Micro-Landscapes of the Anthropocene

Moth meme and "symbolification"

The moth meme anthromorphises the moth often giving it language, a human body or depicting the moth carrying out human activities such as ordering at the drive-thru. This anthropomorphising of the moth places it into a comedic context while riffing on the popular understanding of the moth being attracted to light. While, following the concept of "symbolification", one could argue that these memes reduce the moth to a stereotype, the neutral (neither positive or negative), comedic basis of the meme could create a sense of empathy toward the moth. Instead of simply being frightened or disgusted by a moth that has ventured into their apartment, the human may instead have a positive, comedic recognition of the moth and, due to its anthropomorphic presentation in memes, may have more empathy towards the moth by imagining it more humanly. I think the comedic humanising of insects which are often feared by humans positively draws focus to them as beings in their own right.

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