EP. 21 Cringe Culture is Cringe

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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.

This video essay will be split into 3 parts, we’re going to be:
1.) Cringe & Social Hierarchy
2.) Defining Cringe Academically
3.) Intentional Cringe (which is commonly used in comedy shows like the office, fleabag, and always sunny, some SNL skits) that are intended to make the consumer feel cringe for entertainment
VS.
Unintentional Cringe (which leads to the feeling of inferiority about a persons own sub or counter culture and most likely personality) this would encapsulate people who end up on cringe compilations and most notably pop music cringe but DID NOT intend to be there and to jog your memory *insert pop cringe here*

Defining Cringe Academically
So, as we do here on Reese Grey Analyzes, we know what the average person’s sentiment is about cringe well, what do the professionals have to say about why we cringe?

1.) Developmental psychologist Phillipe Rochat says cringe is an automatic empathy response. Or the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes. But why would you want to self insert yourself into cringe content?

Psychologists Rochat gives 2 reasons. For people to feel contempt (superior to others), or for people to feel compassion.
Compassionate Response to cringe: Oh no I can’t believe someone just got turned down publicly in front of hundreds of people for a proposal, poor guy, or “ooh I wanna create original music too, but I won’t because I don’t want to end up like this, because it’s be really low quality and people would make fun of it” basically, “I see myself in this, but I am glad I am not captured on camera at least, so I can kinda laugh at those who are cuz i get it”. In this case, the empathy response comes from a place of insecurity from the viewers perspective. Because unintentional cringe is uploaded in earnest, genuinely, based on the interest or passion in creating art usually. Yet because it’s low quality it gets made fun of because people tend to project their own insecurities on other people’s creations, and feign a sense of superiority over those who choose to put themselves out there are create, when usually the viewer wouldn’t even be brave enough to put any art they create out there themselves. We see this commonly with hate comments that come from anonymous accounts with no profile picture etc. It’s the cowards critique. And then we have the

Contempt Response:  The common response of seeing something cringe and being like“oh god i’m so glad I’m not like that, I’m so glad there are other people to laugh at” It’s the same response as above minus the compassion and acknowledgement that yknow we are all a bit cringe and nobody is excluded from that. That being said, Phillipe concludes Cringe content exists exclusively for people to laugh at, and compassionate we are about it is what makes us all different.

2.) And writer Caleb Clark argues : Cringe is mockery. And depending on the context of the relationship between people, mockery can be disrespectful or it could be in jest, just a funny joke, everyone’s kidding because nobody is taking anything too seriously. Like when my little brother called my pigtails cringe, cuz *fake crying* 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 web.

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.

In general, It’s hypocritical to look at cringe culture and people who are deemed cringe and say the group or person is irredeemable. They’re people, trying to be creative or even just have fun. And people are also just allowed to create silly things and enjoy them.

The purpose of this video essay was just a little bit of a taster into why we have the visceral reactions that we do. Why do we feel the impulse to cringe, and how it is natural and empathy based, and can be destructive only if we allow ourselves to think we’re above others. But we’re all a little cringe. We can laugh at others because things are silly and low quality but yknow, I’ve seen people genuinely enjoy cringe pop.

Cringe culture and its end are not a be-all end-all for a lack of human kindness, but it will always be a part of the online world. Remember to try to be kind and to think of others as more than pixels on a screen. In short, cringe culture makes me cringe, when people call people cringe I cringe because you’re cringe, but then I cringe because I am cringe, and cringe culture is cringe.

 Transcript: EP: XXX TITLE HERE

Resources From This Episode (Source Notes)

1.) Cringe Culture Through A feminist view: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1527476418777838
2.) Melissa Dahl: https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/13/16964848/melissa-dahl-cringeworthy-awkwardness-psychology-social-science-interview
3.) Cringe In Sigaporean Music: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40541426?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
4.) Caleb Clark: https://studybreaks.com/thoughts/farewell-to-cringe-culture/
5.) https://theswaddle.com/why-do-we-cringe-and-how-does-it-influence-culture/
6.) Cringe Pop Music: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cringe_pop
7.) Cringe Pop Music 2: https://alternativestory.in/cringe-pop/

Academic Articles On Cringe
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9567680/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4769632/
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/10/3/99
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