How the ‘Meme Supreme’ was born
The most looked-up-to person in Washington stands just 5-foot-1.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s withering dissents and unrivaled work ethic have made her a formidable force on the Supreme Court floor for more than two decades. Now she’s the unassuming star of an uplifting new documentary, RBG (in theaters Friday in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago and Boston and other cities; expanding through May and June), which charts her lifelong fight for women’s and minorities’ rights.
The film also explores the octogenarian’s unlikely foray into the spotlight in recent years: as a regular char- acter of Kate McKinnon’s on Saturday Night Live; the subject of upcoming biopic On the Basis of Sex (out Nov. 9), starring Rogue One‘ s Felicity Jones; and perhaps most recognizably, the inspiration for a wellspring of T-shirts, tattoos, Halloween costumes and Internet memes.
RBG directors Julie Cohen and Betsy West first noticed Ginsburg’s growing online fame in 2015 and wanted to know more about the trailblazer, who cofounded the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project and served as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals before she was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1993.
In recent years, “it seemed that her dissents had really connected with a lot of people, especially Millennials,” West says. “It’s this incongruousness of an 85-year-old Jewish grandmother who is
speaking truth to power. That took off with Saturday Night Live, and every time you put ‘R.B.G.’ into social media, you see thousands and millions of entries. She really is a galvanizing force.”
The most prominent Ginsburg meme is that of “Notorious R.B.G.,” a play on the late rapper Notorious B.I.G., which features a visage of the justice wearing a crown and her trademark lace collar. It began as a blog by former New York University law student Shana Knizhnik in summer 2013, when Ginsburg delivered a particularly scathing dissent about the imperative of voting rights in states with histories of racial discrimination.
Featuring inspiring quotes and pictures of Ginsburg, the Tumblr page caught fire among young people, inspiring feminist merchandise, a parody music video and a 2015 biography ( Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which Knizhnik cowrote with Irin Carmon).
“She’s the least likely person to seek celebrity in the way that she’s achieved it now,” says Knizhnik, an attorney. “That contradiction between her per- sonality as a very serious person and the larger-than-life ‘Notorious’ title is what’s so funny and cheeky about (the meme).
“But people are also hungry for icons that have been doing the work of social justice for as long as she has. Her own experience of being discriminated against, overcoming that and reaching the highest level of the judicial system is really inspirational to young women.”
The “Meme Supreme” doesn’t mind the attention, happily signing books and taking pictures with fans who approach her, although she says some of their tattoos of her are “a step too far,” Cohen laughs. Ginsburg also enjoys McKinnon’s elastic impression of her on SNL, launching the catchphrase, “You just got Ginsburned!”
“She understood that it really wasn’t like her, and yet she still appreciated the comic dissonance to her persona,” Cohen says. “There’s some dialogue, but a lot of it is just raunchy dancing. Truthfully, the raunchier the dancing got, the more hilarious she seemed to find it.”