MEMES AS DISCIPLINARY TOOLS: AN EXPLORATION OF SINHALA FACEBOOK MEME CULTURE IN CONSTRUCTING FEMALE GENDER ROLES IN SRI LANKA

In the age of digital communication, memes can be identified as a powerful and pervasive form of cultural expression. Memes providing humorous, relatable, and highly shareable content play a significant role in shaping and reinforcing societal attitudes, including those related to gender. This study explores how Sinhala Facebook memes in Sri Lanka function as sites of humour but also as a subtle mechanism of social regulation through sexism and misogyny. The study utilised digital ethnography (Netnography) to gather qualitative data using six public Facebook pages/groups. Using the selected Facebook pages/groups, twenty–two Sinhala Memes were identified as the qualitative content. These memes were selected based on the content they depict, information related to gender stereotypes, sexualisation, objectification, sexual liberty of women, and memes blaming feminism. The study used content analysis methods to analyse gathered qualitative data. Drawing from Simone de Beauvoir’s feminist existentialist concept of woman as Other, Foucauldian analysis on power and discourse, and ‘Lajja Baya’ (Shame–fear) and Respectability by Malathi De Alwis, the study identified that Sinhala memes re–articulate the idea of stereotypical gender roles and question and favour violence on women who divert from the traditional gender roles. These memes also perpetuate harmful ideas about women’s value often reducing them to sexual objects for male consumption while questioning sexual autonomy of women. In doing so they function as a disciplinary mechanism in the virtual world. This can be identified as normalising surveillance over women’s bodies and behaviour and reflects a digital reproduction of patriarchy. In Sri Lanka this can be identified as a process which attempts to re–invent and re–articulate ‘Lajja Baya’ and respectability in the digital spheres.