She/Her, They/Them, Cool Hat

About

She / Her, They / Them, Cool Hat refers to a viral photograph of three mugs or cups, two of them displaying the pronouns "she/her" and "they/them" and the third reading "cool hat." A version of Ah Yes, The Three Genders meme, the exploitable photo has been used as an image caption format, being combined with trios of characters that fit the dynamic.

Origin

On July 26th, 2021, Twitter^[9] user @ThatSamWinkler uploaded a photograph of three mugs displayed at a store, with two of the cups having pronouns "she her" and "they them" written on them and the third with "cool hat" (image and tweet shown below, left and right). The tweet gained over 11,400 retweets and 119,600 likes in one year.

On the same day, Redditor AnxietyPwincess posted the photograph in the /r/traaaaaaannnnnnnnnns subreddit,^[1] where it gained over 4,100 upvotes in one year.

The image did not achieve viral status until September 28th that year when Twitter^[2] user @spencooper tweeted it, referencing the Ah Yes, The Three Genders meme in the caption. The tweet went viral, garnering over 12,100 retweets and 139,000 likes in one year (shown below).

Spread

On September 30th, 2021, Twitter^[3] user @mimikabii posted the earliest viral meme based on the image, combining it with a Deltarune fan art of the characters Kris, Susie and Ralsei (shown below, left). The post gained over 7,300 retweets and 25,500 likes in one year, with a Tumblr^[4] repost gaining over 39,200 likes and reblogs in the same period. On October 2nd, 2021, Redditor^[5] PopularTopular then posted a meme that received over 24,000 likes in one year (shown below, right).

In the following year, the image maintained its prevalence online, with users on Twitter, Tumblr and other sites combining it with character trios that seemed to fit the dynamic. For example, on October 20th, 2021, Tumblr^[6] user @readandwritesilver posted a What That We Do in the Shadows version that received over 24,800 likes and reblogs in one year (shown below, left). On January 9th, 2022, Twitter^[7] user @kennedytcooper posted a Pokemon version that received over 1,400 retweets and 20,300 likes in 10 months (shown below, right).

In August 2022, the format saw a spike in usage following the introduction of Deep Cut, a character trio and band from the video game Splatoon 3 made up by members Big Man, Shiver and Frye. For example, on August 10th, 2022, Twitter^[8] user Meeper12346 posted a version of the meme including Deep Cut, receiving over 21,700 likes in three months (shown below).

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References