OUT NOW – Critical Meme Reader II: Memetic Tacticality edited by Chloë Arkenbout and Laurence Scherz

By Laurence Scherz, November 10, 2022

The (political) power of memes has moved beyond virtual images. The distinction between the virtual and ‘real life’ no longer applies, or perhaps was never really there. Their effects (or should we say affects?) are moving through digital infrastructures, policy, regulations and bodies. If memes are used as a tool by the alt-right to mobilize [...]

The Potential and Limits for Call-Out Culture as an Activist Practice: How the Internet Tried to Hold J. K. Rowling Accountable For Her TERF’ism

By Chloë Arkenbout, June 8, 2022

“‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?” When world-famous author J. K. Rowling posted a trans*phobic tweet in 2020 (see Fig. 1) the internet exploded. Rowling her tweet clearly exposed her problematic views on trans* people. TERF’s (trans*-exclusionary radical feminists), like [...]

Stop Being Reasonable: On Nonviolence in Social Media Comment Wars

By Chloë Arkenbout, January 5, 2022

“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.” ― Angela Davis “For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.” – [...]

The Left Can Meme: Strategies to Challenge Dutch Oppressive Political Discourses

By Chloë Arkenbout, November 11, 2021

“One must speak for a struggle for a new culture, that is, for a new moral life that cannot but be intimately connected to a new intuition of life, until it becomes a new way of feeling and seeing reality.” – Antonio Gramsci The fact that during the Trump era memes were claimed by the alt-right, with [...]

Value and Limits of Instagram Infographics: On Marginalized Groups Reclaiming their Power to Define

By Chloë Arkenbout, November 1, 2021

“Visibility which makes us most vulnerable is that which also is the source of our greatest strength; […] to define ourselves, name ourselves, and speak for ourselves, instead of being defined and spoken for by others.” – Audre Lorde Who would not want to live in a world where people are not put in [...]

Out now: INC Reader #15 Critical Meme Reader: Global Mutations of the Viral Image

By Chloë Arkenbout, September 2, 2021

Critical Meme Reader: Global Mutations of the Viral Image Beyond the so-called ‘Alt-right’ and its attendant milieus on 4chan and Reddit, memes have passed the post-digital threshold and entered new theoretical, practical, and geographical territories beyond the stereotypical young, white, male, western subject. As they metastasized from the digital periphery to the mainstream, memes have [...]

The Digital Gutmensch: The Ethics of Challenging Oppressive Discourses in the Digital Public Sphere

By Chloë Arkenbout, March 30, 2021

A Research Project About Moral Responsibility, Allyship and the Power of the Words We Choose I’ve been called a Gutmensch more times than I can count. And yes, I am aware of the fact that, usually, this is not a compliment. Honestly, I don’t care. It happens to be my aim to contribute to [...]