As a term that holds a longer history in the Urban Dictionary than in the Merriam-Webster, cancel culture has proved its peculiarly unmoving position in history alongside its unmistakable mark in mainstream culture. Modern-day ostracism of those who act poorly is appealing to impose order against the ramifications of the right to exercise free speech. Moreover, cancel culture serves as a tool to measure society’s moral standards. However, the very factors that encourage its use only serve to aggravate its problematic nature, making it a vicious and ineffective social retribution system.
As adjudicators within the court of public opinion, citizens have the responsibility to judge the wrongdoings of defendants fairly. The certainty of a supposedly fair trial leads to groups of outspoken netizens feeling justified in ruining someone’s career and/or reputation. The supposed universality and impartiality of public opinion are supposed to serve as qualifications for the use of canceling to build a just society. Yet, this ideal is impossible because tabloid journalism leads to a biased, selective body of cancel case entries. Rather than letting the public take their time to assess controversies from a moral standpoint, the media allows them to take shortcuts, leading to quick and possibly incorrect decision-making.
On June 30, two of the biggest names in Korean professional women’s volleyball were dropped for the upcoming season and their transfers to Greece were canceled. This was due to confirmed allegations of school bullying in their past. To volleyball fans, this issue was reminiscent of the 2009 assault of male national volleyball player Park Chul Woo by his coach Lee Sang Youl. Nonetheless, unlike the female athletes — who happen to be twins — Lee’s career continued, going on to coach college teams and landing a position in the pro-league as a director.
The disparity of the consequences for perpetrators in both cases seems to overshadow the fact that all three individuals committed acts of unacceptable violence. It also highlights the connection between the volume of media coverage and the perceived immorality of their behavior. According to BIG KINDS, a big data and analysis service, 809 articles were published with the keywords “twin sisters” and “volleyball” since the bullying allegations surfaced on February 7. This is nearly four times the number of articles with the keywords “Park Chul-woo,” “assault,” and “volleyball” dating back to his exposé in 2009. Thus, public cancelations can be heavily biased, holding some public figures accountable for their actions while others get off scot-free.
Unfortunately, even for cases that garner enough public attention for potentially fruitful discussion, the nature of cancel culture prohibits healthy deliberation. Mob mentality tends to lead to witch hunts instead of educating the public on society’s updated moral standards. This lack of awareness is particularly serious given the rising consideration of mental health and abuse among the Korean public. Being uninformed about such oncoming progressive ideas while still acknowledging their existence as a problem, popular sentiment gets stuck in a state of deadlock for social awareness and development. As such, there are unenlightened but aggravated netizen groups who are focused on bringing down individuals and turning them into internet memes rather than examining the reasons for their cancelation.
Cancel culture is not a healthy phenomenon in itself, and it becomes especially toxic when the public inflicts damage in the hasty search for what they believe to be socially produced justice. When acting according to mob mentality to clumsily resolve controversies, people neglect the victims and their wellbeing. Of course, disputes are inevitable in the march towards progress. In this sense, cancelation may act in opposition to growth by silencing discussion. Hopefully, in the future, the repercussions of cancel culture will be realized, and public reaction will reflect the image of society that it wishes to achieve rather than simply eradicating everything that it fears.