Green Line Test / Don't Lean In

About

Green Line Test or Don't Lean In is a Twitter trend originating from parodies of a thread on the platform which argues that men leaning toward women in pictures betrays the man's neediness and weak mindset. Many criticized the tweet as having a flimsy argument, while others posted parodies using pictures showing "weak" leaning by drawing green lines over images of various people, often celebrities. In April 2022, the Green Line Test spread to TikTok where people applied it to images of themselves or friends, as well as referencing it in memes.

Origin

On May 2nd, 2020, Twitter user @alpharivelino^[1] posted two identical pictures of Icelandic strongman Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson (who played "The Mountain" in Game of Thrones) putting his arm around his wife Kelsey Henson. In the second picture, the user drew green lines over their bodies to illustrate that Björnsson was leaning toward his wife. He captioned the image, "Don't lean in, strong man!" The tweet gained over 130 retweets and 950 likes.

Over the following several tweets, he argued that men leaning towards women demonstrated a weak and needy mindset based on the theory of "sexual polarity," which he defined as "The feminine wants to lean into the masculine. She wants to enter his world, feel his strength, feel his protection & submit to his guidance. Sexual polarity is the foundation for sexual attraction. Sexual polarity is the foundation for love"^[2][3]

Spread

The thread was widely mocked and criticized for its argument. Justin Whang ^[4] quote-tweeted the thread, saying "Very disappointed to find out that the strongest man in the world is in fact a beta male," gaining over 560 retweets and 9,800 likes (shown below, left). User @sewscialism^[5] joked, "Fellas, is it gay to embrace a woman?" (shown below, right).

Others posted parodies of @alpharivelino's post. Twitter user @MattMcGurn^[6] posted a parody using a picture of the collapsing Twin Towers, gaining over 25 retweets and 160 likes (shown below, left). User @roun_sa_ville^[7] posted a Loss Edit that gained over 50 retweets and 1,000 likes (shown below, right).

Green Line Test TikToks

In April 2022, the Green Line Test spread to TikTok where it was popularized thanks in large part to a pair of April 11th TikToks by JackMacBarstool in which he applied the test to a picture of Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson. His TikToks applying the test and explaining the test gained over 1.3 million and 9 million views in just over a month (shown below).

The TikToks led people to attempt to apply the Green Line Test to their own couple's photographs. For example, TikToker @aeroplanekelly applied the test to pictures of her and her boyfriend, gaining over 119,000 likes in one month (shown below, left). TikToker @claudiaashao also posted an example featuring pictures of her boyfriend, gaining over 78,000 likes in the same period of time (shown below, right). The prominence of the test on TikTok was covered by Dexerto.^[8]

Related Memes

Cock Confidence vs. Cock Shame

Cock Confidence vs. Cock Shame is a social media trend comparing photographs of two men, one holding their hands clasped over their groin, and the other leaving their groin open. Similar to the Green Line Test, the trend has been a subject of parodies. Within the trend, green crosses and arrows are often edited in for visual assistance.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References