This is kind of a rant; it just feels like we are in almost a dark age for creativity, and to me, cringe culture and nepotism have a lot to do with it.
Lately things have just been feeling bland; the streets have no color anymore; it almost seems dull, and I truly believe some of that is due to the idea of 'Cringe Culture.'
'Cringe Culture' isn't a new thing; it's always been there, just under a different name for a different era. Cringe Culture at its core is a way to isolate people that are different. And recently that idea of isolating anyone who could be different has led to the almost aesthetic sludge we are living through.
Those who have different ideas are now more than ever being pushed out of these industries where they are needed most. What got me thinking on this idea was the September issue of Vogue. The September issue is meant to be what's new for fashion, but it wasn't anything in the magazine that was interesting to me. It was the same things we have been seeing, the same things being pushed out by the same people with nothing behind the style. Nothing stands out, as standing out is looked down upon nowadays as we are stuck in a loop of micro trends, set by those who have bullied others who were different out using cringe culture as a weapon.
At its core nowadays people are scared to be themselves; it has been baked into our culture now. Looking at the past, those who were outside the norm still had places to go; music genres were built from those who had nowhere else. But now those spaces have gone, and the ones that remain are so far removed from what they once were.
Now everything is seen as cringe: dancing is cringe, and living life is cringe. But once something is accepted by the masses, it was never cringe, and once more anyone seen as different is forced out by those moving in.
The dull life we see at its core is due to how individualism is punished; this has always been going on, but now people seem more comfortable isolating others using the label of cringe to cover it.
To be cringe is to be free.
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If you are bad at something, you shouldn't do it. If you're good, you're a show-off. If you have passion, you're "obsessed" and weird. If you do things for the trend or because you have to, you're a faker/LARPer. Ironically, I think people who do LARPs are far more authentic than any idiot tearing someone down in a TikTok comment section.
To be cringe is to be free, yes, but I don't think there is any way to be cool anymore. At least, not in a way that most people accept. You have to be cringe to be at all yourself.