A meme near and dear to my heart is the “Woman Yelling at a Cat” meme as I remember it going around Twitter and Instagram and finding it hilarious. What was/is funny about this meme is the randomness of the two images coming together. Numerous seemingly random images have shaped my sense of humor. My friends and I always joke that our humor is “broken” because we laugh at some of the weirdest memes or pictures. However, in reality, our humor isn’t broken, we are just communicating through specific images that are relevant to our group. As Alexis Benveniste states, memes are self-replicating inside jokes that we share throughout our friend groups and on the internet to get a reaction and to communicate (Benveniste para 2). It is vital to understand that memes, like most information on social media, must be brief but entertaining for them to go viral, which is why Benveniste includes the idea that a meme must be understood within seconds (Benveniste para 10). This description of memes is spot on because when I see a photo with “meme” potential, it is determined by whether it has the qualities for a witty caption that conveys what I am thinking. For example, when I take a picture of my dog giving a side eye, I will send it to my friends and say, “You when you see *insert applicable name* because this communicates the inside joke we have that whenever they see this person, they are uncomfortable. The beauty of memes is that they are also universally applicable, which means the picture of my dog giving an awkward side eye could be used to describe anyone’s discomfort. This interaction is based on the meme because we all mutually understand each other through that blurb and the photo, with minimal words exchanged, making the meme successful.
Furthermore, when discussing successful memes, it is necessary to address the “Woman Yelling at a Cat” meme that meets all the criteria for a successful meme. To start the analysis of the memes’ strength, we must know exactly what we are looking at in terms of the memes layout. This meme starts with a still shot posted by the Daily Mail of Taylor Armstrong from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills yelling at another cast member on the episode “Malibu Beach Party From Hell” on December 5th, 2011 (Know Your Meme 1). In the other part of this meme, we see Smudge the cat in front of a plate of vegetables that he is dissatisfied with (as shown on his face). Smudge was initially posted on Tumblr in 2018 by a user named “deadbeforedeath,” gaining 50,300 likes and reblogs in just a year (Know Your Meme 1). These photos were decently successful reaction photos on their own as they gained likes and shares on the internet. However, they fused as one viral meme when a user on Twitter named “MISSINGGIRL” tweeted them together because she thought they fit hilariously, and this was when the true viral success popped off. (Know Your Meme 1). The success of this meme can be traced back to Beneveniste’s explanation of good memes as the format followed two well-known photos that were then used with a brief, universally relatable caption spread online to summon reactions and interactions between users. For example, this specific version of the meme exemplifies the idea that many people generalize all video games as violent and, therefore, they are passionately against people playing them. However, Animal Crossing fans or anyone who knows of the game (which is most people on social media) know the peaceful nature of the game, thus showing the annoyance of the claim through Smudge’s face. Variations of this meme, like this one about animal crossing, can be used to influence an audience to show how the over-dramatic nature of certain claims can be comedically debunked, as not all video games cause or even contain violence. This memes influence can also be used to show those who believe the video game argument to be open to the idea that not all games cause harm through the comedic use of Smudges face and a factual blurb on the innocence of Animal Crossing.
Likewise, because memes are so influential and anyone can share and create them, they also can be used in a discriminatory way. For example, the two creations below of the meme we have previously analyzed are created with tones of misogyny and discrimination. It is obvious that a man or a woman who holds these misogynistic ideals created these memes, as the first one is insinuating that women don’t let things go and always overreact, thus being unable to do the job of a referee who is supposed to call fair shots. Additionally, the following meme insinuates that women cannot be in charge and that if a woman is offended by the assumption that a man is in charge, she is over-emotional and in the wrong. The type of discrimination within meme culture is explored in Derek Sparby’s article “Meming the Party Divide: Representations of Gender in Political Memes.” As Sparby explains, women and people of color are often depicted as lacking intelligence and as an object of male desire in all media outlets, making memes no different. Memes help the patriarchy reinforce how “the perfect woman” should act and exist within a patriarchal-driven society (Starby para 9). This idea is perfectly illustrated within the Woman Yelling at the Cat meme because misogynistic men can add their captions to influence how society views women based on their own agenda. When memes’ like the one about “asking for the man in charge” are created, this notion of women only existing to follow men and to look up to them instead of being intelligent members of society is perpetuated, therefore keeping misogyny alive and the patriarchy on top.
Lastly, another misogynistic and harmful idea that can be expressed within memes happens when inaccurate information is spread, which often happens to women to make their arguments look unimportant or ridiculous. Starby explains that Hilary Clinton is often a victim of this as immature right-wing meme creators include her husband’s infidelity when making memes about her to show how she is unfit to be a president because she “can’t control her husband’s genitals.” (Starby para 19). This idea of useless information being used to diminish a woman’s argument in the style of a meme can be seen in the meme below, which we can infer is a woman saying she is worried about the Coronavirus (a valid concern) and then a patriarchal, misogynistic perspective comes into play with useless information about how this person has had unprotected sex to devalue the initial concern. The patriarchy has found a way to make fun of women and shame their sexual behaviors even through the use of memes, showing that the patriarchy abuses the use of memes for their own personal gain.
Overall, the use of memes has the ability to influence our society in positive and negative ways depending on the intention of the person creating and sharing them on social media. I use memes to have a good laugh with my friends, and I stay away from the section of the internet where memes are used for evil rather than good (as shown above). Memes, regardless of their intent, create camaraderie in society as those who agree with the meme can share it and talk about the content, and those who disagree can communicate these ideas amongst each other to share their dissatisfaction. This meme, in particular, has very light-hearted roots but was also able to be used for a misogynistic agenda, showing that there are many sides to the internet, and we must be aware of the persuasion tactics used even in the media that appears unthreatening.
Works Cited
Benveniste, Alexis. “The Meaning and History of Memes.” New York Times, 26 January 2022.
Knowyourmeme “Woman Yelling at a Cat: Part of a series on Smudge the Cat” 2019,
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/woman-yelling-at-a-cat
Sparby, Derek M. “Meming the Party Divide: Representations of Gender in Political Memes.” Enculturation: A Journal of Rhetoric, Writing, and Culture. 24 March, 2022.
Hi Cassandra,
Your notion that memes operate on multiple levels of communication ([inter]personal, political, broadly social, etc.) is really revealing; while I’ve seen how influential memes can be, these layers never occurred to me, though they certainly explain why these (seemingly) simple cultural items have such wide, varied appeal.
I’m currently reading module 7 (“Educational Design, Fair Use, ePortolios”), which contains Lawrence Lessig’s article, “Sharing Economies,” about the network of non-financial exchanges that internet culture encourages. Memes would absolutely fit into this network, and appear, based on your post, to operate on multiple levels of sharing; they provide emotional connections between both strangers and friends, they share critique and perspectives, and they purport to share info (even if some can be wrong and/or bigoted). In addition, there really is an unwritten social contract between individuals, which suggests that those who receive a shared meme need not “pay” or reciprocate, and can spread it freely, though the memes do thrive (as communication) on further sharing and reactions.
I’m very interested in this idea that the same combination of image and text can share both an “agenda” and a relatable emotional moment, and wonder if these two things are necessarily related. That is, do memes always operate in both of these ways, even when the context in which they’re shared changes the effect (ie: my friend’s puzzling and unrelatable wrestling memes communicate more about my friend’s perspective [or “agenda”) than he realizes, just as my reactions likely do about me).
Great blog post!
Hi Cassandra,
Great blog post! I like the way you described a universally known meme and found ways in which it can be used for good and evil. Memes are a unique way to share our collective feelings towards a subject without actually saying it, like in the picture of your dog giving side eye, but at the same time, they can cause hurtful feelings towards people due to their content, such as the imprudent meme about video game violence.
I think the specific memes you chose of the “Woman Yelling at a Cat” showcase this idea perfectly. What may seem like a simple joke (for example, I found the meme of the woman yelling that it is November and the cat, wearing a Santa hat, responds with “Merry Christmas”), can become derogatory and misogynistic, as you showed in the memes about NFL referees and coronavirus.
You quoted the Sparby article, “women and people of color are often depicted as lacking intelligence and as an object of male desire in all media outlets, making memes no different,”and I found this to not only be true, but it seems the majority of memes favor males, especially white males. The problem is how women and people of color are portrayed in our society, and I think it has heightened with the MAGA Republicans and DeSantises of America perpetuating lies about these groups (and many other groups). I believe we have to remember that all people deserve respect, whether in society or in a meme and that there are people on the other side of the meme that are affected.
Overall, I think you did an amazing job on this module! 🙂
I love this meme (the woman pointing at the laughing cat) as well. There is just something so enjoyable about the unhinged quality of the woman’s facial expression and the cat’s freedom to enjoy being a cat overlaid with the meaning that the writers’ project on it. Memes are all about projection–projecting our own stories over images that ostensibly have nothing to do with what we want to say, although they COULD have something to do with it. Memes are a way of outsourcing our own thoughts, feelings, and emotions to something that has no direct connection to those thoughts, feelings, and emotions. In some cases, memes are not connected to the writer’s own thoughts and feelings so much as an agenda or a desire to trigger responses in others, although I think usually it is a combination of both.
I use memes, especially on Twitter and now on Bluesky although it’s harder there because of the current lack of built-in GIFs. That was one of the best features of Twitter (which Elon Musk is in the process of dismantling in many ways for various suspect reasons, all of which he attributes to making it financially viable, but he has manufactured many of the crises he claims to want to address). I am interested in the rhetorical value of memes and wrote a chapter that addresses it in my book about Twitter. It’s available in the Library database as an online book if you’re interested https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sunysb-ebooks/detail.action?docID=7172163 and it’s in chapter 3, starting around page 59 but more focused at page 61. We have a module in this course that focuses on memes and features an article by Ryan Skinnell, who is a wonderful meme rhetorician. I was pointing at memes in relationship to Lauren Berlant’s idea of the impasse, which is a place where intentionality is kind of held at bay and authors can in a sense escape accountability for making arguments. Memes don’t overtly argue, but they do create a space where meanings and the material of meanings can foment. In this sense, they resemble the rhetorical idea of the enthymeme–something is left out which the receiver has to fill in to create a meaningful point to the meme.
Hello Cassandra! I really enjoyed reading your post for this week. Memes are such an interesting topic, especially because of the plethora of types and recognizable ones. I remember this meme very well, and I also happened to watch the show for years, so I very clearly remember Taylor yelling in that moment. What I find interesting is the way this meme has been used and changed, and I like that you pointed out how many memes tend to be misogynistic and condescending towards women. People from marginalized cultures, minorities, and such are also targeted as you said, and these memes can be very offensive. We have seen memes, or as they have also been called “political cartoons” be utilized in this unfortunate manner.
I also like the point you make about how memes can be interpreted. For many dark humored people, or those with inside jokes like you and your friends, memes can just have some funny meaning. Some memes are meant to be taken this way. However, because of the insane amount of political madness that has occurred the past few years, memes will either make or break a person. Memes do have intent, whether they are for good or bad. You highlight a very good point about this specific meme when coronavirus and the number of sexual experiences are incorporated into it. Clearly, no good meaning or reasoning in this case.
Lastly, I would like to reflect on what you said in your last paragraph. I agree with you in that memes create an opportunity for people to share ideas, have a laugh, prove a point, and so much more. They are a big part of our society, and while some have mal intentions, others bring us together for a good laugh. Great post!
Hi Cassandra,
This was such a great and fun blog to read! I agree with your assessment that memes have to be fast-paced; that is, people have to be able to understand and process the information of the image very quickly. And I think that’s something that may go for all humor . . . If it takes you too long to figure out the joke, it’s more of an “ahhh” not a “haha,” if that makes sense, so I’m thinking if this requirement of memes is linked more toward the humor element than the multimodal element. Very interesting to think about!
I also really like that you made a point of showing some sexist memes. When I took a linguistics class years ago, one of the units we did was on language as bias and the ways that society’s overarching biases shape language, for example, the fact that we say “male nurse” implies that nursing is a female job and shows a level of bias through language. Since language is made, shaped, and updated by humans, language reveals our biases even when these biases are implicit. The same, I think, goes for memes. I’m sure the people who created the sexist memes you included here believe that they themselves are not sexist, that they’re simply joking. But these “jokes” are a product of a sexist society.
This prompted me to Google search the woman yelling at the cat meme and the word “man,” looking for a meme that was sexist toward men. I could not find a single one, but I found many more of these memes that were sexist or derogatory toward women. I am sure there are some memes, though, that show sexist attitudes toward men– I’m wondering, then, whether certain memes (that is, the image) are more prone to certain biases. Taylor Armstrong, in this particular meme, may foster or encourage sexist memes because of the show she’s from or the emotion present in the photo. A woman from the news rather than the Real Housewives, who is calm and collected as opposed to screaming, might not garner as much of a sexist response (although I’m sure there would still be some degree of sexism in some of the memes). So, can the image itself be sexist? I’m not sure, but I would think so. There is also the videographer and the production of the show to consider, too. Would they televise the exact same scene if Taylor Armstrong were a man? Would the stillshot garner as much attention? Would it garner any sexist responses? I do think images themselves can be sexist, and they can certainly encourage sexist responses. But I could probably be talked out of the former!
Thank you, Cassandra, for such a great post! This was fun to read, and so informational. I learned a lot from reading this!
Hi Cassandra,
You have shared a great and informative blog post with us this week. I love that besides the funny jokes about the “Woman yelling at the cat,” you also touched on other important aspects that are represented through this meme such as the “gender roles” and “discriminatory humor.” We are well aware that there are countless discriminatory memes and we encounter oftentimes as we scroll on our social media. A lot of times memers that edits memes in such ways “force” internet users to read them and make it seem that there is a particular way how men should react to feminism and even make them believe that’s the acceptable way in society. For instance, Derek Starby the author of the article “Meming the Party Divide: Representations of Gender in Political Memes” states that memes are a representation to tell women “how it is acceptable to behave.” Moreover, Starby writes about Hillary Clinton and other female political figures who received extreme negativity in social media via memes making them look for the public as “bad” women, but also to be considered as “unfit for political office by virtue of being women.”
Hi Cassandra,
I first want to comment on the fact that I immediately knew what meme you were referencing with lady pointing and the cat. I think that in itself shows how memes are universal and connect so many people to one another. Benveniste quoted a famous meme page “Saint Hoax” stating, a successful meme must be cross-cultural, through staying relevant in an era we live in. Although this meme started light hearted, it did take a turn for negative through misogynistic and political agendas.
The meme you used that specifically caught my eye was the one referencing coronavirus, as that was a universal and relevant issue, which in turn gives the meme power. This power, though, can be used to reinforce negative discrimination as you showed through patriarchal and misogynistic tendencies of bringing women down through sexual shame. I felt you highlighted Miler’s point very well of the idea that memes are used to dominate and reinforce toxic masculinity through the display of categorizing and antagonizing women.
I really like your final statement that one must be aware of the persuasion tactic used, even in light hearted memes, as even jokes have the ability to influence our perspectives. I think, one must take responsibility of the memes they share, by being aware of how jokes can affect people and not share the ones that can be harmful. There is even the ability to report inappropriate memes, but that begs the question if that takes away the ability to free speech, which has become a large debate on media platforms like Twitter. Either way, I definitely agree with your perspective that there is the good and bad that comes with social media and memes, and one must be aware of it while using it!
Cassandra, great blog post. I think I almost spit my water out when I saw the meme you chose to discuss. This meme has skyrocketed. It is jus too good to be true. I also want to say that i think y humor is also “broken” lol. However, I find it interesting as well how memes are so universal. I never have heard of, let alone, watched the show before and I can understand the frustration or emotion that is being presented form the woman or I guess “Taylor” is feeling. It is actually extremely interesting that we are able to communicate with pictures now. How does this change our way of communication? We don’t truly need words to know how someone is feeling. As much as it is remarkable the communication skills we possess with photos and how most, if not all, people can understand through the use of memes it does have it’s down sides as you mentioned. It is unfortunate that such priceless memes can be destroyed by one users word choices. Sometimes people get carried away with their word choices and don’t think about the consequences of their actions. If only we could live in a world where memes were simple and funny like the animal crossings meme.
I really enjoyed reading your post. I thought It was very engaging and I feel like I really learned a lot. I did a different module this week but I am looking forward to doing this one. Im not sure what meme I will chose becuase it is an endless sea of them but I will find it.
ps send me memes please, I thoroughly.
thoroughly enjoy*
Hello Cassandra
I must begin by saying that the picture of your dog giving an awkward side eye is hilarious! As you said, it can be used as a kind of ‘inside joke’ with your friends. Furthermore, I liked when you sated, “It is vital to understand that memes, like most information on social media, must be brief but entertaining for them to go viral, which is why Benveniste includes the idea that a meme must be understood within seconds (Benveniste para 10). This description of memes is spot on because when I see a photo with “meme” potential, it is determined by whether it has the qualities for a witty caption that conveys what I am thinking.” Your dog’s side eye definitely fits the definition!
I have seen the “Woman Yelling at a Cat” meme for years, but I did not know its origin story, and it was very interesting. I wholeheartedly agree with your statement, “Overall, the use of memes has the ability to influence our society in positive and negative ways depending on the intention of the person creating and sharing them on social media. I use memes to have a good laugh with my friends, and I stay away from the section of the internet where memes are used for evil rather than good.” Between the meme with the cat and the picture of your side eyeing dog, I am in meme heaven!