The Health Consequences of Cringe Culture

Your obsession with being “cool” and “happy” is making you ugly, boring, and miserable.

FYI: Conformity compromises your quality of life. From mental health to social anxiety to fitness, our culture’s growing fear of cringe has created a seriously sad situation for everyone.

Gen Z women are especially susceptible to these pressures and problems, finding themselves regretful and resentful when they reflect on the decisions they’ve made out of insecurity and conditioning.

It’s time to be transparent about the toll of cringe culture on your health, debunk myths about embarrassment, and connect you to your authenticity so you can thrive through societal shame.

The Origin & Illusion of Cringe

For centuries, shame has been utilized as a tool of control, especially against women and marginalized communities. 

The story of the Scarlet Letter is exhibit A—literally. Publicly shaming women for having sex within a Puritan society? Sounds eerily familiar to the cultural landscape we’ve regressed back into today. 

Simply put, cringe is shame and bullying rebranded for the moment.

For Millennials, the moniker of choice was “cheugy,” a term that describes something basic, lame, or boring. If anything you did received this criticism, it felt like the end of the world because of its pervasive and permanent implications about your coolness.

For Gen Z, “cringe” refers to something or someone embarrassing, with the accuser trying to establish a false sense of moral or social superiority. It’s weaponized by deeply insecure people to mask themselves as better, cooler, or smarter than the person they’re judging. 

The worst part of it all? Women are weaponizing these concepts just as ruthlessly as their male counterparts. 

It’s another cop-out and cover-up intended to keep us conforming and quiet—and it’s working exactly as the patriarchy intended. 

Cringe Hurts Women on Purpose

While cringe may be a stupid man-made concept, the consequences of it are very real for women.

Since the beginning of time, women have been trained to believe that their appearance is the most important and valuable thing about them. Every generation of women has painfully navigated unrealistic beauty standards, worrying if they’re perceived as cool, different, and beautiful through the lens of the male gaze. But instead of feeling like their efforts were worthwhile, they end up feeling empty—and ironically, embarrassed for caring so deeply about something so shallow.

This revelation is a right of passage for young women as they discover themselves, and now the traumatic torch has been passed to Gen Z, with an extra emphasis on hotness over all else. Western beauty ideals are magnified and multiplied beyond belief; Instagram face, preventative Botox, the Clean Girl aesthetic, Pilates princess core—you name it, it’s all about young women looking and being the hottest version possible based on what’s trending.

These things are not inherently bad, but there are deeper issues at play. These are tests that further shame and ostracize women if they don’t assimilate. When they do give in, they believe they’ll be accepted, solve their problems, and prevent future ones from developing.

Except it doesn’t—because it never has, and it never will. 

It’s a lose-lose situation. You either give into trends because of pressure, or you get shunned because you don’t. You’re judged and ridiculed regardless of your choice.

Naturally, women’s mental health tanks, and their self-concept is shaken. 

How to Stop Caring About Cringe

The only antidote to the cringe crisis is to rebel like your life depends on it—because it does. 

Who’s in charge and even gets to decide what’s objectively cringe, anyway? As my yoga instructor recently said, “being cringe is being free!”

Because society equates embarrassment with weakness, some people think they can avoid or ignore feeling embarrassed by dishing out a “cringe” label to others before that person gets accused of being cringe themselves. 

The real weakness is letting fear control how you treat others. Calling someone “cringe” is a weak defense used by weak people. Cowards use cringe as a convenient and lazy projection. They’re outing themselves as insecure.

Aren’t you annoyed and exhausted pretending to put on a persona in hopes of being liked—by people you don’t even really like? You’re hearing other people label things cringe and blindly following their lead. 

Yikes. We think that’s the only thing we should ever be embarrassed about.

Peer pressure and the desperate quest for approval will leave you empty. We recommend you focus on authenticity and fill your life with fun. That’s where you’ll feel the fulfillment and freedom you’re desperate for.

Ignore whatever the masses are calling cringe, trendy, or anything else. What do you like? Why do you like it? 

Pursue new hobbies and goals that make you feel alive. Find the friends who accept and celebrate your uniqueness. Your interests deserve to be invested in and enjoyed. 

Your Anti-Cringe Checklist

Reclaim cringe as cool. Redefine moments of embarrassment as opportunities to practice exposure therapy and form genuine connections. After all, you have to be willing to be a little weird if you want to find your real friends. Choose curiosity over fear and watch your fears and fake friends disappear.

Assert dominance. You don’t inspire others or stand out by following the crowd. Last time we checked, the main character of any book or movie doesn’t let others decide their story; they believe in themselves enough to do what they want, take risks, and push forward even when things suck.

Consider the worst case. Because temporary discomfort is a small price to pay in comparison to a life of regret. It can and will be worse if you choose to let the fear of cringe dictate every decision. Who do you not want to end up like? Observe how they act and do the opposite.

Focus on the future. What kind of life is future you living? When you’re sitting alone at the end of each day, are you content? In the big picture, small mistakes and embarrassing moments won’t matter. What you will remember is how you feel about your life decisions. 

To be cringe is to be human. Cringe is the raw, unfiltered reality we all live. 

You’re not the first person to feel embarrassed, and you won’t be the last. Eventually, you’ll stop dwelling in shame and start cruising through it without a second thought.

Remember: it’s better to be cringe in your own mind than caged in someone else’s.

Transforming discomfort into dialogue is at the heart of our mission at R.A.G.E. Let’s challenge the world and ourselves one conversation and connection at a time.