A moms fierce response to pug meme mocking her 4-year-olds rare genetic disorder

The photo was supposed to convey endless joy.

It showed a smiling 2-year-old boy in a grassy field, his mouth wearing the telltale chocolate and marshmallow stains of a devoured s’more. This was Jameson. His mother, AliceAnn Meyer, has documented his journey practically since birth, chronicling his life with Pfeiffer syndrome.

The genetic disorder is characterized by a premature fusion of skull bones (craniosynostosis) affecting just 1 in every 100,000 individuals. It manifests in different people in different ways, but it generally produces abnormalities in the skull that result in breathing, eating, seeing and hearing problems.

The s’more snapshot accompanied a blog post about other children who stared at Jameson and called him “scary.” The photo was supposed to put such fears to rest, but the Internet had other ideas.

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As often happens with memes, the farther Jameson’s portrait spread, the more forgotten its context became. Over the course of a year, it was shared on Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook and 9gag, along with a painful punch line:

“—Your pug is f—king amazing.

—That’s my son.”

Chances were, few of the users who liked, commented and helped circulate the meme were aware of its origin. Some even believed that it was Photoshopped.

As the sharing continued, Meyer refused to sit idle. Her son’s dignity was under attack, and she wouldn’t stand for it. But as soon as she successfully petitioned one social media platform to have the meme removed, it would resurface on another one.

Instagram and Twitter accommodated her complaints quickly, but Facebook never removed the posts, Meyer said.

Finally, she decided to speak out on her blog, where the original photo still remained.

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“You stole a photo of my 4-year-old son,” Meyer wrote. “Say what you want out loud, to your friends, in the comment box, but do not take my photo to degrade my child. … If you are going to laugh and share this meme, I think you should know exactly what it is you are sharing and laughing at.”

But rather than take a hostile tone, she used the post to educate everyone who had gotten a chuckle out of her son’s condition.

“His name is Jameson,” she said. “He is very real, and he was born with Pfeiffer syndrome.”

Meyer explained that Jameson has had several surgeries in the past few years and that it’s difficult for kids with craniofacial syndromes to “just be kids.” She said Pfeiffer syndrome is neither preventable nor predictable; it’s a disorder that can impact anyone’s child.

And in this case, that “anyone” could be among those who laughed at the “pug” meme.

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“I hope my tone is not negative,” Meyer wrote, “if it seems that way I apologize, but I am a protective mother. … Once something is out there it’s there. Nonetheless, I refuse not to fight. It is absurd to me that it will ever be okay to target children to degrade and humiliate them.”

On Saturday, she reported that numerous people have since reached out to show their support and call for the removal of the meme from various websites. Meyer’s motherly instinct has replaced that meme with another viral message: that Jameson is neither “ugly” nor “weird.”

He is a boy — one loved by many.

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