“Listen, I can explain,” I say, gazing back into the mix of confusion and disappointment painted onto my friends’ faces.
“He’s soft mannered and he’s awkward. Totally my type.”
“But he is a furry,” my friends shoot back.
“But he is my furry,” I respond, invoking an uproar of laughter.
“What is your hear me out?”
This question makes its way into the various conversations that take place within Coppell High School. From furries to cars, the absurdities named during a hear me out discussion spark humorous conversations.
Initially manifesting as a social media trend in 2024, hear me outs are people, characters or objects that are not typically considered attractive. The person who proposes this hear me out justifies why they are attracted to said individual as their attractiveness is not quickly understood by others.
Hear me outs are a widespread idea in high school and college environments, with many students establishing their own claims in case the question sparks discussion.
Originally, the light-hearted nature of this trend presented more benefits beyond the surface level. It promoted the idea that there is beauty in traits that diverge from standards of conventional attractiveness present. This empowers the various youth who identify beyond these standards, helping boost their self esteem.
However, there have been variations from this expectation.
Rather than seeing furries, teapots or M&Ms on hear me out cakes (a trend where people stick images of their “hear me outs” on cakes), I noticed more conventionally attractive people. Hear me out conversations began revolving around conventionally attractive people instead of the unique characters they previously did.
I will be frank. A character like Chris Kratt should not be your hear me out. He is tall, good-looking and has a charismatic personality. He is conventionally attractive and requires little to nothing to be heard out about him, yet his name has been mentioned several times within the hear me out conversations that I’ve been a part of.
Your hear me outs should strike some form of question. If stating a hear me out does not leave you begging and pleading for the ears of your peers then it’s not a true hear me out. By naming conventionally attractive characters as hear me outs, we slowly erased the encouragement of individualistic beauty the trend once held.
Stop describing conventionally attractive people as your hear me outs. While it appears minor at the front, it still undermines the positive impact the term holds.
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