Everyone has witnessed it—those… gestures. The aggressive flipping of one’s palms up and down while howling out the words, “six seven.” But beneath those movements and the over-enunciation of each syllable lies the damage the spread of this phenomenon causes—the rampant promotion of toxic masculinity. Don’t be fooled by the classification constructed by netizens who’ve established the anomaly as a simple Gen Alpha brain-rot meme. Instead, embrace pretentiousness and understand how anyone who partakes in or finds making obnoxious hand motions and fracturing ears with those two numbers is a champion of toxic masculinity.
The six-seven meme first emerged following the rapper, Skrilla, dropping his hit single, “Doot Doot.” He eloquently threads together his lexicon, asserting how, “The way that switch brrt, I know he dyin’ 6-7, I just bipped right on the highway.” The momentum truly spiked when a clip of the scholar known as “6-7 kid,” alluded to LaMelo Ball’s height, 6”7, as a compliment during his school’s basketball game. His passionate words of motivation, coupled with the infamous hand motions, were exactly what the now apparent, mostly young, male audience needed to unite under this cultural trend. The original clip itself had just the right amount of idiocy to resonate with the adolescent demographic, bonding them all under their common love.
On the other hand, toxic masculinity isn’t something that young men particularly find joy in interacting with. Toxic masculinity itself is when men are forced to conform to societal standards, which regresses their manhood if they don’t fit into the ideal description of a man. It tells men that to be a man, they must be dominant, powerful, and assertive, and reject all forms of femininity. Unsurprisingly, all these negative aspects of masculinity are easily internalised, manifesting in aggressive tendencies and self-esteem issues. By instilling insecurity, it leads to impulsivity and irrationality, and unawareness of the consequences of their actions. And toxic masculinity is relevant in current society due to its damage to younger generations. It instils in young men preconceived notions of how the world should be navigated—the “ideal” men against everyone else.
While the popularised 6-7 movement is spearheaded by male youth, the focus of those engaged with toxic masculinity is to spread it to male adolescence. Therefore, the skeletons of both phenomena are young men. And who are these men idolising in both instances? Victims of toxic masculinity. The continuation of spreading the harmful rhetoric of hypermasculinity is led by individuals who have fallen victim to believing its immoral ideologies. Regarding six-seven, according to a scholarly source (AI overview), Skrilla was charged with assaulting a police officer, and Ball’s past includes various hateful actions—homophobic statements and making obscene gestures to a referee. Both their lapses stem from impulsivity and anger, and where do impulsivity and anger in men stem from? Toxic masculinity.
All the roads of the six-seven revolution lead back to toxic masculinity, since when an individual engages in the meme, they’re further championing men who are the embodiment of its negative effects. To put it simply, every time someone makes those hand gestures, the hold that toxic masculinity has on the younger generation of male alphas is strengthened. Rallying that phrase not only upholds, but it also broadens the platform of individuals who are in their position of popularity because of the repercussions of toxic masculinity. Skrilla, since his hit single “Doot Doot” was definitely a response to his charges. Ball, since, well, he thought he knew ball because of his height (honey, that’s just prejudice). And six-seven kid, since basketball is a hypermasculine sport anyway, so being at a game correlates to toxic masculinity.
The six-seven meme is undoubtedly an issue that needs to be exterminated. If we as a society wish to be rid of the endless cycle of harmful social pressures—which affect everyone—the first step is to stop it with these foul “jokes.” Truthfully, six-seven isn’t just a meme to be laughed at, but rather, it’s an ethical dilemma that must be addressed or else the fatal consequences will become irreversible. Sure, you might think it’s humorous to giggle when a teacher asks to flip to page sixty-seven, but remember this: you are the reason why men suffer every day.
