[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-post-title” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_font=”Black Han Sans|700||on|||||” header_text_align=”center” header_font_size=”46px” header_letter_spacing=”4px” custom_margin=”25px||5px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||true|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”intro-wrap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|600|on||||||” text_text_color=”#808080″ text_font_size=”16px” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
Her novel, The List<\/i>, is already being touted as one of the major books of the summer and is set to be adapted for TV. Hattie Crisell<\/i> talks authenticity and cancel culture with the writer of the moment<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/07\/lead02.jpg” title_text=”lead02″ force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n IN 2017, YOMI ADEGOKE<\/span> was working as a producer at Channel 4 News<\/i> when the #MeToo movement hit. A trickle of public accusations of sexual harassment and assault quickly became a flood, with dozens of influential men exposed for bad behaviour. In the aftermath, lists of further abusers were sometimes circulated online, often from anonymous sources. Watching this unfold on the barely regulated platforms of social media, Adegoke felt torn.<\/p>\n \u2018As a feminist, I thought, \u201cThis is amazing. Systems, from the police to HR departments, have repeatedly let women down \u2013 now finally those women are being heard,\u201d\u2019 she says. \u2018But as a journalist, I was used to Ofcom regulation and lots of use of the word \u201callegedly\u201d. We were also in the midst of a fake-news crisis. So I felt like, this is a really important thing but, despite good intentions, could it potentially do harm?\u2019<\/p>\n This knotty ethical dilemma is at the heart of Adegoke\u2019s debut novel, The List<\/i>. The plot follows Ola, a journalist at a feminist magazine, who is one month away from marrying Michael, who has just landed a prestigious job as a presenter. They both enjoy minor fame online and a following that considers them #couplegoals, so when Michael appears on an anonymous list, accused of harassment and assault, it turns their lives upside down. Ola agrees with the principle of exposing abusers, but now has to face the reality, and everything she believed about Michael is thrown into question while she tries to get to the truth.<\/p>\n The conversation about abuse may be less heated than it was a few years ago, but questions of cancel culture and social-media trolling feel as resonant as ever. One of the strengths of Adegoke\u2019s novel is that it presents a complicated question and resists giving a simple answer: is it right for someone to be named publicly as an abuser without going through a legal process?<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n I don\u2019t give the answer because I don\u2019t know the answer,\u2019 says Adegoke. \u2018I\u2019m not sure I ever will. What\u2019s interesting to me is that the list definitely has good intentions \u2013 but the internet has a kind of reckless, unchecked power that I don\u2019t think we have yet come to terms with. I think we\u2019re sleepwalking into a crisis. Nothing\u2019s really being done to regulate it.\u2019<\/p>\n It\u2019s probably wise that she\u2019s exploring these issues offline in a novel, rather than attempting to discuss them online, where it\u2019s difficult to hold a conversation with nuance.<\/p>\n \u2018The idea of putting this in a Twitter thread makes me feel physically sick,\u2019 she says, laughing. \u2018The algorithms thrive off polarisation and people being divisive, so any discussion of this would immediately be heated. What I try to look at in the book is that there is so much performance involved. People feel they need to be slightly more vitriolic or sarcastic than they would be offline, because other people can see you. They need to perform their anger.\u2019<\/p>\n There are parallels between Ola and Adegoke, who also built a public profile in her twenties (she\u2019s now 31) with 2018\u2019s best-seller Slay In Your Lane<\/i> \u2013 a guide to life for Black British women, co-written with her best friend (and Grazia\u2019s<\/i> work columnist) Elizabeth Uviebinen\u00e9. Adegoke has 32,000 followers on Instagram and roughly the same number on Twitter. \u2018I very much owe my career to the internet, but am simultaneously terrified of it,\u2019 she says. \u2018My long-term plan is absolutely to divest myself of social media at some point.\u2019<\/p>\n Working out how to handle her platform has taken time. \u2018I was super-free on Twitter when I first joined,\u2019 she says. \u2018I would tweet random things that came into my head, and I was a lot less cagey around my personal relationships. But now I use all my social media as though it\u2019s LinkedIn \u2013 it\u2019s basically a highlights reel, used for promotion. I know that\u2019s not the fashionable thing to say in the age of relatability, but I feel absolutely no responsibility to be relatable. I\u2019m a writer, and I don\u2019t feel like I owe that to someone for following me.\u2019<\/p>\n You won\u2019t see her getting personal online, then, or making \u2018Instagram versus reality\u2019 content. \u2018We\u2019re all adults, and surely most of us are engaging with social media in the same way,\u2019 she says. \u2018I know your life isn\u2019t perfect and you should know that mine isn\u2019t. I can\u2019t dedicate time to telling people, \u201cBy the way, I also bleed and cry and shit, like we all do.\u201d I have all kinds of things falling apart in my life, but no, I\u2019m not going to show you \u2013 because you\u2019re a stranger.<\/p>\n A few things are certainly going very right for Adegoke, however; one of her recent highlights was the news that The List<\/i> will be adapted into a major TV series, co-developed by the BBC, A24 and HBO Max. So what are her hopes for the novel itself? \u2018What I want is quite boring,\u2019 she says. \u2018I want people not to jump to the worst conclusions about what they see online. Sometimes, in pursuit of gossip, we don\u2019t slow down and engage with the facts. I think that\u2019s less fashionable, it\u2019s less fun, but it\u2019s the right thing to do.\u2019<\/p>\n She\u2019s hoping for a little bit of nuance, then \u2013 which is best found offline.<\/p>\n \u2018The List\u2019 (4th Estate) is out now<\/i><\/p>\n (Test)<\/i><\/p>\n <\/i><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-texts” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|||on|||||” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n PHOTO:<\/b> CHRISTINA EBENEZER<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" YOMI ADEGOKE: \u2018I OWE MY CAREER TO THE INTERNET, BUT I\u2019M TERRIFIED OF IT\u2019Her novel, The List, is already being touted as one of the major books of the summer and is set to be adapted for TV. Hattie Crisell talks authenticity and cancel culture with the writer of the momentIN 2017, YOMI ADEGOKE was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"FlatPlan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":263,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions\/263"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018IN PURSUIT OF GOSSIP, WE DON\u2019T SLOW DOWN AND ENGAGE WITH THE FACTS\u2019<\/span><\/h2>\n