Social media users have lashed out at the use of the quote, famously uttered by the real-life Antoinette when apparently hearing peasants were going hungry.
While debate has ensued over whether the 18th-century aristocrat actually said that phrase, it’s become symbolic of fuelling a revolution that would eventually see her losing her head.
The juxtaposition of the quote being used while celebrating one of the most prestigious events in the world while war rages on elsewhere hasn’t been lost on social media users. The Vogue-hosted party was held the same day Israel launched its assault on Rafah.
University of Otago researcher, Dr Sabrina Moro told The Front Page “Blockout 2024″ is a movement that aims to protest celebrities’ silence on the war on Gaza.
“On the one hand, celebrities benefit from a lot of media visibility and influence and play a key role in orientating public opinion and discourses around specific issues.
“On the other hand, they are not experts on complex geopolitical issues,” she said.
Moro said celebrities and influencers have a responsibility that comes along with their platform.
“Celebrities can orient our attention towards certain issues. They can also encourage forms of political actions or inactions.
“And we’ve seen that example with Me Too, which was triggered by a few famous women sharing their experiences and then giving weight to a movement that had already been happening since 2006, founded by Tarana Burke.
“The responsibility lies in how they can legitimize or further draw attention to already existing forms of activism.”
The latest iteration of celebrity boycott has seen the likes of Kim Kardashian, Taylor Swift, and Kylie Jenner lose hundreds of thousands of followers.
Moro said this new kind of campaign is interesting because it uses the architecture of the platforms, and its algorithm, against celebrities who would normally benefit from it.
“Capitalist machinery, that’s what it is. It is an investment in a few people we see as extraordinary, ordinary people. At the same time, it’s very lucrative. It makes a lot of money.
“And so the blocking to remove the potential of ad revenue is quite interesting in that it taps into working this cog of celebrity as a capitalist industry.”
With the rise of social media came the idea of “cancel culture” – a cultural phenomenon that allows a mass, online boycott of a person or brand deemed to have acted out.
“I think cancel culture is a really interesting proposition in terms of a practice of accountability,” Moro said, “But, unfortunately... we’ve lost this origin of cancel culture as a practice of accountability. It’s now more become a ‘you’re in, you’re out, you’re cancelled’ kind of immediate response.”
Listen to the full episode to hear more about why social media users are blocking celebrities and what part cancel culture plays in our society.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
