The Enthymeme: An Analysis of Sexist Advice Animals

Abstract

Advice animal memes are popular online jokes that utilize images juxtaposed with humorous text. This essay shows how the enthymemes of advice animal memes are detrimental to audiences because they require one to acquire a sexist mentality to understand the jokes. Over time, this mindset is reified, making users believe the material. This essay involves an analysis of sexist advice animal memes, Overly Attached Girlfriend and Good Girl Gina, and the rhetorical situation to
prove how people are concretizing the memes’ sexist concepts. A possible solution for harmful memes, counter-meming, is also explored.