About

#IAmMajor is a social media campaign for the 2017 science fiction film Ghost in the Shell, in which participants create image macros describing themselves in various ways. Following the launch of the campaign in early March 2017, Twitter users began using the meme generator to create images accusing the film of "whitewashing".

Origin

In January 2015, many accused the producers of the upcoming 2017 live-action film adaptation of the Japanese manga Ghost in the Shell of whitewashing due to the casting of Scarlett Johannson as the lead role. On March 10th, 2017, the website IAmMajor.me^[2] was launched for internet users to create Ghost in the Shell-themed image macros based on the prompt "What makes you unique?," encouraging users to share the images along with the hashtag "#IAmMajor"^[6] (shown below).

Spread

On March 11th, 2017, Twitter user @ValerieComplex^[3] posted several image macros mocking the film for casting Scarlett Johannson instead of an Asian actress (shown below). Within 72 hours, the tweet gained over 5,100 likes and 4,000 retweets.

In the coming days, many other Twitter users posted similar whitewashing-themed #IAmMajor image macros (shown below). On March 13th, BuzzFeed^[1] published an article about the #IAmMajor parodies. In the coming days, other news sites reported on the hijacked social media campaign, including The Huffington Post,^[4] Entertainment Weekly,^[5] Mashable^[7] and Heat Street.^[8]

Search Interest

Not available.

External References