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Lauren Cornman

Professor Ristow

WRRH 333

2 April 2018

Fantasy Theme Criticism

The meme series “You vs. The Guy She Told You Not to Worry About” originated as a

tweet posted by @AmBluJay on October 25, 2015. The tweet format was copied a few times in

the following month but became a Twitter trend on August 7, 2016 when tweets used the same

format but featured pop culture references. In the meme series, each meme contains the same

text while different images of two different men or male animal species are compared side-by-

side. The meme demonstrates how men are insecure about their physical appearance, identity,

and relationship. The memes within this genre are created by men and delivered to a male

audience that have prior knowledge of popular culture references that are made in several of the

memes. Character and action themes are the major factors that establish a comparison of male

identity where the rhetor believes women find the man on the right more attractive and insinuates

an action of infidelity in which the woman leaves the man for a more desirable option. The

worldview of the male rhetor is that by defining masculine ideals from popular culture

comparisons, he feels more secure about his own identity and heteronormative relationship.

In the “You vs. The Guy She Told You Not to Worry About” series, a male from

television, film, music, or media is compared to either himself or an antagonistic character

related to him. Through the coding process, it was found that the meme series demonstrated

fragile masculinity in an exchange between the male rhetor and male audience. There is an

implication in the connection between the text and the two images shown in the meme. “You”
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correlates to the image on the left while the text “The Guy She Told You Not to Worry About”

correlates to the image on the right. The implication is that the man in the right image is the more

desirable option because of his physical appearance and identity. There are two different

characterizations of male identity. The rhetor implies that the man on the left is average, in a

heteronormative relationship, and insecure about his appearance. Essentially, a character that the

male audience would relate the most to. Versus, the man on the right, who the male rhetor

characterizes as physically fit, attractive, and secure in his appearance; a man the male audience

would not identify with. Ultimately, when the rhetor characterizes male identity, he is

establishing a relationship with his audience that they both feel insecure about their appearance

relationship, and in that shared belief, find humor in a belief of superior masculinity. Even

though both the rhetor and audience are male dominated there is an underlying character that

plays a major role in the characterization of male identity, which is females. The implication is

not only that the male rhetor and audience views hyper masculinity as society’s desired option

but that it is the desired option of women or their partner.

The male rhetor’s characterization in the meme series of male physical appearance

emphasizes the desirable man as tall, fit, and attractive, in the opinion of their female partner.

The transformation in characterization on one individual is a trait in many of the memes. For

example, one meme from the series features a puppy on the left and the adult version of the dog

on the right (see fig.1). While the puppy on the left is innocent and small, the “adult” grown

version has human-like muscles that are uncharacteristic and an intimidating demeanor. Another

meme shows American professional wrestling promoter, Vince McMahon, as younger on the left

and him older and more muscular on the right (see fig. 2). These two memes display a visual

comparison that implies if a male undergoes a physical transformation, his female partner will
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find him more desirable. This further shows the male rhetor’s insecurity about his own

appearance and validation he seeks from other males about this insecurity. Even though several

of the memes use visuals of humans, some of them include images of dogs or gorillas, such as

Harambe (see fig. 3). In this meme, the animated monkey, Curious George, is pictured on the left

next to an image of Harambe, the Western Iowland gorilla who received national attention after

getting shot at the Cincinatti Zoo and Botanical Garden. This imagery evokes connotations of

male stereotypes of an “alpha dog” or Harambe as a symbol of ideal masculinity. Thus, in the

creation of the rhetor’s message, the meme uses symbols of male identity to appeal to the ethos

of the male on the receiving end. Male figures in pop culture and animals that embody a group’s

definition of masculinity function to convey the rhetor’s worldview that women find a physically

fit and attractive man more desirable.

The action theme of being in a heteronormative relationship is demonstrated throughout

the meme series, You vs. The Guy She Told You Not to Worry About. The action of a woman

being in a relationship with a man, more frequently a Caucasian heteronormative relationship, is

shown in the connection between text and imagery. Key words that the rhetor uses to indicate

this relationship is “you”, “guy” and “she”. There is a grouping identified that separates “you” or

the male audience from “guy” and “she.” The implication in the male rhetor’s text is that the

woman that the male reader is in a relationship with is most likely cheating on him with a more

desirable suitor. The action of infidelity on the woman’s part is used by the rhetor to validate his

own insecurity about his relationship. Furthermore, after close analysis of several memes, almost

all of the memes identified the action of a heteronormative relationship between a man and a

woman. By comparing pop culture figures such as Jon Snow and Khal Drogo from Game of

Thrones (see fig.4), the rhetor uses television characters under the assumption that his audience
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is familiar with the characters and can relate to the fragile masculinity he is experiencing himself.

Jon Snow, portrayed by Kit Harington, is visibly shorter compared to Jason Momoa, the actor

who portrays Khal Drogo. The rhetor self-identifies as a shorter man who is not as muscular or

tall as an idyllic man. Game of Thrones is also a television show primarily made up of male

viewers who are attracted to the violence and sex scenes that are common throughout the show.

There is a further implication in the action theme of You vs. The Guy She Told You Not

to Worry About that both the rhetor and audience are not in functioning, healthy relationships.

When observing the text, “The Guy She Told You Not to Worry About,” the rhetor uses his

female partner as an agent of cheating and someone who is not trustworthy. This places the male

viewer in the “right” and the female, who is not involved in the exchange, in the “wrong.” This

emphasizes the male rhetor’s worldview that his female partner might leave him because of her

actions rather than his own in their relationship. For example, in one of the memes there is a

comparison between Seth Rogen and Zac Efron (see fig. 5). The symbolism of these two actors

stems from the characters they play rather than the actors themselves. The rhetor intentionally

uses these two actors to symbolize the typical characters they play in both television in movies.

The implication being that Seth Rogen embodies a man who has trouble getting girls and is

insecure in his appearance versus Zac Efron who embodies a “ladies” man who is very secure in

his own appearance. The action of this meme is that the rhetor conveys is that a man’s female

partner will find Zac Efron so desirable that she would cheat on him with Zac Efron. Ultimately,

the rhetor’s implication is that if his relationship ends it is because his female partner cheated on

him with a man who embodies ideal masculinity.

Consequently, both character and action themes function to convey the male rhetor’s

worldview that by defining masculine ideals from popular culture comparisons, he feels more
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secure about his own identity and heteronormative relationship. By using figures from the media

and popular culture, the rhetor appeals to the ethos of his audience so they identify with the male

figure on the left. When coding a series of ten different memes, it was evident that the two

different characterizations of male identity are how men view themselves and how they view

men who exemplify the ideal characteristics that are appealing to a woman. In all of the memes

in the series, the implicit action is that the female partner will leave the male viewer for a more

desirable suitor. This is evident in the right image’s representation of male identity in physical

appearance and level of attractiveness.

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Works Cited

Fig. 1. You vs. The Guy She Told You Not to Worry About meme. Twitter. Reverend Scott.

twitter.com/Reverend_Scott.

Fig 2. You vs. The Guy She Told You Not to Worry About meme. Twitter. Chairman Kaga.

Twitter.com/Moose_Bigelow.
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Fig 3. You vs. The Guy She Tells You Not to Worry About meme. Twitter. Derek.

Twitter.com/ProdigyNelson.

Fig 4. You vs. The Guy She Tells You Not to Worry About meme. Twitter. Ben Soffer.

Twitter.com/boywithnojob_.
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Fig 5. You vs. The Guy She Tells You Not to Worry About meme. Memedroid. Mguer07.

Memedroid.com/memes/detail/1852875.