Meet @Joan.Of.Arca, Instagram’s Favorite Feminist Shitposter

The internet is a black hole of content. In fact, most of our feeds these days are filled with shitposts, the type of content that’s become @joan.of.arca‘s bread and butter. The 21-year-old meme queen’s real name is Sophie, and on any given day her 167,000 followers can find her posting hilarious and nihilistic memes comparing Arca, pop music’s renegade princess, to Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio Cortez, or provocative hot takes about current events and pop culture. The Minnesota native also co-hosts “Based News Network,” a podcast entirely “based on facts.” So, in this week’s installment of SEARCH HISTORY, we DM’d @joan.of.arca to get to know the girl behind the memes and find out how she weathers backlash from Swifties.

———

INTERVIEW: A/S/L?

JOAN.OF.ARCA: 21 / Sophie / Minneapolis/NYC 

INTERVIEW: What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?

JOAN.OF.ARCA: Watch AskReddit story compilations on YouTube while I get ready for class 

INTERVIEW: What were your last three Google searches?

JOAN.OF.ARCA: Ellen Degeneres, Ice Spice Necklace, and Cute deer pictures.

INTERVIEW: What’s your online stalking platform of choice?

JOAN.OF.ARCA: You can never go wrong with Facebook. As a meme page, it’s usually helpful because the further you scroll down on a profile, the older (and weirder) the memes get. I love repurposing old memes, and I’ve found some of the funniest ones were from an older coworker I had as a sophomore in high school.

INTERVIEW: What did you discuss on Based News this week? 

JOAN.OF.ARCA: This week, my cohost/boyfriend @punkrevolutionnow and I discussed Biden’s re-election campaign, the Alice Glass/Alice Gas conflict, and Elon’s decision to automatically give Twitter users with 1M+ followers a blue check.

INTERVIEW: Which podcast episode of yours has received the most hate?

JOAN.OF.ARCA: Hmmm… people are usually pretty nice, but we expressed that we weren’t huge fans of the new Taylor Swift album and some people got upset.

INTERVIEW: What’s your favorite Arca meme?

JOAN.OF.ARCA: The “AOC is pissed y’all” meme is probably my favorite, but sadly I didn’t make it. Out of my own, it might be this “shady af comebacks” edit I did.

INTERVIEW: What’s the best unreleased Arca song?

JOAN.OF.ARCA: “Angel Sigh”! 

INTERVIEW: Who is the troll of the week?

JOAN.OF.ARCA: Probably my bestie @parisnormal_. She’s made like 100s of Megan Trainor memes and no one can tell if she’s being serious or not. It’s really an art.

INTERVIEW: Describe your private browsing persona in three words?

JOAN.OF.ARCA: Reformed Tumblr user.

INTERVIEW: How many graphic t-shirts do you own?

JOAN.OF.ARCA: I think probably 15? My favorite is this baby tee that has the crew mates from Among Us with the “Friends” logo. It’s truly one of the most insane pieces of clothing I’ve ever found.

INTERVIEW: What’s a website everyone should know about?

JOAN.OF.ARCA: Internet Archive is the GOAT, but it might be going away so take advantage of it while you can!

INTERVIEW: Who do you follow on IG?

JOAN.OF.ARCA: Mostly sh*tposters, but I’ve been especially interested in hyper-intellectual meme pages like @kardashiankolloquium and @inherent_itgirl.

INTERVIEW: What’s your favorite feature on IG?

JOAN.OF.ARCA: Create mode is truly the best. It spawned a new generation of meme creators who use it to write anything from a diary entry to full on treatises.

INTERVIEW: How many unread text messages do you have?

JOAN.OF.ARCA: Just one in iMessages, but I probably have hundreds of DM requests that I’m too scared to look at (you’d be surprised what people send to innocent meme account admins.) 

INTERVIEW: Read receipts: on or off?

JOAN.OF.ARCA: It depends! I honestly just go with what the other person set already. But I’m a read receipts kind of girl because it keeps me punctual. 

INTERVIEW: What’s your most incriminating accidental email/text?

JOAN.OF.ARCA: I did the classic: accidentally sending a screenshot of someone’s text right back to them and I’ll never live it down. Now I’m super paranoid and I check my texts and emails at night to make sure I didn’t send anything strange by mistake.

INTERVIEW: Choose one: money or clout.

JOAN.OF.ARCA: Money is temporary, but clout is forever. 

INTERVIEW: Fuck, Marry, Kill: President Biden, RuPaul, Lydia Tar.

JOAN.OF.ARCA: Fuck: Lydia Tar (I used to be on Cate Blanchett stan Twitter—yes, it’s a thing—and Carol changed my life) Marry: RuPaul (I’ve been watching Drag Race since 2009 so I’m ready to take my long-term parasocial marriage with Ru to the next level) Kill: Biden (Sorry.) 

INTERVIEW: Print or digital?

JOAN.OF.ARCA: Digital.

INTERVIEW: What’s your password?

JOAN.OF.ARCA: Iwillbecomeadeerin4days444