The popular Tik Tok meme \u00ab\u00a0I\u2019m Already Tracer\u00a0\u00bb has gained lots of anger on YouTube, but the cringe compilations aren\u2019t fair to teen girls and young women making videos in earnest.<\/b>
\nTik Tok, the lip-syncing video app that has surged to popularity in recent weeks, often finds itself as the subject of derision on YouTube \u201ccringe compilations.\u201d Across the internet, many content creators have made it their duty to collect and mock some of Tik Tok\u2019s more earnest uploads, featuring teens singing and dancing along to all kinds of songs.
The latest Tik Tok clips to flood into the limelight are renditions of what\u2019s been dubbed \u201cI\u2019m Already Tracer.\u201d The viral hit, an Overwatch -themed clip from a fan-made song released over a year ago, has become one of Tik Tok\u2019s biggest of late. On other areas of the web, however, it has garnered infamy, as its tenuous connection to video game player culture creates an intense level of scrutiny that goes beyond the usual degradation of Tik Tok.
Tik Tok\u2019s rise to internet notoriety only happened over the past few months, but the Chinese-developed app has been around since 2014. Like the similar app Musical.ly before it, Tik Tok allows users to make and share short videos using various audio clips, where they lip sync and perform over popular songs. When Tik Tok acquired Musical.ly back in August, it inherited most of Musical.ly\u2019s teenage community. In June, before its merger with Musical.ly, Tik Tok had over 500 million users. Since then, it\u2019s only grown, absorbing the 200 million, predominantly teen female users of Musical.ly.
Now that the app is more popular, Tik Tok\u2019s long-time user base is working on accepting the new communities, ranging from Facebook moms to furries, most who joined because of the ability to make some silly videos and express themselves. There\u2019s a subsection of people joining the app with different, more mean-spirited intentions.
This is where cringe compilations come in, as they\u2019re mostly made by people who don\u2019t use Tik Tok to play along, but to make fun of those already on there. This is par for the cringe-culture course: People take whatever popular fandom is blowing up among a different crowd and deride both the content and its fans.
Just searching Tik Tok online brings up derision across the internet, even if you\u2019re not looking for general compilations of clips to mock.
Much like Cole Sprouse and the cast of Riverdale; leggings; and the music of Taylor Swift before it, Tik Tok occupies a space in pop culture where it is undeniably popular \u2014 but its acclaim with teen girls means it\u2019s just as likely to be mocked as it is loved. Whether things made popular by teenage girls hold up later (think The Beatles versus Westlife), critics are quick to deem these fandoms as invalid because of the demographics of their fanbase.
Even when their clips don\u2019t involve fandoms, Tik Tok users are regularly ridiculed simply for using the app the way its meant to be used. Add in the fact that \u201cI\u2019m Already Tracer\u201d is an Overwatch -themed anthem, and the internet shows its ugly side.
Tik Tok users came late to \u201cI\u2019m Already Tracer,\u201d which dates back to January 2017, before the Tik Tok days. It\u2019s pulled from an animated music video by Mashed of The Living Tombstones\u2019 \u201cNo Mercy,\u201d and sung by two Overwatch teammates: a male player who keeps threatening to quit because his team keeps losing due to their lack of support heroes, and a female player who doesn\u2019t want to be forced to play support, a role male players usually assign to women (or assume that women prefer). Ultimately, neither budges, which costs their team the match.
The original video doesn\u2019t depict either of the players in a good light \u2014 both are too stubborn to just pick a support hero. The point is to show how \u201cunappreciated\u201d support players are, according to the YouTube description for the Mashed version.
Since it found a surprise renaissance on Tik Tok, however, it\u2019s been the sole subject of many cringe compilations that mock whoever is singing the female part. Overwatch fans on Twitter and YouTube are holding Tik Tok users to an even higher standard of mass critique. Make a 15-second clip about video games, and every action you take will come under fire.
Just a quick glance at the compilations\u2019 comments sections reveal violent, often misogynistic threats towards the subjects. At best, commenters ridicule the teens making the short silly clips, usually focusing on their appearances: either they make fun of how the performers look or accuse them of borrowing their boyfriends\u2019 controllers.
At worst, the comments sections house overly dramatic cheers for the girls\u2019 deaths \u2014 quite a histrionic reaction to a bunch of 15-second clips.
Performers are lambasted for not plugging in their controllers, using a wrong controller in the first place, or for \u201cspamming the buttons.\u201d (Though even those who claim to know better debate which controllers the girls are using.)
Creators will make their own \u201cironic Tik Tok\u201d videos in response, where they write out comments to the girls ranging from \u201c Overwatch isn\u2019t on PS3\u201d to \u201cTurn on your controller, bitch.\u201d
It\u2019s all classic internet talk, one could argue, but the reactions are aggressive. Occasionally a brave commentator will dare to question the spam of \u201cTHE CONTROLLER ISNT ON!!!\u201d comments, asking why it\u2019s necessary that the controller be on for a quick Tik Tok video \u2014 only to have other commentators jump into replies raging about how girls are \u201cattention whores.\u201d
The idea that teenage girls should be punished for putting themselves out there is laughable. While some teens have gotten famous off Musical.ly and Tik Tok, most just use it to have fun and share videos with their friends. Lip-syncing is just entertaining, so much so that there\u2019s a whole show devoted to celebrities doing it. The girls making these videos probably didn\u2019t intend for anyone outside of the app to see them. The only reason people are seeing them right now is because others went on Tik Tok to actively find and ridicule them.
The misogyny of the matter is hammered home when you realize that some clips included in these cringe compilations don\u2019t actually show anything \u201cwrong\u201d with what the performers are doing \u2014 they\u2019re using the right controllers, or playing on PC, or just lip-syncing without any props. And most of all, it\u2019s hard to ignore the gendered nature of the vitriol. It\u2019s not just girls making the \u201cI\u2019m Already Tracer\u201d videos. But most are, as are the majority of Tik Tok users who have been called out for not correctly playing Overwatch or not being real fans, despite no evidence suggesting otherwise.
One of the clips included in many of these compilations is of 17-year-old cosplayer and Tik Tok user majaringsby, who is wearing full D. Va cosplay. She\u2019s using a controller that\u2019s not for PS4 (though it\u2019s hard to tell from the 15-second clip), but her cosplay is fully detailed and accurate. Glancing at her cosplay Instagram profile reveals that she\u2019s a veteran cosplayer, has enough Overwatch knowledge to know D. Va\u2019s civilian name and regularly uses Tik Tok while dressed as her favorite characters.
Despite majaringsby\u2019s commitment to the character, people on the internet are quick to call her a fake fan for how she moves.
There is certainly valid critique of \u201cI\u2019m Already Tracer\u201d itself. Out of context, it could cast a poor light on female gamers in general; the singer\u2019s stubborn refusal to play support seems belligerent and uncooperative to some, especially when excised from the original song. It no longer matters that both the guy and girl only want to play the more offensive Overwatch heroes; the woman\u2019s refusal makes her look like a bad teammate.
Watching teen girls sing along while absentmindedly playing with irrelevant controllers can feed right back into the notion that \u201cwomen don\u2019t play games,\u201d or that their love of games is fake. The spread of \u201cI\u2019m Already Tracer\u201d across Tik Tok could just reinforce stereotypes, and male commenters reflect this theory.
Some women will also comment that they\u2019re ashamed of these girls in the videos for poorly representing an already marginalized community. But a lot of female commenters on these videos aren\u2019t defending their place in the gaming community; they\u2019re spreading the same misogyny, reducing the girls in the videos to \u201cthots\u201d or calling them fakers.
There\u2019s a conversation to be had about how the 15-second cut of the song portrays the female gamer as recalcitrant. But mocking the clips doesn\u2019t analyze the negative implications of \u201cI\u2019m Already Tracer\u201d or how it reflects toxicity in Overwatch. The majority of these \u201cironic\u201d cringe-y videos exist to deride the teens \u2014 young women \u2014 who are making these catchy, silly Tik Tok clips for the fun of it. And for a lot of the naysayers, that alone seems to be the big problem. Never mind that some of these Tik Tok women might genuinely love the game. If the gamer culture jury rules that you\u2019re not a true representative of the fandom, they won\u2019t stop until you do.<\/p>\n

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