Gen Z are often described as digital natives — the first generation that has no concept of life without social media — and therefore the ones who took the meme culture of the early 2000s to the next level. And no one expects memes to be politically correct or sensitive; if anything, their power comes from shock value. But the LGBTQIA+ community was not laughing during the recent CJP protests, when the same memes — some of which were queer- and transphobic — were turned into dissent posters and slogans.

While we might think that the perennially online Gen Z has access to everything there is to know about the nuances of how language can be queer-affirmative or offensive, we must understand that this is also the generation that has also been exposed to incel culture. Now add a dash of toxic masculinity, courtesy the manosphere and its heroes like Andrew Tate and Clavicular who punch down on anything that doesn’t fit the macho man mould. With so much contradictory noise around them, perhaps we can all be a little kinder to Gen Z.