Dawn French feels like cancel culture has turned her into a coward.
Dawn French feels like cancel culture has turned her into a coward
The 66-year-old 'Harry Potter' star defended J. K. Rowling – who had sparked controversy and fierce backlash with her opinions on transgender rights - and argued cancel culture has "wiped out any margin for error" by forcing people "into corners".
During an appearance on the 'Happy Place' podcast, she said: "We're all talking about inclusivity and favouring difference and all the rest of it.
"And that's all great, I love the idea of that, but that's not how we're living.
"We're living the opposite of that - we're massively intolerant, quick to blame, litigation, trolling and all of this dreadful stuff which has got nothing to do with understanding how other human beings operate.
"We are people who know we make mistakes, we know we have shortcomings, we know we have all this stuff but because we are expected to present ourselves as perfect and only celebrate all the perfect things it just wiped out any margin for error.
"But it's impossible if what we've got to do is hunker back into our positions, defend them by spitting and being furious and then blaming and cancelling.
"I genuinely think we're being forced into corners where I can smell my own cowardice. I don't like that - I've never been cowardly, I hope, but I'm starting to be that because I'm being circumspect about what I will support or not in case it causes trouble."
'The Vicar of Dibley' actress added she felt she needed to "learn" about the transgender rights issue after speaking with the 'Harry Potter' author, though insisted "it's very powerful" for young people to say "I don't know".
She explained: "I went, 'oh, okay', because I know J.K. a bit.
"And she said, 'yeah, because she used this terminology and we're not doing that, it's unacceptable'.
"I said, 'oh, oh, I don't even know that term. What is that?' And she went, 'you need to catch up, Dawn.'
"'You need to catch up' - people can't be constantly teaching you how to be because this is not okay, and you need to catch up. And I left it thinking, okay, do I need to catch up? Is that right? I do need to catch up. And that is true, but I also need to be taught - I need to learn.
"It's very powerful to say ['I don't know'], especially when you don't know. That's better than pretending you do know. It's certainly better than forming an opinion about something you don't know."
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