How ReproMemes Makes Us Laugh Through the Mess

Name: Repro Memes (Anonymous)

Pronouns: she/her
Twitter: I did make one - @ReproMemes - but immediately felt discouraged from posting on it by the incredibly limited character count for alt text…. how am I supposed to adequately describe my memes in that few characters???? (Shoutout to Insta for the so-far limitless alt text length) I do eventually want to get in the habit of cross-posting my memes on Twitter and would eventually love to use it to also do additional non-memed commentary, someday when my brain/life/world cooperate to sit down and do it. So folks are welcome to go ahead and follow there in addition to Insta so you get the content once I start sharing it there
Instagram: @ReproMemes (this is where to find my memes)
Email address to contact you: repromemes@gmail.com
One of your favorite nonprofits that everyone should give to: Is it okay to give an individual shoutout? The Gradient Lair blog was utterly life-changing for me when I started reading it in college, because Trudy’s writings about anti-Black racism, white supremacy, misogynoir and other topics challenged me to think critically about systems of oppression and my own place in them as a cishet white woman in a way that fundamentally changed how I operate in the world and continues to shape who I am today. She’s also hilarious and every bit as insightful on social media. Since it was Trudy who first taught me the importance of our responsibility at the individual level to acknowledge and compensate Black women in our lives for the often unseen labor they perform for us, I would love if folks chose to support her work (especially if you too benefited from reading Gradient Lair!) or any other specific Black women in your life who you have learned from or otherwise benefited from the fruits of their labor.

Sometimes, when the days are long and everything in our movement feels overwhelming, the only thing that gets us through it all is a good meme—especially one from the Instagram account ReproMemes. We've loved their memes featuring commentary on the influence of capitalism, white supremacy, and abortion stigma on our movement. Their support for repro unions has made us laugh and think about what our workplaces could be. So, we decided to interview the creator of ReproMemes to learn a little more about their work.

You created the repro movement's famous account @ReproMemes which makes hilarious memes that breathes life into so many of our lolsob workdays and issues of inequity going on in the movement. Where did the idea for the account come from?

First off, thank you for the compliment :) and for everything ReproJobs does for our movement. I doubt I would have ever started ReproMemes if I didn’t have an example to look to of a strategic, anonymous, values-forward account that could unite and serve like-minded folks from across the repro movement. Truly a “you led the way in boldly holding repro orgs accountable to their workers so that I could post sexy pro-abortion hippo memes” situation and I thank you.

Ha! Thank you for that. We appreciate it!

The origin story of ReproMemes is basically that I had been randomly making memes about repro and just texting them to friends/colleagues for years, and eventually it hit a critical mass of people telling me “you have to share these with more people so they can be appreciated.” It’s been so fucking rewarding to hear how much folks have appreciated having the humor, the validation, the lolsob solidarity like you said. I get really emotional every single time someone says my meme got them through the day, or they printed one out to put in the clinic breakroom, or it helped them have a good cry. I truly wish this could be my full time job to just pump out lil memes and messages for the movement. It’s so much more fulfilling than my real job these days, which feels like it’s burning out my soul.

You’ve been a super supporter of unions in the repro movement on your account. Tell us about your deep love for unions! Where did it come from and why are you cheering for repro workers?

I fucking LOVE unions and proud union member here. Repro employers, as well as other “mission-driven” type organizations, often exploit their own mission and workers by leaning into this idea that you must tolerate abuses of power, poor treatment, mismanagement, and/or other acts of harm or else that means you’re being unreasonable and disloyal to the mission. But it should never have to get to some egregious, massive level of shittiness before your rights, your wellbeing, and your dignity are respected and upheld. And most importantly imo, unions are a powerful tool to help PREVENT abuses of power, discrimination, and other unjust practices from happening in the first place–which is where the focus should always fucking be. Repro orgs should be deeply investing in their own workers but instead constantly undermine, underpay, and emotionally fuck them up and it’s like seriously?? The literal people doing the work, developing expertise, serving people day in and day out, and those are the folks you’re gonna endlessly churn and burn and harm?? I’m tired of the disrespect. Unionize ALL the workplaces.

Without disclosing too much about yourself, since you’re anonymous, tell us a little bit about how you became involved in the repro movement.

I became interested in repro in college but wasn’t really connected to the movement until I got a policy job at a repro org. Now, the movement feels like my home and also my greatest source of angst sometimes lol.

How do you think your memes help workers in our movement open up about taboo topics, unearth toxic cultures we’re forbidden from addressing, and begin to discuss complex and nuanced conversations?

I could talk about this endlessly because I try to be extremely intentional about topics, language, representation, visuals, vibes, etc. so they can serve the purposes you describe. I think because I make my memes for the movement (that’s my primary audience, even if supportive folks more outside the movement also appreciate them) they speak a specific language that makes them funnier, more validating, perhaps more hard-hitting, and sometimes even more nuanced of a message that folks in the movement can appreciate because their experiences inform how they view my memes. Kind of like calling into a conversation in a way that both affirms our shared experiences and values and forcefully pinpoints something we gotta take care of, in a way that maybe allows for different approaches to talking about the issue. I want my memes to help cut through the white noise management-speak too abundant in our movement that obscures the actual convos that MUST be had and festers systems and ways of relating to each other that are rooted in white supremacy and other shit. (And of course sometimes there’s no real deeper message, I just felt like making it and don’t care if no one else thinks it’s funny. I contain multitudes.)

You’ve been giving your followers a little peek behind the curtain when it comes to your artistic process through posts where you explain memes that just didn’t make the cut. Why did you decide to be transparent about your thought process? What’s the response been like?

I’m a hella details/overthinker, reluctantly perfectionist kinda gal so I actually make WAY more memes than I post, and it felt like a waste to do nothing with them. But to feel comfortable sharing them, I needed some kind of way to make it REALLY clear (not just in a caption people don’t read) to folks looking at these behind the scenes memes that I am sharing WITH CAVEATS!! And the feedback I’ve gotten so far has been that hearing about my creative process and the reasons why I decided not to post something normally, was not only just as interesting and fun, but also that the additional context made them moreso.

What do you hope our movements gets out of your account going into this painful and challenging summer? 

Well on the individual level I hope ReproMemes helps offer folks any small moment of reprieve from This Shitshow, a little smile or a chuckle or a throaty sound of agreement; if my memes give you even a little oomph to hold on, my heart is happy. More broadly, I hope naming things in my memes helps keep a spotlight on and drive forward the importance and urgency of naming and addressing the shit in our movement, no matter how apocalyptic the abortion crisis/world continue to get.

Also, for me personally, mocking our opponents and their strategies + straight up laughing at them can feel really cathartic and empowering/validating, and I sure need that going into this summer because my brain and being are already barely held together by I literally don’t know what. But in some ways that can definitely be a position of privilege to even be able to find humor among evil on overdrive. So I hope folks can find some joy and empowerment from joining me in shitting on antis, but it’s also okay if it doesn’t hit the same for any followers–you do you bb.

What are your words of wisdom for others who are hoping to change our movement and elevate conversations using humor and art?

I feel like I should have something more insightful to say but my Capricorn ass is over here like well idk I kind of just did like a “build it and they will come” type situation lol. I am continuously delighted and amazed that so many people vibe with my lil memes. So my main message I guess would be JUST GO FOR IT!! There will absolutely be people who resonate with your message and style, whatever it may be, and there’s clearly an appetite for using more humor and art like this. The more folks from across the movement who courageously choose to share their own unique voices in whatever medium feels right for them—and the more we seek out and listen to these folks and ESPECIALLY the (disproportionately Black and Brown) folks ignored or denied platforms by white folks of all seniority levels for so long—the stronger our movement will be. We got reparations to do y’all.