The 'Amen and Awomen' meme originated in January 2021 following the opening prayer of the 117th U.S. Congress delivered by Representative Emanuel Cleaver. In an effort to provide a gender-inclusive closing to his prayer, Cleaver paired the traditional 'amen' with the newly coined 'awomen,' which immediately sparked a firestorm of viral debate. Critics and linguists quickly pointed out that 'amen' is a Hebrew word meaning 'so be it' and is etymologically unrelated to the English word 'man.' Consequently, the phrase became a popular template for internet users to mock performative social justice, virtue signaling, or to create absurd puns about misinterpreting word origins for political purposes.