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

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.

KEYWORDS:

• media activism
• Internet memes
• gender
• authoritarian populism
• Hungary

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Fidesz stands for Fiatal Demokraták Szövetsége (Alliance of Young Democrats). In 1988, when the party was established, the maximum age limit for membership was 35. This age limit was lifted in 1993. See Fidesz’s web page, http://archiv.fidesz.hu/index.php?Cikk=60 (accessed May 26 2021). KDNP stands for Kereszténydemokrata Néppárt (Christian Democratic People’s Party). It is widely viewed as a satellite party of Fidesz.

2. Michael Hardt defines affective labor as labor that produces “a feeling of ease, well-being, satisfaction, excitement, passion—even a sense of connectedness or community” (Michael Hardt 1999, 96).

3. In Hungarian, family names come first. This essay adopts the Hungarian convention when using Hungarian names.

4. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJtaY29C8Zc (accessed May 26 2021).

5. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_CDWq4_0oY (accessed May 26 2021).

6. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVIC9fvALnw (accessed May 26 2021).

7. 24.hu Online News Portal, https://24.hu/kozelet/2019/09/12/nagy-blanka-bayer/ (accessed May 26 2021)

8. Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/BudaiSimicska/ (now defunct); Tumblr, https://o1g-orbanegygeci.tumblr.com/post/188026102669/amp; Tumblr, https://orban1geci.tumblr.com; Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/sajtoszabadsagert/; Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/O1Gintl/; Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/o1g/, https://twitter.com/O1Gintl?fbclid=IwAR1PqhVNWPXBR-Rmpx6Qer9OOwQ5lIhOXFfsegyPh-kgttp_7Psdwppb2mE (all accessed May 26 2, 21).

9. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ivj5M4sZMw8 (accessed May 26 2021).

10. Heti Világgazdaság, https://hvg.hu/elet/20181227_Hajlektalanokon_segitene_a_lany_aki_csupan_ket_O1G_matricaval_fedte_el_kebleit_a_tuntetesen (accessed May 26 2021).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Institute for Advanced Study, Central European University

Notes on contributors

Gabriella Lukacs

Gabriella Lukacs is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh. She is the author of two books: Scripted Affects, Branded Selves: Television, Subjectivity, and Capitalism in 1990s Japan (Duke University Press 2010) and Invisibility by Design: Women and Work in Japan’s Digital Economy (Duke University Press 2020). She is currently working on a book manuscript titled From Counterpublics to Commons: Media Activism in Populist Hungary