Dr. Seuss Vs. Gina Carano: When Is It Cancel Culture?

By Luke W. Henderson

Dr. Seuss, Mr. Potato Head & Looney Tunes’ Pepe LePew have all made headlines this week due to alleged cancel culture. Hasbro announced that the brand Mr. Potato Head would now be simply Potato Head, the estate of Dr. Seuss is recalling six books that contain stereotypical depictions and LePew will not be apart of the upcoming sequel to Space Jam.

While all of these stories certainly signal that companies are responding to a general demand for more inclusive and, perhaps, “politically correct” products, there seems to be some division on whether this recent news counts as “cancel culture.”

Entertaining this debate, it’s imperative to explore the definition of cancel culture and compare it to another recent example.

What Is Cancel Culture?

According to Vox‘s Aja Romano, cancel culture is akin to “culturally block[ing someone] from having a prominent public platform or career” which typically follows a pattern of:

1. A public figure says or does something offensive
2. This incites public backlash
3. This public backlash becomes demands to end their cultural clout or “canceling”

Basically, it’s a form of boycott combined with social ostracism.

Natalie Wynn, the mind behind the YouTube channel Contrapoints analyzed cancel culture further into tropes:

1. Presumption of guilt: often accusations are enough proof of guilt
2. Abstraction: specific statements of the accused slowly become vaguer and less nuanced. 
3. Essentialism: criticisms of actions become criticisms of the person
4. Pseudo-moralism or pseudo-intellectualism: use of fake morality or intellectualism to justify the canceling and hide a sadist streak.
5. No forgiveness: sincere apologies are dismissed and insincere ones are further proof of the need for canceling. 
6. The transitive property of cancelation: association with a canceled person makes one complicit in the accused’s actions.
7. Dualism: people are good or bad. There is no grey. 

Although this seems like a thorough explanation of the phenomenon, its definition, and even its existence is still hotly debated. 

According to conservative pundits, it’s a hypocritical tactic to silence conservative voices alone. Some progressive figures claim that it doesn’t exist and is just the public holding those in power accountable. 

Neither of these claims is accurate as canceling happens to liberals and conservatives alike and at this point, saying it isn’t a phenomenon unique to this age is disingenuous. 

Gina Carano Vs. Dr. Seuss

In early February, The Mandalorian actress Gina Carano was fired from Lucasfilm and dropped by her agent due to an Instagram post comparing the silencing of conservative voices to Holocaust victims being attacked by their neighbors. This controversy caused #FireGinaCarano to trend on multiple social media outlets as a means of social pressure.

It wasn’t an isolated incident, but the final straw in a longer cycle. She previously had made posts against mask mandates and voter fraud which drew similar ire.

Following the aforementioned definition, it’s clear that Carano was an example of canceling while Hasbro or Dr. Seuss is not. 

Dr. Seuss enterprises announced on March 2nd that “working with a panel of experts, including educators, [we] made the decision last year to cease publication and licensing of the [multiple] titles.” 

The company conducted research and made a decision they felt would be in the best interest of their bottom line. There was no large public outcry to predispose it

It should be obvious that one was cancel culture and the other is not. However, one can see this further when examining the responses to both events.

After her firing, Gina Carano was swiftly picked up by The Daily Wire to produce a movie. This showed support for her explicitly and effectively (at least if you were against her cancelation).

The response to the Dr. Seuss news, on the other hand, seemed to be counterproductive. Because of the confusion caused by labeling it as canceling, those against the publisher’s decision unknowingly supported it. They purchase the books en masse and caused them to hold 42 of the top 50 spots on Amazon’s Movers and Shakers list. 

What seemed like a victory to conservatives was a massive flop. It would have been more effective to boycott the publisher and encourage others to do the same.

What may be happening is that constant debate is stripping the term of any functionality. According to The Bulwark policy editor Mona Charon “I think we should probably retire the phrase ‘cancel culture’,” further explaining that “it’s losing its meaning when people just use it to mean, ‘I resent your drawing attention to my crazy ideas’.”

Dr. Seuss, Mr. Potato Head, and Peppy LePew all fall into that latter statement. They weren’t canceled, but they certainly brought attention to those who believe that the left is censoring everything, destroying the West, or any number of other “crazy ideas.”

Cancel culture needs to stop being thrown out as a blanket “I don’t like this is changing” statement. Until this can be done, the dialogue surrounding it will continue to be attacking windmills.