Cringe culture. What is actually cringe and when you need to let people be happy

Everywhere in media you hear people say “oh that’s so cringe” when referencing just about anything at this point. It might sound harmless but there’s a seriously problematic undertone to all of it.

If you see a lot of cringe compilations on YouTube etc are literally just people who are not conventionally attractive, autistic and/or neurodivergent people, and it’s typically teenagers most of the time. Most of the time the things that they’re doing are very harmless. This isn’t okay, they’re just doing things that they enjoy and it’s not your place to tell them how to live their life, my God, I can’t imagine going on YouTube and finding myself in a cringe compilation because someone decided to bring it upon themselves to tell me how to live my life. So this brings in the question, what is actually “cringe”?

Over Sexualization

Idk man, maybe it’s just me, but when I go online and I see people talking about a celebrity saying weird shit like “___ makes me so wet” like ew?? That person probably has a boyfriend/girlfriend, maybe even kids and I can guarantee you they don’t want to see someone saying that about their parent/loved one. It’s even weird about fictional characters, but it’s a tad less creepy. And the whole “I love listening to men whimpering” thing is WEIRD AS HELL. You are THIRTEEN PLEASE CALM DOWN. It also just makes me generally uncomfortable as well when minors make these comments, as a minor myself (and unbearably truthfully, I used to do as well) it just makes me think about all the times I used to do that shit and I don’t want y’all to go through the regret and cringe that I put myself through looking back on my 13 year old self. But I realize now how creepy it is to say that about people you don’t know. If you have a boyfriend/girlfriend etc and they don’t mind you saying stuff like that abt them, then that’s fine. But I just feel like there needs to be more consent when you’re saying heavily sexual stuff about people you’ve never met.

Racism, sexism, homophobia, pedophilia etc.

This should be an obvious DUH. If you’re any of these things, you’re cringe and disgusting. This is when you need to obviously give that person some shit for the way they are. If you make jokes about these topics, you’re cringe. You’re weird and you’re obviously painfully insecure. “I’m not racist, BUT- *says something insanely racist*” you’re cringe. Idc if you’re the most popular person at school and everybody loves you, you’re cringe. Ick.

The vice versa situation (idk if I spelled that right)

If you are someone who calls EVERYTHING cringe, YOURE THE CRINGEY ONE. I don’t know why you think you decide what’s cringe, who tf put you in charge of fun?? Damn buzzkill. I absolutely cannot stand miserable people who think they need to control the entire mood of a situation or conversation. You’re not a dictator!!

The fact of the matter is, cringe culture is just a hiding in plain sight way to disguise racism, homophobia, sexism, ableism and so much more. But honestly, it’s mostly used to make fun of teenagers who are just having fun. Everybody goes through phases when they’re young, and it’s part of who we become when we get older. It’s just pieces of the puzzle that we keep building onto ourselves, and there’s nothing wrong with it. If we don’t have those puzzle piece phases in our teenage years, it’s not good for your mental health and overall development of your personality. And even worse, if you have a person who’s too terrified to be themselves because everybody would think they’re cringe, and that leads to unhappiness. So yes, some people probably think this post is unnecessary and I might get some hate, but the entire point is, just let people be happy. If they’re not hurting anyone, let them be. You should not project your insecurities onto them because you’re so damn miserable about your own life.