#Rosinesing

Overview

#Rosinesing is a photo fad parodying an Instagram photograph of Rosine Chávez, the-14 year-old daughter of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, posing with a wad of U.S. dollar bills. With the country's economy struggling in foreign currency reserves, the image triggered a series of parody photos from other Venezuelan internet users showing off large quantity of other items that are seen as scarce goods.

Background

On January 21st, 2012, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's 14-year-old daughter Rosines Chávez posted an Instagram picture of herself posing with a wad of U.S dollar bills via Twitter.^[7]

The photograph was seen as highly controversial throughout the country, as the government has imposed heavy restrictions on purchase of dollars for years to prevent capital flight since 2003. According to the Venezuelan newspaper El Universal, the country's economic control policies have led to an inflation of 528% since enacted in 2003. Ordinary Venezuelans may buy a dollar at 4.3 bolivars, but the price can be twice as much in the foreign currency black market.

Developments

Online Reaction

Rosine Chávez' photograph was instantly met by negative response from Venezuelan Internet users on Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook, spawning parody images of people showing off particular items in large quantity. The reaction images became associated with the Twitter hashtag #Rosinesing, taking the verb form of Chávez' name.

#Rosinesing

The online backlash was picked up by the local news outlets like La Patilla^[1] and brought to international media attention, with news sites like Washington Post^[2], The Guardian^[5] and Univision^[3] describing the phenomenon as the "Rosinesing meme."

Venezuelan blogger Alberto Manrique, who poked fun at Chávez by posing with several bottles of cooking oil which has become scarce in the country, also pointed to another picture she uploaded which shows an iPad with an image of the Hollywood actor Robert Pattinson on the screen. Following the media coverage, Rosine Chávez's Instagram account^[10] has been hidden from public view.

As parody images continued to grow in volume, a single topic Tumblr blog named "Rosinesing"^[6] was launched to keep track of the latest submissions. Similar images can be found on the Facebook "comedian" page "Rosinesing"^[9] as well as on Tumblr under the hashtag #Rosinesing.^[8]

Notable Examples

A significant portion of the images depict items or products that are considered scarce goods in the country. Although #Rosinesing is a unique phenomenon that provides commentaries on the state of Venezuelan economy, similar parodies of individuals showing off their cash flows have been seen before, most notably Been Had Money video on YouTube and the Cash Bling Photo Challenge which took place on the Chinese web in 2009.

Search Interest

External References