21: Cringe Culture: Dont Fall For It | The Ethics Of Cringe

If you’re familiar with the internet, you’re familiar with cringe. 

Or at least, I am, I have been called cringe, I mean, I even tried to wear pigtails once and my little brother called that a cursed image. And though there is a modern Gen Z attempt to reclaim the word cringe, such as the phrase although I am cringe, I am free. But, if you’re called cringe, you know it has deep, deep negative connotation. And researching cringe through an academic perspective brings up a whole bunch of fun articles we can learn from. 

If there’s one thing people are terrified of, it’s being genuine. This trend in enjoying things “ironically” is a safe place to exist because if nothings taken seriously you’re safe. So, let's talk about that :)

Transcript

my gossshhhhhh, it's another video essay :) hey everyone! welcome back~ I'm Reese and this is Reese Grey Analyzes. I am so excited that you guys decided to Adventure with me today, on Reese Grey analyzes we look at creations and experiences in art, music, media, and even video games to explore exactly why we think the way we think question what we believe and learn something new! And if you are familiar with the internet, you are familiar with cringe. Or at least I am. I've been called cringe, I mean I even tried to wear pigtails one day in front of my little brother and he called it a cursed image. And so researching cringe through an academic perspective :D so fun, I've missed this. There are a bunch of different articles and sources that we can pull from to understand what makes cringe-- cringe, and what we might misunderstand about cringe and the different definitions of cringe you may have never even heard before. And though there is a modern gen Z attempt to reclaim the word cringe. For example, I am cringe but I am free, we all kind of understand that if you are called cringe it has a negative connotation, if you're cringing at something it's always negative. So before we get into this what is your favorite thing to cringe at? No really, let me know! Because the office Michael Scott's cringe that gets to me that is chef's kiss cringe. yeah okay dancing it is a primal art form used in ancient times to express yourself with the body I am also partial to the deep fried memes I really like the Veggie Tales ones I have been judged for this but I will continue to like those.

so number one cringe in the social hierarchy there is a really fun definition of the cringe aesthetic, it will be linked on reesegrey.com and below so to read it directly "cringe individuals are usually violating social and physical taboos ultimately ending up in embarrassing narrative situations and are themselves failing at reading the room and are unaware of it" stuff that feels cheesy or bad performances like American Idol cringe compilations of feminists being owned (?) are also very popular as cringe content, and even users who take things too seriously or are too sincere videos where they're a little vulnerable I'll upload a little sad clip here processing the most triggering breakup I've had in 9 years. So that was a Tik Tok where a user talks about using their bodies to express sadness and how to work through difficult emotions through your body now sure is this something that is opposite to the status quo of course which was the point of her video to try and normalize it, however it was meme'd to hell it was meme'd to death. wait wait so my entire family just died in a plane crash uh no sorry I just don't really know what to say could I actually call you back later.

she originally didn't handle the criticism or the hate very well and uploaded videos kind of Defending herself I just want to explain a little bit about my process and the way that I make content and why maybe it has generated some type of reaction I am always in some type of emotional process because it's my work and it feels like it's my responsibility to take my own [ __ ] and alchemize it so that I can teach others how to do the same however she did come back later making fun of herself after a popular video from a different Tik Tok actually gave her that advice I am processing the most triggering internet trolling I've experienced in 9 years so the internet has given us this brand brand new anonymous social playground to experiment with laughing at real people in their real actions through a screen almost depersonalizing them.

so based on this article the media plays on this by exhibiting characters visual portrayals often break with Cinemas and television's aesthetic conventions around the female or male body and gender some examples are Madea or white chicks and bridesmaids where there's a cringey or comic relief character Ray from the social norms of physical attractiveness so it makes it easier for the viewer to cringe and laugh at their expense. so people who are cringe exhibit this unawareness of expected social behaviors which makes everyone feel bad for them, so it's a little bit of an empathetic response as you know we're all a little bit cringe and nobody is exempt from that. cringe content can exist for us to laugh at, and I think as long as we come from it at a place of compassion we can laugh at each other however writer Caleb Clark argues that cringe is inherently mockery and depending on the context of the relationship between people mockery can be disrespectful or it can just be in jest just a funny joke everyone's kidding because nobody's taking anything seriously like when my brother called my pigtails cringe cuz it was just a funny joke. so cringe is mockery of groups or activities that are harmless awkward and/or too earnest for the ever ironic whip because if there's one thing that everybody especially Gen Z let's be honest here is terrified of....it's being genuine. this place of enjoying things "ironically" is a safe place to exist because if nothing is ever taken seriously you're safe. well what do the professionals have to say about why we cringe? so developmental psychologist Philipe Rocher says cringe is an automatic empathy response or the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes but why would you self-insert yourself into cringe content? This psychologist gives us two ways that people decide to use that empathy response and this is either one to feel contempt so in order to feel Superior to others you feel the cringe so compassionate response to cringe oh no they just got turned down publicly I can't handle it or you see cringey music and you're like ooh I kind of want to release music too I don't really have a big budget and I feel like something I create will be very very similar to that so I'm just going to use that as a lesson and not do what I want to do which is upload something create [Music] something kind of basically like oh I see myself but at least I'm not captured on camera and that's cathartic to me that's comforting to me so people laugh at those people because they literally get it they literally empathize with the person on screen in this case the empathy response kind of comes from a place of insecurity like from the viewers perspective because unintentional cringe is usually uploaded based on interest or passion in creating things usually art authentically yet because of the low quality or bad quality or legitimately bad quality of these Expressions people project their own insecurities onto other people's creations and feign this sense of superiority because those who choose to put themselves out there those who create maybe the viewer isn't even brave enough to do that for themselves but they still judge they still cringe because they empathize and we see this commonly by people who anonymously critique or hate on cringy creator these Anonymous accounts not connected to anything with no profile pictures it's the coward's critique like you can have a cringe response and either be compassionate or be unkind about it so having a cringe response doesn't make it a negative emotion just like having arguments with people the word argument is not an inherently negative word however we sometimes attribute preconceived notions of aggression and conflict uh with the word argument same with cringe it's not inherently negative so with this article I'm referencing it actually doesn't make moral assertions right so it says that they claim the point of cringe culture isn't to be constructive or instructive it's basically finding entertainment through secondhand embarrassment whether the actors are intentionally being weird like Michael Scott or Genuine like Rebecca Black not now like way back then people love her now we know so so it's just a way to laugh at people from behind the screen which can feel cathartic all right but in conclusion let's not get holier than thou I have laughed at the American Idol cringe compilations myself you're not a bad person if you laugh at somebody or cringe their whole art form dedicated to such the appreciation of cringe such as the office just don't go out of your way to shame somebody uh for something that's harmless and I think that might mindset in itself has changed a lot since I was a teenager my brother who's 17 right now was asking him like during his college but he ain't no genius no I'm just kidding I'm just kidding during his high school like what is uncool what is cringe because back you know Circa 2010 oh my God like you were not allowed to stand out what was uncool were like anime kids or band kids or something like they were they were the out groups and I didn't even like Twilight but I felt like I had to be # Team Jacob because I didn't want to be left out and maybe that goes like differently with kids too maybe some kids are just more confident than others I was not but nowadays um my brother claims that people are way less judgmental now like you're allowed to have different interests and people don't inherently think that you're super weird like I remember when I was in high school like you couldn't even wear a Naruto shirt and get away with it like people would be like oh my god wow wee and that could be I guess dependent on maybe like where exactly you grew up um and I'm really curious to hear about your guys's experiences so leave in the comments like when you were in high school the general thoughts around like who was cringe and who didn't fit in did you have a out groups or was everyone kind of like able to like what they liked and got along but yeah that's kind of really hard to to say cuz it just depends on the kind of social group you're part of too I have a friend she's a literal accomplished International model and she has a lot of issues with self-confidence and how she presents herself around other people and that's like probably dependent on her career but she's always afraid to stand out I'm super curious to hear about your guys's experience but in general I guess it's hypocritical to look at any group at in any time period and think that they are irredeemable or uncool and thus like deemed so cringe that they exist within the outskirts of society like most of the time is just someone just enjoying what they enjoy and we should just let them enjoy that and leave them alone but yeah this video essay was kind of just a little taster and talk about visceral reactions cuz you guys know I'm really interested in like visceral reactions and pop culture and how that affects how we treat people and how we view ourselves so I was really interested in the impulsive cringe why we impulsively feel something is cringey whether or not we want to be nice about it or mean about it and just like we're all a little cringe so how to deal with that maybe in a more positive way and we can laugh at others because something's silly or low quality but that does doesn't make them any less cringe than we are so I guess cringe will always be a part of the online world it's just kind of how we deal with it I think it's just putting kindness first that will make everyone able to laugh at themselves and others a little bit more I guess of course no matter what you're consuming online people are more than just pixels on a screen in short cringe culture is cringe and when people call people cringe or me cringe or you cringe I cringe because we are all cringe so leave in the comments why you're cringe also this video is way shorter than like my other uh video essays usually based on my analytics you guys like to watch about 15 to 20 minutes so hopefully uh I boiled this down enough for you guys so that it is enjoyable in just one take like a nice soup all right so let me know what you guys sing in the comments and love you love you love you love you love you love you okay bye dis is in honor of George Floyd and I really hope we can see more unity and more peace when already things are so difficult so shout out to his family [Music]

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