Dear Steemit,
I'm just going to continue on with the toxic memes theme and talk about another type I see.
It's far more subtle than the ones about ex partners. In these memes, no one is getting degraded or insulted. They're not hateful or offensive. They're actually pretty plain at on the surface, don't seem toxic at all.
They're memes about products, fake and real versions.
I'll use the meme that inspired this post as my example. It was a picture of two shoes, with slight differences. One was labelled fake and the other real. They were both red, same hue and style, but the sole of one was white and the other blue. I'm not going to tell you if the white one was real or fake to further my point.
Both shoes exist. The meme didn't mention the quality of the shoe, or if one was maybe sold as a scam and fell apart the second day it was worn. No, the meme only called one type of shoe fake and the other real. That's all the context we got. How can a shoe even be fake?
We all know what the post meant. One shoe was name brand and the other was a rip off of it. Not for any good reason. In lots of cases, the 'fake' product is the same quality and far cheaper, which makes the overpriced one the real rip off. But the label is what people focus on. What if one can't afford the overpriced shoes, or if they prefer the bluer sole to the pure white one. What is one doesn't care about labels and chose the pair of shoes that was a better deal, because logically who wants to pay extra for a label. No one. it doesn't make sense. But because one shoe is real and the other considered fake, anyone choosing the fake is made to feel bad about it because of the logic society has that is behind the creation of these memes.
People have always liked to show off their wealth, but I'd like to think we're almost past that. Name brand products souldn't be viewed as better unless they actually are. Shoes are an obvious example, with yeezys and uggs, but it branches out to all areas. IPhones, Starbucks, Victoria's Secret, even one of those Kardashian girls is trying to sell a low quality makeup brush set for $360. Luckily, she recieved some backlash, but most of the time people just go along with it. What's worse is companies like nike have been caught using sweat shops but their brand still sits on a pedestal in our backwards, materialistic world.
The reason these memes and this logic are toxic is because people are made to feel guilty or superior when they get the knock off versions of these products. I like the look of uggs, but I'd rather get 'fake' ones that are $15 and don't harm animals in the making. What's wrong with that?
I do like capitalism, but I'd say this is one of the situations where it gets the better of us. We throw our judgement out the window because of social norms and good marketing. And it shouldn't be a big deal. Buy, use and wear whatever you want! But a pair of shoes can't be fake, and shouldn't be seen as lesser, all because of a label.
As for me, I'll be buying knock offs from the thrift store and living my life without the need to pay more to please others.
