Suzanne Harrington: Does being dead cancel out being cancelled?

Cancel culture is erratic, but are some cancel-inducing actions worse than others, asks Suzanne Harrington. 

It seems like we love Michael Jackson's music more than we hate all the allegations of child sexual abuse made against him.

Does being dead cancel out being cancelled? Or is Michael Jackson the only (alleged) paedophile in the history of humanity whom we still actively embrace? 

It seems like we love his music more than we hate all the allegations of child sexual abuse made against him. We flocked to his film, despite its critical panning; he may not be on the radio anymore, but we’re still listening to him. 

Could it be that his music, hardwired into our brains growing up, transcends everything, even our rational capacity for ethics and justice? Or are some celebrities like banks — too big to cancel?

My money is on the music — not the later Messianic slop, but MJ at his height. The glowy socks era, when he was king of MTV. We did not have the same visceral reaction to his (alleged) sex crimes the way we reacted to, say, R Kelly, currently serving a sentence for child sexual abuse. 

The music of R Kelly does not collectively tickle our toes, nor did anyone spend millions on a hagiography about him, starring his nephew. R Kelly is a bad man, Michael Jackson is a lost boy. 

There is no logic to our perception, only emotion. We can’t prosecute Jackson because he’s dead, but we don’t seem to want to culturally delete him either.

Cancel culture is erratic. I’d suggest — fairly reasonably, I think— that the sexual abuse of actual children is considerably worse than uttering vile words to adults when off your head on various substances. 

Yet the fashion designer John Galliano, 15 years sober and perpetually apologetic for his horrible antisemitic and racist outbursts in 2011, remains cancelled. 

New York’s Met Museum was besieged with complaints when it announced a retrospective of his work — despite Anna Wintour’s best efforts, he is still persona non grata. Does he have to die for this to change?

The actor Kevin Spacey, cleared of sexual misconduct charges in 2023, settled a civil case out of court this year and turned up at Cannes on the red carpet. 

He’s keen to uncancel himself, as is comedian Louis CK, also cancelled for sexual misconduct, who is now, nine years later, being platformed by Netflix. If you can fill out the Hollywood Bowl, does this mean you’re back in the fold? Or does it help if you’re a rich white guy?

Kanye West, a rich black guy, is playing Putin’s Russia next month, having been cancelled in much of Europe and banned from the UK following antisemitic and racist rants, which he blamed on bipolar disorder. 

Does bipolar make you a fan of Hitler, or compel you to tell your fellow black Americans that slavery was a “choice”? Could someone check the DSM [Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders]?

Just as horrid old-fashioned antisemitism gets you cancelled faster than you can say “mazel tov”, these days being pro-Israeli is a fast-track to cultural ostracism. Ask Boy George, Pink, Gwyneth Paltrow. 

Just as child sexual abuse is worse, on a sliding scale, than hate speech, I’d argue that genocide is worse than all other cancel-inducing actions combined. 

Yet those defending the genocidal Netanyahu regime continue to try their hardest to get those criticising it — from Mark Ruffalo to Macklemore — cancelled on grounds of….wait for it …..antisemitism. 

Is your head spinning yet?