The Small Dick Energy Meme
Why No One, Except Andrew Tate and His Buddies, Was Surprised
You can tell just by looking at the situation and the fallout.
Andrew Tate’s tweet to Greta Thunberg was just supposed to be a minor thing, an almost private thing, a scary putdown from a scary guy, a conflation of issues, something designed to demoralize Greta Thunberg while attacking what she believes in.
It was supposed to raise the ire of whatever part of her audience was on Twitter at the time, in a way that could be owned and mocked by his.
The reaction to the tweet and its substance, the attack on Greta’s message, was supposed to be drowned by Twitter users’ natural response to the other thing that was happening — the threat men with Andrew Tate’s activities and background represent and exude just by existing, to women — the less-than-subtle attack on a teen’s youth, femininity, and self.
The reaction was supposed to be about Andrew Tate — and it was, but not the way he wanted.
The whole internet exploded with laughter.
It’s still laughing at how some members of the extreme right are struggling with the massive pile of concepts and realities they just encountered. A quick Google search can show you how many people are asking what ‘small dick energy’ is, and how it ‘suddenly’ became a thing. They’re shocked the words are normalized, even among men.
Somehow Greta didn’t just insult Andrew Tate, she gestured at all of him: what he does, what he thinks, the way he thinks, and the toxic culture backing him, and she did it in a way that a huge part of the internet recognized and applauded.
She used a meme she grew up with, one that has been around since 2018, ‘big dick energy’.
‘Small dick energy’ relates to it because nothing exists without its opposite.
Short Interlude About What ‘Big Dick Energy’ Is
The irony is that the meme ‘big dick energy’ isn’t even about dicks, dick size, or having a dick.
If it was, women wouldn’t have added the word ‘energy’.
It’s definitely not about being a dick; take note, manfluencers.
It’s when someone evokes the feeling that they have all qualities that are socially and culturally connected to having an impressively sized phallus: complete, calm confidence and nothing to prove, to themselves or anyone else.
Margaret Thatcher had big dick energy, and so does Nancy Pelosi. RuPaul has it. Greta Thunburg has it.
Andrew Tate, and his admirers, don’t have it.
Part of what makes a person give off ‘big dick energy’ is the feeling they would have courage under adversity, and there’s nothing courageous about adults making unwanted sexual advances toward nineteen-year-olds, or beating, raping, and trafficking human beings.
What Happened and How to Think About It
If Andrew Tate had any internet street cred, he lost it shortly after Greta’s tweet. He was mad, bro.
Ten hours later, giving the impression he had been thinking about how he had been epically burned for the whole time — it probably took him that long to edit the video— he responded with a lame ‘no u’, earning the title ‘Emperor of Cringe’ — ‘emperor’ because he was already cringeworthy, as are his fans.
Then he got arrested.
There are complaints being posted about how insulting Greta’s words were. Some are upset because implying a man’s dick is small is body shaming.
They’re right. It is.
So are a lot of other words used about men and women.
The internet, and the world, can be ugly, messy places, where any combination of good and bad ideas get mixed together and spat out, where a bunch of good ideas can be attached to the wrong kinds of words and phrases, and vice-versa, willy-nilly, without a care about who gets hurt or how, because the moment these things happen is lightning-quick. In the moment, something speaks to a group of people watching.
The words trigger a social thought worm that keeps going, picking up new ideas and connections as more and more people become aware of it. This is how a meme starts. At this point, the words that caused it all to happen are no longer changeable. They become the cue for more instances of the thought worm.
I’m not happy that two of the three words that tag the idea that women have self-determined likes and dislikes about what they find attractive had to be ‘big’, and ‘dick’, either.
I can overlook it, though, because I understand that the meme is about women liking men, women liking men’s penises, and the concept and qualities of manliness they see in both men and women, and that with the meme, women celebrate all these things socially.
To me, that’s more important. I know a lot of men recognize this, too, which is why they’re not offended.
I understand that women are not always nice and that they reserve the right not to be nice.
And I’m absolutely thrilled the whole internet knew about the meme in time to help make fun of Andrew Tate.
