Meme Creation and Analysis

This meme was made in response to the recent donation from the Argyros family to the Chapman school of business. The “Distracted Boyfriend” meme generally involves the man pictured in the middle looking favorably at something that indicates a bad or unwise decision, while the man’s girlfriend, representing a more favorable or ideal choice, looks at him with an offended expression at his display of betrayal. In this case, the man represents wealthy donors to Chapman, while the object of desire is a large donation to the business school, and the offended party is the various arts programs (of which I am a part) that receive miniscule amounts of funding in comparison.

I wouldn’t necessarily consider this meme subversive in itself, but rather a representation of a subversion of logical and/or productive decision making for the purpose of humor or, as in this case, a political statement. Often this meme is used to point out a ridiculous contradiction between what a public figure does and what they would ideally do, from the perspective of the people affected by their decisions. I made this meme from that perspective, as I find myself feeling bitter knowing that the business school–a popular program with plenty of students’ tuition money flowing in–is receiving an enormous financial resource the likes of which I can’t even comprehend, while other smaller programs that promote artistic enrichment are swept under the rug and ignored by donors. One would think that programs that haven’t already received millions of dollars worth of aid at a time would be next in line to receive, but this is simply not the case (and yes, I understand that the Argyros School of Business was named after the Argyros family in the first place and thus represents their ties to the school, but this does not change the fact that there is a generally narrow view of which academic programs are deserving or in need of donations, let alone $10 million at once).

I also hold a general disdain toward such donations when I know that they are not going toward supporting the professors that make our education possible; I know for a fact that many of the talented individuals teaching at Chapman have to work multiple jobs to make ends meet, and sometimes that still isn’t enough. There’s a reason that teachers across the country have gone on strike to protest unfair wages and lacks of funding that force them to pay out of pocket for basic educational supplies. I feel sick knowing that my $60,000 a year doesn’t necessarily come back around to be reflected in my education. As such, seeing such unfathomable donations being made at the drop of a hat by disgustingly wealthy families makes me even queasier because I know that even such a generous gift won’t even touch any of the programs I’m involved with. So today I suppose I myself am the offended girlfriend, and I’m not happy that my boyfriend finds giving millions of dollars to the business school more appealing than assisting other areas of study that aren’t seen as taking nearly as much priority.