If it is about analyzing the phenomenon of cancellation, not all cases are the same. And classifying them should help to understand if the social anger, in each case, is proportional to the offense. When there is a judicial condemnation, the public condemnation is logical that it runs at the same time, even that it is sustained once the sentence has been fulfilled. This is, for example, what happens with Bill Cosby, the American family television star of the ’80s, convicted of abusing and drugging 65 women. And locally, with Hector “Bambino” Veira.
“El Bambino served a sentence, but it was in the ’90s. If one looks at television content, for example from that time, or even from ten years ago, there are situations that cannot be produced today due to the changes that took place. Now, decades later, the figure of the Bambino came to be disapprovedand even his statue of San Lorenzo was removed, ”says Batalla.
There are cases of celebrities who have managed to clean up their image after spending time behind bars, such as Robert Downey Jr. or Mike Tyson. And even more controversial examples, such as that of Gloria Trevi and OJ Simpson, who became even more famous from prison. But it is not the norm. In another box are those who evade a judicial sentence, the result of an effective technical defense in Court. There the cancellation functions as a public reckoning.
A subdivision here separates the previous ones before morality and the public eye, those who have harmed themselves (cases of celebrities rehabilitated from alcohol and drugs, from Maradona to Chano), of those who have wronged third parties. The former are almost always embraced again by society if the expiation is credible. With the seconds that is more difficult, and forgiveness must come before the offended.
And it will also depend on how serious the crime of which the canceled party is accused. Abuse cases, even more so those involving minors, tend to be socially inexcusable. This is the case with the complaint Thelma Fardin Juan Darthes. “The thing about Darthés occurred just with the emergence of the ‘Not One Less’ movement and it had a very large media exposure,” Batalla specifies.
The word of the victim logically weighs, after decades of silence before public opinion, much more than that of the accused, who usually first denies, and then brandishes consent, knowing that acknowledging the fact is a certain judicial sentence. There the legal strategy prevails, and the defendant often embraces attack as the best defense. And he usually becomes the accuser, the complainant and journalists, as happens with Darthés, legally represented by Fernando Burlando.
Separate categories for cases of violence and “word sins”, on which the public eye has varied its position in recent decades. If verbal and physical aggressions between men were celebrated before, and crosses between people of different genders were protected, they are no longer so. Will Smith’s slap to Chris Rock at the Oscars is an example of the former.
Also the sayings of Gustavo Cordera justifying the rape, which earned him a case for “incitement to violence.” Discriminatory offenses based on religion, gender, race or disability also lead to cancellation, even though this is a selective test, and plausible for redemption under the “incorrect mood”. “This canceling attitude seems to want to make all positions mandatory. The problem is that the cancellation is expedited justice, which does not wait for the sanction and the presentation of the evidence. And that is the risk”, concludes Amado.
It’s not the only problem posed by cancellations. As seen, many times this popular justice goes against what is issued by the courts. Which is not uncommon when 80 percent of Argentines distrust Justice. But, what is done with the cancelled? Does society isolate you indefinitely? Is it just a task for time, heal and forget?
It is a debate that crosses the media and networks, but also the public eye in the taste for post-truth. The “vox populi, vox dei” sometimes proves more human than divine. The series “The Simpsons”, which anticipated everything, reflected it in chapter 9 of the sixth season. There you see a Homer accused by the media of abusing his children’s nanny. Even when he manages to show his innocence, the doubt remains, and the reparation is negligible compared to the damage caused.
by Maximiliano Sardi and Marcos Teijeiro
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