Call me a feminist kill joy but you make me feel that there are no girls on the internet….Every ragtag and bobtail knows what memes are. As memes have become a mandatory factor for the people of our generation, let me introduce what a meme is by its definition. < A meme is a unit of popular culture and creating a shared cultural experience > Basically it brings out the feelings, needs, expressions and our understanding about almost everything.
Most of us open our Facebook, whatsapp, Instagram pages for a getaway and we are here just for jokes. Being a social media user myself for almost 5 years , made me feel disgusted seeing memes about constantly othering, generalising women as whores, objectifying women , using hate speech against women and marginalising women from the society and its culture.
Over the years I came across many memes which are unwelcoming to anyone who does not identify themselves as male.It is sad to say that the verbal harassment and generalisation of the discrimination of the women have attracted attention in both academics and popular media and they seem to be enjoyed not only by males, also by women.
It has become normalised that you don’t even care and keep scrolling, deep down feeling uncomfortable of being a woman. Because girls are expected to be visible and not to challenge or resist discriminatory jokes. Because it is man- talk and man-jokes about which women have no rights to interfere with .Of course, you “other brothers” would say it’s just a joke, even though being well aware that you are being sexist or shattering all ethics .
What entertainment would you get out of psychological discomfort of another party? Through sexist memes you celebrate symbolic sexual dominance, hatred and violence carefully pampered under the cloak of JUST A JOKE!!! Because sexist humor , characterized by or showing prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, typically against women, on the basis of sex , is one type of symbolic violence and sense to subjugate women.
Call me crazy but i stand up for one purpose in the name of all women; stop making sexist humor acceptable, stop making women unwelcomed. We can hear, we can see and we can speak. #Say no to verbal and symbolic gender harassment, marginalisation and women-hate speech in social media. Secure an equal and safe space for HER in popular media culture.#🚻
Written by: Rtr. Isuru Dissanayake