Gen Z’s Cancel Culture Gone Too Far

Cancel Culture: Gen Z’s Best Friend

Gen Z is known for their bold statements and their bravery in expressing their thoughts. This shows in their lifestyles, fashion and even their career paths, so it’s only normal that they apply this on the celebrities they support. Gen Z adopted the Cancel Culture and almost one celebrity gets cancelled per week. 

Before blaming Gen Z completely, I have to say that Gen Z weren’t exactly the ones who started the cancel culture, but they were the reason why it became a thing around the internet. 

When Did Cancel Culture Start?

Cancel culture dates back to the 18th century, taking the shape of public shaming and boycotting. It was mainly associated with politics before it got tangled up with celebrity drama as well.

It is said that the first celebrity who ever got cancelled was back in 1981. A silent-film actor Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle got cancelled after being accused of sexually assaulting and accidentally causing the death of actress Virginia Rappe at a San Francisco hotel party. Even when he was acquitted, his works still got banned and boycotted.

The story has more complicated twists and there are also other celebrities who were cancelled way before Gen Z was even born. 

But even if Gen Z didn’t “invent” the cancel culture, they’re using it with way more cruelty and roughness than the past generations. While it’s good to stand your ground when it comes to your beliefs, Gen Z has taken the cancel culture to the next level, cancelling various celebrities and public figures over silly reasons. 

There’s a long list of Victims of Cancel culture that is growing day by day, this is a small glimpse of how brutal Gen Z has become with this trend 

Celebrity Victims of Cancel Culture

1. Rachel Zegler:

Even after starring in two of the most anticipated movies, The Snow White and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Gen Z flooded social media with negative reviews on her performance in both movies.

Acting is a skill to be learnt and practised.  It’s also subjective, what appeals to you might be awful to someone else, so why hate on someone so hard when there’s always room for improvement?

Gen Z cancelled Rachel, constantly posting about how she should end her acting career and some users even hated on the actress personally.

2. Blake Lively:

Another actress who starred in a popular movie adaptation, It Ends With Us, got cancelled. 

At first, Gen Z didn’t like how she said to wear your florals to watch the romance movie she’s promoting because it’s unsuitable to use such a delicate description when the romance movie in question is about abusive relationships. Their point was valid here until Blake stated that’s how she was asked to promote the movie, to focus only on the romance side.

Blake got involved later on in a lawsuit against her co-star, Justin Baldoni, accusing him of harassment and the lawsuit’s results were in her favour, but Gen Z, stubborn as ever, kept her cancelled. For them, her image was too stained now, even when she’s the victim.

3. Justin Bieber:

An icon that Gen Z has loved their entire childhood, keeps falling under the Cancelling bus. 

He’s the most known celebrity and the world has seen him growing up. Gen Z should understand him by now, but why does he get cancelled? Privacy.

Justin keeps asking for his privacy around paparazzi, but Gen Z thinks he should be nicer about it. Justin has been nice for years, only now he’s starting to show his irritation about it. There are videos of him as a child artist getting mobbed by paparazzi and he didn’t do anything about it back then. So, why is he getting cancelled for simply asking for his rights?

4. Miley Cyrus:

Miley who was every little girl’s favourite has now become on the top of the Cancel list. What did Miley do to get cancelled? She stopped being Hannah Montana after her contract was over.

Genz didn’t like Miley’s sudden change and even now that both Gen Z and Miley have become grown ups, she’s still treated as this rebellious child. Come on, though, haven’t we all experienced this ourselves? A teenager who rebels as a young adult then finds their way back. If you want your friends to forgive your attitude, why can’t you understand Miley as well?

5. Jojo Siwa:

Similar to Miley, Jojo opted to change her good-girl image and released songs based on that concept. While lots of artists play into this theme at some point of their careers, Jojo was widely hated for being open about it. 

She’s also criticised for her spontaneousness which is bizarre since Gen Z claim they prefer natural celebrities who feel like real people.

Cancel Culture is Toxic: Biases and Double-standards 

What makes Gen Z decide whether a celebrity should be cancelled or not? Some celebrities are seen savage when behaving rudely, while others are cancelled for accidentally rolling their eyes at something.

It’s natural to judge a celebrity based on your beliefs, but it’s unfair to let your personal preferences shape harsh judgements on one simple act. Gen Z seems to be digging after celebrities, lingering at each mistake they make.

They even tend to forget the celebrity’s past legacy, throwing every successful work they made under the carpet, just because of this one small mistake. 

Effects of Cancel Culture: Ending Celebrity Worship

Besides being mostly biased and cruel, Gen Z’s cancel culture has helped them get over the celebrity worship syndrome. 

Celebrity worship syndrome is a type of parasocial relationship that happens when an admiration of a celebrity turns obsessive, occupying the person’s whole time. 

This syndrome has widely spread recently because of social media. It made fans become more engaged and involved in celebrities’ lives causing them to revolve their whole lives around them, but with cancel culture showing up this has changed.

Cancel Culture has given Gen Z a safe space to point out a celebrity’s wrong doing. It sheds light on the imperfections of celebrities, sparking discussions around them and eventually making Gen Z realise that a celebrity isn’t a god. You can love and support an artist for their art, but you don’t particularly have to yield for everything else they say.

So while Cancel culture has many negative psychological effects on celebrities, it has positive ones on Gen Z themselves. 

Can Celebrities Survive the Cancel Curse?

So far, Gen Z has proved that they don’t forget easily. A celebrity once cancelled is most likely to stay hated for a couple of years before the heat is gone. It has become difficult for celebrities to change their image once tainted because of social media. 

Cancel Culture is cruel in so many ways, they impact celebrities’ careers and personal lives. Most of the time it’s based on pure bullying and illogical judgement. How cruel and final it is shouldn’t be something to be proud of.

So, can a celebrity really survive the Cancel Curse? Yes, but it’s only when enough time has passed and Gen Z has a new focus. Someone else to cancel and hate on, instead.