About

Hey Girls, Did You Know… is a series of multi-pane exploitable images featuring webcam photos of Tumblr bloggers accompanied by captions commentating on the issue of self-image or body-image, similar to another photo set series known as Dear Girls. Many instances parody the original image, which poked fun at cleavage shots that are frequently uploaded by female Tumblr users.

Origin

The original photo set was posted by Instagram blogger officialsabrina_xo, who sarcastically jabbed at the trend of cleavage photos by pointing out that "your boobs go inside your shirt." Officialsabrina_xo's image post^[1] was initially uploaded via Quickagram but removed shortly afterwards. Nonetheless, the image was reblogged across Tumblr starting on June 18th, 2012.

Slut Shaming

This photo set series can be seen as part of a larger trend on Tumblr and the rest of blogosphere known as slut shaming, an act of guilt tripping a female blogger for displaying oneself in a way that is deemed promiscuous or provocative. The phenomenon can be observed both in real life and on the web, with the earliest online definition found in the FAQ section of the feminist blog FinallyFeminism101^[5] posted on April 4th, 2010.

Spread

In the following days, the image was picked up by numerous blogs on Tumblr, generating a large volume of responses and rebuttals from other bloggers in similar vein to Hipster Edits and Dear Girls photo sets.

The reblogs and response posts quickly accumulated into a lively debate over feminism, as many derivative instances rebutted to Officialsabrina_xo's message with an assertive statement about a girl's right to display her body as she wants to, much in the same way that the Slut Walk debate^[2] was inspired by someone's comments that "girls would be less prone to being raped if they dressed more conservatively." Meanwhile, other bloggers on Tumblr parodied the debate by instilling a man's stereotypically sexist perspective on the issue.

Notable Examples

Dozens of other parody instances emerged on Tumblr as a result of the debate, using the phrasal template "Hey Girls, Did You Know That (subject X) Can (verb Y) (object Z)."

Search Interest

External References