Joe Biden Lecturing a Woman

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About

Joe Biden Lecturing a Woman refers to a picture of former Vice President and current 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary candidate Joe Biden appearing to speak sternly to Wisconsin-based student activist K.C. Cayo, who claims the picture was taken after she challenged his stance on reproductive justice. On Twitter, many mocked the photo and criticized Biden's approach to the woman.

Origin

On June 11th, 2018, Twitter user @thelocalmaniac8^[1] posted a picture of Biden talking to her. She wrote, "Told Biden we need someone stronger on reproductive justice, and after his reversal on the Hyde Amendment, we asked him to protect assault survivors. He said 'nobody has spoken about it, done more, or changed more than I have.' I told him we deserve better." Her tweet gained over 3,600 retweets and 18,000 likes (shown below). The picture came after after Biden reversed his stance on the Hyde Amendment, which says the government should not provide funds for abortion except in the case of medical emergency. Biden was previously for the amendment, but recently came out against it.

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The tweet made an impression on Twitter users, who saw it as emblematic of Biden's views towards women. Journalist Libby Watson tweeted "can see this photo becoming famous," gaining over 280 retweets and 2,900 likes (shown below, left). User Chris Person joked that Biden's campaign slogan would be "shut up and listen."

On June 12th, Cayo tweeted a short GIF of the moment the photo was taken (shown below). In response, several users responded asking for a full video of the incident.^[3]^[4]

In a Twitter direct message exchange with Know Your Meme, Cayo confirmed a longer video recording of the incident is in their possession, though they haven’t released the clip. "Biden was incredibly deflective and made it very confusing and hard to follow," Cayo explained. "I’m saving it for now, because it’s super unhelpful."

Others made jokes about the image. Twitter user @ArielleCohen^[5] posted an object labeling meme about the photo, gaining over 110 retweets and 530 likes (shown below, left). User @maggieserota^[6] joked it looked like what a male date would look like after you tell him you don't like Radiohead (shown below, right). The story was covered by FastCompany^[7] and Vice.^[8]