These are tacos. These are lies. These are the weird ways we separate "us" from "them", because people love to have teams. What makes a taco a taco instead of a lie? Does having grilled chunks of meat make it a taco, where ground beef does not? Do fresh herb garnishes have more value than pickled jalapeno and shredded lettuce? There are several reasons why someone might make this post. Maybe the poster is a foodie, and believes that fast food like versions of tacos are not worth consuming. Maybe the poster simply prefers soft tacos over hard shell tacos. Maybe the poster is making an ad for their restaurant that sells tacos, tacos that look like the ones on top and their use of humor is eye catching enough to make us read the ad better. Perhaps the poster feels attacked or invalidated by mainstream tacos like the ones below, and made this meme to promote what they see as the "right" tacos. Maybe the poster is latino or latina and is upset about mexican culture being appropriated and americanized by white people, with authentic tacos representing their culture, and the inauthentic tacos representing our bastardization of it.
We have no idea why the poster dislikes crunchy tacos so much, but it's clear their goal is to separate the good taco lovers from the bad, to make teams. To make us want to eat "good" tacos. We might go along with it, even if we like all tacos, because we all want to be on the right team. Maybe this meme will convince us to join the side of real tacos, in order to feel accepted by this crunchy taco hating group. Or maybe it will just make me hungry.
Aubrey,
ReplyDeleteThe theme of "us" and "them" is a great way to read this image rhetorically. Implied in the distinction between "tacos" and "lies," is also a sense of morality ("lies" are bad) and frustration at the deception. All in all, interesting take on this. In your final two posts, please make sure to include some concepts from the readings to tie in the texts more explicitly.