The Playbook of Cancellation

It was the similarity in the various methodologies of the ‘cancellers’ that made me realise that there is a pattern of attack going on, one with key hallmarks that are more than coincidently similar.

In 2023 I set up an organisation, Freedom in the Arts, with Denise Fahmy designed to support artists going through any kind of ‘cancellation’ due to their work or their personal beliefs. In doing so I have now worked with over 30 artists, some were interviewed about their past experiences, and some come to FITA to ask for support and help.

What I have learnt has shocked me, even though many of the experiences described also happened to me. It was this similarity in the various methodologies of the ‘cancellers’ that made me realise that there is a pattern of attack going on, one with key hallmarks that are more than coincidently similar.  

I want to lay out the cancellation playbook in detail here.

Fear and Loathing

As one of the first people I interviewed, before setting up FITA told me, when I asked what the atmosphere was like in the arts sector he worked in; “The culture in the arts is one of intense of fear and loathing”. For those working in the arts, it is a place of deep fear, worry, anxiety and intimidation, with many afraid to speak out, if at all, and many keeping their heads down. Some people spoke of how a culture of low budgets, swingeing cuts and lack of funding had made the arts considerably more difficult, more hostile and a more competitive culture over the years since pre-2014, and this had created an atmosphere ripe for the cancellation culture to spread. A woman felt that she had started to get gently cancelled from 2015 onwards, and it had only grown, she described how she had been ostracised, ignored, belittled, vilified and smeared. Several interviewees talked about the effect on their health, with one woman saying she feared this climate could well take 5 years of her life.

There seems to be a set of beliefs that must not be challenged. I have made a list, which although long, is probably not fully comprehensive. The biggest sacred beliefs which can not be challenged on any account are the big six (and in order of appearance); Brexit, Climate Change, Vaccines/ Lockdown, Critical Race Theory/ Black Lives Matter, Trans Rights/ Trans Women are Women and most recently the Israel/ Palestine conflict. I’m sure I don’t next explain to you which side you must be on, but there is not even a worry that trans rights may be incompatible with Palestine support (see ‘Queers for Palestine’) and none can be challenged or even questioned with the questioner becoming a pariah in arts society.

List of arts approved stances:

• Trans Women are women, Trans Men Aare Men and Non-Binary is Valid

• Heteronormativity is bad without exception

• Fuck the Tories

• Capitalism is bad

• Anti-colonialisation (particularly in all arts education)

• Free Palestine

• Sex Work is Work

• Climate Change isn’t just real, we need to centre it in everything we do

• To be anti-racist is to admit you are racist

• White Privilege

• Everyone and everything is systemically racist

• Diversity Equity and Inclusion does not include Jewish people

• Surrogacy is Good

• Affirmative practice is the norm

• Non- meritocracy

• Anti- excellence

• Anti- skill

• Anti-expertise

• Anti- meat, vegan

• Collaborative non- hierarchy approach to making art (collectives)

• Lack of understanding of governance and due process

• Lack of understanding of the law

Grievance culture

From this atmosphere of fear and loathing, the starting place of a specific cancellation was some kind of complaint, made either to the organisation they were working with, or posted online on social media such as X (Twitter) or Instagram. Often these initial complaints included details that you may not have even noticed, one woman talked of how her facial expressions had formed part of a complaint, others talked of statements made and never clarified, which were made up, untrue and sometimes there were outright lies and false accusations about an individual’s behaviour.

The list of why someone has complaints against them is long and quite strange at times; defending women’s rights in their own homes or in social occasions, liking a tweet by someone who has stood up for women’s rights, using the correct title of a work of art, signing a letter calling for threats to JK Rowling to stop, defending children from puberty blockers, giving feedback to an arts institution’s new (possibly controversial) policies, calling for racism to be defined through the lends of Martin Luther King’s ‘colourblind’ stance, questioning a trans-inclusive funding policy requirement for an all-women’s group who have experienced domestic violence, and even being perceived as being Jewish in an arts organisation that led to thier harassment. Some artists have been silently cancelled- as one artist put it ‘I’ve been cancelled without the cancellation!’. They find the phone stops ringing, requests for meetings refused by PA’s and emails never replied to. For these artists they have done nothing, but perhaps their previous body of work or their intelligence shows that they are not ‘true believers’ and may speak up or say the unsayable and cause ‘reputational risk’.

There were many instances of people describing how they felt the grievance process had been abused or at the least very poorly managed, with little to no consistency. People often had poorly worded contracts, which often left their artistic work very vulnerable, and were signposted to circular and unending grievance, complaint and disciplinary procedures. These policies often had unclear wording which did not relate to the real world (‘copied and pasted’ was one description) and seemed to be unrelated to the work of the arts and the sensitivities of artists thoughts and works blurring. The application of these policies hardly ever mentioned that they could be abused, or the realisation that false and vexatious complaints could be made. There was a lack of due process, a lack of accountability, a lack of leadership and subjective and often very personal complaints were very much taken at face value.

Art workers talked about how appalling their treatment was once in an investigation process, describing late night emails with short deadlines to respond, long gaps between communication, no clear line of reporting, changing dates and times of meetings and refusing to allow witnesses to accompany artists and employees to meetings, another alarming factor of the small size of organisations and the way that grievance and disciplinary processing works. Once in investigations, people spoke of one-sided questioning, which implied the investigation appeared pre-judged.

One constant was the zero level of care for the wellbeing of the person accused, and little to no empathy to how sensitive the artists may be about their work and their perceptions of their reputation. Multiple people described an atmosphere of ‘guilty by charge’.

Impact

For many artists, the impact of this kind of complaint inquisition has been huge- they spoke of loss of income, or total loss of work, loss of reputation (no matter how long they had been renowned in their art form), resulting in poor mental health and health effects such as heart issues, cancer scares, skin issues and extreme anxiety, leading to depression.

Artists that tried to continue to work faced the consequences that their job often relied on communication with the public (theatre publicity, poetry readings etc). This led to a new level of secondary cancellations; venues could pull out at the last minute, organisations you have worked with for years no longer return your calls, fellow colleagues avoid even having a coffee with you or risk being seen with you. Anything public carries the threat of online mob mobilising to attack you and anyone associated with you. The fear of public engagement now carries the threat of assault, harassment, violence and protest. Living in this level of fear takes a physical and metal toll over the years. There is also the silent cancellations, the ghosting, lack of opportunity, lack of support and sense of belonging, lack of creativity due to fear and anger and a profound loss of trust in fellow artists and fellow humans.

There was an effect on the families of those that had been targeted, which spread out further than imagined. Many with younger children spoke of how their children’s lives had been impacted; as their parents had been very stressed and distracted. Parents talked of missing key first days, concerts and not enjoying normal events, due ongoing and stressful legal processes. Some older children distanced themselves from their parents, not agreeing with their views and one interviewee even told me how their child had disowned them, due to a conflict of views.

There is no doubt that the arts are in a culture of crisis. The roots of this malaise are multiple, from funding cuts to poor governance to national arts council guidance shaping a bureaucratic style of arts management that is very high on compliance and surveillance, and very low on freedom of expression and low on taking any kind of risk, particularly any art that could cause reputational risk, which can now result in your funding being withdrawn.

Many artists are exhausted- having survived Covid, they now find a culture of signing forced and undemocratic charters, and of public denouncements and shaming’s if they so much as step out of line. Through my work I have known of several big-name artists who have retired and several more have moved abroad following false and malicious allegations against them.

We face a crisis in the arts if this culture is to continue, and our arts institutions will be unrecognisable; their missions are being altered to now serve investment principles based on environmental responsibility, inclusivity and relevance, rather that the pursuit of excellent and originality in the arts.

A wider group of arts leaders need to meet, talk and exchange ideas in an environment of freedom. Many more people are against this culture than one would imagine, as the fear and loneliness separates many from meeting and speaking freely. There has been little to no leadership in the arts to counteract the bullying culture, as yet. We also need to lobby at the higher levels, be in ACE, Creative Scotland, and all the way up to DCMS and the minister for culture.

The arts may not have the legislative opportunity to protect freedom of speech as the university sector, but it is certainly an area of both employment and creativity which will fail and suffer if freedom of expression is not articulated well, its importance to healthy society re-invigorated and in some ways protected.

READ FREEDOM IN THE ARTS MENIFESTO HERE