About

Society Has Progressed Past the Need for X or The World Has Progressed Past the Need for X refers to a series of snowclone memes that proclaim certain something redundant for human society. Originating from a meme spread in December 2019, the format gained popularity in April 2020 following a viral tweet.

Origin

Prior to December 2nd, 2019, an unknown user posted a meme based on a photograph of a woman captioned "No white women, society has progressed past the need for white women." On December 2nd Twitter^[1] user @planetpartha made the earliest found repost of the image, gaining over 120 retweets and 580 likes in six months (shown below).

Spread

Starting in December 2019, the meme has been widely circulated online, with reposts on Twitter, Instagram, iFunny, Facebook and other online platforms. On January 2nd, 2020, Twitter^[2] user @kobcritic_ made the earliest known derivative post based on the snowclone, gaining over 40 likes in five months (shown below, left). On February 5th, Twitter^[3] user @tempsventeux reposted a Fire Emblem: Three Houses version of the image, gaining 14 retweets and 29 likes in four months (shown below, right).

The snowclone did not see significant spread until on April 2nd, Twitter^[4] user @yesmustard used the original to comment on a post by Twitter^[4] user @ClaudiaBrown100, gaining over 120 retweets and 920 likes (shown below, left). Later on the same day, Twitter^[5] user @greenIight used the snowclone for a joke about indie band The 1975, gaining over 160 retweets and 980 likes (shown below, right).

The format received a massive surge in popularity when on April 9th, Twitter^[6] user @glossifairy reposted a collection of four memes based on the snowclone, gaining over 4,100 retweets and 23,600 likes (two images shown below).

Starting in April the format gained major popularity online, with notable examples being posted on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and other websites.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References