Misandrist Memes is an Instagram page that posts “edgy memes for depressed queens”. Don’t be fooled by the tagline, though, anyone can enjoy the memes. But you gotta keep in mind that, while they can give you a good laugh because memes, they serve another purpose—and that is to point out the social, cultural and other issues around gender inequality, toxic masculinity and other sad realities women often find themselves in in terms of the patriarchy.

The page was created back in mid 2021. It currently houses 485 posts and is home to a bit over 23,000 followers.

The meme page also affiliated with the Sad Girls Against The Patriarchy podcast, hosted by two lovely ladies, Alison and Alexis, with whom Bored Panda got in touch. The podcast aims to educate and entertain folks by covering a variety of related subjects, like misogyny, toxic masculinity, and the harmful realities they tie in with.

"With a meme page, it's the same advice you give to a writer: write what you know. I've had traumatic experiences with men since I was a kid. A lot of us have. But it's not with 'men', actually," explained Alison, the founder of the meme page. "It's with the societal conditioning of men and the behavior that conditioning produces. I wish it wasn't such a trigger-happy buzzword, but that conditioning is--patriarchy."

And having an educational background in cognitive science further empowers Alison to channel spot-on remarks about toxic masculinity, misandry, misogyny and the like in meme form.

"When someone asks if it's serious or satire, the answer is always yes. We love to be meta in the meme community," explained Alison. "There is no hate in the content I post. Go look for it, please. You'll see lived experience, disappointment, taunting, social commentary. But no 'men are inherently evil'. That's not true and it's not the point."

"When I do talk to 'kill all men' androcide advocates, I don't agree with them but it's hard to be too condemning when they're usually abuse survivors. The content is tame but if someone takes it further, it's for personal reasons."

So, why is misogyny still a thing in today’s day and age? The short answer, history. You can say someone just came up with it and it’s been like that for so long that it’s become a status quo.

Culture and religion had whole stances and viewpoints on women, explaining their roles, functions and statuses in society. The snowball grew bigger and bigger, ultimately leading to misogyny evolving into an ideology. And so the vicious cycle was perpetuated even further.

Numerous generations and millennia later, women said “enough is enough” and started what is now called the feminist movement. It strives to delineate, establish and achieve multiple layers of equality among sexes—political, economic, personal, and social.

While we’re not quite there yet as a society, feminism has made great progress in terms of establishing equality between men and women. There’s now legal reforms out there on sexual harassment in the workplace, there’s the whole fourth-wave feminism movement that’s all about pushing away the tide of online misogyny, and, last but not least, the entire #MeToo movement as well as campaigns like Everyday Sexism Project and No More Page 3 that forced many “untouchable” people to suddenly become accountable for their bigotry.

"We're on a better path now as Gen Z is growing up," added Alison. "The kids are OK. This is the farthest we've strayed from White Protestant norms since the English moved in."

"In case you were wondering, many of the Native societies were matriarchal before we overpowered them. 'Matriarchal' doesn't mean women dominated men. It means they were egalitarian, but women held positions of power. The communities were peaceful and collective. There's never going to be a violent uprising of women + our allies against men, because we don't do that. We're smarter and less aggressive than that."

"80% of all violent crimes and 90% of all sexual crimes are committed by men. Women or femme-presenting people are belittled, demeaned, and threatened in our daily lives. I get catcalled on the street. I have strangers invite me to get in their car. This is not an exaggeration and I'm not being dramatic," elaborated Alison.

"Every day, men remind me that I am smaller, weaker, and I can be overpowered. Men may think 'well I'm not one of those guys' but I have no way of knowing whether you are. I've received multiple death threats for the content I post—I have the screenshots. For memes like 'boys are stupid throw rocks at them'. I'm sorry, and you say women are more emotional?"

And there are more stats to consider: the UN Women has a detailed rundown of statistics and other numbers putting violence against women in today’s society into perspective. Into real perspective—regarding everything from violence in public life to economic costs of violence to technology-facilitated abuse of women.

1 in 10 women in the European Union have experienced cyber-harassment since the age of 15. In 2021 alone, around 45,000 women around the globe were killed by their partners or family members.

Heck, even natural disasters resulting from climate change create situations that put women at risk of displacement, resource scarcity and food insecurity that might ultimately lead to social dependence and human trafficking.

This alone is indicative of a problem that’s far from resolved.

One thing’s for certain—the issues of misogyny and toxic masculinity have to be dealt with. While there’s a number of ways to do so, virtually all of them boil down to education, i.e. teaching the right kinds of behavior from the get-go and fixing the behaviors that aren’t right.

And when it comes to that, teaching has to be done by someone who’s trained and uses safe, effective materials and methods, all the while establishing a safe learning environment devoid of focusing on specific influencers, websites or groups that promote harmful attitudes.

And if toxic masculinity is already ingrained in your head, it’s not too late to do something about it. Question your understanding of masculinity by asking 'do you deny yourself things that feel feminine, do you judge folks for not being masculine enough or/and do you follow harmful behaviors dictated by others'?

Challenging those beliefs goes a long way, and accepting the fact that you are where you are and working towards fleshing out the reasoning and actions that are constructive instead of destructive gradually is a good first step.