Kaden/OutWrite
This article was originally published in our Winter 2024 print, Freaks.
Content warning: discussions of fatphobia, ableism, queerphobia, and transphobia
If you’ve been on the internet, you’ve probably seen at least one video titled “TRY NOT TO CRINGE CHALLENGE” or “Cringe Compilation #191.” Some of the content of these videos are relatively harmless. They are the types of moments that give you secondhand embarrassment, like a horribly botched handshake on a celebrity interview or the awkward pause after a joke that doesn’t land. But most videos are filled with people seemingly living their lives and posting content on social media that you could find anywhere.
By no means are these videos a new genre of content. Much changed during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the loss of in-person interaction as cities experienced lockdowns. The combination of reduced pressure to conform, more time for self-discovery, and sheer boredom meant an uptick in cringeworthy content production.
These types of cringe videos feature many kinds of people. Two in particular catch my eye as worthy of analyzing in terms of their individual impact and broader social implications.
The first category involves unconventionally attractive people following the same video-posting format as conventionally attractive people. Most times, fatphobia and ableism are the driving forces of this “unattractiveness” that makes the content cringey; when fat or disabled people choose to display their bodies — or worse, take pride in them and assert their beauty— they are met with backlash and involuntarily reduced to a feature in cringe compilations.
The other category highlights individuals who would be victims of bullying off and on the internet: the “freaks.” Ableism comes into play once again as neurodivergent individuals film themselves expressing emotions in non-normative ways, whether by stimming or doing so in an otherwise unrestrained way. These forms of expression are considered embarrassing for their emotional vulnerability, especially since Western society demands that we show the best versions of ourselves everywhere except behind closed doors. It’s a self-fulfilling cycle: people anticipate being made fun of for showing emotion, so they make fun of those who do.
The other people that fit into the category of “freaks” in this context are people with non-normative hobbies, interests, or identities, such as furries and fans of children’s shows like “My Little Pony.” This content is labeled cringe because of Heider’s balance theory — a psychological effect that explains that we are most comfortable liking people who like what we like and disliking people who like what we dislike. Aversion to those who enjoy “weird” things is the most cognitively comfortable position to take; it’s also a massive hurdle to tolerance.
Commonly, queer people are also featured in this category, particularly queer people who are unpalatable to society because of their disinterest in assimilating into a “normal” (e.g. married — maybe with kids — 9-to-5, quiet, binary-conforming with one person who wears the pants and the other the skirt) life. Essentially, these are queer people who embody a kind of radical queerness beyond their sexuality and refuse to be overlooked, whether in their politics or presentation. People who use neopronouns, transgender and genderqueer people not deemed attractive or acceptable by cisheteronormative standards, and anyone who “makes being gay their whole personality” are frequently up for humiliation in these videos.
In cringe videos featuring queer people, the comments are filled with people saying, “I’m queer, but this is embarrassing.” One of the primary reasons that I believe these cringe videos are popular is explained very well by Festinger’s social comparison theory. Downward social comparison — when people compare themselves to someone who is worse off to make them feel better about their own status — is of particular relevance here, since looking down on these people makes commenters saying, “Well, at least I’m not one of them,” feel a little better about themselves.
Ultimately, these videos are centered around shame; it’s the internet equivalent of putting someone in stocks so that commenters can throw rotten fruit at them in the form of nasty comments.
To some extent, these videos are for entertainment. They’re short, follow predictable patterns, and elicit emotion. Sometimes, that’s enough to keep you hooked. But on a broader social scale, it’s important to recognize that shame is a powerful weapon.
Humans are social creatures — we’re evolutionarily wired to care what other people think, because it has survival benefits in a pack setting. Ultimately, the reason why people in these videos are considered cringe is because they’re refusing to be silent and restrained about an identity or interest of theirs that is non-normative according to white, able-bodied, able-minded, cisheteronormative standards. While social comparison theory explains why individuals might like watching cringe content, the broader social intentions are to shame the people featured into being “normal” — into censoring themselves so that they appear the same as everyone else, even when they’re not. The people commenting, “This is why we should bring back bullying,” illustrate this point pretty well.
Maybe you’ve seen some of these videos and agreed with them. Maybe something in you saw someone being earnestly excited about something and cringed before you could think about why. I’d encourage everyone to investigate that feeling further, to think about what in someone’s expression of their identity or hobbies makes you embarrassed on their behalf, and who it benefits for you to think that. If you’re queer, someone else in the world cringes at your identity in the same way you do at furries; you could just as easily end up on “LGBTQ+ Cringe Compilation #32” as soon as someone decides your identity is cringeworthy, so why wait? Pick up that hobby you thought was embarrassing, and show it to your friends. Make that sick cosplay that’s been sitting in the back of your head for months now.
And lastly, for anyone who’s been called a freak — the therians, the autistic people, the “My Little Pony” Lovers — keep doing what you do. The simple act of being yourself and showing that to other people is revolutionary in a world that wants nothing more than for us to oppress each other so that it doesn’t have to do the work itself.
Credits:
Author: Emma Blakely (They/She/He)
Illustrator: Kaden (He/Him)
Copy Editor: Ariana Castro (She/Her)