Cancel Culture Crash Course
“Wokeism,” or rather, being a decent human being, has been all the rage on social media for nearly a decade. Where bullying, bigoted speech, and slanderous comments once lived, is now filled with body positivity, political correctness, and the like. Those who have always ridden the wave of decency felt no shift, but those who flirted (or full-on tangoed) with less-than-PC behavior in the past had secrets to hide. Thus, cancel culture was born.
Whether you agree or disagree with cancel culture and how it manifests itself in social media users, one thing is certain: The power of the people is real. Influencers and celebs are nothing without their dedicated fan bases, so these high-society folks must stay in the good graces of those who uphold them.
liugottabekiddingme via Instagram
Over time, social media users have become very skilled at cyber-sleuthing into celebrities’ pasts. So much so that many celebrities forget existing social media accounts that they once were active on but haven’t used in years. Sometimes, a fan finds nothing except the socially-awkward selfie of a pre-teen wearing 3D glasses with the lenses popped out, but other times… much less tasteful things are found. All it takes is one likely-former fan to start tweeting about a celebrity’s distasteful past to get the cancellation ball rolling. When it rains, it pours.
Parasocial Fan-Celeb Relationships
There’s a certain exchange of entitlement between fans and celebrities. Fans give a celebrity social currency, and in return, a celeb offers their fans a sense of belonging and inclusion. The “special” feeling that they have let only their fans in on the real person behind the celebrity mask. This dynamic inadvertently creates a parasocial relationship between the two parties.
Assuming a celebrity's personality without having met them or knowing anything else about them other than their talent or craft sets fans up to be let down. Why are we placing exuberant amounts of value on celebrities who have mastered the art of self-branding?
Context: The Djerf Avenue scandal
Inclusion is an innate human desire, yet it also pollutes every corner of stan culture and fanhood. That’s because fans are not actually “in” on anything. They are putting money and faith in celebrities who, more likely than not, have dark pasts and loose morals. Celebrities place bets on the pseudo-connections they form with their fan bases in hopes they will rise to the top. But then they rip those same parasocial connections away with a “don’t call me Kayleigh” or a “you don’t know me” if a bigoted comment from 2013 slips through the cracks. They only show you what they want you to see.
Love Island USA’s Cierra Ortega is Booted from the Villa
If you’ve been keeping up with the dating reality program on Peacock, you know that contestant and influencer Cierra Ortega was recently eliminated from the competition. This occurred after one of her Instagram story posts from 2024 resurfaced online, showcasing a rather discriminatory choice of words often used derogatorily toward Asian populations. We won’t showcase that language here, but all it takes is one quick Google search to find it. Some Ortega supporters were left speechless and angry, while others remained neutral or even in support of the influencer, claiming that people can change.
What follows, of course, is a half-baked apology that is inherently robotic, spoken from a media-trained perspective in hopes of salvaging what is left of her fan base.
Fans want to believe the celebrity they’ve put on a pedestal is a decent human being, but these celebrities are merely a figment of their imagination. Thus, assuming a celebrity’s moral innocence is parasocial at best.
Ethel Cain
This isn’t to say that a celebrity’s bigoted comments and actions cannot emotionally affect those who were supporting the celebrity—those feelings and emotions are completely valid. When you adore this carefully crafted, nearly statuesque concept of a person, anything that taints that perfect image feels like betrayal. How could you do this to me?
Singer-songwriter, Ethel Cain, has been under fire in recent weeks because of “edgelord” comments and bigoted remarks that she made when she was 19 years old. Her fans are feeling betrayed by the queer artist, in part because of her bigotry but also because another celebrity they thought represented them in multiple ways has let them down.
Art offers inclusivity to those who feel ostracized by their own realities; this creates a reliance on art and on celebrities who help their fans feel seen. Therefore, when a celebrity’s art does not completely match a fan’s perception of them, whether it’s something as small as differing niche interests or something as big as bigotry and prejudice, it feels like a real loss. My point? Expect nothing from celebrities except their craft. Everything else is a waiting game of disappointment.
cierraortega via TikTok
