The humor in (dis)course: Effects of feminism on digital media

Abstract

Historically, our society was built from a male model of organization, and throughout its constitution it promoted and ratified forms of violence against women, always based on the concept of feminine fragility and sensitivity, which implied the notions of inferiority and submission. As militants and in search of equality, women took to the streets and their bodies became discourses that bring the “inside out” of the history of dominance, building other possibilities of meaning and memory in the fight against male chauvinism. In this article, our goal is to observe, in some publications on social networks, the place attributed to women and feminism in the midst of stereotypes and imaginary crystallized in our society and which occupy our discursive space. To this end, our material consists of four memes published on Instagram, highlighting, above all, this pre-determined and utopian dominant ideal about the role of women, satirizing the struggle and resistance configured by social movements and, especially, feminism. In this sense, our analytical endeavor will be based on the theoretical assumptions of the French discourse analysis, especially in considerations about the notions of memory and pre-built.