Memes of bodies, bodies of memes

While there is no lack of research on far-right and meme-based disinformation, there appears to be a lack of understanding about the inner logic of the communities that share and create them. This article investigates the community behind the popular disinformative short-form video meme Reject Modernity, Embrace Masculinity (RMEM). Employing storytelling (as a collaborative act) as an analytical lens, this article aims to understand and describe the construction of the prominent far-right disinformative narrative of “male oppression” which is prevalently propagated through these memes. This article shows the importance of the analytical lens of storytelling for this type of analysis, as parts of the narrative construction of the story of “male oppression” only become visible when the collaborative interplay between the comments, the meme creators, and the visual material of the memes is embraced as an object of inquiry. Following the story reveals how the community intricately interlinks various myths of hegemonic and heteronormative masculinity to shape a story that is convincing for them and others. The story these memes share is, of course, as ridiculous as it is false. Still, it points towards a certain zeitgeist within contemporary masculinist communities that feel unseen in their “oppression.”