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25 May 2021 9:01 AM

Star of meme showing woman surrounded by men in harnesses identified

"I've officially come out... as a meme!"

By Jamie Tabberer

Words: Jamie Tabberer; picture: @dj_roots

The woman at the centre of a memorable meme favoured by gay and LGBTQ men has been revealed as Instagram lawyer Amruta Godbole.

In the meme, Godbole is seen adrift among a sea of guys in harnesses. (Summing up the meme’s power, one Twitter user recently used it alongside the caption: “olivia rodrigo with her new fans [sic].”)

The woman’s identity was previously a mystery – until Godbole herself “came out” on social media over the weekend as the star of the meme.

“Thanks, friends, for the fun 15 minutes of fame”

Taking to Twitter, she said: “I’m in this photo and I don’t like it. Jk. I mean that is actually me in the photo. But I like it every time.”


In a subsequent tweet, she added: “I’ve officially come out […] — as a meme, that is. Thanks, friends, for the fun 15 minutes (seconds?) of fame this weekend.”

The picture was taken at San Francisco’s Folsom Street Fair in 2017, Godbole later told BuzzFeed.

She added: “In that moment people were looking at the photo and saying, ‘You’re going to be famous.'”

The 35-year-old added: “One of my main groups of friends in San Francisco is a group of gay men, so I have often found myself in situations where I’m the one woman amid all of these gay men. I’m also 5’1, and they’re all very tall and muscular, so I was just so clearly standing out.

“When I was previously working at a big corporate law firm, that was very stodgy and old school, a colleague sent me a text exchange between him and a colleague asking if it was me. So it’s a funny thing for people who know me in the context of being a serious lawyer.”

Kudos to her for being a good sport!

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