The truth behind cancel culture’s view of truth, freedom of expression, and gender neutrality
Who would have ever thought that Mr. Potato Head and Dr. Seuss, the most beloved children's writer, would both undergo a sweeping change due to cancel culture?
Back in 2019, a research paper entitled "The Cat is Out of the Bag: Orientalism, Anti-Blackness, and White Supremacy in Dr. Seuss's Children's Books" was published. The findings revealed that only 2% of the characters featured in Dr. Seuss's books were "people of color" and that Dr. Seuss used racially insensitive imagery when depicting certain ethnicities. Feeling the mounting pressure by cancel culture, the Dr. Seuss Enterprise put out a statement admitting that Dr. Seuss indeed "portrayed people in ways that are hurtful and wrong." In view of this, several of Dr. Seuss's books were pulled from the shelves and will no longer be published.
And then, there's Mr. Potato Head. Following the controversy over dropping the "Mister" in Mr. Potato Head and making only a gender-neutral spud, Hasbro Company stated they are keeping Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head but will be adding a 'Create your own Potato Head Family.' One report specified that the "line will be launched in the fall, and celebrates the many faces of families – allowing kids to imagine and create their own Potato Head family from 2 large potato bodies, 1 small Potato Baby, and 42 accessories."
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Hasbro initially did this because they didn't want to be promoting gender norms or gender binary (male and female) restrictions on children. Hasbro also mentioned they didn't want to force children to play with a limited family model (mom and a dad). The company says they want to keep up "with the changing of the times."
The cancellation of Dr. Seuss's books and the neutralization of Mr. Potato Head are just two recent examples of the power cancel culture has over American society. But is cancel culture making society worse or better?
Allow me to expose you to the three "truths" of cancel culture to see for yourself how dangerous this philosophy is to our very existence.
The truth behind cancel culture's truth
Cancel culture is rooted in postmodernity, a philosophical belief system that asserts truth is subjective. However, if truth is subjective, then there is no objectivity of truth. And if there is no objective truth, then why should anyone listen to cancel culture? You see, cancel culture can't maintain truth is relative, and yet, at the same time and in the same sense, universally impose its relative truth on everyone else. You don't have to be a philosopher to see how cancel culture's view of truth is self-contradictory. Therefore, by its own admission, cancel culture cancels itself out.
The truth behind cancel culture's freedom of expression
There's also the problem of cancel culture determining what "offensive" and "inoffensive" speech or expression is. If there is no absolute truth, how can cancel culture be absolutely certain what is "offensive" and "inoffensive"? Here's the real truth. The steps cancel culture is taking to purge "freedom of expression" are harming our society. It's not making it better. Recently, Harper's Magazine published an "open letter" stating this very thing. In the second paragraph, the letter addresses the dangers of cancel culture by saying, "We uphold the value of robust and even caustic counter-speech from all quarters. But it is now all too common to hear calls for swift and severe retribution in response to perceived transgressions of speech and thought. More troubling still, institutional leaders, in a spirit of panicked damage control, are delivering hasty and disproportionate punishments instead of considered reforms."
Freedom of expression (as we know it) will no longer exist if cancel culture continues to punish and silence dissenters who oppose its version of "speech." Therefore, cancel culture doesn't advance an open society where everyone is free to express themselves. In its place, cancel culture is propagating a form of totalitarianism.
The truth behind cancel culture's gender neutrality
As cancel culture continues to impose its accepted "truth" and sanctioned "speech," the ideology has also been moving people away from a standard of humanity to a modern "ideal" for humanity in the form of gender neutrality. Despite being born biologically and genetically a male or female (chromosomes), cancel culture teaches that a person's feelings (that which is in their mind) override the natural reality of their gender. So if a person feels they are a different gender other than their biological gender, that person's preferred gender ought to be validated.
So, in a way, by gender-neutralizing a toy like 'Potato Head,' Hasbro Company is teaching kids that transgenderism is a good thing. That if they ever feel like changing their gender, they can, just like changing 'Potato Head' into whoever they want "it" to be. However, gender neutrality and transgenderism run contrary to God's creative design. From the beginning, God made humans with two biological genders, male and female, and the two complement one another — that is, the man and woman are suitable for each other (Gen. 2:18, 20). In her book Love Thy Body, Nancy Pearcey writes, "Scripture teaches that the creational differentiation of male and female is a good thing. Our complementary nature speaks of our yearning for union, which in turn reflects the divine nature — a God who is a Trinity, differentiated Persons in relationship with one another."
Therefore, to say a person is "assigned" a gender at birth contradicts biology. At the moment of conception, a person doesn't achieve a gender but receives a fixed sex. A male (XY) can attempt to become a female (XX). Yet, no matter how hard he tries to become a woman, he will always be the sex he was genetically born with.
So, my friend, the next time you see cancel culture in action, remember the real "truths" behind the dangerous philosophy and don't let the fear of being canceled prevent you from speaking the truth in love (Eph. 4:15) to those who need to hear it.
Jason Jimenez is president of Stand Strong Ministries (www.standstrongministries.org), a faculty member at Summit Ministries, and a best-selling author who specializes in apologetics and biblical worldview training. Connect with him on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
