It’s cool to be strange

Kathryn, deep in the theatre kid trenches. Contributed photo

Cringe culture. Making fun of others for liking something that has been deemed by popular demand as “cringey.” Targeting individuals for expressing themselves in an unconventional manner or style. Causing people to fear authenticity. One of the cheapest attempts at humor.

I’m so over it.

Growing up a weird kid, theatre kid and art kid in middle and high school made me highly susceptible to falling victim to cringe culture. Yes. It happened. I drew Hamilton fanart and wore thigh highs and listened to Nightcore.

I felt the looks; I heard the whispers and for a while, it got to me. I stopped being myself and tried to “fit in” by pretending to like what was socially acceptable.

But like, who cares? I wasn’t hurting anyone. Looking back, sure, some of it was weird. I simply find it hard to care anymore.

People are going to be mean; people are going to be judgemental, but it’s far more important to be happy and be true to yourself than to care what other people think.

Find people who enjoy that you do things that make you happy instead of putting you down for being yourself.

My friends all know I like My Little Pony, and who cares? They know I’m obsessed with everything cat related, down to my hair clips, and they do feed that addiction. I watch animated shows and collect figurines and draw in my sketchbook and sleep with several Squishmallows and at the end of the day, so what?

Cringe culture killed my creativity for a while; it dulled my sparkle, if you will. I felt hollow and listless, and though that may sound dramatic, it’s true. I was ashamed to like the things I like and wanted to hide any aspect of myself that could be deemed as “cringe.”

It can be difficult to get over the internalised fear of rejection.Being on a campus where I saw so many others outwardly enjoy their interests made me realize that it’s really all okay, and cringe culture is dead.

I think it’s safe to say that cringe culture is diminishing in younger generations, and I think that’s an amazing thing. Let kids be weird; it builds a lot of interesting qualities in a person.

Now, social media is a despot in the way of percolating cringe culture. It’s far too easy for someone to leave a hateful comment on a video of someone innocently sharing their interest. This, unfortunately, discourages a lot of youth from acting authentically, even encouraging them to fall into the role of the commentor because that’s what’s more popular.

However, there’s recently been an uprising of clap backs, wherein kids defend themselves in rather brash ways. Maybe this is just a trend, but if that’s what it takes to kill cringe culture, I’m all for it.

I say (as the supreme lawmaker of the world) if your interest doesn't harm others, animals, property or yourself, and doesn’t make you a felon, go for it.

You want to be a furry? Cool. I actually think the artistic process behind making fur suits is awesome and takes a ton of skill and time, which is super admirable.

You enjoy historical fencing and joined a league for it? I’m so interested in how you got into that and what the heck that even is.

You know every detail about RuPaul’s Drag Race? Great. I would love for you to tell me about the latest episode, even though I’ve never watched the show, and don’t plan to, because your passion for it interests me.

You’re obsessed with minions? Not my thing, but I’ll still be your best friend and buy every single minion item I come across because I know it’ll make you happy.

It takes so much less effort and energy to be kind than it does to be mean. The world would be so much rounder if we could just accept people for how they are. There's no whimsy if we’re all the same person; it’s so boring.

So as I sit here, looking at my new Aristocats figurine and listening to my favorite classical music CD, I say (as the supreme leader of the anti-cringe culture club) be strange. It’s so cool to be strange.