Internet Memes and Normalisation of Sexism in the time of Covid-19

Abstract

In the time of Covid-19, the stay-at-home orders to contain the spread of the virus forced most people to remain indoors for the first  time in contemporary history. As the patriarchal machines retreated to the home and were sitting still, the hegemonic domination within the domestic space did not pause, rather it found an outlet in virtual space. With more people spending significantly longer  time online than ever before, it was also a time when many of them were openly prepared to share sexist memes and jokes, which  indicates a public acceptability of casual sexism. In this article, we explore the sexist content of 35 online memes. Our focus here is on  individual will and action of men and women rather than structural sexism in online space. Our analysis demonstrates that sexist  memes and jokes during the pandemic reinforced patriarchy even when it retreated to domestic space and continued to dehumanise  women as sexual objects and devalue their abilities. Implications of such jokes and humour are discussed.