SINGAPORE - What can you cancel? A date, an appointment, a subscription and, now, as it turns out, brands and people. Enter cancel, or call-out, culture, an online mob-style behaviour of boycotts and protests. It is the contemporary embodiment of vigilante social justice.

Most recently, furore was sparked when Kim Kardashian West announced plans to launch a new line of bodywear named and trademarked Kimono. The thrust of it was to offer, with its range of underwear and shapewear, diversity and inclusivity for a wide range of skin tones and body sizes. The irony of the naming's blithe cultural insensitivity towards the traditional Japanese garment was, however, not lost on anyone.