“It’s definitely a stab at women”, said a male participant. “It’s saying that women do those things for attention, and are whinging. They might be true for some women but definitely not all. Especially the first one, women get hurt like this in relationships too”, pointing out that although this particular social interaction can swing both ways, women are the ones who get stuck with the label.

 

The second meme caused a lot more controversy in the group.

One male participant believes that some girls show their skin at the gym provocatively, although he acknowledges “you should be able to dress the way you want.”:

“If I see a girl dressed like that I assume she wants to be looked at – but you don’t know for sure. Some people are just comfortable in their skin.”

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Another male strongly agreed that this meme represents women who desire attention:

“I’ve seen this at the gym all the time – they want guys to notice them. If she is with that she has probably been with a lot of guys.” He said he would have no qualms tagging his friends in a meme like this.

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A female participant passionately disagreed. She said the meme was absolutely not funny and misrepresents women. As a regular gym-goer, she acknowledges it suits a lot of girls better to wear fewer clothes rather than “baggy, sweaty T-shirts”, and says this is in no way an invitation to be looked at by men. She’d scroll past the meme on a social media feed, even if someone had tagged her in it for a laugh.