In previous eras of internet culture, mockery of the rich and famous was usually relegated to far-left forums.
But as 2025 begins, ridiculing the rich appears to have gone mainstream.
Look no further than the Walmart handbag that mimics the look of Hermès’ iconic, exclusive and uber-expensive Birkin bag.
The cost of the Birkin bag can exceed six figures. But its exorbitant price tag is only part of its allure. You cannot simply walk into a Hermès store and purchase a Birkin bag. Shoppers are expected to spend thousands of dollars on other Hermès products over a long period of time before they’re even offered the opportunity to buy the Birkin, which is also known as a “quota bag.”
Historically, the Birkin and other quota bags have served as status symbols. Kim Kardashian, Martha Stewart and Cardi B have been spotted sporting one.
Now, for US$78, anyone can have a bag that – from a distance, at least – looks no different than the Birkin.
The Walmart version went viral on TikTok in late December 2024, quickly selling out.
On TikTok, its proponents say it’s a way to water down the worth of luxury goods and make Hermès’ iconic Birkin design accessible to regular people. Many of these videos also excoriate the original Birkin as a ludicrous status symbol for the ultrarich, with the comments sections peppered with calls to “eat the rich.”
Nicknaming it the “Wirkin” bag – a portmanteau of “Walmart” and “Birkin” that also evokes “working class” – TikTok users have championed the bag as a symbol of working- and middle-class solidarity.
Status symbol no more
Sociologists use the concept of “symbolic interactionism” to describe how people deploy symbols to understand and communicate social realities.
The process of making sense of something is always subjective. But when larger social groups agree on a set of subjective meanings, an objective meaning of a symbol emerges from consensus.
Meme culture is rife with examples of how symbols are ascribed new consensus meanings through new social agreements. The skull emoji, for example, evokes death and decay to many people. But Gen Zers have recast the emoji as a symbol of hysterical laughter. Similarly, the word “mother” has historically represented a parental figure. But meme culture has redefined “mother” to also describe feminine icons.
Often attributed to the writings of sociologist George Herbert Mead, symbolic interactionism theory is mostly focused on individual perceptions, which are always changing. As a result, collective constructs about what symbols mean are constantly in flux.
Before the Wirkin bag went viral, most people across all social classes probably saw the Birkin bag as a symbol of wealth.
Now, its meaning has split into two. The Birkin’s proponents insist that real Birkin owners can easily distinguish the Walmart design from the Hermès variety. But just about everyone else sees the Walmart design as a mockery of elitism.
In both cases, the bag now objectively symbolizes class strife.
A new mood in the online zeitgeist
A handbag becoming a symbol of class warfare aptly defines the mood of the online zeitgeist.
Luigi Mangione stands accused of murdering United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and yet a common response to Thompson’s murder – online, at least – was to celebrate Mangione as a hero. To many TikTok and X posters, Thompson was a face of a cruel health insurance industry hellbent on extracting profits from patients. In this sense, Thompson’s death signaled a victory against the elite.
These anti-elite sentiments, whether they center on health care or handbags, mark a major change from recent internet history.
Since at least the early 2010s, the internet has been a hotbed for the culture war: ideologically driven divides between groups based on issues like race, guns, gender and sexuality. Internet scholar Angela Nagle has summarized the past decade of internet culture as a conflict between the “woke” left and the alt-right. I can’t help but wonder if these cultural divides are collapsing, with more people turning their attention to the yawning gaps between rich and poor.
Ideological inconsistency is also a hallmark of both Thompson’s death and the Wirkin bag.
The alleged gunman’s digital footprint failed to unveil a coherent right-wing or left-wing ideology. Likewise, in the spirit of pushing back against the Hermès bag, people have inadvertently elevated the fortunes of Walmart, a multinational corporation owned by the richest family in the United States.
Yet many fans of the Wirkin bag and Mangione share some common ground: an antipathy toward the ruling class.
Given the lack of an ideological core, each trend likely stems from everyday experiences – specifically, a world in which affordable health care can feel like a luxury, even as a select few are able to spend a small fortune on a handbag.
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