Friday Debate: #CancelCulture

Welcome to Friday Debate, a feature on cup of tea with that book, please, where every Friday a question will be posted that tantalize the brain and expands our horizons. For this week’s question:

J.K Rowling has been in the news lately and not for good reasons. Her comments on trans women have caused shock-waves around the Twitter-verse and across the Harry Potter world. It’s going so far that most Harry Potter fan sites have decided to distance themselves from the bestselling author due to her controversial comments. Due to this latest scandal, Rowling has become another victim of #CancelCulture.

However, Rowling has decided to fight back with her words, by joining with other writers and penning a letter that condemns “a vogue for public shaming and ostracism” and “a blinding moral certainty”. The letter criticizes for comments that don’t meet the open consensus and lack of an open discussion. Other notable authors who have signed the letter are Margaret Atwood, Gloria Steinem and Salman Rushdie. Of course, there has been a huge response to this letter, with some authors whose names appear on the letter have backed away from it. 

My feelings on cancel culture are mixed. Although I strongly believe that J.K. Rowling’s comments were abhorrent and the same goes for comments made by other individuals that are not aligned with my personal feelings. However, I do believe that people have the right to say what the feel. But people who do make comments have to accept the responsibility and the possible repercussions that follow. Being an optimist, I do believe there has to be a willingness to compromise and accept that not everyone is going to believe the same thing, but honestly, I don’t see that happening anytime soon. 

So for this week’s Friday Debate, I am asking these two questions:

Please post any comments you have in the section below.