Come to Heritage Day on 26 April and join us in creating feminist memes as a playful way to dismantle the patriarchy.
Feminists have been using social media since the 2010s to campaign against male dominance and to spread their ideas. Their relationship with humour is twofold. On the one hand, they analyse and criticise sexist humour and its impact, such as the perpetuation of inequality, violence and the normalisation of patriarchy. On the other hand, they themselves use humour — in all sorts of ways — to dismantle sexism and highlight what is absurd, unjust and unacceptable.
In this workshop, we will give a brief introduction and hear from two researchers about their work on digital feminism and the use of humour in feminist discourse, both past and present. We’ll provide you with plenty of inspiration. Afterwards, you’ll have the chance to get to work yourselves using images from our own collection and existing meme formats to create your own feminist memes.
Programme:
- 14:15: introduction to the workshop (with coffee, tea and refreshing drinks!)
- 14:15 – 14:30: an introductory overview of digital feminism and some examples of memes (and other forms) for inspiration, presented by Tiago Joseph (researcher at Ghent University)
- 14:30 – 14:50: a presentation on the use of humour as a discursive and political practice in feminist mobilisations of the 1970s and on social media, given by Casha de Jaer (researcher at the Université Libre de Bruxelles)
- 14:50–16:00: workshop on creating your own feminist meme(s), based on old (and not-so-old) illustrations from our archives and more familiar meme formats
The workshop will be held in three languages: the introductions will be in English, but Dutch and French support will be available. When creating the memes, you are free to do so in your own language or even mix different languages.
Practical details:
- Where? Amazone, Middaglijnstraat 10, 1210 Brussels, Marie Popelin room (ground floor)
- When? Sunday 26 April 2026, from 2 pm to 4 pm
- Register here
- Bring your own smartphone or laptop. Let us know via the registration form if you’re not able to, we will have some laptops at hand
- More info via: info@avg-carhif.be or 02 229 38 31