Name: Let's reframe cancel culture
Uploaded: 2023-10-20T14:47:22Z
Duration: 14 min 27 s
Description: Cancel culture launched a reckoning that was long overdue — but that doesn't mean it's getting everything right. Filmmaker and actor Sarah Jones slips in and out of various characters as she shares her personal experience with cancel culture and suggests a better way to hold others — and ourselves — to account.

Sarah Jones: Let's reframe cancel culture

Let's reframe cancel culture

Cancel culture launched a reckoning that was long overdue — but that doesn't mean it's getting everything right. Filmmaker and actor Sarah Jones slips in and out of various characters as she shares her personal experience with cancel culture and suggests a better way to hold others — and ourselves — to account.  

Cancel culture is not a new phenomenon; for many marginalized people, exclusion and silencing have defined their lives for generations. A filmmaker describes how her own work to destigmatize sex workers was derailed by online attacks, costing her relationships and focus on her mission. While public shaming can sometimes serve justice, it often leaves lasting harm, fear, and division instead of progress. Real accountability and change begin with honest self-reflection and empathy, not banishment.