Lobsterwoman

About

Lobsterwoman, sometimes spelled Lobster Woman, refers to an exploitable image macro of 101-year-old Virginia Oliver whose photo was taken by the Boston Globe in August 2021. In the photo, Oliver is seen throwing a lobster back into the ocean because it's too small, part of her job on the fishing boat. The image saw multiple re-shares and re-edits on Twitter in August, later spreading to other sites, mostly in the form of object-labeling memes or Photoshop edits.

Origin

On August 15th, 2021, the Boston Globe published a story called, "'It's Not Hard Work for Me': At 101 Years Old, This Maine Lobsterwoman Still Works the Waters,"^[1] which centered on 101-year-old Virginia Oliver who's been working the same job of measuring lobsters on a fishing boat in Maine since she was 8 years old. The image of her (shown below) was posted as the article's featured image.

A day after the article, the photo went viral and received attention in memes across Twitter. For example, on August 16th, Twitter^[2] user @JordanMeehan was the first to repost the article in a tweet reading, "Protect this icon at all costs" (shown below, left). On August 17th, verified Twitter^[3] user @BudrykZack then posted the image of Oliver with his own caption (shown below, right).^[3] This tweet received notable engagement, accumulating roughly 96,000 likes and 1,900 quote tweets in one week, spreading the image and helping the meme become more popularized.

Spread

In the following days, the image of Lobsterwoman continued to spread across Twitter as new captions, edits and photoshops were added to the original. On August 20th, 2021, Twitter^[4] user @GaryLegum tweeted the image as well (shown below, left). His tweet gained more attention than previous tweets, receiving roughly 225,000 likes in one week. Mark Hamill from Star Wars also quote tweeted @GaryLegum with his own caption (shown below, right).^[5] His tweet received roughly 102,000 likes over roughly four days.

The photo of Lobsterwoman went go on to receive multiple re-edits across Twitter in the days following, mostly in the form of replies to @BudrykZack's tweet on August 17th, 2021. The image would also receive many replies and subsequent memes underneath @GaryLegum's tweet. Twitter user @osteele made a video (shown below) of Lobsterwoman summoning the lobster from the ocean — what @GaryLegum's tweet originally inferred.

Various Examples

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Search Interest

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External References