You might not be familiar with Lucia Gorman, but the chances are you’ve seen her ‘bored club girl’ meme face plastered all
Remember the image of a woman getting her ear chewed off by a mansplaining lad in a club?
Lucia Gorman, whose “bored of your s***” expression became one of the internet’s most iconic memes, has finally revealed how the viral moment came about – and it’s pretty much exactly how you’d expect it to go down.
The original photo, taken by a club photographer on a night out at Edinburgh’s Milk Club in 2018, has been referred to as “the most relatable nightclub photo in history”. Shared millions of times, it’s always accompanied by women commenting they’d been in a similar situation where they’re getting harangued by a bloke in a club.
“While it looks really staged, it was completely not and I was so off guard that I don’t even know how to do that face like people do,” Lucia told JOE, opening up about the experience.
According to the former business student, she was approached by one of her old pals from school at the Milk Club. Though she can’t remember exactly what the bloke was saying, she recalls wanting to leave the establishment after having her “ear chewed off”.
Lucia said: “I feel like a lot of women in the world probably really understand, and whilst he wasn’t being horrible, I think girls in clubs get the brunt of men just explaining things that you don’t need to hear.”
She added: “I find it quite hard to do the like moody, grumpy, uninterested expressions, but maybe I should just get Patrick back in my ear again and we can try to recreate it.”
Once the meme went viral, Lucia admitted people used to gape at her in lectures, with some people even taking photos of her.
After she tried unsuccessfully to take ownership of the photo, she found out the photographer owned the pic and had sold it to Vice, giving her no control over how its used.
However, she said it “could be worse”, as she was wearing a red dress and clutching her coat – fairly civilised for what some club photos can be like.
In the past four years, the UK has lost 37% of its clubs and the decline is not slowing anytime soon. So, gone are the days of cheap shots, banging music, mobile phone-less dancefloors and a mighty kebab to finish the night off.
According to industry experts, without any immediate intervention, the UK will see “the end of a clubbing era that has defined generations” by 2029.