Performative Nicheness and the Death of Individuality

Ah, the joy of having your own niche.

To be unconventional is to be cool. However, in this day and age, individuality seems like it

has become just another box to fit into, a meaningless aesthetic to try on, and throw away

the moment it’s no longer cool.

Surely, if to be niche means to only appeal to a small, specific group of people, then being

niche wouldn’t be as widely desired as it is. Better yet, it wouldn’t be something to become.

To me, nicheness is not an identity, and becoming niche isn’t something to aspire to be,

because everyone is inherently niche, in one way or another.

Of course a lot of us may have similar interests, follow similar aesthetics, fall into several

categories, but it’s the mismatched combination of all those things that truly makes us who

we are as our own person.

That is closer to being niche than pretending to like something obscure ever could be.

You cannot strive to be something that’s already within you, and you shouldn’t craft parts of

yourself and your interests to fit a certain image otherwise it becomes inauthentic.

This performativeness is particularly prevalent on platforms like Substack and certain spaces

on TikTok, where concepts like being a ‘thought daughter’, using pomegranates as a

metaphor and writing thick pieces with endless buzzwords thrived. Of course some of these

things aren’t inherently bad, or meaningless, or at least they weren’t when they first

circulated, however, they were drained of their meaning when the discussions stopped being

about people’s genuine takes, and became a competition of who could be the most

intellectual, and different. It was no longer about what these concepts, and other similar

concepts, meant to them, but rather about copying it because it was trendy, and better yet

yet using it as a means to out-do one another.

Ironically, now that criticising nicheness has become popular, it seems like I am jumping on

a similar train, only doing something because everyone else is. Only talking about it because that’s what’s cool right now. A fair criticism really.

However, my personal qualm with the rise of so-called niche-ness isn’t its popularity, rather

people’s rejection of popularity.

It’s normal to reject popularity. I do. I find myself refusing to watch certain shows because of

how popular they are, or waiting till the hype of a song has died down in order to listen to it. I

think we all crave establishing our own sense of self and separating our identity from others,

usually at least, however I think sometimes it’s better to embrace popularity.

It’s okay if something is popular, it usually means it’s good. And surely it’s more soulless to

hate something simply because others love it, with no other reason, than to like something

regardless of others loving it.

It’s why I think gatekeeping is cringe. Sometimes the best things should be shared, even if

that makes you less different then you thought you were.

The coolest thing about you shouldn’t be a performance, rather who you truly are, and what

you truly enjoy. That’s what makes you unique.

Written by La'Keesha Stewart.