An online movement known as the “Digital Guillotine” is urging people to cut ties with celebrities who don't share their political beliefs. But how much does it help? Really?
In early May, bombs rained down on Rafa as crowds watched as stars gathered at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for the 2024 Met Gala. In the days after the event, social media was abuzz with posts juxtaposing photos of celebrities frolicking in designer dresses with images of the damage inflicted on Rafa. While the gala has always been subject to criticism and controversy, this year's gala was particularly excruciating, even sparking an online movement calling for divestment not only from Israel but from celebrity in general. The Blockout 2024 movement, or the “Digital Guillotine.”
The idea is simple: block public figures who have nothing to say about Gaza or who try to take a “both sides” approach to the issue – not by debating what they may or may not have said, but by removing them from the online ecosystem entirely.
The concept of blocking celebrities isn't new; I've been doing it for years. Not only does it help me tidy my online space, but it also allows me to avoid pointless arguments about the latest celebrity drama. And I'm not alone. Student journalist Tuyu, 20, explains that she started blocking celebrities even before this new trend emerged. She told Dazed: “I've blocked Beyoncé since 2019, but a friend blocked her after the Super Bowl this year. We both agreed that if I stopped watching Beyoncé, [celebrities] The less we talk about them on screen, the less energy we give them and the less money we give them.”
Over the past seven months or so, we have seen a large Social Media Accounts It has been Count your donations Celebrity support for Gaza ranges from wearing pin badges, Instagram likes, vague posts hoping for peace, to explicit statements hoping for a liberated Palestine. With the death toll at around 100,000, why wouldn't they? 35,000The number of injuries doubled 78,500and Approximately 500,000 people in the Gaza Strip Were you evacuated?
But the Gaza invasion became a kind of moral litmus test. Many celebrities, including Joaquin Phoenix, Cate Blanchett and Quinta Brunson, have appealed to Joe Biden for an immediate ceasefire. The stakes are high for celebrities who support Palestine. Actress Melissa Barrera (along with Susan Sarandon) was fired by her agency for her unwavering support for Palestine. scream In his Oscar acceptance speech earlier this year, director Jonathan Glazer said his Jewish identity and the Holocaust had been hijacked by occupying forces, prompting a group of Hollywood creatives and executives to condemn Glazer in an open letter signed by them.
Meanwhile, last October, celebrities such as Madonna, Adam Sandler and Chris Rock Sign a letter to the President They thanked him for his unwavering support for Israel, while superstars like Beyoncé and Taylor Swift have been criticized for not speaking out about Gaza and for allowing their concert documentary to be screened in Israel last year. (BDS has since said that even if the artists had no power to block the screening, they should at least use their massive platforms to draw attention to the issue.)
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While some may argue it's odd to expect celebrities to make political statements, it's not uncommon for celebrities to champion causes. Many expressed solidarity with Ukraineand before that Blame Trumpvague platitudes about BLM and #MeToo. These are important, but much more “acceptable” and less controversial claims than Palestine. This is a particular form of liberal politics that uses its class position to promote views that appear progressive, but never seeks or creates concrete change.
But the reality is that celebrities exist, as communication scholars say. P David Marshall It is considered a marketable commodity. Thinking of celebrities in this way, not as artists, musicians or actors but as walking, talking commodities, their indifference to Gaza is not surprising. Haja Marie KanuIt's clear that we often expect celebrities to make political statements, not just because there are so few community leaders or politicians of core selves, but also because we feel betrayed when our parasocial best friends don't share our views. “It's all completely misguided. We look through the lens of celebrity and pop culture to make sense of a situation like genocide that we fundamentally don't understand,” she says. “I don't think anybody really understands it, because none of us have been in it. It's mind-boggling and it's horrifying to witness.”
For Leanne, a writer and graduate student, this anti-celebrity sentiment actually fuels celebrity culture. “Even with the idea of blocking out, you're still participating in celebrity culture,” she says. “Of course, people with platforms and hundreds of thousands or millions of followers have the space to make change. But forcing them to talk about it doesn't create change, it just makes them feel better.”
Right-wing Zionists are not the only celebrities on the block list. Other names on the list include Bella Hadid, who has been regularly harassed by Zionists for speaking out about Palestine, and Billie Eilish, who has been seen wearing an Artists4Ceasefire pin. Given this, is it possible that a blockout movement with no clear purpose or target will be effective?
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“People hide their punitive impulses behind a mask of righteousness and morality, but in reality they're just trying to take that punitive impulse out on other people,” Lean says. “Again, it's good to distance yourself from celebrity culture, but it's probably not good to base your activism on celebrities. I don't care what Lizzo posts. [on Tiktok] Because I know she doesn't really care. We can't tell them. [celebrities] A way to care about other people, let alone social movements.”
It's probably not healthy to worship these people or attach so much weight to their words, but the voices of celebrities are heard not only by their fans, but also by people like Taylor Swift. US GovernmentThere are many questions to be asked, not just about the role of celebrities in social movements, but about who we are as a culture and what we value. Untangling ourselves from the web of consumerism, fan culture, and pure faith in the political system is difficult and uncomfortable, but not impossible.
“A lot of us try to feel good about the art we consume, saying, 'Just because I listen to that song or support that celebrity doesn't make me a bad person,' and they want absolution, and of course you want to be exonerated from complicity,” Kanu speculates. “This is awful. It's one of the worst things we've seen in our lifetimes. But the unfortunate truth is that everything is intertwined and connected: politics, art, the celebrities we admire. And perhaps I'm paraphrasing, [Theodore] Adorno says we should live unassumingly and inconspicuously, ashamed that we still have air to breathe in hell. And that is exactly what we feel when we encounter such horrors.
