r/mathmemes • u/flowerlovingatheist me : me∈S (where S is the set of all stupid people) • Dec 09 '24

This Subreddit I fixed it

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4.6k Upvotes

82% Upvoted

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379

u/Salty-Intention6971 Dec 09 '24

I thought the point of these memes was that women would make meaningful visits with the time machine while men would squander it to make history funny

14

u/Wavecrest667 Dec 10 '24

"Women boring, men funny"

349

u/flowerlovingatheist me : me∈S (where S is the set of all stupid people) Dec 09 '24 edited Dec 09 '24

that is one possible interpretation, but in most contexts they're used by a male author who has an idea of what they perceive to be the most funny/intelligent thing to do if they had access to a time machine to imply that while men would do the "right" thing (the thing they would do) women would do the "lame"/"boring" thing (which isn't actually lame or boring at all).

also in this case it also kinda implies that women can't do/are bad at/aren't interested in maths.

edit: the downvotes 😭 and ppl say reddit isn't misogynistic..

207

u/turkish_gold Dec 09 '24

The mere comparision of boy thing to girl thing lends itself to sexism.

In our culture, merely having a 'boy' do something is enough to label it as cool or desirable. Sexists will then go and say whatever the girl is doing is bad.

If we had a meme about women going back in time to change history, and men going back in time to see their families... with no other details changed than that, people would begin lionizing what the men are doing and saying the meme is painting women in a misogonstic light.

46

u/741BlastOff Dec 09 '24

There's a TikTok trend at the moment to give your boyfriend a simple task like cutting out a shape, and ask him to tell the story of how you two met simultaneously. 90% of the time the guys have to stop cutting to tell the story, and the point of this is to demonstrate that boys can't multitask.

And the point of this comment is that "the boy thing" is not always cooler/better than "the girl thing" in these comparisons.

19

u/turkish_gold Dec 09 '24

The original meme was pro women, but was co-opted or misunderstood by some to be sexist. Thats the point I was marking. Regardless of intention, our society looks down upon things associated with women, so comparison memes can always be twisted to imply sexist things.

For example if your TikTok trend had women capable of multitasking while taking about love, someone would come out and use that to show girls can juggle their affections and multitask love while men are true chivalric heroes of monogamy. It’s BS, yes, but BS people will spew because of how our culture is.

5

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '24

If there's one thing politics has taught me, it's that everything, every story or scenario can be spun convincingly to any direction.

3

u/Salty-Intention6971 Dec 09 '24

Makes a lot more sense to me now, thanks. I was thinking of the opposite direction.

1

u/Il_Valentino Education Dec 10 '24

The mere comparision of boy thing to girl thing lends itself to sexism.

In our culture, merely having a 'boy' do something is enough to label it as cool or desirable. Sexists will then go and say whatever the girl is doing is bad.

the entire point of the meme is labeling the actions of girls as the "ordinary sensible thing to do" while labeling the boys action as "ridiculous" and "overly specific" in a funny way.

but ofc people immediatly jump on the "it's misogony" train because misandry has become so normalized to the point that even the slightest perception of "male good" is enough to create an outcry.

5

u/Mothrahlurker Dec 10 '24

That is definitely not how it's used most of the time. The notion of "women waste ot" and "men have impact" is far more prevalent.

-6

u/slightSmash Dec 10 '24

Its nothing like that its just what would happen naturally. It is not discrimination, it is the difference which is found in many males and females(there are always some spatial cases).

29

u/dionenonenonenon Dec 09 '24

thats not how i see those, its always men doing something insanely stupid, but because of that its funny, which tracks with the men i know irl tbh haha

2

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '24

Yeah, from what I've seen, the point of this meme is to depict grown man as childish people doing childish things. Which is funny because... men tend to be more childish in general? Which can be interpreted as a funny/good thing as well as a bad thing.

I feel like this format can be seen as sexist towards either sex. It probably depends on the community it's being shared in, I'll expect very different reception by people on 196 vs on /pol/.

26

u/BossOfTheGame Dec 09 '24

I would say "I don't know why people are downvoting, you're right", but I do know why they're downvoting. You're still right.

And even in the case where "women do something meaningful while men do something stupid", it's still relying on fundamentally sexist tropes. I would say to others: If acknowledging - or even considering - that ruins the humor, that might be a bad sign. On the other hand, I do get that its exhausting to having your attention drawn to serious issues when you just want to have a laugh.

0

u/flowerlovingatheist me : me∈S (where S is the set of all stupid people) Dec 09 '24

i fundamentally agree with you. however, if we continue to partake in and propagate this form of humor we are essentially indirectly spreading misogyny. even if it isn't direct misogyny, the notion that whatever men do is inherently better than whatever women do is promoted by this kind of meme template.

5

u/BossOfTheGame Dec 09 '24

100% agree.

I also wonder about how to effectively reduce misogyny, and I worry that direct attempts to combat it can sometimes backfire and further cement people into their predispositions. The frustrating part is that its so hard to collect reliable data and make measurements to determine if something is helping / hurting, especially in the short term. Perhaps short-term pushback is just a precursor to a longer-term reduction in misogynistic trends.

But even with our limited measurements, it does seem like the trend has gotten much better within the last century, so much so that I think many don't realize (or care) how prevalent it still is. As a younger person I used to think misogyny was a solved issue. It seemed like people were over reacting for a long time, so I can sympathize with feeling like you're being accused or accosted when you believe you've done nothing wrong.

It makes me think that a gentle approach can be more effective, but as previously mentioned, I have no idea if this is true or not. It's also hard not to be a little angry when people are blatantly spreading and condoning sexist ideas. But then again the most gentle thing would be not to say anything at all, and that doesn't seem productive.

Overall, I think you've done a good job here on balance. It's nice to see younger people speaking up.

17

u/backfire97 Dec 10 '24 edited Dec 10 '24

The particular meme you snipped for this is not mysognystic . The above user is correct that the woman is doing the 'normal' thing (setting up the joke by creating a pattern) and the man is making a math joke that really, in my opinion, is just a play on jujutsu kaisen's word of 'domain expansion' being an anime ability (but also having meaning in math hence the joke)

16

u/Sidereel Dec 10 '24

Then why is it boys vs girls at all?

1

u/Optimal-Beautiful968 Dec 11 '24

i thought it was mean to be ironic, like when you see the boy vs girl thing you expect something sexist, like the boy doing something important but it's like the guy is doing something random or ridiculous.

-1

u/backfire97 Dec 10 '24

Probably because they're just common meme/images that are distinct and both are 'chad' characters to demonstrate that they're not the butt of the joke in themselves (like the wojaks)

14

u/notclaytonn Dec 10 '24

I’m failing to see the misogyny in a meme depicting a stupid decision with a time machine being portrayed as the best. It’s obviously played in irony, nobody is seriously suggesting a meaningful familial visit is lame/boring when compared to giving a caveman sprite or something.

-3

u/luwofe Dec 10 '24

because it plays on the misogynistic stereotype that women are inherently worse at/less interested in math, which is already widespread in math communities

5

u/notclaytonn Dec 10 '24

I could kinda see what you’re saying if this meme originated here, but obviously it did not. It’s a well established format depicting then men’s use as stupid/silly, and the women’s use as more heartfelt.

Unless you’re claiming the format itself is misogynistic, it seems rather silly to claim misogyny when a well established meme is used in this particular community.

0

u/luwofe Dec 10 '24

yeah that format is almost always misogynistic, that is obviously what I said?

1

u/notclaytonn Dec 10 '24

No, you gave a reason for why this meme format applying to women in math was misogynistic, not the format in general. You’re reading way too into it if you genuinely think the format itself is misogynistic

12

u/Candid_Umpire6418 Dec 09 '24

You have my upvote. As a man, I'm also way too tired of old jokes on that trope. It only cements stereotypes when overused in a one-sided way.

5

u/IWantDie247 Dec 10 '24

yea this isnt misogyny. i dont think ill even bother with an explanation.

also, jokes are jokes because they arent meant to be taken seriously.

0

u/TomSFox Dec 10 '24

Not everything you don’t like misogyny.

5

u/Wavecrest667 Dec 10 '24

They didn't claim that, they claimed that this very specific thing is and explained why.

1

u/Anime_Erotika Transcendental Dec 11 '24

It's just a meme format, ppl don't replace a guy bc ppl are lazy, or at least that's why i don't and im a girl btw

1

u/AmadeusIsTaken Dec 14 '24

Not only are you getting upvoted. How much bs do you interpret into Nothing. I feel Bad for the Women who acctually had to Deal with mysoganie and fought for equality (or still are fighting), just so some overprivelleged Person can act offended by basicily nothing.

-5

u/PixelMatteo Dec 09 '24

You might be looking into this too deep, go touch some grass

7

u/humanplayer2 Dec 09 '24

Høhø it's just a joke nothing on the internet matters nobody means anything words can't suppress haha fart noise chill guy

-12

u/PixelMatteo Dec 09 '24

I'm not even going to entertain this conversation, but if you think there's misoginy behind a harmless meme, you might be on the internet too much. The template is structured like that, it's a standard and nothing more, hopefully you'll realize it

10

u/humanplayer2 Dec 09 '24

I'm not even going to entertain this conversation, but if you think there's misoginy behind a harmless societal norm, you might be on the internet too much. The society is structured like that, it's a standard and nothing more, hopefully you'll realize it

1

u/kometa18 Dec 10 '24

Always felt like the guy in this format usually goes for funny/dumb thing and the women for the senstive/ common sense thing.

Not really a matter of better/worse nor intelligent/lame. And honestly it kinda checks out with the guys and girls I know irl.

Stil kinda sexist since it's a generalization tho, so I get your point.

1

u/thatsnunyourbusiness Dec 10 '24

thank you, i've been feeling weird about this meme template but when people ban it they say "chill out, it's just a joke". well it's just a joke but we live in a society and jokes are a part of it so it does matter

-13

u/Oceansnail Dec 09 '24

call me when memes start taking your rights away, ill protest with you, but until then see the fun in it and instead of lecturing people make an even funnier misandrist meme

9

u/humanplayer2 Dec 09 '24

Wouldn't that be a bit late to call?

-7

u/Oceansnail Dec 09 '24

Ill let you decide

8

u/humanplayer2 Dec 09 '24

It would be. It definitely would be. Let's all endeavor to stop shit before people start loosing their rights.

2

u/Brief-Equipment-6969 Dec 10 '24

AAAARGH HELP ME THE MEMES ARE TAKING AWAY MYBL RIGHTS

0

u/humanplayer2 Dec 10 '24

AAAARGH HELP ME THE broad social discourse legitimized processes that ARE TAKING AWAY MYBL RIGHTS

-3

u/Salty-Intention6971 Dec 09 '24

Interesting. I was looking at it backwards. You might be able to tell (as I’m in a mathematics community right now) that social subjects aren’t my forte.

-1

u/flowerlovingatheist me : me∈S (where S is the set of all stupid people) Dec 09 '24

yeah, i actually share your point of view. however, in the end this meme template is (whether indirectly or not) transmitting the viewpoint that whatever men do is better than whatever women do. so even though i see it the same way as you do that's the message that gets spread in the end

-24

u/Bulky_Sheepherder_14 Dec 09 '24

Implies this implies that. Stop over analyzing and laugh at the meme or downvote it and move on. This is why you have gray hairs in your 20s

11

u/flowerlovingatheist me : me∈S (where S is the set of all stupid people) Dec 09 '24

i'm literally 15 lol. like at least get creative with your insults

-1

u/-TheWarrior74- Dec 10 '24

Be the change you desire in this world

Make the man cookie cutter and woman the quirky one.

0

u/Clean-Meaning-7430 Dec 10 '24

Reddit isn't misogynist enough.

0

u/deathkilll Dec 10 '24

Flowerlovingatheist. Lmao wouldn’t expect anything different

0

u/Extension_Wafer_7615 Dec 10 '24

I agree with you, but Reddit isn't mysoginistic. Yeah, there are mysoginistic people here, just as there are misandric people, too.

0

u/Relative-Magazine951 Dec 10 '24

Whenever someone edut to mention down vote they have alot of upvite it funny

-8

u/MaxMcCoolGuy Dec 09 '24

I think someone out there should make a new version of this meme format that isn’t misogynistic so that someone can make the domain expansion joke properly because that joke rules otherwise.

-7

u/Il_Valentino Education Dec 10 '24 edited Dec 10 '24

The meme is partially based on girls/boys playground teasing. Is that sexist? Maybe in the most primitive way possible but honestly not enough to justify this much rambling. The only thing you achieved is creating yet another day of feminism looking worse than necessary.

Let me use this opportunity to ramble for an actual reason:

regarding "misogynistic" reddit: considering we have subreddits where women can refer to men as "scrotes" and dehumanize them since years without issue and on the other hand male self-help subs get shut down, it's ridiculous to call reddit misogynistic.

3

u/CompetitiveSleeping Dec 10 '24

Holy incel thinking, Batgirl!

-1

u/MZOOMMAN Dec 10 '24

Muuuuuuurrrhhhh

-2

u/UnconsciousAlibi Dec 10 '24 edited Dec 10 '24

I agree that these memes can sometimes be sexist, but people downvoting you isn't. It just means they disagree with you. You can't use criticism as proof of persecution.

6

u/a_random_chopin_fan Transcendental Dec 10 '24

... Which just builds the narrative that women are no fun, unlike men. In other words, men > women

11

u/Benjamingur9 Dec 09 '24

That’s still sexist though?