Month: November 2019

Ella DeKunder, Veronica Emigh, Joshua Reynolds 

ENGL 137H 

November 15, 2019 

Work Plan: History of a Public Controversy, Cancel Culture 

History of a Public Controversy: Cancel Culture 

Duties: 

Ella DeKunder – Scribe 

Veronica Emigh – Park ranger 

Joshua Reynolds – Goalkeeper  

Timeline: 

Week of 11/11/19 

• Choose topic, background research, decide roles 

Week of 11/18/19 

• Storyline  
•  Dec 2- Start gathering images and videos, begin writing script 

• Dec 4- Have all interviews finished, put the video together, finish script. 
• Dec 7- Begin video editing and narration recording. 
• Dec 9- Clean everything up and double check all the work. 
• Dec 11- Present videos in class 
• Dec 14- Final video cuts by noon 

  Definition: 

Cancelled: form of boycott where called-out person is thrust out of social and professional circles on social media or the real world. The internet facilitates and magnifies this exclusion.  

• The person/organization/show can never be redeemed; must be cancelled permanently 
• Demonetized or de-platformed (in terms of YouTube) 

• Looking up past things a person said out of context from multiple years or even decades ago 

 In our video project, we would like to explore the social controversy surrounding cancel culture and the act of calling out certain people based on their past actions or stances. We would like to emphasize how social media and the internet has magnified this phenomenon recently and how now that people can build their professional career on the internet, “cancelling” them not only destroys their reputation but their livelihood as well. The framing questions we are building our video around center on as a baseline stance, is it ever acceptable to cancel someone, and are there any acts that should be considered irredeemable? In addition, what is a reasonable alternative to cancel culture that still demands accountability for actions, but allows for a more civil discussion as opposed to complete shutdown?  

In terms of historizing the issue, we would like to draw nuanced comparisons between cancelling and boycotting, and how those similar concepts actually represent different realities in history. Both attempt to promote positive change by protesting ideas, but lead to drastically different outcomes. We will also contextualize our argument by explaining how the introduction of social media and the internet changed the effect and extent of how detrimental being cancelled is. In our video, we will use audio bites and video clips from news  sources, social media platforms such as Twitter, one of the largest birthing grounds of cancel culture, and personal interviews with students at Penn State. 

 Day One: 

– relation to doxing politics/social 

– comedians and celebrities  

• Cristiano Ronaldo – sexual abuse  

• Taylor Swift – common trope 
• Kayne West – “slavery was a choice” 
• James Charles – racism/transphobia/ripping off fans  
• Michael Jackson – pedophilia  
• Steven Crowder – kicked off YouTube, demonetized  

• Soph – far-right, kicked off YouTube, banned  
• Kevin Hart – made a homophobic joke in 2008 and couldn’t host Oscars  
• Dave Chapelle – sticks and stones  

– political/legitimate figures  

• Trump – supporters (banned on twitter)  

• Political polarization fuels this fire 

– Pop culture/Movies 

• Joker movie  
• Sticks and Stones 

– how they responded 

– interview people 

– online surveys  

– research and data 

– clear contextualization  

– boycotting relationship 

 Day Two: 

Merriam Webster Definition: 

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/cancel-culture-words-were-watching 

 Professor Taheri link 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/02/style/what-is-cancel-culture.html 

Bottom line: cancel culture is a negative thing, a form of censorship, not purely malicious, can even be well-intentioned, but still detrimental. 

Victims are bullies and bullies are victims  

Conclusion: we need to be promoting effective civil discourse and cancel culture is inherently a form of censorship and endorses the polarization of the media and society. Instead of ignoring ideas or people we don’t agree with, we need to engage in meaningful discourse with them for any progress to occur.  

Levels of Cancellation Severity: 

-Does something someone else finds annoying  

-Says something controversial  

-Does something controversial  

-Does something outright wrong and appalling that should be called out* 

-Morally unacceptable and/or illegal*  

*How should we address these?  

Video Formatting Ideas: 

-Discussing the definition and origin of cancel culture  

-Touching on a few examples of people across different media outlets who have been cancelled 

-Surveying people on campus about people they consider cancelled or that they have seen being cancelled in the media and their thoughts on the issue/what needs to be done. Is it ok? If not, what should we be doing instead? 

Survey Questions: 

What is cancel culture in one or two words to you? 

1. Is it acceptable to cancel someone? Yes or No 

1. Should any of these people be cancelled? List people (choose any of the above) 

1. What is severe enough to deem someone cancelled? (choose any of the above) 

 Day Three 

Framing Questions 

1. Is it acceptable to cancel someone? 

1. What things deserve redemption?  

1. Are there any acts that are absolutely irredeemable?  

1. Why do we as a society feel the need to censor people? 

1. How do we promote civil discourse? 

1. What would qualify as reasonable accountability? How do we hold one another accountable without completely shutting them down?  

 Historicize the controversy 

Before 

• Only a couple sites to release news (CNN, NBC, ABC, Fox) so without internet, the censorship not apparent because edited out, and now anybody can make news or be a journalist or create information 
• Boycotts used to be a constructive means of promoting equality and fighting censorship 

Now 

• the opposite: used to abuse and silence 
• Social media proliferates  

Topic: Shift in Society’s Understanding of Gender Identity

Purpose: Inform and elaborate on a rapidly expanding topic and encourage equality and inclusion of all people regardless of their conformity or nonconformity to traditional gender roles and means of expression

Introduction: (Show two toys on the screen, a doll and a pile of legos) Which of these toys would you rather play with? Talk about my own experience with Christmas, how my grandma always got me dolls, and how I really preferred playing legos with my brother, and doing arts and crafts. My grandma wasn’t ill intentioned, but she didn’t understand why a little girl wouldn’t enjoy these things, after all, it was her prominent role in society to raise her three kids, cook, and clean, it was all she knew. I had more artistic, perhaps egocentric ambitions, because the society I grew up in told me that was possible. When did this change happen, and why seemingly so suddenly? How is this a metaphor for our society’s changing gender norms?

1. Main Idea – The equality of men and women made challenging our traditional gender roles, and how they played into our identity, possible. No longer was sex and gender one and the same.
   1. Second wave feminism, equality in the workplace, women emerge as leaders and some men take on roles as homemakers.
2. Main Idea – This led to an era of questioning and self-doubt that eventually sparked further scientific research into the matter, more media coverage, and social/political debate.
   1. Numerous studies were conducted, at first gender dysmorphia was considered a neurological disorder, before scientists gained a better understanding of it
   2. Researchers now believe gender expression is based on both nature and nurture, and parenting/early life can play a significant role
   3. Gender neutral parenting pros: allows freedom of expression and the ability to find your own identity without the influence of societal norms, cons: can lead to emotional distress and confusion when a young child isn’t sure how they’re supposed to behave, and childhood should be fun, not stressful.
3. Main Idea- With the emergence of new terminology and new laws to protect freedom of expression, more variation was fostered and allowed to exist in regards to both sexuality and gender identity
   1. Terms such as gender-fluid, gender nonconforming, gender-neutral, non-binary, etc. emerge
   2. Women’s and men’s fashion became increasingly lenient
   3. Women and men are (for the most part) encouraged to possess qualities that are traditionally linked to the other gender, such as empathy for men and assertiveness for women
4. Main Idea- However, because traditional gender roles were upheld for so long, some preconceived notions about what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman still exist
   1. Ex. man doesn’t ask a stranger for directions because he doesn’t want to be seen as incapable, woman doesn’t ask because she’s afraid the stranger will harm her
   2. Study conducted about children’s toys: father is more likely to offer boys traditionally masculine options, whereas moms tend to offer toys regardless of gender (father protecting son from society’s notion that boys who aren’t “masculine enough” will be bullied?)

Conclusion: Everyone should be aware that notions and stigmas we hold about gender are often unconscious and beyond are control, but they can have a significant impact on society as a whole. It may seem like a long way away, but when you are placed in a position of authority as a CEO, a teacher, coach, or parent in the future, you have the power to shape the next generation of minds, and you have an important choice to make. Foster the growth and expression of our youth, or suppress them. Make them feel ashamed to be who they are, or make them feel heard. Thank you.

Visual aids: Pictures/graphics relating to the major points in the topic to spark memory and to intrigue listeners. Haven’t fully planned these out yet, kinda a work in progress. Suggestions are welcome!

*I know this is pretty long, so please tell me what points/ideas you feel are crucial to this speech, or most interesting, and suggest points that are redundant or boring to cut out. Thank you :)*

When diving into the topic of gender identity, it was hard for me to focus on just one cause for the surge in self-expression and nonconformist attitudes about a topic that was so black-and-white less than a hundred years ago. I found myself pinpointing second wave feminism as the launching point, and referencing numerous studies that prove we still hold underlying gender-based assumptions about an individual’s behavior, regardless of how inclusive and nonjudgmental we claim to be. This shift is still in the works today, and because it is still unfurling as we speak, some aspects are widely debated, or not fully understood. All of these factors made for a challenging topic to tackle.

The biggest piece of guidance I got from the peer reviews was that my paper provided solid evidence for the shift, but lacked adequate amounts of analysis, or a breakdown of each item piece by piece. I tend to summarize too much, and assume the reader understands what points I’m making implicitly, instead of elaborating and explaining. I had a similar problem in my rhetorical analysis essay, and I’m determined to prove myself this time around 🙂

As for interesting discoveries, there were many, but I personally love the psychology behind our decision making process as humans. We are such complex species that we have developed an ability to automatically assume things about an individual subconsciously, and these shortcuts in our brains are very useful in some situations, but they can also get us into trouble. For example, I learned that fathers are statistically more likely to offer traditionally male toys to boys, and very unlikely to offer boys traditionally female toys, whereas mothers do not possess such a strong implicit bias, and provide girls and boys alike with both traditionally male and female toys. Upon further research, one possible reason behind this difference is that men understand their role in society is to be viewed as strong and capable, and therefore, fathers fear that if their son is too “girly” he will be seen as weak or incapable by his peers, or other authority figures. The topic of gender identity is littered with little trends like these that feed stereotypes that our society would arguably be better off without, but that’s a whole other debate.

Understanding this shift in gender identity, and where we could still improve on this front as a society, is crucial to understanding the current climate of family dynamics, and furthermore, understanding how to get along with and form connections with individuals who are different from ourselves. At the very least, we should be aware that all of our actions as a parent will affect our children to some extent later in life, and whether we choose to impose strictly traditional values and gender roles (male and female) on our children, or be more lenient (multiple forms of gender expression), there are pros and cons that will likely result. Taking the time to understand the trends that exist can help an authority figure predict the psychological affects their parenting style will likely have on their child later in life. Making sure the next generation of leaders is well equipped and feels accepted for who they are is essential to running a productive society, if you ask me.

This project has helped me evolve significantly as a writer. I will admit, when I saw the rubric on that first day in class, a 7-10 page paper seemed so daunting, I had no idea what topic I was going to choose, nor where to even begin when I picked a topic, but now I’m actually pretty proud of myself. There’s so much information out there, and so many avenues I could’ve gone down to prove my shift’s existence, that I had a hard time organizing my thoughts into coherent paragraphs that worked together and built off of each other, but eventually, it all came together. After staring at my computer screen and moving half-written fragments of paragraphs into different orders until it finally made sense, I felt relieved. Needless to say, this was a stressful, yet rewarding experience. Apparently so much so that this RCL blog is now way longer than it should be :O (Sorry peer editor).