Days after Taylor Swift voiced a political opinion for the first time ever on social media, an ancient KFC meme reared its ugly head. Readers who were paying attention to politics back in the ’90s may have a flashback. Twenty years ago, the same meme targeted then-First Lady Hillary Clinton. However, the KFC meme has been the given the 21st century treatment and it’s still just as tasteless as it was back in ’93 — pun intended.
The current meme is a picture of a KFC sign with the specials menu altered to say, “Taylor Swift Special: 2 Bony Thighs, 2 Small Breasts, and a Left Wing.” (Swift publicized her support for two Tennesseean Democratic candidates, hence the “left wing” bit.)
For “historic” context, Snopes says that the 1993 version of the internet joke originally went, “I did hear that Kentucky Fried Chicken has just honored the First Lady with a new offering, “The Hillary Special.” For only 99 cents you get two small breasts, and a couple of very large thighs, but the tax is four bucks.” KFC has denied having anything to do with the meme.
Sure, one could argue that the meme is clever. But it’s certainly not funny. Not only does the meme, both the past and present versions, succeed in crudely criticizing these women’s bodies but it also unjustly calls them out for having a political opinion that isn’t conservative.
Boomer Facebook on a real one today pic.twitter.com/9ozAwpGr5M
— Bustopher Moltisanti 🐈 (@drankwilliamsjr) October 11, 2018
Those who find this meme funny and think it’s wonderful enough to share are degrading women and trying to find a non-existent correlation between their physicality and their beliefs.
Have we really not gotten anywhere in regards to valuing women for something other than their appearance since 1993, or…?
In this current era of women finally gaining some sort of power over themselves, their bodies, and their words, we need to try harder to improve our thinking and remind ourselves that this kind of humor isn’t humorous.
