By David Futrelle
4Chan has a brand-new imaginary girlfriend, and she might look a little bit familiar to you. “Daisy Hogg” seems designed to win the hearts (and the pants-feelings) of the 4Chan demographic — she’s a young, slender hottie who loves guns, Trump, and owning the libs.
It doesn’t hurt, as far as 4Chan is concerned, that their new girl looks like she’s barely out of high school, if that, and that she enjoys posing in next-to-nothing, sometimes with assorted scary-looking guns as accessories.
The reason Daisy looks so familiar? Because this imaginary girlfriend is nothing more than a gender-swapped version of Parkland survivor and gun control advocate David Hogg, a figure almost universally loathed on the right.
Daisy was born last week after one inventive 4Chan anon thought to run some pictures of David Hogg through FaceApp’s female filter, transforming him instantly into a more-than-passable young woman — and a rather attractive one at that.
Other 4Chan anons went to work at once, photoshopping Daisy’s new face onto the bodies of bikini models, porn stars, and, in one case, Nancy Pelosi. Many anons can’t quite decide whether to mock David as Daisy, or whack off to her. For others. the decision hasn’t been hard, because something else has been.
Some of the anons who aren’t cranking it to Daisy are devoting their energy instead into photoshopping her into 4Chan’s horny, semi-ironic version of a patron saint — and chastising those who are “tainting” her purity with their lusts. 
Not every anon is quite so agog. This being 4Chan, some have been quick to deride the fascination with David-as-Daisy as “gay” and, ahem, “n***er tier.” Meanwhile, more-paranoid anons are suggesting that the new meme is somehow an elaborate false-flag “psyop” designed to … well, I’m not quite sure what these guys think the memes are supposed to be doing to their poor brains.
So what does it all mean? A few anons have taken a shot at explaining the significance of this new meme. “David Hogg just announced that he intended to run for Congress,” writes one enthusiastic anon.
and now you’ve created a character more attractive, more meaningful, and more inspiring than he will ever be..
Do you even realize how brilliant you are sometimes? His face is going to end up listed by the ADL as a hate symbol and he will spend the rest of his life seeing his likeness used to promote second amendment rights and right-wing ideologies.
You sentenced him to a fate worse than obscurity.. You’ve eclipsed him with a shining star..
And that star is called Daisy-chan
I’m not quite so sure this meme is going to prove quite so potent outside the confines of 4Chan as it has within them. Even 4Channers struggle a bit trying to explain just what exactly this new meme actually means. I mean:
That’s about as close as any 4Chan Daisy-explainer I’ve seen has gotten to a coherent explanation, and it doesn’t make a lick of sense.
I think the meme is a lot more interesting psychologically than it is politically. It seems clear enough that one of the impulses behind this forced feminization of David Hogg is a desire to degrade a young man who many channers clearly see as intimidating. By “reducing” him to a woman, they don’t have to take his ideas as seriously; they can sexualize him, transforming him into a pliable “waifu” who adores them and parrots their opinions, serving much the same function that the fictional Vivian James did for GamerGate. Even their non-sexual fantasies about her are all about ownership, if not of her body than of her mind.
But the “forced feminization” element makes Daisy more complicated than Vivian ever was. For some, the fact that “Daisy” began as David is part of her appeal. 4Channers have long fetishized trans women — or at least sexy young “traps” — as pseudo-women without all the man-hating baggage of “real” women, happy to offer up their sexuality to nerdy dudes who don’t actually like “real” women all that much. Never mind that this is as much a fantasy as Daisy herself is.
What makes it all stranger is that the conventionally very attractive “Daisy” is clearly out of their league, and the channers know it. They’ve transformed a hated ideological foe into a woman who, if she existed in real life, wouldn’t give them the time of day. Doesn’t this suggest that perhaps David Hogg is a bit out of their league as well? Some anons have tried to suggest that Daisy’s attractiveness isn’t a function of David’s chiseled features and high cheekbones but rather a reflection of his inherent sissy-tude.
I think this is what’s known as “protesting too much.”
Outside of 4Chan, some are suggesting that the fetishization of Daisy is little more than a massive political self-own on the part of thirsty anons, as one widely shared tweet explained it:
https://twitter.com/MichaelEHayden/status/1034453814311563266
True, up to a point. But there is so much other stuff going on that we can’t really reduce it to a self-own. I’m not sure what to call it, exactly. But one thing is clear: it is 2018 as fuck.
NOTE: There have been a number of threads on Daisy over on 4Chan. The quotes and pics in this post all came from the thread archived here. I learned of the existence of Daisy from Hayden’s tweet above.
@Bakunin
Congrats!!
Chanfolk have an exaggerated impression of the role they play in contemporary society. The majority of the people they deride as ‘normies’ don’t even know Channers *exist*. When incels hit mainstream visibility recently, I discovered that nobody I know IRL had ever heard of them. Most of my friends are not in the habit of picking up large flat rocks and studying the squirming, pullulating life hiding underneath.
Heck, nobody on my Facebook feed has any idea who Jordan Peterson is.
Regarding women and their entirely reasonable concerns about men – when I’m out and about and find myself walking behind a lone woman, I deliberately position myself so as to not be *right* behind her, and to pass on one side with space between us. I know I’m harmless and I want her to know it, too.
@Sheila Crosby
Your first “baby elephant” photo is not actually a baby elephant, but it’s almost as good: it’s a mechanical elephant from the Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland! I just thought I should point that out in the interest of fact-checking.
1. Did they name her Daisy because she looks just like Daisy Riddley (Rey in Star Wars)? It’s honestly uncanny.
2. Part of what I think is going on here is that these guys actually fetishize hatred. Like, they view sex in terms of domination and see having sex with a woman as a victory over her and of course they also consider women subhuman. I think they see what they’re doing as degrading him, and they get off on that.
From the vantage point of someone who views the people they’re attracted to as humans, it doesn’t make much sense though.
Regarding The Dukes of Hazzard an unusual thing about the show, compared to most action shows of the era, is that Bo and Luke Duke didn’t use guns. They couldn’t, because of their probation agreements. They did use dynamite tipped arrows at times, but never guns.
My peepee feels funny ?
How about the Pepe frog with the mail order dentures?
Invite him over and that might solve your problems.
tbh, I think a great deal of the people participating are doing so tongue in cheek. A lot of folk on 4chan run with stuff like that. Kinda like with Ebola-chan.
The orange one called Carl Bernstein “degenerate” on Twitter this evening. He’s really looking to fire up the Nazis tonight, huh?
I’m starting to wonder if and hope that the rumors that Traitor Tot is going to be indicted this week are true. I’m not sure if there’s any real proof of this, but it sort of seems like he goes on his most bigoted rants when something bad (from his perspective) is about to happen.
@Cyborgette
I was already there before transitioning, and was damn wary of men, moreso since transition.
@j
After /r9k/,/pol/, Trump, Charlottesville, the rise of neonazis and incels do you really want to use the defense “it was just a joke”?
@Tovius
Yay huuuuuugs
@Dalillama
The perspective varies from person to person IME. I got the trauma and wariness of men (bullied for being femme, abusive dad, CSA survivor, abusive friends, etc) but didn’t realize until post college that this was *commonplace*, and not just the world hating me personally and in particular. And it took actually transitioning to see the scale face to face. Understanding of suckage was there, the part missing was how it fit into patriarchy.
I’m not a defending them I’m just saying that I don’t think they are in actual love with their creation? It doesn’t even top the top 100 list of ‘dangerous things’ that they are doing on /pol/.
@ j
You don’t think targeting for abuse, someone who’s already had credible death threats, and even a sexual assault threat from an actual politician, creates a danger?
I’m genuinely curious; that’s not rhetorical.
@WWTH *taps nose* It’s a huge tell when the “don’t believe your lying eyes” tweets start coming out Reporters usually call the WH for comment before releasing a story. That’s how Donny Two Scoops finds out about these things ahead of time.
I’ve heard that further Russiagate developments are being held until after McCain’s funeral, out of respect. Whatever the story is, it must be a doozy. Fuckface was on a twitter tear this morning. Friday could be an interesting day.
Sure, if that’s what’s happening. Maybe I missed that part? All I see is some really shitty memes and mockery, along with the typical transphobia stuff.
transphobia is *very* harmful. maybe just sit and read and learn for a moment, because it seems maybe you don’t know exaclty how serious.
and second just because you only seen jokes and mockery and memes in 4chan is only one piece of evidence. there are many people talking about harrassment and abuse which is in 4chan or starts in 4chan and goes to other places, which disagree with you. If someone says there is a problem we should listen them first, and investigate.
@moregeekthan
I just want you to know that I read this in Brain’s voice, as in Pinky and the Brain.
@Cyborgette,
Yep. That is what I have realized too. I was 10 or younger the first time I was sexually assaulted. And certainly, more than one female friend has shared being a rape survivor with me. Sexual violence is ubiquitous. I tried telling my brother that his beautiful 13-year-old daughter is already dealing with harassment from both boys and adult men. He was astounded at the thought. I used to feel like one of the boys in my younger years, but now I don’t feel so comfortable around men because they have demonstrated repeatedly in large ways and small that they are not safe.
Good luck settling after the move, recovering from infection/antibiotics, staying cool, and just dealing with all the overwhelming things in life right now. I hope your situation gets better every day.
@j
Just because it’s a meme doesn’t make it not abusive. And even if they’re “joking” or “ironic” or whatever doesn’t mean they didn’t take the actions they took. Cause and effect doesn’t care about the intention. Actions still have consequences if done ironically. I hope I don’t have to trot out that poor, tired goat.
And do you not know how damaging 4chan can be? I’m tired and really shouldn’t have to do this emotional labor for you, especially since you’re claiming (or at least implying) without evidence that this shit isn’t harmful because it’s just how 4chan is (if I understood you correctly). Anyway, because I’m tired and currently extra tired of dudes being harmful and trying to pass it off as unintentional, I’m going to give you an old article instead of finding a fresh one. But it’s a good one and it’s a deep dive into chan culture. It’s been a while since I read it, though, but i know for sure it talks about some of the awful things 4channers have done, and I just hope there’s not anything problematic from the author in there. Read at your own risk, I guess.
https://www.canopycanopycanopy.com/contents/our_weirdness_is_free
Re: 4chan’s “Ironic hate”
We really should start using a new term, ‘appeal to humor fallacy’, because the “it’s just a joke” response is essentially identical to the appeal to the stone fallacy. No justification, no rationale, no substantiation, nor any expectation that it requires substantiation. In fact there is often direct opposition to the very idea that it should be substantiated. It’s just “I say so, therefore it is”.
That alone makes the claim baseless, but the fact that jokes regarding all cishet white men as subhuman are never funny on 4chan while dehumanising virtually any other demographic is fair game, speaks volumes.
@Gaebolga
Naw dude, then it’s just a dank meme which is way more cool /s
@j: This might be totally obvious, but just to clarify, the “credible death threats, and even a sexual assault threat from an actual politician” aren’t in the thread referred to in the OP. Those are past events that Alan is assuming you’re already familiar with, and which make continued attention toward David Hogg seem more threatening.
The 4-Chan response these days has a weirdly formalised air, like some sort of response by some sort of later-day degraded empire.
‘He hath offended us! Let us ritually make him a woman, the lowest of the low, to humiliate him!’
sylvia bath:
*cringe*
Oops, sorry, nothing personal! It’s just that I seem to have developed a reflex: whenever Star Wars is mentioned, I expect an avalanche of whiney dudebros explaining why TLJ is an “objectively bad film”. WHTM is one of the few places on the net where this doesn’t happen!
@ Buttercup Q. Skullpants
Quoted for truth!
@Valentin I’m a man, and I’m wary of men. Being relentlessly bullied for a good part of elementary through middle school will do it. I remain allergic to the jock b******* that many grown men my age *still* engage in. So I wish I could say you are just a raving misandrist, but I can’t.