A Multimodal Analysis of Gender Representation in “Men vs. Women Memes”

The ubiquity of the Internet has given rise to a plethora of new genres thus posing a problem for linguistic analysis which has long been focusing on verbal content. Internet memes are an emerging genre currently prevalent in computer mediated discourse (CMD). They constitute a new medium not only to deliver messages but also to create humor. A prototypical form of memes is the image macro meme, which typically consists of a still image with text superimposed so that their juxtaposition creates a humorous effect. These are usually used to portray a variety of cultural relations, such as political ideologies, ethnic stereotypes as well as gender representation. In the present study, a sample of memes was collected from Pinterest website using the search terms “men vs. women memes”, with special focus on memes related to health and relationships in particular. Drawing upon Kress and van Leeuwen’s (1996, 2006) Theory of Visual Grammar, in addition to Critical Discourse Analysis respectively the researcher analyzes the visual and textual elements of the selected memes. The study seeks to examine how the memes depict gender identity using the interplay between both text and image. Despite a few exceptions, the findings point out that memes are used discursively to reproduce stereotypical images of the two genders and create binary oppositions between them in several ways. The study highlights the role played by memes as a recent form of discursive communication enabling the viral dissemination of cultural representation and ideological content.