"God forbid women do anything"
| Meme | |
|---|---|
| Synonyms: | |
| Date Started: | 2020 |
| Related: | |
| See Also: | Fandom Mom |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
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"God forbid women do anything" is a facetious or sarcastic phrase often used to refer to the actions of problematic women and female characters.
It was initially coined in a January 2020 Tumblr post following a discussion about mothers and adult women fully active in online fandom versus their domestic responsibilities IRL. Some respondents saw the post as racist, misogynistic and ageist,[1] trying to gatekeep these people group from participating in fandom culture.
Other respondents believe that the post means that "ship discourse" and "suicide baiting" are toxic, immature behaviors, and it's fair to criticize adults for engaging in that kind of behavior with minors; and also it's ridiculous to equate specifically immature and toxic behavior to generally engaging in fandom culture.
The phrase "God forbid women do anything" eventually became associated with problematic female characters.
If a female character commits some terrible crime such as murder or cannibalism, a fan may sarcastically reply to any denouncement of her terrible behavior with, "God forbid women do anything 🙄"—in egregious defense of delightfully problematic female faves.
This meme could have led to the very similar meme "God forbid women have hobbies", which has been said to originate in 2023.
Original post
[tonysopranobignaturals formerly death2america]
speaking of the reylo therapist I get genuinely concerned when I learn some of these self identified fandom moms have children. can you imagine being 5 and your mom is busy arguing with teenagers on tumblr about shipping[2]
[starsarefire824]
God forbid women do anything after they have children 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄if we are in fandom we obviously are naked at the computer harassing children while our children are drinking chemicals. 🙄🙄🙄[2]
Criticism
There were also those who commented that if one were to complain about such behavior in a women, the parameter should also be applied to men:
[thegoatsongs]
Stephen King has kids and he keeps writing underage sex in his books, tons of male writers are fathers and write rape and incest btw[3]
Examples
[cynassa]
When will I get a post about how SHE committed atrocities but SHE’S my special little guy and also SHE looked hot while doing it#god forbid women do anything[4]
The Yellowjackets fandom — the canon of which involves cannibalism, murder, chaotic attempts to cover up said murders, and other mayhem caused by a multitude of problematic faves — uses this phrasing and variations quite frequently:
[ordinarybarbie]
god forbid women have hobbies like braiding their dead best friends hair to cover up that she’s missing an ear or putting makeup on her corpse to make her look less necrotic or hallucinating a bacchanal feast while cannibalizing her[5]
The meme was recently used by the Goncharov fandom in favor of its female characters:
Resources
References
- ^ jeza-red (2021-02-10). "Just admit you can't stand the idea that someone may not be as invested in your argument…". Tumblr. Archived from the original on 2023-09-19.
- ^ a b c starsarefire824 (2020-01-08). "God forbid women do anything after they have children 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄". Tumblr. Archived from the original on 2023-09-19.
- ^ thegoatsongs. "Stephen King has kids and he keeps writing underage sex…". Tumblr. Archived from the original on 2023-09-19.
- ^ cynassa (2022-09-17). "When will I get a post about how SHE committed atrocities but SHE'S my special little guy…". Tumblr. Archived from the original on 2022-09-22.
- ^ ordinarybarbie (2023-03-31). "god forbid women have hobbies like braiding their dead best friends …". Tumblr. Archived from the original on 2023-09-19.