About

@memespourcoolkidsfeministes is a French-language meme account on Instagram run by Anna Toumazoff, a French feminist activist and influencer. The account specializes in memes describing and poking fun at the day-to-day life of women in France, while also taking part in activism and political memory for feminist and leftist causes.

History

The Instagram account @memespourcoolkidsfeministes (in English, "memes for feminist cool kids") was created in March 2019.^[1] As of June 2022, it has over 159,000 followers. The account's creator, Anna Toumazoff, is a prominent French feminist who is the face of the account. The profile picture is of Toumazoff (see below) and her name is listed on the page.^[2] The account describes itself as a "vulgarisation" (that is, putting into the everyday language of a complex topic) of feminism. Toumazoff's other account @cequeveulentlesfemmes ("what women want" in English) has almost 19,000 followers,^[3] while her personal account @annatoumazoff has over 38,200 followers as of June 2022.^[4]

The memes of the account, and Toumazoff herself, have been profiled and described in the French press and featured in magazines such as Neon Mag, Paulette and the well-known internet culture site Topito.^[5]

As an activist and "militante feministe" ("militant feminist" in English), Toumazoff is credited with starting several well-known hashtags from her Twitter account,^[6] which has over 15,800 followers. These hashtags include #UberCestOver, which threw light on harassment that took place during Uber rides, and #SciencesPorcs, which discussed harassment that took place at Sciences Po Toulouse, a French university.^[7]

Features

Toumazoff's memes are generally composed of an image, frequently a widely circulated meme format, with a witty caption in French. Occasionally, English words are involved in the captions, particularly when the English words are crucial to the format Toumazoff chooses to use. For example, this meme posted on April 18th, 2022, which received nearly 10,000 likes in two months,^[8] uses the colloquial American English phrase "be like." It assigns different ages to three different women (one young, one old, one skeletal) and is captioned (in English translation) "The day after the night out be like."

Toumazoff also memes frequently about current events in French politics. For example, on June 11th, 2022, a young female French high schooler asked President Emmanuel Macron at a public event why he "placed at the head of the state men who have been accused of violence against women," likely making reference to Gérald Darmanin, a minister in Macron's government who has been accused of rape by several women. Toumazoff's meme in response to the event, which was captured on video that circulated widely on social media, was posted on the same day and earned over 24,000 likes in three days.^[9] Her meme pictures Macron as an anime girl hiding from a terminator. Translated into English, it reads, "A high schooler who asks him a simple question" and "Emmanuel Macron."

Highlights

External References