 

It’s clear that the verb “to cancel” (like the history of other words like “woke”, “cool” and “on fleek”) originated in Black culture but has been appropriated into white mainstream culture globally.

This is why it’s particularly interesting that a phrase like cancel culture can be awarded word of the year from Australia’s authority on our version of English, without clear reference to its origins. 

But, as McGrady points out, the notion of cancel culture has now been weaponised to “sneer at the values of many young Black liberals”, who were integral to the concept coming into popular circulation.

After decades of sexual abuse allegations, the hashtag #MuteRKelly led to a successful financial boycott of the now-convicted musician, who was handed a 20-year prison sentence for child pornography earlier this year. 

Other examples include Woody Allen, Louis C.K. and Kevin Spacey – who at various times were “cancelled” by various groups over abuse allegations. 

And Pepsi was cancelled after their ad featuring Kendall Jenner was condemned for appropriating a Black Lives Matter protest. 

But it’s not just happening in the United States, K-pop group BTS were cancelled by Chinese fans over a comment by a band member paying tribute to American and South Korean troops who fought in the Korean war. 

You also don’t have to be alive to be cancelled. For many, Picasso is cancelled and debates continue on whether Michael Jackson is cancelled. 

In Australia, more recently, student groups at the University of Melbourne have asked for philosophy academic Holly Lawford-Smith’s classes to literally be cancelled in a campaign on campus and online, that led to debate over academic free speech. 

Cancel culture has a fraught relationship with free speech. Some argue that cancelling gives rise to the voices of marginalised communities, who have previously had their opinions suppressed. Others say it stifles open debate. 

The examples listed above suggest there isn’t a specific way to cancel something – the effects of cancel culture are often quite disparate.

Different groups of people may consider someone to be cancelled when others do not. There doesn’t appear to be a One Size Fits All to cancelling. 

While some consider cancel culture as an act of free speech, conservatives have identified cancelling as a threat to free speech. In response, the US Conservative Political Action Conference in 2021 focused on the theme ‘America Uncancelled’. It’s a phrase that’s been plastered on t-shirts ever since. 

While it may seem that cancel culture and call out culture align with the same purpose, both concepts differ in resolution.

Call out culture has more of a direct focus on education and progress, provided the person being ‘called out’ has the desire to grow and learn from their wrongdoings or mistakes. Anyone can be called out, and by doing so, anyone can learn to educate themselves and/or change their perspective for the better.

Cancel culture aims to rid the person on the receiving end of any kind of redemption. So while the two are similar, keep in mind that they both come to different conclusions. And if you’re going to cancel or call someone out, remember what you want from it.

According to Refocus AU, cancel culture can have definitive effects on the mental health of the person being cancelled because of its ability to socially exclude and alienate. These feelings of isolation then potentially lead to depression and anxiety, and even exacerbate existing mental health conditions.

A sense of shame may also be felt by the cancelled person if they are concerned over what people think, or are dealing with the consequences of their actions, and therefore, facing backlash for it.

But the cancelled are not the only party affected by cancel culture.

The canceller also faces mental health challenges when they accept a fleeting sense of hope and justice as redemption from the cancelled. If the cancelled party doubles down on their opinion or continues to defend themselves from the backlash, this could compromise the sense of hope the canceller holds, and may make them feel like their work and effort wasn’t effective. This may result in feelings of self doubt and helplessness.

Carlow University asked counsellors about how to protect your mental health from cancel culture and found that the best solution is to unplug from social media, apologise, refrain from posting online when feeling emotional, consider the feelings of others, and talk to others about your feelings. A gradual sense of acceptance and forgiveness should develop thereafter, and sooner rather than later, you’ll be rid from the torturing dread that follows you (hopefully).

No one is ever truly safe from the mental anguish of cancel culture. No matter where you sit on the cancellation scale, you are still vulnerable to the repercussions of it, and its important to look out for yourself if you’re in deep.

Many may find cancel culture problematic in itself, and may wonder why or how cancel culture is, or can be, toxic.

Cancelling is one way social media was used to establish social justice. But the idea of media or activists playing a role in delivering justice isn’t anything new. 

Concerns have been raised about the effects of cancel culture on everyday citizens who aren’t as well-resourced or powerful as high profile people. At the same time, cancel culture has brought significant attention to the shortcomings of the legal justice system, particularly in relation to cases of sexual assault. 

Like any social phenomena, cancel culture is complex, and has been interpreted and deployed in many, many ways.

Australian society has seen engaged in it’s fair share of cancellations and cancel culture in recent years as social media becomes the birthing ground for holding people accountable.

One particular case, which has proven to be (somewhat) longwinded is the cancellation of Australian band Sticky Fingers.

The band’s frontman Dylan Frost was called out online in 2016 by the lead member of First Nations hardcore punk bank Dispossessed for complacent behaviour and shirtfronting at one of their gigs. Frost would be accused of violence in the same year after Indigenous singer Thelma Plum made an online statement detailing an altercation she had with the band member.

Many of the band’s attempts to rectify the situation wouldn’t suffice, and the band would essentially face pushback from radio stations, and be removed or blackballed from festival lineups.

While acts of cancelling are quite obvious throughout Australian society and culture, many believe that there is a double standard.

There have been countless celebrities or public figures who have gone on to be cancelled, however the effects of their cancellation aren’t as felt as people expected. Like when Sonia Krueger called for an end to Muslim migration because she “wants to feel safe” or Samantha Armytage said “good on her” to one twin on live TV for having lighter-coloured hair and eyes as opposed to her darker-haired and skinned twin. Even all-round awful politician Pauline Hanson has been cancelled multiple times for her often racist and xenophobic views, but she still has a backing because, well, we live in Australia.

So while the effects of cancel culture are most certainly felt, the length at which people remain cancelled works on a case-by-case basis.

The version of cancel culture that conservative factions of society decry, isn’t real.

Yes, people are called out for their questionable actions all the time, but a person is only truly cancelled if they face consequences, be they social and/or financial or within the justice system.

But we see time and time again that people’s reputations and livelihoods remain firmly in tact even after their wrongdoings are exposed. People and groups can and often are called out, yet they remain protected by the structures of our society – like the patriarchy – enough to hold onto their high-profile jobs or keep getting booked for gigs.

Without being held accountable, is someone really cancelled?

Madeline Lo-Booth is a journalist who writes on culture and politics.

Read more from VICE Australia and subscribe to our weekly newsletter, This Week Online.