McDonald's is flipping its iconic golden arches upside down in 'celebration of women' - and people are freaking out

• McDonald's flipped its golden-arches sign upside down at a Lynwood, California location in honor of International Women's Day.
• The fast-food giant also flipped its iconic logo on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram on Thursday. 
• McDonald's upside-down logo sparked intense feminist debate - as well as some investigation into parallels with SpongeBob SquarePants and various anime programs. 

McDonald's decision to flip its arches upside down for International Women's Day has inspired a torrent of backlash - and a wave of SpongeBob SquarePants jokes. 

A McDonald's location in Lynwood, California turned its golden-arches sign upside down earlier this week in honor of International Women's Day. On Thursday, the fast-food chain debuted the flipped arches on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. 

The upside-down arches are in "celebration of women everywhere," a McDonald's representative told Business Insider in an email on Wednesday. 

However, some people didn't love the change.

Many said that McDonald's was missing the point of International Women's Day. Eater's Erin DeJesus slammed the move in an article with the headline "McDonald's Upends 10,000 Years of Patriarchy with One Weird Trick."

Others were angry for the opposite reason, arguing that International Women's Day is an unnecessary celebration of women. 

"How bout y'all stick to making burgers and quit with the politically correct sideshow?" reads one of the top comments on McDonald's Facebook post unveiling the upside-down logo. "Enough already."

McDonald's flipped arches also inspired some pop-culture connections

Then, there were those who saw parallels between the upside-down logo and other iconic pop-culture touchstones. 

People spotted some distinct similarities to a "SpongeBob SquarePants" plotline. 

A common anime trick (likely used to avoid copyright issues) is to simply flip the "M" in representations of McDonald's, creating cities filled with WcDonald's. 

McDonald's released more info about its decision to flip its iconic logo on Thursday, highlighting the achievements of some of the many women that work at the fast-food giant. 

"Are we perfect? Of course not," McDonald's global chief diversity officer, Wendy Lewis, wrote in an essay published on Thursday.

Lewis continued: "We know we have work to do and are committed to listening and working with others across business, government and our communities to improve and make stories like Yazmin's [a McDonald's manager] in particular the norm, not the exception." 

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