Dawn French says cancellation culture has ‘backed people into a corner’ and made them cowards because it has ‘erased any margin for error’

Dawn French said the cancellation culture has ‘backed people into a corner’ and made people cowards because it has ‘erased any margin for error’.

The Vicar of Dibley star revealed she resented being asked to ‘catch up’ on the trans controversy surrounding JK Rowling.

Dawn, 66, said it was ‘very powerful’ to be able to use the phrase ‘I don’t know’ and urged the younger generation to gain a better understanding.

She went on to argue that the cancellation culture had ‘wiped out any margin for error’ by forcing people ‘into corners’.

Speaking on the Happy Place podcast, Dawn said: ‘We all talk about inclusivity and favoring diversity and all that.

Dawn revealed she resented being asked to ‘catch up’ in a conversation about the trans controversy surrounding JK Rowling (pictured)

‘And it’s all great, I love the idea of ​​it, but it’s not the way we live.

‘We live the opposite of that – we’re massively intolerant, quick to blame, lawsuits, trolling and all this awful stuff that has nothing to do with understanding how other people work.

“We are people who know we make mistakes, we know we have flaws, we know we have all these things, but because we are expected to present ourselves as perfect and celebrate only all the perfect things, obliterated it just any margin of error.”

Dawn went on to say how a robust debate was the ‘best thing in the world’.

She added: ‘But it’s impossible if what we have to do is retreat to our positions, defend them by spitting and raging, then blame and cancel.

‘I really think we are being forced into corners where I can smell my own cowardice.

‘I don’t mind that – I’ve never been a coward, I hope, but I’m starting to be because I’m careful about what I want to support or not if it causes problems.

“You know, and even thinking about the time when I might say something like that or what might be plucked out of this and paralyze me.”

The actress went on to say: ‘Especially as women – the last thing we need to do is shut up.

Or put baby in the corner. We shouldn’t be back in the corner and yet I’m in the corner and I really don’t like it about myself and about this cultural malaise where I just think I want to support that person in what they just said there.

‘Oh, it’s being taken wrong, because there’s a whole bunch of people who don’t like this person. Then I have to be in their gang and they wouldn’t like me in that gang.

‘And also, I might be bothered by the huge maelstrom that will come.

‘It’s terrible, how did this happen? How people gave their lives so we could vote, did so many things to push forward, and now here we are.

‘It’s ridiculous. I don’t know how to remove it.’

Dawn said she had recently done a podcast with someone who told her after the recording that they weren’t talking about JK Rowling.

Dawn believes a robust debate is the ‘best thing in the world’ but claims it is ‘impossible’ to do so if people have to ‘cave back to our positions’

The Harry Potter author has expressed controversial opinions on the issue of transgender identity and rights.

“And I said, ‘oh, okay,’ because I know JK a little bit,” she said.

‘And she said ‘yes, because she used this terminology and we don’t do that, it’s unacceptable’.

‘I said, oh, oh, I don’t even know that term. What is it? And she went, you have to catch up, Dawn.

‘You have to catch up – people can’t constantly teach you how to be because it’s not okay and you have to catch up.

‘And I left it thinking, okay, should I catch up? Is that right?

‘I have to catch up. And that is true, but I must also be taught – I must learn.’

On using the phrase ‘I don’t know’, she said: ‘It’s very powerful to say that, especially when you don’t know. It’s better than pretending you know.

“It’s definitely better than forming an opinion about something you don’t know.

“And I’m just saying, please, especially you younger people, please inform me and explain this to me so I can understand it and not make this mistake again. But don’t tell me to catch up.”