Rock Candy Reviews

And everything in between

After watching a video about “performative males”, I was left feeling exhausted and disappointed. Not because of the topic of the video, but because of an intense disdain for how we interact as humans these days. Even as people become more and more aware of stereotypes, we still choose to find new ways to judge and misrepresent each other.

Stereotypes have always been considered by most to be a negative way to base interactions off of, yet labels and call out culture seem to be booming. Simply gather a couple of traits, slap a catchy but demeaning name on them, and you’ve got yourself the next group of people to hate and humiliate.

Whether it’s pop culture, lifestyle, or relationships, everything has to have a category and a label. Another way to not feel guilty about disrespecting someone and posting about it. We as a society have become too comfortable with saying it is automatically okay to harass and ridicule certain groups of people.

Some examples would be performative males, weebs, emos, gamer girls, and many others. These terms aren’t exactly new, but the increase in how people use these labels to target people is unsettling. They are no longer just names to joke about. They are used as ways to bully people, and reward hate comments and mob mentality.

At the same time, these same people will say that they are completely against things like racism, sexism, homophobia, and class division. A person can be minding their own business, not causing a scene, but still get filmed and made fun of for daring to exist. These people do not see strangers as human beings. They see them as public figures to pick apart and criticize in every possible way. The person’s clothes, speech, facial expressions, and even proximity, are seen as unforgivable threats to be raged over.

Stereotypes used to be the way we tell how closed or open minded someone is. But now, they have become ways to take out our anger and insecurities. People who are only trying to live their lives in the way they find enjoyable, are falling victim to hateful individuals that can’t mind their own business.

Worst of all, people would rather jump on the hate train than defend others. People are so concerned with being “fake”, yet they will join in on hating others just because they don’t want to be seen as over sensitive or uncool. We’re so busy calling each other out for inconsequential things, that we are losing our real personalities to hate filled bullies. Everything has to be stereotype. Everything has to be a crime against someone else. Nothing can be fun or enjoyable anymore. (Unless you’re okay with people relentlessly pestering you about it.)

I wish we could go back to a time where worrying that everyone is judging you was considered to be an irrational fear. I wish I could go out in public without worrying someone who hates me will take my picture to post on their cringe content page. I wish people could be less obsessed with creating narratives about others, just for the sake of seeming cool or original.