• Home
  • News
  • Longform
  • Life
    • Jeans
    • Madam Zeenat’s Feminist Tarot
  • Health
  • Work
  • Culture
    • Books
    • Art
    • Music
    • Fashion
    • Cinema
    • TV
  • Sports
  • Kranti
  • Vaanthi
  • The FAK
  • About
    • Submissions
  • Home
  • News
  • Longform
  • Life
    • Jeans
    • Madam Zeenat’s Feminist Tarot
  • Health
  • Work
  • Culture
    • Books
    • Art
    • Music
    • Fashion
    • Cinema
    • TV
  • Sports
  • Kranti
  • Vaanthi
  • The FAK
  • About
    • Submissions
HomeVaanthiHow ‘Tag a Friend on Facebook’ has Gon ...

How ‘Tag a Friend on Facebook’ has Gone From Pole Dancing Rabbits to Classist, Sexist Dating Jokes

May 25, 2017

By Ila Ananya

Photo courtesy: MemeSuper.

In the last week, I’ve seen at least a dozen “Tag a friend who should…” photos on Facebook. Some of them are random, like “Tag a friend who should open Facebook to see this video of a cartoon rabbit pole dancing.” Okay, haha, that’s a bit funny I guess.

But then there’s this other type.

It’s a photo of a person (the ones I’ve seen are usually women), dark skinned, teeth sticking out slightly, apparently “ugly”. Guy’s photographs follow a similar pattern — dark skinned (see how we can’t really ever let this go?), occasionally grimy clothes, bad teeth, and again anyone apparently “ugly”.

Then the caption asks everyone to “Tag a friend who should date this”. Date this, mind you, not even “Date this person” or something that acknowledges that the person in the photograph is…a person. And this isn’t the only problem. A friend of mine says she’s seen these ‘jokes’ where the people in the photographs are sometimes beggars, or homeless men and women, with the same caption.

What does it mean that we’re being asked to tag friends who should date “this”? Of course the joke is supposed to be that we’d never date ‘this’, so it’s haha funny. If you’re tagged in it you’re supposed to feel all cringe cringe, this is so embarrassing.

It’s basically casteist, classist, and often gendered jokes — I don’t see it being done for men and women with fair skin and perfect hair and perfect teeth, light eyes. And even if it is done for them, it isn’t done in this same “haha, look, why would we date this person way,” it’s done in an irritating, gushing, “We’d be so lucky to be with this beautiful, perfect person”.

Do you remember how the Arshad Khan mania was more of a class than gender problem? Where someone thought they had the right to take a photo of someone they found good looking, surprised that he was a chai wala (everyone kept calling him that), and, as Girls at Dhabas points out, turned up at his chai stall the next morning without caring that he was at work, something they’d never have done if he was an upper class man? This rubbish tag a friend business is similar, and I’m wondering when people will just cut this crap.

Tags: Arshad Khan, casteist, class, Facebook, Facebook memes

Share!
Tweet

Ila Ananya

About the author

Related Posts

Happy Teacher’s Day to The Women Who Changed My Life

The Best and Most Hilarious Moments From Our Facebook Interview with Aditi Mittal

Why I Care About Being ‘Liked’ Online

Welcome To My Catalogue Of All The Kinds of Trolls I’ve Met Online

2 Responses to “How ‘Tag a Friend on Facebook’ has Gone From Pole Dancing Rabbits to Classist, Sexist Dating Jokes”

  1. Reply
    Sonia
    May 26, 2017 at 5:30 pm

    Only when adults ‘grow whole’ rather than just ‘grow up’ perhaps they will get why doing stuff like this and getting a kick out of it, is just plain dim witted!! Its pretty much like that dumb show- ‘Impractical Jokers’ on Comedy Central. They’re kidding themselves, if they and their producers think they’re ‘jokers’- they’re just plain idiots nothing else!!

  2. Reply
    Althea
    May 28, 2017 at 4:38 pm

    Finally, someone said it. These pictures are so cringeworthy. We, as a country, have a really poor sense of humour. Case in point: Kapil Sharma’ show.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Trending

Sorry. No data so far.

Subscribe to our email newsletter!

You May Also Like

  • After Payal Tadvi’s Death Can We Allow Medical Education to Continue to Pretend to be Casteless? May 28, 2019
  • Jokha Alharthi’s Man Booker Win Reminds Us of Oman’s Recent Slave-owning Past May 24, 2019
  • In Avengers: Endgame, Black Widow is Sexy, Sterile and So Burnt By Marvel May 12, 2019
  • Let Us Admit the Sins of Atishi Marlena May 10, 2019
  • 20 Questions for SC Panel that Cleared the CJI of Sexual Harassment Charges May 9, 2019


Online Bachchi, Dil Ki Sachchi

Come on over for feminist journalism.

Politics. Pop Culture. Health. Sex. Law. Books. Work.

We write what we want to read.

  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Refund Policy
  • About
  • Contact Us

Subscribe to our email newsletter!

Keep up with us!

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on YouTubeFollow Us on E-mail

Trending

Sorry. No data so far.

Copyright © 2018 The Ladies Finger
Subscribe to our RSS/Atom feed here