Week 11: Meme Scholarship

To gain better insight into my research topic, I will rely on the work of Retschler and Thrift (2015) regarding feminism in memes. Rentschler and Thrift (2015) discuss this topic through an examination of the memes created and shared following former presidential candidate Mitt Romney's comment "binders full of women" (p. 329). The piece studies how the memes, although sometimes humorous, primarily acted as a method of promoting feminism through social networks. Thus, it is very relevant to my research, as it is not only centers around a political figure, but it also highlights the cultural issues facing females. Rentschler and Thrift (2015) believe that "feminist memes create online spaces of consciousness raising and community building" and thus can "challeng[e] sexism" (p. 329-349). This particular idea can be applied to my research as I attempt to understand how memes from the Brett Kavanaugh trial challenge existing societal beliefs around female behavior in public. A secondary insight from this article is that these memes also create community among those viewing them and promote feminism through their very existence. 

1. Job Interview

Source: http://politicalpunchline.com/kavanaugh-hearings/

This meme includes imagery of Brett Kavanaugh showcasing his emotions during his trial, which many were calling a job interview, ranging from angry and frustrated to upset and on the verge of tears. The text in this meme is what people would be saying if he were a woman in this situation, including "so emotional" and "compose himself". However, those phrases were not used during his trial. To connect it to Retschler and Thrift, this meme both challenges and showcases the expectations of female behavior versus male. The existence of this meme also shows female participation in this event which promotes community and networking, as discussed in Retschler and Thrift. 

2. Supreme Court Nominee

Source: http://politicalpunchline.com/kavanaugh-hearings/

In this meme, Brett Kavanaugh is displaying various emotions in a series of images. The text indicates that emotions such as crying, sarcasm, and yelling were expected during the trial, but not from Kavanaugh. The tone of the meme (with the italicized someone) suggests that these emotions were instead expected from Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who came forward with allegations against Kavanaugh. This meme also connects to Retschler and Thrift's (2015) idea of challenging sexism as it juxtapositions female expectations against male imagery. The two don't fit together, because those are not expected behaviors of men, and therefore provides more support that society expects different public behaviors from women then men.

Reference:

Rentschler, C. A. (2015). Doing feminism in the network: Networked laughter and 

        the ‘Binders Full of Women’ meme. Feminist Theory, 16(3), pp. 329-359.  

        doi:10.1177/1464700115604136