My TikTok feed, usually a respite of surfing highlights, recipe ideas, and Generation X nostalgia, was overrun by super-straight. It reappeared about a week later, presumably after human content moderators reviewed it. The video quickly disappeared from TikTok, perhaps because many users flagged it as violating the app’s rules. Haters argued that super-straight was a cruel parody of all LGBTQ people. Supporters deemed the term super-straight an ingenious gambit forcing dogmatic social-justice advocates to live by the same standards they enforce on others. Instead his video quickly garnered many thousands of likes and shares.
Had the video spread no more widely than Royce’s followers, a low-stress exchange of ideas might have ensued. But he was also trying to make a point by co-opting a norm of LGBTQ activists: that one’s professed sexual or gender identity is unassailable.Ĭhase Strangio: The trans future I never dreamed of
He was trying to accurately convey his dating preferences and truly felt frustrated by others’ criticism. When I asked what his intentions were on a spectrum from 100 percent earnest to 100 percent trolling, he had trouble answering. So you can’t say I’m transphobic now, because that’s just my sexuality, you know. “No, you’re just transphobic.” So now, I’m “super-straight”! I only date the opposite gender, women, that are born women. You know, they’re like, “Would you date a trans woman?” It’s called “super-straight,” since straight people, or straight men as myself––I get called transphobic because I wouldn’t date a trans woman. Yo, guys, I made a new sexuality now, actually. Recasting his own preferences as a sexual identity of its own, he reasoned, would be “like a kind of defense” against accusations of perpetrating harm. “Lots of sexualities are being created,” he said, alluding to the proliferation of terms such as pansexual, demisexual, sapiosexual, and more. “I’m not transphobic, I see that as a negative term.” Then, he had an idea. “I felt like I was getting unfairly labeled,” he told me recently. He was repeatedly told, upon responding no, that his answer was transphobic. On multiple occasions, he was asked if he would date a trans woman. Occasionally, he would also do live-streams, during which some participants would ask about his background-he’s a straight, cisgender Christian of mixed Asian and white ancestry-and press him on controversial matters of the day. He had built up a small following poking gentle fun at “Karen” behavior. The post (shown below, right) received more than 6,000 reactions, 1,200 comments and 4,100 shares in two days.B ack in February, Kyle Royce, a 20-year-old in British Columbia, Canada, created a video that proved far more controversial and influential than he had imagined it would be when he uploaded it to TikTok.
The following week, on September 17th, Facebook user amphetameme2 posted a version that reads pills that taste like lemon and the cat with an image of someone's eyes tearing from eating a lemon from The Simpsons. The post (shown below, center) received more than 2,400 reactions and 230 shares. Two weeks later, on September 8th, Facebook user k3圓fsi posted a variation that reads "Pills that make you stare at garbage" with the cat staring at a "Sunday Pinsaya" poster. On August 23rd, Imgur user underwearjackpot posted the meme (shown below, left) with the text "pills that make you stare at a disappointing storyline" and the cat staring at a Dragon Ball Z poster. Over the next month, people continued to photoshop the images. On August 24th, Tumblr user depsidase posted the meme, receiving more than 13,000 notes The next day, the Facebook account 9000 Rare Blini cats posted the meme, where it received more than 3,600 reactions, 1,700 comments and 12,000 shares. The post (shown below) received more than 840 points (99% upvoted) in one month. In the first panel, the pills given to the cat is renamed "Pills that make you stare at the wall." The image underneath shows the cat staring at the wall without thinking about the other cat. On August 21st, Redditor Gayabe posted a photoshopped version of the images stacked on top of each other in the /r/bonehurtingjuice subreddit. That day, Redditor ehchinoo posted the picture to the /r/me_irl subreddit, receiving more than 500 points (99% upvoted).