Other people have pointed out how people on tumblr make fun people who have “unacceptable” interests, ships, hobbies, etc. And how that’s partaking in cringe culture. I agree wholeheartedly with that sentiment, and I believe that just as long as no one is hurt, people should be allowed to do whatever they want. Especially since you don’t know how much something can mean to someone.
Talking about my experiences, especially as an autistic girl, my hyperfixations/special interests have by and large been a way for me to interact with the world. They’ve mostly had a positive influence in my life. For example, ever since I got into Skylanders when I was 8-9, I started to hyperfocus on the action girl trope. Mostly in video games, anime and western animation, partially because you can’t easily get comics and manga in Singapore and back then I believed live-action stuff was generally less interesting. Back then, I was extremely painfully shy. I got bullied in kindergarten, and because I was an undiagnosed aspie I had pretty low self-esteem. In comes the trope, and the characters under the umbrella.
I was... extremely cringy about it when I was young. An infodumping little girl who would talk about whatever video game or cartoon or anime she was into at the time. And the characters in them. No one could stop me. But... it did help. Partially because I had something to talk to people about, and partially because they were a source of catharsis for my own problems. Now, I’m a lot less shy, I have friends now (mostly boys, go figure), I dress how I want, I became more tenacious, I even finished secondary school! My main takeaway is that it doesn’t matter whether you’re storming a castle or trying to make your way through your country’s high school equivalent. What inspires you inspires you.
Point is, people may act cringy about their interests. They may be into stuff you hate, or that you don’t get. But at the end of the day, you didn’t live their life. You don’t know how much something can mean to someone. It doesn’t mean that whatever it is they like is immune from criticism (I listen to criticisms for a lot of characters I like. A lot of them are underdeveloped or bitchy, at least in canon. I acknowledge that.) But it does mean that you shouldn’t insult the person for liking it. That’s the core of cringe culture. Insulting a person for liking something instead of criticising the thing. And that’s why it hurts. Because you often don’t know how much something means to someone until you live their life.
jacobvanloon
baratheonpilled
areudirty
theartofmadeline
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