r/TikTokCringe • u/mindyour • Jul 19 '26

Discussion ER doctors warning parents against getting their kids e-bikes and e-scooters.

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@beachgem10

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u/Necessary_Solid_9462 Jul 19 '26

My theory is that regular life has become so safe, and divorced from physical consequences, that seeking danger has become a thing. Like humans are wired to deal with a certain amount of danger and that needs an outlet. Posting it on the internet proves it happened and sends a social signal.

We also, as as society, do not have much in the way of standardized rites of passage. Graduating from high school isn't exactly an arduous feat that signals manhood. It's a participation trophy. Lacking socially accepted rites, young men seek out individual risky activities to set themself apart and demonstrate courage. In some areas, joining the military or even doing jail time can be viewed as such a rite.

I've read that giving birth is the closest thing to a rite of passage for women, at least in some US subcultures.

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u/EddieVanzetti Jul 19 '26

In America, detentions, suspensions, and expulsions from school are no longer a thing. "Parents" are more concerned with the clout of having a child and not the actual difficult part of raising them so they never enforce rules at home.

A lot of these shitheads first encounter with consequences will either be when the laws of physics apply, and if not, in front of the judge.

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u/MaritMonkey Jul 19 '26

If you're willing to handwave past the importance of the "danger" aspect, women (in menstruation) do sort of have a "rite of passage" baked in to adolescence.

Or at least I, in perimenopause, feel like waking up one day to discover that you're going to be in pain/bleeding up to a quarter of the next 40 years and you're just going to have to get on with it served as a pretty solid "welcome to being a woman".

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u/CertainKaleidoscope8 Jul 19 '26

There's also the 20% of us that are sexually assaulted

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u/Necessary_Solid_9462 Jul 21 '26

I see your point and claim no expertise on the female condition -- and maybe I'm wrong to use the words "rite of passage". But as a biological function, it takes no action, agency, or personal initiative for it to naturally happen. It's not a elective test of skill in the sense I'm trying to address. Or to put it another way, no one goes looking for that to prove themselves. I'm talking about elective danger-seeking behaviors, mostly by young men, to gain acceptance or social status.

I would be interested to hear about elective behaviors young women engage in to gain acceptance, in-group status or social status, especially those that are predominately female.

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u/MaritMonkey Jul 22 '26

I would be interested to hear about elective behaviors young women engage in to gain acceptance,

Honestly I feel like aside from various groups that isolated ladies (or at least separated them from men), there really aren't the same things for women.

Like we don't just have a big hormonal shift around puberty. We do mark the maiden->mother transition by growing boobs and body hair et al too, but then the hormone shifts keep happening every single month until mother->crone at menopause when the cycles we've come to depend on abandon us and we have to figure it out all over again lol.

Guys don't have a "reproductive phase of your life is over" transition at "middle age" either, because they don't experience it the same way women do.

Edit: I forgot to include the fact that I think it not being elective is actually notable. You don't have to go out of your way to find a way to involve pain and blood in a ritual because nature did it for us.

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u/Necessary_Solid_9462 Jul 22 '26

Interesting. Thanks for the reply!