How Often Do Men Think About the Roman Empire

2023

Date: September 2023 · Place: Instagram Reels, then TikTok · Figures: Saskia Cort, Swedish reenactor (originator August 2023) · Kevin Daisy-Hatch, Roman reenactor reposter · countless boyfriends and husbands answering on camera · Tags: Couple Trend, Gender Discourse, Roman Empire 01. Ask Your Man Swedish reenactor Saskia Cort posts a Reel in August 2023 instructing women to ask the men in their lives how often they think about the Roman Empire. Roman reenactor Kevin Daisy-Hatch reposts the prompt. By mid-September it is the dominant trend on Reels and TikTok. The answers cluster, suspiciously consistently, around several times a week. Women film the question. Men, mid-laundry or mid-driving, answer with specifics: aqueducts, the Praetorian Guard, that they think about it more than their partner thinks about anything. 02. The Format Holds The trend is gendered and good-natured, which makes it migrate fast. It outlasts the usual two-week TikTok arc by spawning permutations: how often do women think about Princess Diana, how often do gay men think about the Titanic, how often do millennials think about The Office. The Roman Empire variant is the canonical one because the gap between expected indifference and actual obsession is the joke. Sources • BBC News, 'Roman Empire: Why are men obsessed?' (15 September 2023) • The New York Times, 'Why Men Think About the Roman Empire' (15 September 2023) • Saskia Cort, Instagram @saskiacort (August 2023 original)