Canceled, Accordingly

Burberry thought they could just burn millions of dollars worth of unsold clothing and perfume? Canceled. LPA thought selling a $168 sweatshirt that read, “Being fat is not beautiful. It’s an excuse,” would be okay? Canceled. H&M thought putting a black child in a hoodie that read, “Coolest monkey in the jungle,” was cute? Canceled—at least, so says the internet.So...what does it really mean to be “canceled?”

If a business or public figure does something wrong, they’re going to be called out for it. This is the pillar of cancel culture that runs rampant in online spheres. Welcome to the Internet, a digital battlefield where consumer frustration and brand social irresponsibility hash it out, often resulting in a bloodbath where designers and brands end up #canceled by loyal customers and critics alike. Fashion loves controversy. If the issue is cultural appropriation, controlling images of race and gender, or prioritization of eurocentric beauty standards, then it’s going to be discussed vehemently across social platforms. And with social media giving consumers a viable way to interact with their favorite celebs, brands, and designers, consumers are able to let them know directly when they’ve stepped out of line—the line being typically fair but still relatively subjective moral and political judgments— and publically cancel them, accordingly.

Lisa Nakamura, a professor at the University of Michigan who studies the intersection of digital media and race, gender, and sexuality, told the New York Times cancellation is a “cultural boycott.” Social media platforms have become key avenues for debate where “canceling” can thrive, as found in a report by the Pew Research Center which indicates that about 53-percent of Americans have engaged in some form of socio-political-minded activity on social media in the past year. Kim Foster, editor-in-chief of For Harriet, a digital community for black women, attributes this increase in social media activism to marginalized groups finally getting a chance to be heard. “We can speak to them in a way that they cannot pretend like they don’t see us, where they don’t hear us,” Foster says. Ultimately, canceling is about accountability.

“I think that fashion is now so global, and I think that as consumers sometimes we feel like we have a lack of control,” says Kirsten Schoonmaker, Assistant Teaching Professor of Fashion Design at Syracuse University. Foster agrees that cancel culture is about getting brands to understand that there are consequences for social no-no’s.

Fashion as a three trillion-dollar industry holds weight in our society not only economically but culturally as well. Fashion enables us to show off who we are without saying anything (unless you’re wearing a hoodie that literally fat shames, @ LPA). It also inherently captures the social and cultural zeitgeist of a society. Right now young people are more socially and politically engaged than ever, so millennials and gen z’ers aren’t only looking for good clothes. They want clothes that reflect their morals, not foster problematic societal values.

Ultimately, canceling is about accountability.”

Take #Hoodiegate for example. After the frenzy around H&M’s photo of a black child model in a monkey hoodie, people took to social media to express their outrage at the company’s apparent lack of social mindfulness. In the following months, as reported by Bloomberg, H&M’s profits fell 62-percent in the first quarter and they accumulated piles of unsold clothes worth $4.3 billion. On the contrary, Nike’s Colin Kaepernick ad campaign saw a surprisingly positive outcome. While Nike’s sales did indeed dip right after the ad drop, not to mention all the white conservatives who took to burning their personal Nike products as an ironic effort to boycott the brand, it was a hit amongst their core demographic of young black and Latino men. By the end of the week, Nike closed their shares at $83.49, gained 170,000 followers on Instagram, and saw a spike in likes on Twitter and Facebook. For us, this is a prime example of how subjective ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ truly can be. An ad that was deemed wrong in the eyes of one consumer demographic was celebrated and embraced by another.

In its annual Global Corporate Sustainability Report, Nielsen writes that 81-percent of millennials expect their favorite brands to have some sort of philanthropic or socially conscious aspect baked into its business model. Sometimes, though, a brand’s social responsibility is just a marketing scheme. Schoonmaker boils this down to the fact that big brands use consumer data to replace creativity and genuineness. “What does it mean when Dior says, ‘We Should All Be Feminists’?,” Schoonmaker asks. “And how does that stack up against shirts coming from small, scrappy women-centric designers?” Retailers like Bulletin offer an answer.

Alana Branston and Ali Kriegsman started Bulletin in 2016, and it has since become a learning community for female lead brands and a safe space for their consumers. “We felt like using our real estate in the Williamsburg store would be a way that we could make a tangible difference,” Kriegsman says. “So we decided to turn it into a space where our customer could wear her values on her sleeve and help safeguard our reproductive rights just by shopping.” 10-percent of Bulletin’s store proceeds get donated to Planned Parenthood NYC. They regularly hold events and programs at their stores to bring awareness to issues that have many nuanced implications for women, from the effects of incarceration to supplying women’s shelters with menstrual products. Kriegsman notes it can be difficult to do social good and generate revenue, but so far they’ve been doing great. So it is possible! This is what Twitter is chirping about.

Canceling gets a bad rep for the initial punch. If you’re #canceled, there seems to be no way out. The current social media cancel culture doesn’t appear to have a plan of action following cancellations, it’s #CallItOut and wait around for the next cultural controversy. Schoonmaker says consumers should ask themselves if they want actual systemic change in fashion because canceling can get in the way of progress. “I think cancel culture ends up hurting and stifling creativity more than it ends up creating an actual shift,” she says. So be mad, Internet! But don’t be complacent in your anger. People (and brands) are capable of changing by learning from their mistakes. Losing all their customers and followers can be a much-needed incentive, for some. “I believe that everybody can be recovered,” Foster says. “...we have all been wrong and hurtful, and because I recognize that, I also am very invested in creating pathways for people who have done wrong shit to be reintegrated, for us to have reconciliation.”

Burberry says it will stop burning its unsold merchandise and even begin phasing out the use of real fur. Turns out, LPA was trying to highlight cyber bullying and totally regrets their marketing error, while H&M has taken much-needed action by hiring a Diversity Leader.

So maybe, un-canceled? Someone help us find the undo button...

Written by Skyler Murry | Edited by Nadia Suleman | Illustration by Dylan Myones