“No Prejudice Here”: Examining Social Identity Work in Starter Pack Memes

Abstract

As a performance venue, online social spaces afford users a variety of ways to express themselves. Many of these expressions include social identity work, such as the articulation, affirmation, or policing of a shared identity. In this study, we examine one online space in which users engage in social identity work: a Reddit forum (r/starterpacks) that primarily generates and discusses image memes of a very specific format: the “starter pack.” Users leverage these image memes to convey what we refer to in this article as prototypes of social identities. Many of these prototypical depictions are necessarily influenced by offline social groups and/or consumer culture, and are furthermore constructed around gendered, racial, or ethnic stereotypes. To understand how these image memes are used to form and perpetuate prototypes of social identities, we employed content analysis to evaluate a sample of 500 image meme artifacts created, shared, and upvoted by the subreddit’s users. We discuss the process of applying visual analysis techniques to articulate themes identified in the image meme expressions, in particular: (1) the default of the White, male identity in starter pack characterizations; (2) the production of oppressive social identities through the use of visual and textual content; and (3) the dedication to a stance of “consumption” in assembling starter pack memes, both through body politics expressed therein and use of consumer goods in images. Finally, we draw on reader response theory to frame the challenges of researchers “reading” starter pack memes, despite employing systematic methods of analysis.

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