The 'We're a Culture, Not a Costume' meme originated from a 2011 poster campaign by Students Teaching About Racism in Society (STARS) at Ohio University. The original intention was to raise awareness about racial stereotypes and cultural appropriation during Halloween by featuring students holding photos of people dressed in offensive caricatures of their backgrounds. However, like many earnest social campaigns, the internet eventually adopted the format for satire. Memers began replacing the serious subjects with niche subcultures, fictional characters, or bizarre hobbies, turning the posters into a flexible template for highlighting and mocking obsessive fandoms or niche internet identities. Today, it serves as a versatile tool for humorously defending everything from 'gamer culture' to specific memes under the guise of the original campaign's serious layout.