A Thematic Analysis of Gender Identities’ Construction in Facebook Humorous Memes

This study aimed to explore the main gender identity-related themes reflected in humorous Facebook memes and how they differed across gender groups. The study adopted a socio-cognitive discursive view of gender as a social identity. The principles of the theory of gender and power allow to shed the light on the mechanism behind the construction of gender identity as a two-way dynamic process influenced by the gender order including the definitions of masculinities and femininities, and affecting it as well through users’ active agency in challenging or supporting the hierarchal gender order.
 A thematic analysis of 72 memes created by both male and female creators revealed 10 key themes related to the socio-cognitive construction of gender identity for both men and women. Many of the identified themes depicted negative characterizations of both men and women, which could be attributed to in-group favoritism dynamics according to social identity theory. Interestingly, these negative portrayals emerged from creators of both genders, raising questions about why the in-group would create memes holding derogatory connotations about their own group. This paradox was explained by the alignment of these portrayals with perceived ideals of masculinity and femininity, suggesting that these themes may hold positive connotations from the group's perspective, despite their seemingly derogatory nature.
While the majority of the memes seemed to support the hierarchal gender order, some memes brought attention to the disparagement and limitations men and women face within hierarchal gender dynamics. However, there was a noticeable lack of explicit rejection or resistance towards these dynamics. Only memes within a theme related to women as liberal depicted explicit resistance to societal norms regarding marriage and men's authority over their conduct and choices.
The study highlighted the complex interplay of social identity dynamics and the perpetuation of gender norms within the realm of meme creation.