Throughout my time in college, a lot of my friends and I have taken “side-quest” activities that have challenged us to step outside of our comfort zone. One of the activities that I’ve done was mentoring high school kids in my hometown who are applying to college. I’ve seen students who are passionate about their future careers; however, there’s a pattern that I’ve noticed within my students: they’re afraid of trying out new things because of their perception of cringiness.
One example that comes to mind is a student who wants to go into nursing. When I was reviewing her college application and resumé, I noticed that there weren’t a lot of activities relating to her desired career. I knew from her personal statement and talking to her parents that she was passionate about medicine and taking care of others; however, her extracurricular activities didn’t reflect that. So, I asked her a simple question: has she ever looked into anything related to nursing? And her answer was this. She explained to me that she got accepted into a nursing internship program in New York but, because of her family’s financial situation, she was unable to attend the program. And when I asked her if she considered looking into more local programs and volunteering, she said “no” because of her fear of coming off as cringe.
This student’s response was not the first time I’ve ever heard the word cringe. In fact, it was a common word used among my students. One student wants to get into video design because he thought having a public YouTube channel was cringe. Another student was afraid of trying out a new sport, and the worst example I’ve faced was the story above. All across later Gen Z and Gen Alpha circles, cringe seemed to be the new word for “embarrassment”. And I simply ask myself, why’s that the case?
Across Gen Z culture, there’s a social emphasis on performance and hyper-social etiquette. There’s the stereotype of men having non-heterogenderative personalities, and the “cool girl” trope. A top example is actress Inde Navarette from Obsession. In press interviews and online, she comes off as a quirky individual who’s obsessed with video games but, because of her personality, many took to the internet to say that she’s cringe. A shell of a woman who portrays “pick me” material, therefore, deserves to be called cringe. Not because of her personality, but because of the news of her being cast in a Marvel movie. And the same thing applies to the “performative male” trend where the archetype of a matcha, Laufey-obsessed guy all of a sudden gets culturally depicted as a caricature.
Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with a guy who likes Laufey or a girl who’s fluent in video game culture, but based on the internet’s obsession with bashing on these tropes, it seems like there are two phenomena present. One is the fear of expression, and the other is peak misogyny.
The current culture surrounding gender and society has transgressed from the optimism of the 2010s. The image of the “Boss Lady” is now being replaced online by the “Trad Wife”, and, now more than ever, misogyny has become hyper-centered with male red pill content. With the shift back towards a culture centered around heterogendered standards, the social rules of etiquette have now turned into a system executing individuality, causing many young adults and teenagers to be afraid of self-expression and getting out of their comfort zone. The excuse now is using the word cringe but, in reality, it’s fear of social embarrassment and fear that’s making people scared of learning and self-growth. If there wasn’t any social stigma surrounding what makes a person obliged by societal views, how many more successful people would there be in this world?
So, rather than asking how cringy it would be to try something new, maybe there should be a new question asked. How different can a person be to perhaps make an impact on their life?