It is difficult to determine the origin of “Women love me. Fish Fear Me” mantra, and it’s even harder to pinpoint the exact time when it was picked up by young people — especially queer young people.
In the early days, the phrase graced T-shirts and the back of trucks along with other silly fishing mottos, from the chaste, “Good things come to those who take the bait” to the cheeky, “I sure come fast , I took him fish to catch!” Documented spots saw him appear at an Alan Jackson concert in 2002 and a 2009 column in Daily Oklahoman, in which writer Jackie Papandrew shared that her father “may want to be buried in” Women Want Me. Fish Fear Me” shirt.
Throughout the late 2010s, just as the Bass Pro Shops hat became ubiquitous, the fishing motto broke into the mainstream. But Google searches for “fish are afraid of me” really started to take off in June of 2020. Anika Padin, a student at Northeastern University and a fan of the hat, once thought it was an inside joke that emerged from a ordinary show as office. However, the birth of the “fish scare me” is much more elusive. Perhaps, in a Jungian twist, it has always been within us.
Know Your Meme, an irreplaceable chronicle of Internet culture, appreciates the parody of the “Women love me, fish scare me” hat with a photoshopped meme of a baseball cap emblazoned with the following copy: “Women love me, fish they fear me / Men turn their eyes away from me as I walk / No beast dares make a sound in my presence / I am alone in this barren land.” One hat is comically tall (perhaps to match the wearer’s massive brain); another (from Cool Shirtz for $40) has an exaggerated bill. These days, the slogan adorns pixels and textiles alike – often paired with grandpa sweaters, cargo and New Balance 990s.
Lesbians, in particular, have embraced this phrase. Queer indie musician Lucy Dacus even released an official $30 merch hat that reads “Lucy loves me, fathers fear me” and features an embroidered rainbow trout.
“I have a relationship with fathers. I would make a great dad, especially when it comes to stereotypical things like grilling, building things, having a dad sense of humor,” said 21-year-old student Lillian Pearce, who owns and often wears one of the hats the said Lucy Dacus. . “It’s not that queer people love fishing, it’s just that co-opting the phrase like dad is really funny,” she says, before her friend Mik Dietz adds that “it’s to make fun of that kind of hypermasculinity. ” When people recognize the hat, Lillian says she feels a sense of camaraderie.
The fishing hat evokes a Platonic father: an aloof, brooding patriarch who is more interested in function than fashion; who takes pride in mowing the lawn; who eats the bottom of the bread; who won’t part with a pair of ancient grass-stained jean shorts and thinks fishing is the greatest thing in the known world. He is uncomplicated. He is macho. He is irresistible.
The half-ironic embrace of fishing lore — Big Mouth Billy Bass wall pieces, catchphrases and a broader fishing trend — is flirting with mainstream appeal. And it’s not just bucket hats: it’s chunky cargo and rubber boots, sea shanties and frock-coat mantras with tattered T-shirts. Young people are embracing the core principles of being comfortable and enjoying a light beer on the lake, even as they’re fishing at lower rates than previous generations (a statistic that prompted concerned Kansas lawmakers to hilariously suggest Wi-Fi in parks).
The ugly motto has been split into variations, having a Cambrian explosion of its own: “Mermaids have mixed feelings about me” and “Pisces love me, women fear me because I kill fish” and “I love fish women.” There are fishingcore products for fans of DB Cooper or Animal Crossing. Let every fish that meets my gaze learn the true meaning of fear, for I am the harbinger of death,” begins one variant. In 2009, a column from Port Charlotte Sun pointed out a reverse saying, “Pisces fear me, women revere me,” was spotted on the back of cars, and since then, the variations have become endless. Pisces are rapidly evolving and descending into crazy gibberish. Beware, “the fish and I have entered into an uneasy alliance against women.”
One day last summer, I ordered a black baseball cap with the words “Women love fish, I’m scared” that I saw on Instagram. Of course, I don’t particularly love fish and I don’t fear myself enough to take a hat for it, I just fell victim to the temptation of semi-ironic meme clothes.
In just a few days, Photoshopped meme-y concept art can become a literal garment on your doorstep — a meme you see on Monday could be in your closet by the end of the week. The path from internet joke to tangible product is fast compared to the dot-com days when running a virtual store required computer servers, programming skills and a commitment to logistics. Today, about 1.7 million people run shops on Shopify. Other low-code sites like Redbubble handle the logistics of dropshipping once you upload the image you want to put on a product.
“The fishing memes are funny and I’ve never gone fishing before. Instilling fear in aquatic creatures is sex, that’s why women love me,” says Jackson Weimer, a 24-year-old recruiter who runs the Instagram meme page @hugeplateofketchup8.
Gabe Hockett, a 15-year-old high school student from Minnesota, bought a super tall hat because he likes when things get messed up until they don’t make sense. “Fishing hats are so absurd, but they fit the modern mood perfectly,” he says.
John Manheimer, who runs various ultra-popular graphic t-shirt social media accounts, thinks that most fishing humor fits into a “whole genre of ironic meme stuff that’s super grounded, super fried memes.” .
“We’re all kind of wild after more than a decade of social media,” he says, “so we start saying things like ‘women love fish, I’m scared of me, you know?’
