Meme Report 8/13
Sorry I was in the bunker getting a Taylor briefing
Taylor Swift Shadow
It begins. The new album cycle is upon us, and with it, the first set of clues. I am happy to report I made it 24 hours before I started spouting insane theories about the nature of fame. What amused me about this meme was the room to be wrong. Once it was obvious it was Taylor, it allowed everyone to riff on my favorite type of joke, which is the idiot and the intellectual. Who is the opposite of Taylor Swift in this scenario? I enjoyed reading everyone’s version of the joke. Hannah Gadbsy. Chantal Ackerman. Joni Mitchell. Any number of women who would intellectually challenge the Kelce brothers and make for an interesting episode of the podcast. A good start to what is about a grueling few months for a chair of Swiftie Studies such as myself.
The Fanfic Shit is Easy
I know this means that someone is going to take away my internet expert credentials, but I don’t care for fan fiction. I never really read it, and it never appealed to me. Every argument against it rang true, and every argument for it felt hollow. I’m sure good fan fic is as hard to write as any half-decent novel but the real reason people go to fanfic is for the sex, and that part seems pretty easy. This meme feels about 10 years too late to reveal the emperor has no clothes. Not only is fanfic all about sex (which we all already knew), but it’s also not difficult to engage with. If only we could have gotten the word out before. Oh well.
TikTok
Woman in Love with her Psychiatrist
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Come on. This is one of those things that is fine to talk about in private but when discussed in public, becomes distasteful. Clearly, this woman is unwell, and this country undervalues mental healthcare, so we don’t know what to do when someone has a very public episode. I don’t know what the right response is, but I can tell you what the wrong response is: Make Memes! I think both gleefully using her audio and self-righteously making an 11-part series about why it’s bad to make memes are both Bad Responses™ to this. We probably need to all attend a 3-day training seminar about advanced mental health issues and the internet. Instead, we’re all going to yell at each other, and this woman is going to Keep Posting.
2016 Theme
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Death. To all of them. Any young woman who makes me feel old is the enemy. Anyone who refers to a time when I was young as the past wants nothing but the worst for me. 2016 wasn’t so long ago, was it? When I was in college, no sorority had “2007” as a theme. We were respectful young women who only used decades as far back as the 80s (MAYBE the 90s) as themes. The bright side is that this means I come from an era that is thematically coherent that people are nostalgic for. Not one of those dud eras like 2007.
Hot Girl Magicians
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All of our cultural attitudes about hobbies come from the 80s, when dumb jocks ruled and anyone with a brain was punished. The only cool thing to do was play sports, and everything else was for dweebs who would never get laid. Oh, and all these hobbies were for boys. A girl's free time was spent looking pretty. Even though the world has changed significantly, we still find ourselves scoffing at stamp collecting, model trains, and close-up magic as loser hobbies. Now the only hobby is phone, and everyone with an inkling of self-respect or self-preservation is trying to get a different one. I applaud anyone willing to take up arms to show that they have learned something and anyone who wants to share it with the world. I especially want to applaud any young woman willing to use her cultural power to spread the gospel of learning to do anything simply for fun.
Pretty People Humor
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These girls are easy targets for reasons they don’t understand yet and might never understand. With this video, we have a chance to see the inner lives and personal interactions of what we can assume are pretty popular teenage girls. It is dreadfully boring. These girls aren’t funny and barely make each other laugh. It reminds me of any time I got to hang out with the ostensibly popular girls and found them to be boring. They speak with the same cadence and make the same type of jokes. I see this and move on, because I am not in middle school anymore. Others need to let the world know exactly what they think of these girls.
One of the first times we realize it’s ok to be ourselves is when we realize we’re better than someone. We realize we’re having a better time with the friends we have because they are weird and funny, than with the people we wanted to befriend because we admired their social status and nothing else. Some people are realizing it for the first time and taking it out on these girls. Others have known for a while and will never give up a chance to make them feel less than. No one older than these girls should be making fun of them publicly. You just have to sit quietly with the knowledge that with your friends, you laugh harder at smarter jokes.