A new study examines how memes obscure misogynistic narratives—and why it’s so difficult to combat them.

Suay Melisa Özkula (Center for ICT&S, University of Salzburg) and Patricia Prieto-Blanco (Lancaster University) introduce the concept of “memetic misogyny” in the academic journal New Media & Society: a form of visual, gender-based violence that often goes unnoticed due to humor, ambiguity, and platform-specific dissemination. Using three case studies—memes about Greta Thunberg, so-called “Karen” memes, and anti-feminist content surrounding the hashtag #SisterIDoBelieveYou—the authors demonstrate how misogynistic messages are encoded through imagery, aesthetics, and context. Crucial to this is the interplay between meme content, platform logic, and the cultural communities in which this content circulates. This interplay generates what the authors call “mythologies of memetic misogyny”: gender-based narratives that portray misogynistic ideas as natural and timeless. The study appears in a special issue of the journal and is available via open access.

Özkula, S. M. & Prieto-Blanco, P. (2026). Just a meme? The role of context in mythologies of memetic misogyny. New Media & Society, 28(4), 1592–1618. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251396942