Over the last few days, Denise Sanchez received several texts informing her that her image was everywhere on Twitter. A photo she posted in 2018 of her speaking passionately to the ears of her dissatisfied ex-boyfriend was going online again.
Then there’s”Girl Explaining,” or the “Girl Explaining” meme.
What began as a brief moment during the New Year’s Eve music festival in Argentina is now gaining significance with each new posting — the image has now become a standard to discuss pop culture instances and air out grievances over the conclusion in “Titanic,” share takes of Marvel’s Marvel Universe and even call for the need to take action in the fight against climate change.
SEE, IT TOOK GEORGE MILLER 10 YEARS TO BRING BABE TO LIFE BECAUSE TECHNOLOGY NEEDED TO CATCH UP TO HIS VISION. THEY USED 48 PIGS BECAUSE BABY PIGS GROW SO QUICKLY BUT ALSO USED AN ANIMATRONIC PUPPET AND CG TO GET THE TALKING EFFECT PERFECT. JAMES CROMWELL WENT VEGAN TOO pic.twitter.com/h4FifCUIwM
— Ayo Edebiri (@ayoedebiri) August 17, 2022
Although the meme first was popularized in Sanchez’s homeland of Argentina in the year 2019, the sight of her face being featured on the internet in 2022and then having others put their thoughts on it — was to her a shock. Sanchez said she had no idea of the meme gaining the international cross-over it has since the middle of August.
To clarify the situation: Sanchez wasn’t shouting into the space. She was singing a cumbia tune, one of Argentina’s most well-known music genres. This is why her arm was pointing towards the sky.
“We dance cumbias that way,” Sanchez stated. But she’s unable to remember what tune was played since “it just happened so long ago.”
It happens all too often; Sanchez was unsuspectingly caught in the background who was taking a photo of someone else. Two months later, the person who took the photo uploaded it onto Twitter in the form of a tweet that “captioned it something like, ‘When strangers mess up your photos,’ ” Sanchez recalls. Another person was able to see the amusing sight of Sanchez appearing to be speaking loudly to a man with a blank expression. Then the meme was created.
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A local nutrition-focused blog published it in 2019 with a warning to avoid detox juices or crash diets. Teams from soccer and opponents then expressed their opinions. The meme made it onto numerous memes in Spanish.
“It was hilarious seeing it go around,” Sanchez said. “The music festival even offered us free tickets to the following year. However, I thought Argentina and the other Latino countries would go at the top of the list as far as memes took us.”
In the almost four years since this photograph was taken, much is changed about Sanchez’s lifestyle. Sanchez added tattoos on her body and dyed her hair, which was blonde at the time, and dark. She began to study nutrition which is a bit ironic considering the meme’s origins. The person she was in a photo with? They’ve been a long time apart.
However, to the world, it appears she’s stuck in time as “Girl Explaining” or “Bro Girl.” The revival took place in August. Fifteen when a Twitter user shared her picture with the text message about the incompatibility of Geminis and Scorpios as per Know Your Meme. Then stars, politicians and brands began to pile on.
An old-fashioned meme with a twist
The image is socially-friendly and meme-worthy because it’s a new version of an old known format, according to Hannah Barton, a U.K.-based researcher on the history of the culture of memes and a member of the global Meme Studies Research Network. Viral memes often have the same basic structure consisting of a “fixed element,” meaning an established aesthetic or tone and a “novel spin.”
From at least the beginning decade of 2010, there have been many variations that have been dubbed “Bro Explaining,” or the man speaking to a woman who appears to prefer to be somewhere and not there. However, Barton said that Sanchez’s image is among the first and, if not the very first, instances of the reverse. The idiom is well-known, but the inversion allowed people to poke fun at the situation or make fun of a meme which has already become out of fashion.
“We know what that format is expressing,” Barton stated. “And … the format is great for getting a range of points across. It’s a kind of media artefact which is effective for mass participation because everybody can create their twist to it.”
Even though ” Bro Explaining” frequently makes fun of things that are “bro-y” things men say, “Girl Explaining” is predominantly one of the “esoteric explainer memes” -an item that is more complicated and focused on the people’s specific, however sincerely held passions, according to Jamie Cohen, an assistant professor of media studies at the CUNY Queens College.
“This young woman is shouting at her phone, but the things she’s screaming about are extremely obscure, cute, and detailed. It speaks volumes about how people wish to express their opinions,” he said. “And also a lot about us wanting space to write specific information and having no container to put that out there.”
WHILE THEY BOTH HAVE THE WORD STAR IN THEM. STAR TREK & STAR WARS ARE VERY DIFFERENT. SW IS A SPACE OPERA THAT DEALS WITH THE MYSTICAL CONCEPT OF A THING CALLED THE FORCE SET IN THE PAST IN A GALAXY NOT OUR OWN. ST IS MORE OF A SYFY THAT DEALS WITH CONCEPTS THAT COULD BE TRUE. pic.twitter.com/bh7ZhDmFd5
— Steve Harvey’s Old Wig (@NeglectedCarrot) August 18, 2022
The quest for authentic spaces is the reason behind not just the latest trends in memes and memes but also the growing popularity of popular apps for Gen Z, such as TikTok and BeReal, Cohen said. Users, especially younger generations, are protesting against curated filters and feeds. “Girl Explaining” may well be a different manifestation of this discontent.
“This becomes a pushback against the inability to use spaces like Facebook or Twitter properly and genuinely,” the man declared. “Like it is possible to share this emotion or idea, but where should you post it? You would not post your thoughts like these on Facebook. This meme allows you to present an exciting and unique idea.”
For Sanchez, she’s found it awe-inspiring to see the celebrities she follows, like Hailey Bieber — suddenly publish her photo. It’s also kind of weird to see an image from her ex’s past remain for a long time; however, it’s been interesting to see the different perspectives people have made on the subject.
If she had to come up with her own meme Sanchez stated that it was to bring awareness to sexual violence based upon gender. In the end, she added, “the point of the meme is to talk about these things that we all know are true, but somehow we don’t listen to enough.”
However, she also knows that the meme will likely end within the next few days. As per Barton and Cohen, the moment the meme has reached its maximum saturation, and its popularity begins to decline, and it will stop. The meme’s demise is inevitable once it begins to be shared on Instagram (and from the appearance of things, the meme may already have been to this point). When it makes it to Facebook, it’s an unidentified ghost.
Sanchez is waiting for the meme to go down, but she’s aware that it’s only a matter before another person is thrown into the same circumstance. Someday, somebody will come up with a new facial expression that the internet will come up with and then take it down.
In this instance, Sanchez has a piece of advice: “Take it easy and laugh about it.”
Perhaps don’t go too much into the comments sections she suggested.
