Introduction

Internet memes are a huge cultural commodity. They tend – or at least attempt - to be humorous, by practice but not definition. Often this humour encapsulates offence targeted toward minorities, but there’s an odd stigma against being offended by memes. If a person is being disrespectful, sexist or racist, meme creation is a legitimate platform for expression, simply because it’s deemed okay to do so. But do these ‘humorous’ media have a real-world impact on minorities? At this point of meme culture in the internet’s cultural development, it’s healthy to be questioning our practice. 

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Research Question

For this task I will be focusing on how the representation of women in internet memes has a negative impact, and how memes tend to mimic the dangerous stereotypes and magnify the voice of the patriarchy in discriminating against women. Additionally, I’d like to question the role of the typical, unassuming internet user who sees a ‘humorous’ meme about women on Facebook and interacts with that content, whether it be a Facebook like, an upvote on Reddit, sharing it on their wall or in a group chat, making their own variation of that meme using a viral frame, or tagging friends in it. In interacting with this content are we enabling the dangerous misogynistic voice (whether intentional or otherwise) behind these memes?

This is particularly relevant as the feminist movement is gaining a voice through social media, such as the viral hashtag campaign “#metoo” fighting against silenced sexual assault, as well as widespread dissent against President Trump for his misogynistic attitude toward women.

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Existing Research

The internet is a polarised environment; it is predominantly a white male arena even though since 2000 there have been a roughly equal number of males and female users (Nakamura 2002); being white and male is “assumed unless explicitly stated otherwise” (Kendall 2002). This “constructed centrality” (Milner 2013) is why memes spread over the internet can “reinforce oppressive ideologies” (ibid). In memes, we generally see men and women represented equally in terms of the number of each gender appearing in images. However, the actual portrayal of women in these memes is a cause for concern. Gender representations in memes are dominated by “familiar stereotypes” (ibid). Memetic images often portray women as “stupid, irrational and inconsistent” (ibid).

Some research argues that rather than pure representation, memes are a means of trolling. They can be seen as “detached and disassociated amusement at others’ distress” (Phillips 2012). However, even if this ‘trolling’ allows for humour, irony and antagonism, it still “disproportionately targets” (ibid) women, yet it is difficult to determine the intent behind a meme. There is an internet axiom known as Poe’s Law, which dictates it is impossible to distinguish the satire from the serious online, unless the creator clearly disclaims their intent (Milner 2013). For example, a meme depicting a woman posing lewdly at a gym under the guise of a workout may be the product of a genuine misogynist, pure satire or a troll on socio-political correctness.

Further to memes featuring women, some memes that play on the “liminal masculine identity of the (male) nerd” (Kendall 2002) ultimately target women also. Women are represented as objects, albeit unattached. A common theme of these meme frames is the friendzone.

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Stakeholders

This research project could be potentially useful to any organisation with an interest in supporting a minority or disadvantaged group. This could include women, or minority races or refugees. Businesses using memes as humour to foster their online personas and which may not realise the potential impact of their actions are also target stakeholders. Latent publics, which refers to groups of people who are affected by an issue but do not realise it, including men and women who participate in meme practices online through creating, sharing, tagging, or even merely liking a meme via social media without being aware of the negative space some of those memes create.

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Methodology

I plan to conduct a focus group of University of Wollongong students to obtain qualitative primary data for this project. This group will be made up of men and women aged from 18 to 25. I feel that a focus group environment would best reflect the interactive and dynamic model of internet discussion. I will be able to consider the role of groupthink as reflective of internet practice as well as its own physical entity, and peer influence on respondents’ attitudes toward the memes we will examine. I will consider various reactions to the content including word choice and body language, to garner content I might not be exposed to if I did an online survey.

I will be using multiple memes from three meme frames to examine how content travels over a frame. After offering respondents the chance to analyse and respond to this content, I will give them the opportunity to make their own meme using the same frame. This will allow me to consider whether memes tend to be harmful to female empowerment via their frame or individual caption, and examine how harmful messages may be subliminally, unintentionally passed across the internet.