How the meme world and feminism collide into the digital world via social media

2. @scariest_bug_ever, Binny, has grown up with her growth of followers. When the meme phenomenon took off,
many of these accounts had very few images of the ‘admins.’ Binny would take what was to be considered an
unflattering selfie with a caption like, ‘tfw u see the meme admin and don’t like the picture.’ As she persisted, her
selfies started getting as many ‘likes’ as her memes. Often, the maker is separated from the work. Maybe that
idea held true until Binny kept making work that was so deeply personal yet maintained relevancy. She started
the ‘BINGO’ format, mostly to address self-care and mental health issues. Binny has ‘grown up,’ in that she has
started to take her own memesstarted to take her own memes’s advice, she got sober, she now uses the methods of self-care rather than mock-
ing them – through memes, she still communicates her struggles, including those with communication itself.
@scariest_bug_ever
5,924 posts 123k followers 1,407 following

3. @gothshakira
624 posts 59.6k followers 688 following
@gothshakira, Dre, focuses on intersectional feminism. She’s a latinx freelance social media marketer by trade but never thought her
account would reach anyone except a couple hundred followers – she now has over 59.8k followers, proof her work is no longer part
of a subculture, allowing women to share th
eir personal experiences. Memes follow certain teir personal experiences. Memes follow certain trends and Dre is also aware that she both creates and follows these trends and the
reality that sometimes her presentation of self can go with the trends. She often references heterosexual dynamics tied into theoreti-
cal concepts. Her work is powerful in that the theory becomes a practice and that theory is understood such women can live and
embody confrontations of sexism. The understanding of the theories and cultural critiques often comes through images from pop
culture icons, providing a visual symbol. She’s unapologetic. The intersectional feminism that Dre relates has humor yet displays
trauma such that others may be able to cope in a healthy way just by understanding they atrauma such that others may be able to cope in a healthy way just by understanding they are not alone.

4. @frigidartbitch
2,787 posts 18.8k followers 945 following
@frigidartbitch, Grace, is a graduate student in art history. She is also a woman of color. Her
content is largely through more academic, art-related lens – it is not as theory heavy as Dre’s
work. Her personal made public confrontation of sexist tropes is embodiment of the affect. She
uses selfies as the images captions to express why it is important to make her body visible.

5. @Hanecdote
17.2k Tweets 5.8k Followers 476 Following
Hannah Hill is a feminist who speaks upon issues such how our society choses how we see certain work. One famous works of
hers that went viral is an embroidery she did of the Arthur meme. Her meme brought up the issue of how embroidery can’t be seen
as serious because “its women’s work”. The humor of the meme and feminist were able to make the embroidery spread virally be-
cause it brought a certain issue to light that is not really talked about. Here creating the topic via a meme allowed various audience
to attract to it and the feminist provided the support and interest as well. Though Hannah’s platform was twitter, she was still able
to portray to a large audience. Now she is able to speak even larger audiences with podcast and interviews. This one meme hasto portray to a large audience. Now she is able to speak even larger audiences with podcast and interviews. This one meme has
helped her bring her voice more out in the world.

6. @bunnymemes
676 posts 42.5k followers 359 following
The instragramer @bunnymemes, plays with the issues of what women face nowadays with the use of memes. With her memes,
she is able to bring an audience that will not only enjoy the humor, but as well relate to the topics @bunnymemes presents. One ex-
ample of her memes, she mentions the idea of what society believes women want versus what women actually want. Her meme
brings laughter with images where women can relate to and comprehend the meaning behind it. While she creates memes and
brings up issues like these, women are able to join a community where they can feel closer with someone who truly understands
how they feel thhow they feel through laughter. @Bunnymemes is able to use a platform such as Instagram and use a following in order to bring up
issues many people get criticized for nowadays. Even the community in her comments section allow them to communicate their
opinions about it and share it with others.

7. @Sensualmemes
452 posts 73.7k followers 268 following
The instragramer @bunnymemes, plays with the issues of what women face nowadays with the use of memes. With her memes, she
is able to bring an audience that will not only enjoy the humor, but as well relate to the topics @bunnymemes presents. One example
of her memes, she mentions the idea of what society believes women want versus what women actually want. Her meme brings
laughter with images where women can relate to and comprehend the meaning behind it. While she creates memes and brings up
issues like these, women are able to join a community where they can feel closer with someone who truly understands how they feel
ththrough laughter. @Bunnymemes is able to use a platform such as Instagram and use a following in order to bring up issues many
people get criticized for nowadays. Even the community in her comments section allow them to communicate their opinions about it
and share it with others.

8. @Dairyofaziza
Twitter
Example of how a feminist artist took a
widespread meme on the internet and ad-
justed its meaning to showcase a
pro-choice message.
this showcases memes as a “newmedia”
artform due to its social and ephemeral
nature. this meme circulated the internet
with many captions, yet female feminist ac-
count @diaryofaziza on twitter chose to use
its popularity to aid in showcasing a sexist
stereotype.
in this case, the audience influenced the
material. it takes a similar form to the “lizzie
bennett diaries” in that users have control
of the content, thus allowing for the
medium to reflect the ideas of many.

9. One can take a look at this meme and relate its con-
text to the way in which misogyny often aims to dic-
tate the way in which women should behave within a
social context.
Although the meme focuses on facial expressions
only, it speaks to the idea that women are often
judged solely by their appearance. To quote Bell
hooks, "Challenging sexist thinking about the female
body was one of the most powerful interventions
made by contemporary feminist movement.” Memes
aid in continuing this intervention.
They use social media as a power to spThey use social media as a power to spread posi-
tive ideas and refute stereotypes.
Stereotypes that devalue a woman’s capabilities
based on debunked ideas such as “hormones” and
“emotional instability” often pressure women into
acting a certain way, often limiting their potential in
society. Artists like Joanna Burns combat this
through satire and modern media
@JoannaBurns
BuzzFeed

10. This meme by Becky Barnicot utilizes humor to mock the idea that historically, feminist women were mocked for
being crazed, irrational or simply “Lesbians who didn’t want to “wear bras,” as hooks wrote.
The artist is taking this historical stereotype and feeding it back to the public through social media in a way that
exposes its irrationality and erroneousness. Putting things like manchego cheese alongside a guy holding the door
open and a bra showcases how patriarchal stereotypes regarding feminist theory have often placed feminist in a
position wherein they seem like organized man-haters.
Their
misunderstanding ofmisunderstanding of
feminist politics re-
flects the reality poli-
tics that most folks
learn about feminism
from patriarchal
mass media” - Bell
Hooks
@beckybarnicomics
43 posts 15.1k followers 240 following

11. References
Kayla’s Cited Work
Instagram.com. (2017). shannon (@sen-
sualmemes) • Instagram photos and
videos. [online] Available at: https://ww-
w.instagram.com/sensualmemes/ [Ac-
cessed 18 Sep. 2017].
Instagram. (2017). Bunnymemes(@bun-
nymemes) ) • Instagram photos and
videos. [online] Available at: https://ww-
w.instagram.com/bunnymemes/ [Ac-
cessed 18 Sep. 2017].
Twitter. (2017). Hannah Hill(@Hanecdote)
) • Twitter photos and videos. [online]
Available at: https://twitter.com/Hanec-
dote [Accessed 18 Sep. 2017].
Sanusi, V. (2016, October 11). This
Woman's Feminist Embroidery Of The.
Retrieved September 18, 2017, from
https://www.buzzfeed.com/victoriasa-
nusi/woke-memes?utm_ter-
m=.uaYLEzlwR#.lsyydGJ0B
Carly’s Cited Work
Instagram.com. (2017). Binny Debbie
(@scariest_bug_ever) • Instagram
photos and videos. [online] Available at:
https://www.instagram.com/scariest_-
bug_ever/ [Accessed 18 Sep. 2017].
Instagram.com. (2017). gothshakira
(@gothshakira) • Instagram photos and
videos. [online] Available at: https://ww-
w.instagram.com/gothshakira/ [Ac-
cessed 18 Sep. 2017].
Instagram.com. (2017). frigidartbitch (@-
frigidartbitch) • Instagram photos and
videos. [online] Available at: https://ww-
w.instagram.com/frigidartbitch/ [Ac-
cessed 18 Sep. 2017].
Paula’s Work Cited
Instagram. (2017). Becky Barnicoat(@-
beckybarnicomics) ) • Instagram photos
and videos. [online] Available at:
https://www.instagram.com/beckybar-
nicomics/ [Accessed 18 Sep. 2017].
Soykan, H. (n.d.). 28 Memes You Should
Send To Your Feminist Friend Right Now.
Retrieved September 19, 2017, from
https://www.buzzfeed.com/hattie-
soykan/me-
mes-you-should-send-to-your-feminist-fr
iend-right-now?utm_term=.xc68zkd3G#.
chR0JlYG6