Do you want some motivation? How about the kind that calls you “fat” and “lazy”, or maybe even just slurs being thrown your way? No? Welcome to harsh Motivation-Tok—where no matter what you do, the posts are toxic and are just negative, harmful comments about you and your body.
Motivation should empower people to grow, not tear them down. What is happening on Harsh Motivation-Tok is not encouragement—-it is cyberbullying disguised as self-improvement.
When you search up “motivation” on TikTok, you probably expect aspiring quotes, workout tips, and inspiring stories. However, you are greeted with toxic posts on your feed. The content creators who make these harsh “motivation” videos post videos or slideshows of rude, racially hateful “motivation” topics. These racial comments are usually directed towards people of color who are not white or specifically South Korean, Chinese, and Japanese. The most common captions they add to the posts state hateful phrases. “Look at you, so fat. Lose some weight, fatty!” “You can’t even lean on your boyfriend without crushing him. Put the utensils down, piggy.” And “a dog says: woof, a cat says: meow, and a pig says: I’ll start tomorrow.” These posts are even more ridiculous, as accounts often use South Korean singer Jang Won-young as their profile picture or background in these videos as a face claim because of her so-called “picture-perfect” body, even if they are not Korean. This is racial stereotyping. Thinking all South Koreans are black haired, slim, and have pale, fair skin is not realistic—not all Koreans are like that.
These posts have detrimental effects on a person’s mental health. For many, being insulted online does not encourage them to change—rather, it makes them more self-conscious and lowers their self-esteem. Calling someone a “fatty” is not going to encourage them to try to make a difference, it’ll only sink them deeper into hopelessness.
Instead of using straight insults and harsh comments, people should be more supportive and give constructive criticism to help others find ways to help themselves and motivate them with ways that actually work.
