Background
On October 16th, 2012, the second U.S. presidential debate took place at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. During the debate, an undecided voter by the name of Katherine Fenton asked both candidates about pay inequality for women, to which Romney replied with an anecdote about how he sought to form a gender-balanced cabinet during his governorship in Massachusetts:
“And I said, ‘Well, gosh, can’t we -- can’t we find some -- some women that are also qualified? I went to a number of women’s groups and said, ‘Can you help us find folks,’ and they brought us whole binders full of women."
Notable Developments
News Media Coverage
On October 17th, the gaffe was reported by several major news media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal,[4]NPR,[6] Wired,[7] The Atlantic,[8]CBS News[9] and Time,[12] who remarked in unison about the quote’s transformation into an Internet meme. Today.com[10] published a piece by writer Helen A.S. Popkin titled “‘Binders Full of Women,’ other Internet memes trump voter issues,” which noted the increasing importance of Internet memes in political campaigns. The same day, Salon.com[14] published an article reporting that Romney never asked women’s groups for eligible candidates, but that a list had been compiled by a bipartisan coalition prior to the 2002 Massachusetts gubernatorial election.
Online Reaction
Near-immediately, image macros captioned with Romney’s “binder” response began circulating on Twitter, as well as the launch of parody blogs Binders Full of Women on Tumblr[2] and novelty account @RomneysBinder on Twitter.[3] On October 17th, The Wall Street Journal[13] interviewed Veronica De Souza, the creator of the “Binders Full of Women” Tumblr, who announced that the blog received over 11,000 followers within the first 24 hours. She went on to reveal that she hoped the success of the blog would bring her new employment opportunities, since she had been laid off from her position as a social media manager just hours prior to the debate. The same day, Redditor elSpanielo submitted a post to the /r/AdviceAnimals[15] subreddit titled “Obama doesn’t use binders,” which included an Internet Husband example featuring Barack and Michelle Obama (shown below). Within 11 hours, the post received over 9,000 up votes and 145 comments.
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Notable Examples
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Twitter Feed
Search Interest
Not available.
External Resources
[1]CNN – “Binders Full of Women Trending”, 16 Oct 2012.
[2] Tumblr – Binders Full of Women
[3] Twitter – @Romney’s Binder
[4] Wall Street Journal – Binders Full of Women Spawns Three Ring Circus on Web
[5] Slate – Binders Full of Women Meme to Take Over the World
[6] Wired – Romney’s ‘Binders Full of Women’ Gaffe Sparks Instant Internet Meme
[7]NPR – Presidential Debate Spin Binders Full of Women Meme, Fact Checks
[8] The Atlantic – Binders Full of Women A Meme That Means Something
[9]CBS News – Binders full of women the big bird of the second debate
[10] Today.com – Binders Full of Women other Internet Memes Trump Voter Issues
[11] The Huffington Post – A Binder Full of Memes
[12] Time – Binders Full of Women – Ladies and Gentlemen, Your New Political Meme
[13] The Wall Street Journal – Binders Full of Women May Help One Woman Get a Job
[14] Salon – Mitts binders full of women not even true
[15] Reddit – Obama doesn’t use binders