# Male Tears Male Tears is a feminist reaction image and catchphrase used to mock men who whine about being oppressed or victims of reverse sexism. It started on a French Tumblr blog in August 2012 and hit mainstream news in July 2014 after Guardian columnist Jessica Valenti tweeted a photo of herself in an 'I Bathe In Male Tears' sweatshirt. ## Overview Male Tears is a reaction image series and catchphrase built mostly from animated GIFs of male characters crying[5]. Feminists use it to taunt men who whine about being oppressed, mansplain during gender debates, or push anti-feminist arguments online[5]. The joke sits inside a wider ironic style Slate called 'misandry chic,' which includes mugs, T-shirts, sweatshirts, and pins printed with slogans like 'MALE TEARS,' 'MISANDRY,' and 'KILL ALL MEN'[1]. The catchphrase works as a sarcastic taunt: a woman jokes that she drinks the tears of complaining men to feed her own strength[1]. Medium editor Jess Zimmerman, who owns a 'MALE TEARS' mug, described the joke as 'a reductio ad absurdum,' meaning the point is to inhabit an exaggerated version of what critics accuse feminists of being[1]. The tone is deadpan and pointedly insincere, never literal. ## How It Spread Feminist writers began recycling Male Tears reaction images in posts about street harassment and later GamerGate coverage[5]. In mid-July 2013, Tumblr user Lunarynth posted what appears to be the first photo of a woman drinking from a 'Male Tears' mug, captioned 'The best hangover cure. Your anguish sustains me.'[5]. That single post kicked off an ongoing trend of feminists on Tumblr and Twitter posing with similar mugs. The meme hit mainstream news on July 30, 2014, when Guardian columnist Jessica Valenti tweeted a photo of herself in an 'I Bathe In Male Tears' sweatshirt while on vacation, dedicating it to the 'misogynist whiners' in her Twitter mentions[1]. Men's rights websites like A Voice For Men and Mansplaining Central attacked the photo as sexist, which only pushed it further into the news cycle. Slate, HuffPost, Time, and Vice all ran opinion pieces on 'ironic misandry' through the second half of 2014[3]. On January 7, 2015, Escapist Magazine writer Lizzyf620 posted a rival mug photo captioned 'That Means Semen,' pointing to the older slang meaning of 'male tears' as sperm that dated back to around 2010[7]. Antifeminist accounts ran with the joke, including a parody Twitter handle called 'That Means Semen' that reposted her image as a canned reply whenever the phrase came up online[7]. ## How to Use The image format typically pairs an animated GIF of a male character crying, often pulled from anime, movies, or sitcoms, with a caption mocking male fragility around gender topics[5]. Offline, people commonly buy or make merch, mostly mugs, T-shirts, sweatshirts, and even candles, printed with slogans like 'MALE TEARS,' 'I BATHE IN MALE TEARS,' or 'I SIP ON MALE TEARS'[2]. Users often photograph themselves drinking from the mug and post it in reply to men making anti-feminist comments[1]. ## Cultural Impact Vice called 2014 'the year that misandry became chic,' pointing to Etsy samplers reading 'men are scum,' Cafe Press mugs reading 'male tears,' and the release of Gone Girl as part of the same wider cultural moment[2]. Slate writer Amanda Hess argued the joke worked 'like a stuck-out tongue pointed at a playground bully' and was as much an in-group solidarity signal as a reply to critics[1]. HuffPost's Mina Samuels tied Male Tears merch to broader empowerment slogans like 'Run Like a Girl,' writing that the pretense of contempt has its uses as a gentle reminder of how far women have come[3]. Not every feminist liked the joke. A December 2014 post on the blog Tutus and Tiny Hats argued the phrase reinforced the toxic idea that men shouldn't cry, and that even ironic use fed a culture telling men to suppress their emotions[6]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Male Tears? Male Tears is a feminist reaction image and catchphrase used to mock men who complain about being oppressed by women or by feminism[5]. ### Where did Male Tears come from? It started on a French Tumblr blog called FeministPicture on August 25, 2012, then spread across Tumblr through the reblog function[4]. ### What does Male Tears mean? It's a sarcastic feminist taunt: a woman claims to drink the tears of complaining men to feed her own strength[1]. ### How do you use Male Tears? People post crying-man GIFs with the caption 'male tears,' or photograph themselves drinking from a novelty 'MALE TEARS' mug in reply to anti-feminist comments[1]. ### Is Male Tears still popular? It's a classic 2010s Tumblr and Twitter meme; the mugs and shirts are still sold, though the peak news moment was 2014[2]. ### Who is Jessica Valenti and what did she do with Male Tears? Valenti is a Guardian columnist who tweeted a photo of herself in an 'I Bathe In Male Tears' sweatshirt on July 30, 2014, sparking the mainstream news cycle around the meme[1]. ### What is 'ironic misandry'? It's a feminist joke style, described by Slate as 'a reductio ad absurdum,' where women play up the exaggerated man-hating stereotype that critics accuse them of[1]. ### Does 'male tears' also mean semen? Yes, 'male tears' and 'man tears' were online slang for semen from around 2010, which antifeminist users tried to weaponize against the feminist meme[7]. ### What is the 'That Means Semen' image? On January 7, 2015, Escapist writer Lizzyf620 posted a mug photo captioned 'That Means Semen' as a counter-joke to the Male Tears mug trend[7]. ### Did any feminists dislike the Male Tears meme? Yes. The blog Tutus and Tiny Hats argued in December 2014 that the joke reinforced 'boys don't cry' toxic masculinity, even when used ironically[6]. ### When did Male Tears cross into mainstream media? In the second half of 2014, when Slate, HuffPost, Vice, and Time magazine all ran think pieces on the ironic misandry trend[2]. ## References 1. [https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/08/ironic-misandry-why-feminists-joke-about-drinking-male-tears-and-banning-all-men.html]() 2. [https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-year-in-male-tears/]() 3. [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/i-sweat-male-tears_b_5701152]() 4. [https://www.dictionary.com/culture/slang/male-tears]() 5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/male-tears]() 6. [https://tutusandtinyhats.wordpress.com/2014/12/15/unpopular-opinion-i-really-hate-the-phrase-male-tears/]() 7. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Male%20Tears]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/male-tears Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library