If you’ve been on TikTok for any length of time, you’ll probably have noticed the eyebrow-raising phrase “humiliation ritual” show up in your search bar. Now we all know that what shows up in the search bar is often not even tangentially related to the video you’re watching, and TikTok is famous for stirring up sh*t in just this way. But after John Cena’s unforgettable, saucy turn at this year’s Oscars ceremony, interest in the famously buff WWE superstar has understandably spiked.
RelatedCena took the stage seemingly without any clothes, showing off his buff body.
Now Cena has been showing his queer allyship—and showing off his body—long before the Oscars streaking incident. In 2018, Cena donned drag and made out with himself for a Kid’s Choice Awards promo, and that same year he shot a Tonight Show segment that had him dragging it up (and looking amazing tbh.) Even away from the camera, Cena has been known to rock a miniskirt and heels, and he looks damn fine every time.
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But that’s not what a certain quotient of extremely online people think. According to them, Cena’s love of drag and great fashion sense aren’t just part of the guy’s kooky, fun-loving personality. They’re exposing the dark underside of a dangerous Hollywood practice that seeks to make stars more submissive and compliant. How do the powers that be do this? By forcing celebrities like Cena to wear skirts and appear scantily-clad at the Oscars.
Now I know what you’re thinking, and you’re right: there’s nothing inherently humiliating about a cis man wearing skirts and heels. In fact, most of us would view this behavior for exactly what it is: a serve. But since we live in a world where ideas about traditional masculinity and femininity are being held onto with a vice grip that any WWE wrestler would envy, the idea that a cis man would want to wear skirts can only be explained, in the minds of these people, by some kind of dark, scary conspiracy theory.
Whether Cena is dressing this good as a character in an upcoming film or just wants to look fly on set, it doesn’t matter. There’s actually nothing humiliating about looking this good: theory debunked!
If there’s one thing we know about John Cena, it’s that he’s a man who’s very secure in his body, his identity, and his masculinity, and if his gender presentation doesn’t look the way people think it should, that’s their problem.