I wonder if things like the hexbear bouncing cat emotes are a bit twee and cringe

I used to think this same thing. Cringe is the secondhand embarrassment we feel as we see people perceive themselves one way and portray themselves another by accident. I’ve found that part of clearing away my patriarchal brainworms has been expanding the expressions which I perceive as intentional. A lot of it just boiled down to, “no man would look that effeminate on purpose” or some similarly sexist garbage. So wiping that away has made me cringe way less often. Because I see that people are generally quite aware of how they come off most of the time. I was, out of habit, putting on a performance for no one to avoid consequences which wouldn’t have bothered me.

I don’t know if this is the case for you and I don’t mean it as an accusation*. Just wanted to share my thoughts

*Also, am I nuts or is this a primary way for people to interact on TikTok? Instead of just sharing their own experiences, they have to construct some intellectual-sounding generalization and project it onto others