Why the ‘tag someone’ memes need to be left in 2016
‘Tag someone who would give her a french kiss’
Just when we thought 2016 couldn’t get any worse, a new meme burst out of the gates of social media hell, filling our newsfeeds with hateful atrocities.
The new “tag someone” meme features pictures of people that some may consider unattractive, with captions along the lines of “Tag [insert random name], I’m looking for him/her.” This is a rather watered-down version of the captions, as they are often extremely vulgar and pertain to engaging in sexual acts with those pictured.
The people pictured in the memes are frequently obese, have poorly done makeup, or are even disabled.
By including people that look different in these memes, it is implied that people cannot look different than the media’s standards of beauty, if they are to be valued in the eyes of others.
If people are posting pictures of themselves, chances are it’s because those pictures make them feel good. Uploading pictures to social media should be a way to build confidence and self-esteem, not a way of accidentally providing ammo to cyberbullies to destroy any shed of confidence one may have.
By publicly mocking these people, you are not just mocking the people themselves- you are mocking someone’s mother, daughter, brother, sister, friend, father, aunt, uncle, cousin—the list goes on. The people pictured in these atrocious memes have families and lives of their own. Imagine one of your family members finding an unflattering picture of you, captioned by “Who wants to take him/her to pound town?”
I’m not saying you must find the people pictured in these memes attractive—everyone is completely entitled to their own opinion, and everyone has preferences as to what they personally find attractive. However, not finding someone attractive is absolutely no excuse to belittle someone based exclusively on their looks, for the entire world to see.
The events of this year have proven the true extent of the hatred residing in our world. There is absolutely no reason to fill the world with any more animosity than there already is.
Going forward, let’s leave the hatred in 2016, and enter 2017 on a kinder note.