‘Not All Memes are Feminist Tools for Activism’ An analysis of the subversive potential of the feminist ‘Not All Men’ meme

Abstract

Recent technological developments and the introduction of a more participatory internet called Web 2.0 has influenced the ways in which feminism occurs today. In this research, I focus on one digital development that has been picked up and spread by feminists, that is the phenomenon of the internet meme. The term ‘Internet meme’ refers to the propagation of content items such as jokes, rumours, videos, or websites from one person to others via the Internet (Shifman, 2013). I chose the ‘Not All Men’ meme format as my case study, because I noticed how different memes with the same text reflect upon different smaller and bigger debates within the discourse of women’s oppression. I ask the question: In what ways can feminist memes subvert contemporary dominant discourses that are problematic in western society? With feminist textual analysis, I analyses seven feminist memes that I retrieved from the websites KnowYourMeme.com and Ranker.com. I found out that all memes are subversive of certain discourses that are problematic, and all of them criticize this culture in which men express their dominance over women’s bodies, consciously or not. This reflects how western culture still views women as inferior to men.