Week 3: Hey Girl and Gender

I have chosen to explore the Hey Girl meme with Ryan Gosling as it relates to gender. As described in my previous post, the Hey Girl memes include phrases that are geared towards female interests from a male perspective. Many of the memes for this stock character that are related to gender are focused on feminist values like equal pay, gender norms, and typical gender roles. These topics are expected, given that they come up frequently within the societal discussion of gender. They all include viral and memetic traits that increase their popularity.

1) 

In this meme, the text suggests reversing typical gender roles of men buying women drinks. Instead, Ryan Gosling’s character proposes that the woman buys him a drink to tear down “a social construct”. It clearly demonstrates the issue of gender roles in society because what the message is proposing is so different than what is experienced.

This particular meme includes the viral trait of provoking emotions as this is such an important and relevant topic. These emotions could include anger and sadness that such a social construct still exists in the world today. It also includes the viral trait of packaging. For representing such a large and complex social issue, the message of this meme is very clear and concise. 

The memetic trait present in this meme includes flawed masculinity/gender roles. Even though the meme focuses on feminism, it does so in a humorous way which does not really help the issue at all. Instead, it supports the traditional male perspective on the issue.

2)

Here we see the issue of unfair wages between genders. The character acknowledges this discrepancy by stating that because women get paid less than men, he will cover the costs of her movie tickets. It is common knowledge in society that a wage gap still exists between males and females. The meme acknowledges and represents a very prevalent gender issue in society.

The meme also contains the viral traits of provoking emotion, which I think in this case would be anger and frustration. Not only over the issue, but also because the meme presents this issue in a slightly condescending way towards females. Instead of coming across as an ally, the character tries to solve the issue by paying for the woman’s movie tickets, which doesn’t address the larger societal issue and is representative of the struggle women face. I also think it represents positioning since it discusses wage and includes an actor who most likely gets paid more than his female co-stars. If it is positioned on a social network such as Twitter, it could be seen by female actresses and influential people who could also relate to the wage discrepancy.

Similar to the last meme, this one also represents the memetic traits of flawed masculinity/gender and simplicity. The message is clearly stated by using actual data, which makes it concise yet powerful. As Shifman (2014) says about flawed masculinity, they include "comic framing of their protagonists" which is presented in this meme (p. 77).

3) 

This meme speaks to gender issues as a whole, but particularly in the realm of female athletes. Its message depicts the issue of sexist remarks towards female athletes during the Olympic games. This stems from society’s view as a whole of female professional athletes. The meme represents the different ways that we view male and female athletes despite them competing in the same sporting events.

The meme presents the viral trait of provoking emotion. Although the underlying message of this meme isn’t funny, it is presented in a humorous way because it pokes fun at the Olympic commentators. It also includes the trait of prestige, because the Olympics is such a highly recognizable event which many people watch, and therefore would understand the meme’s reference.

This meme manifests the memetic trait of humor, particularly what is described as "biting social commentary" (Knobel & Lankshear, 2007, as cited in Shifman, 2014, p. 78). Although the meme is actually representing an important issue, it is presenting it in a sarcastic and humorous way, almost as if the meme character is in disbelief.