My Eyes Are Up Here

1996catchphraseclassic

Published September 7, 2026

"My Eyes Are Up Here" is a catchphrase women use to redirect a man's stare from their chest back to their face. The line surfaced in a 1996 Jenny McCarthy interview1 before growing into online feminist shorthand and getting mainstream airtime through DC's Power Girl and a 2010 South Park bit.

catchphrase memesgender discourse memesbody image memesfeminism memesdismissal memes

Overview

The phrase works as a verbal reaction, not an image macro, typed as a caption or hashtag on posts where the visual bait sits front and center. Feminist commentary uses it straight, as a real complaint about workplace ogling and casual objectification. Superhero fans use it ironically about characters like DC's Power Girl, drawn with a bust-revealing costume for decades before the line ever entered her dialogue.

Urban Dictionary logs the standard exchange between someone staring and someone else calling them out4. The format flips easily: men tag their own selfies with the line to point at a bicep, a bulge, or another body part they're pretending to hide.

Origin & Background

Platform
Print (1996 newspaper) / Online forums (viral spread)
Date
1996

An early documented print use is a May 1996 Sun-Sentinel profile of MTV host Jenny McCarthy, who recalled thinking "Yo, Dave. My eyes are up here" while David Letterman shouted about her exposed midriff on television1. She used it as an offhand aside, so it was already stock phrasing by the mid-1990s.

Online discussion picked up on January 28, 2005, in a BodyBuilding.com relationship-help thread where a male poster complained about people staring at his crotch through his clothes3. Commenters replied with straight-faced advice on how to make the bulge less noticeable.

How It Spread

That March, the Democratic Underground forums ran a poll asking women how much it bothered them when male coworkers stared at their chest, with "my eyes are up here" listed as an answer option3. In September 2005, DC Comics gave the phrase its cape moment: Power Girl used the line in a JSA Classified Vol. 1 issue, one of the first times the character called out her own famously bust-revealing costume in-panel.

In June 2009, Cute Overload posted a photo of a sugar glider peeking out of a woman's shirt captioned "Hey Buddy, My Eyes Are Up Here"2. The catchphrase hit mainstream TV on March 31, 2010, when South Park's "Medicinal Fried Chicken" gave Randy Marsh grotesquely swollen testicles and had him shout "my eyes are up here" at everyone gawking at his crotch3.

How to Use This Meme

The format is typed rather than drawn. People commonly caption or hashtag a photo framed on a body part (cleavage, biceps, a bulge) with "my eyes are up here", letting the mismatch between picture and line carry the joke. Feminist posts play it straight; ironic uses flip the callout into a way to draw attention.

Frequently Asked Questions

My Eyes Are Up Here

1996catchphraseclassic

Published September 7, 2026

"My Eyes Are Up Here" is a catchphrase women use to redirect a man's stare from their chest back to their face. The line surfaced in a 1996 Jenny McCarthy interview1 before growing into online feminist shorthand and getting mainstream airtime through DC's Power Girl and a 2010 South Park bit.

catchphrase memes gender discourse memes body image memes feminism memes dismissal memes

Overview

The phrase works as a verbal reaction, not an image macro, typed as a caption or hashtag on posts where the visual bait sits front and center. Feminist commentary uses it straight, as a real complaint about workplace ogling and casual objectification. Superhero fans use it ironically about characters like DC's Power Girl, drawn with a bust-revealing costume for decades before the line ever entered her dialogue.

Urban Dictionary logs the standard exchange between someone staring and someone else calling them out4. The format flips easily: men tag their own selfies with the line to point at a bicep, a bulge, or another body part they're pretending to hide.

Origin & Background

Platform
Print (1996 newspaper) / Online forums (viral spread)
Date
1996

An early documented print use is a May 1996 Sun-Sentinel profile of MTV host Jenny McCarthy, who recalled thinking "Yo, Dave. My eyes are up here" while David Letterman shouted about her exposed midriff on television1. She used it as an offhand aside, so it was already stock phrasing by the mid-1990s.

Online discussion picked up on January 28, 2005, in a BodyBuilding.com relationship-help thread where a male poster complained about people staring at his crotch through his clothes3. Commenters replied with straight-faced advice on how to make the bulge less noticeable.

How It Spread

That March, the Democratic Underground forums ran a poll asking women how much it bothered them when male coworkers stared at their chest, with "my eyes are up here" listed as an answer option3. In September 2005, DC Comics gave the phrase its cape moment: Power Girl used the line in a JSA Classified Vol. 1 issue, one of the first times the character called out her own famously bust-revealing costume in-panel.

In June 2009, Cute Overload posted a photo of a sugar glider peeking out of a woman's shirt captioned "Hey Buddy, My Eyes Are Up Here"2. The catchphrase hit mainstream TV on March 31, 2010, when South Park's "Medicinal Fried Chicken" gave Randy Marsh grotesquely swollen testicles and had him shout "my eyes are up here" at everyone gawking at his crotch3.

How to Use This Meme

The format is typed rather than drawn. People commonly caption or hashtag a photo framed on a body part (cleavage, biceps, a bulge) with "my eyes are up here", letting the mismatch between picture and line carry the joke. Feminist posts play it straight; ironic uses flip the callout into a way to draw attention.

Frequently Asked Questions