Simone Driessen about cancel culture in #Ajouad: “The main thing is that we have a discussion with each other.”

The perfect catch?

Simone is a professor in Media & Popular Culture at the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication. She is currently researching what the cancel culture means for fans, including Marco Borsato's. In the episode of #Anouad she explains: “Fans have a certain emotional connection to someone. Previously you might have thought: Marco is the perfect catch and suddenly there is an allegation of sexually transgressive behaviour. That does something to fans.” Simone thinks Marco can still influence his fans. “If he occasionally lets us hear something, it will help the fans. Even if it's just something like 'I'll let it go through my lawyer”.

Difficult to define

The episode also talks about canceling J.K. Rowling. In 2020, she insulted transgender people on Twitter. She later took that a step further by joining gender-critical feminism, which was not appreciated by the trans community. This showed that people can also be canceled because of the position they take. But what is crossing a line? And who cancels whom exactly? That makes the cancel culture difficult; it is a broad concept, but difficult to define.

A discussion about norms and values

According to Simone, the main thing is that we have a discussion with each other about norms and values, about what we think is and is not possible. And that we start thinking about that something can hurt some people what others find good or normal. That changes over time, says Simone: “What was somewhat acceptable 20 years ago, we may have different ideas about it now. The cancel culture calls those boundaries into question. This friction must be open to discussion in society. So, if canceling brings us something, let it be that.”

Watch the Dutch episode featuring Simone of 10 November