What’s up guys, it’s Emile Ennis Jr. with Clevver News, and for many, the word ‘cancelled’
might hit a little too close to home as we were forced to wave our 2020 plans goodbye.
But with each passing week, another celebrity’s entire credibility becomes suddenly stripped
from them in a little phenomenon we like to call ‘cancel culture’.
It all starts with one simple tweet, a viral video or one unconfirmed rumor, which instantly
serve as a celebrity’s RSVP to the #OverParty.
Although some instances of cancel culture were well-deserved, like R. Kelly, Harvey
Weinstein, & more others have fallen victim to what many perceive to be a means for ending
a celebrity’s entire career altogether.
One of the most notable instances of cancel culture happened before “celebrities being
cancelled” was a weekly occurrence.
Back in 2016, Kim Kardashian exposed Taylor Swift after recording a phone conversation
between her and Kanye West, where she approves Kanye’s line about having sex with her in
his song “Famous.”
Although Kim says otherwise, the song also references the fact that he made Taylor famous,
in which he also called her a ‘b*tch,’ which she claims to have never approved.
Both Kim and Taylor claimed two different things, which prompted many people to use
the hashtags #TaylorSwiftIsCancelled and #TaylorSwiftIsOverParty, along with the snake emoji after Kim posted
this tweet shortly after.
She said, “Wait, it’s legit National Snake Day?!?!?They have holidays for everybody,
I mean everything these days!”
The 2016 election was held in the same year as this all went down as fans continued to
find anything they could to cause Taylor to completely break.
She was criticized for not coming out in support of any presidential candidate, however, according
to Taylor, her support would’ve likely only done harm to the situation.
She said, “The summer before that election, all people were saying was ‘She’s calculated.
She’s manipulative.
She’s not what she seems.
She’s a snake.
She’s a liar.’
These are the same exact insults people were hurling at Hillary.”
Taylor went on to question, “Would I be an endorsement or would I be a liability?
Literally millions of people were telling me to disappear.
So I disappeared.
In many senses.”
Taylor eventually opened up about how this completely shattered her image and took a
toll on her mental health to Vogue magazine, saying that receiving messages like that could
be perceived by someone as being told “to kill yourself,” adding, “When you say
someone is cancelled, it's not a TV show.
It's a human being.”
She also revealed to the magazine, “I don't think there are that many people who can actually
understand what it's like to have millions of people hate you very loudly,” and that
the only way that she could preserve her mental health was to make music.
Thus, Reputation was born, which included many jabs toward the people who have wronged
her, and Taylor even utilized the ‘snake’ theme, all thanks to Kim, in the promo for
the album.
But the year leading up to the album release, Taylor went radio silent on social media.
She opened up about the effects of millions of people ‘hating’ her in her Netflix
documentary Miss Americana, as she broke down saying that while most days she’s ok, but
other days, the hate just gets “loud”.
I just wanted to disappear.
Nobody physically saw me for a year.
And that was what I thought they wanted.”
This caused Taylor to disappear from Hollywood, and ditch any and all appearances and award
shows for about a year.
Although she came back stronger than ever, releasing two albums since Reputation and
having gained back her massive fanbase, 2016 was undoubtedly one of Taylor’s darkest
years as an artist.
A similar scenario also caused YouTuber Jenna Mourey AKA Jenna Marbles to completely leave
her entire platform that she had worked so hard on for over 10 years to build.
In 2020 alone, we’ve seen celebrities and influencers become cancelled more than ever
before.
Following the serious accusations surrounding James Charles, Jeffree Star and Shane Dawson
involving past remarks on social media that included racism and pedophilia, Jenna decided
to take full accountability for her own past videos back in June, and remove herself entirely
from the situation.
In an 11-minute video titled, “A Message,” Jenna revealed that she decided to step down
from the platform indefinitely.
She began by apologizing for her past actions, which included doing blackface during a 2011
video mocking Nicki Minaj, making a racist joke about Asian men and slut-shaming a woman
in another video.
Jenna revealed that she’s being “requested to address things in her past,” but also
gets tweets from fans who label her as an “unproblematic queen.”
She took full accountability for everything she’s done in the past in a very classy
and well-spoken apology, and even made many of her “problematic” videos private at
the time.
She also revealed that she doesn’t want to chance the fact that people might be offended
by the things she posts, saying, “I’m sorry if any of that holds any nostalgia for
you, but I’m literally not trying to put out negative things into the world.”
Although Jenna did display a ‘problematic’ past, many still believe that she didn’t
have to go as far as completely leaving her platform as a result.
As writer Hank Green put it, QUOTE, “I really strongly believe that we should be judged
not by how we acted when we were ignorant, but how we responded when we were informed.
By that measure, Jenna Marbles is head and shoulders beyond a great many YouTubers.”
Unlike many others whose apologies were met with extreme backlash after they made excuses
for their past actions, Jenna doesn’t make up excuses as she shared a moment of deep
self-reflection with fans.
And since she and her longtime boyfriend Julien Solomita announced that they would be ending
their podcast earlier this week, it appears Jenna has been putting her mental health first
and living a normal life without having to worry about the public scrutiny that comes
with posting a video.
She broke her silence on the couple’s final podcast, to give fans an update, saying, “I
just want you to know I’m doing okay.
I’m getting help and I’m just being a person right now.”
Whether Jenna chooses to return to YouTube or not, we’re just happy to hear that she
is putting her health and her happiness first and foremost.
Speaking of other YouTubers, James Charles is one of the most notable influencers who
has publicly crashed and burned as a result of ‘cancel culture’, rumors and unconfirmed
facts.
Dramageddon first struck back in 2019 when fellow beauty guru Tati Westbrook released
the infamous 40-minute video titled “Bye Sister” exposing James for what started
as backlash over hair vitamins that quickly escalated into a literal MESS of sexual harassment
allegations.
This caused James to lose 3 million subscribers, while Tati gained 4 million to which he was
forced to share his side of what happened in a follow-up video titled, “Tati,” where
he apologized for everything he put Tati and her husband James through over the past few
weeks.
That’s when Jeffree Star inserted himself into the drama, revealing in a now-deleted
tweet that some of Tati’s claims were the exact reason that he QUOTE “banned James
Charles from ever coming to our house.”
Although Tati has since come clean about falsely accusing James of some serious allegations
while blaming Jeffree and Shane for manipulating her into exposing James, this also took a
toll on James’ mental health.
James appeared in a video alongside Nikita Dragun and Joey Graffeca four months after
Tati’s video, and revealed that if it wasn’t for his close friends, he wouldn’t be alive
today.
He credited his good friends, saying, “If I didn't have that, I would be dead right
now.
I don't think I would have made it through everything that went on without them being
with me and making sure that I was okay and waking up in the middle of the night to check
on me every 10 minutes to make sure I didn't, like, literally do something dangerous.”
James has since made a pretty full recovery, staying out of drama and focusing on his brand,
upcoming collaborations and product reveals.
Although there are MANY other instances than just the three we mentioned, we wanted to
shed light on the harmful effect that cancel culture can have on celebrities whom we sometimes
forget are people, just like us.
Some much more serious instances of cancel culture, however, have proven to be beneficial
and have kicked-started movements such as “Me Too”, but it is vital that when speaking
out, make sure facts are accurate and that what you’re contributing isn’t harmful
to a person’s mental health.
For more on James Charles, you can click right over here to watch another Clevver video.
Then be sure to let me know all your thoughts on the Internet’s attempt at canceling celebrities
down here in the comments, and if you think it’s doing more harm or good to celebrities’
images.
I’m your host Emile Ennis Jr. bye guys!