The gender of the meme: women and protest media in populist Hungary

Abstract

ABSTRACT Building on my research on what is called O1G activism in Hungary, this essay examines how and why the Internet meme becomes a gendered medium in particular sociopolitical contexts. O1G abbreviates a vulgar statement about Hungary’s prime minister that Internet users transformed into ever more creative Internet memes and circulated on social media. Although gender-based language norms discouraged women from using vulgar language, women nevertheless played a pivotal role in expanding O1G activism. Using NVivo to analyze the 646 O1G memes I collected for this project, I highlight that, curiously, women contributed Internet memes to O1G activism that reconnected them to gender-normative spaces, forms of labor, and behaviors. They produced memes that portrayed O1G nail designs, O1G cookies, and protests that paired O1G signs with flowers, teddy bears, and balloons. These memes illustrate that in a context in which toxic masculinity pervades political culture, Internet memes will also be gendered when used as protest media. Although O1G memes reinforced associations between women and feminized affective labor, paradoxically they also helped women gain visibility in political activism. I conclude that women’s production of O1G memes was an important step toward making political culture more inclusive in Hungary.