Call-out culture: Difference between revisions

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Call-out culture (also known as outrage culture) is a term which describes a set of behaviors that aim to hold individuals and groups accountable by calling attention to behavior perceived as problematic, usually on social media.^[1][2] A variant of the term, cancel culture, refers to a call to boycott an offending person, product, show or other entity, as punishment for this perceived problematic behavior.

Michael Bérubé, a professor of Literature at Pennsylvania State University, states, "in social media, what is known as 'callout culture' and 'ally theater' (in which people demonstrate their bona fides as allies of a vulnerable population) often produces a swell of online outrage that demands that a post or a tweet be taken down or deleted".^[3]

David Brooks of The New York Times has called call-out culture naïve, criticized it for being polarizing and for lacking due process and a route for redemption, and compared it to "the way students denounced... their elders for incorrect thought during Mao's Cultural Revolution and in Stalin's Russia".^[4] In her book Problematic: How Toxic Callout Culture Is Destroying Feminism, freelance journalist, author, and activist Dianna E. Anderson stated that "The line between calling out and harassment is a thin one, especially in a world of social media "pile ons" and blacklisting".^[5]

Call-out culture has also been characterised positively, with Dr. Ealasaid Munro, a lecturer in Communications, Media, and Culture at the University of Stirling describing it as one "in which sexism or misogyny can be called out and challenged... facilitat[ing] the creation of a global community of feminists who use the Internet both for discussion and activism".^[2]

Lisa Nakamura, a professor at the University of Michigan, described cancel culture as a "cultural boycott" adding that "when you deprive someone of your attention, you're depriving them of a livelihood."^[6] Canadian journalist, Connor Garel described cancel culture as a "makeshift digital contract wherein people loosely agree not to support a person (especially economically) in order to somehow deprive them of their livelihood".^[7] Jesse Kinos-Goodin, writing in the CBC Radio blog, says that he believes the term to have originated on Black Twitter, saying that it been used since 2015, with widespread usage of the expression beginning in 2018.^[8]

New York Times fashion writer Jonah Engel Bromwich defines cancel culture as "total disinvestment in something (anything)", often for "transgressing fans' expectations".^[6] According to Bromwich, being "cancelled" may lead to the literal cancellation of events and programs. Bill O'Reilly, Charlie Rose, and Roseanne Barr have all had shows cancelled as a result of being "called-out" and "canceled".^[6]