The Feminine Urge

About

The Feminine Urge refers to a concept and catchphrase used in memes to ironically describe female tendencies and traits. Although the earliest known usage of the phrase was posted in 2009 on Twitter, the phrase received its most amount of usage in 2021 started from an April 2021 Tumblr post. Going into the rest of 2021, the phrase spread to Twitter and Instagram, morphing into other off-shoot phrases like "the masculine urge" and "the non-binary urge".

Origin

On December 21st, 2009, Twitter^[1] user @stompanie was the first internet user to use the phrase. The tweet (shown below) didn't receive any likes over the course of 12 years.

Spread

On April 14th, 2021, Tumblr^[2] user coffeeheaux posted a text-post reading "the feminine urge to stab <3". The post (shown below) received roughly 24,500 notes over the course of six months.

On April 22nd, 2021, Twitter^[3] user @slitthroatz tweeted "the feminine urge to bite" spreading the catchphrase to Twitter and popularizing it on the platform. The tweet (shown below) received roughly 1,000 likes over the course of six months.

On August 8th, 2021, the phrase received more attention on Twitter with a tweet^[4] from user @fringeffect that received roughly 12,600 likes over the course of two months. The tweet (shown below, top) reads "the feminine urge to hunt and gather (steal)". From this tweet, multiple Twitter^[5][6] users began using the catchphrase going into September 2021. However, in October 2021 is when the catchphrase saw its most usage, sparked from a tweet sent on October 5th, 2021, from Twitter^[7] user @9wacie. The tweet (shown below, bottom) received roughly 154,100 likes over the course of 20 days and reads "the feminine urge to play dumb (strategically)".

In October 2021, the catchphrase began being used on Instagram within image macros. The first known image macro using the phrase was posted to Instagram was on October 12th, 2021, from Instagram^[8] account @homophobic_superego. The meme (shown below, left) received 728 likes over the course of 13 days. Instagram^[9] user @w0rm__girl also posted a "feminine urge" meme on October 16th, 2021, using the text from @9wacie's tweet^[7] to make a Whisper post. The meme (shown below, right) received 62 likes over ten days.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References