Online misogyny spikes after Trump win

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A barrage of misogynistic comments have permeated social media in the days after Donald Trump became the president-elect last week, according to research from the London-based think tank Institute for Strategic Dialogue.

“Your body, my choice” — a phrase popularized by white nationalist Nick Fuentes — became the reigning chant among men on the far-right who commented on women’s posts across social media, especially those who expressed sorrow at the election results, the report found.

The phrase — a retaliatory play on “my body, my choice,” which for decades has been a rallying cry for advocates of reproductive rights — surged shortly after Fuentes posted last Tuesday on X: “Your body, my choice. Forever.”

The phrase was mentioned thousands of times per day on various social platforms in the week after the election, peaking at more than 12,000 mentions on Friday, according to the report, which was published Friday. Within a 24-hour period late last week, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue found a 4,600% increase in mentions of the terms “your body, my choice” and “get back in the kitchen” on X, the report stated.

The institute said that it also observed reports of people using misogynistic language to harass women offline, including alleged instances of young boys repeating “your body, my choice” on school campuses. Hats and T-shirts featuring the phrase have also popped up on some e-commerce sites.

“One of the alarming characteristics of this trend is how quickly online influencers, known for propagating hate, can influence both online and offline behaviors, most especially the behaviors of young men,” report co-author Isabelle Frances-Wright, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue’s U.S. director of technology, wrote in an email statement.

The report adds to some other examples of hateful rhetoric spreading after Trump’s victory. Last week, scores of Black Americans across the country began receiving racist text messages telling them they had been chosen to pick cotton “at the nearest plantation” — prompting an investigation by the FBI and state law enforcement. (The source and motivation of these texts have not been established.)

Even before his election, Trump and his supporters had targeted Harris with misogynistic comments throughout her campaign. Trump said in July that world leaders would view Harris “like a play toy” based on her appearance, and his allies have suggested that Harris’ political success is attributable to diversity, equity and inclusion policies. One now-deleted ad from Elon Musk’s America PAC called Harris the “C-word” before going on to call her a “Communist.”

The Institute for Strategic Dialogue report found that many extremist politicians and influencers from the “manosphere” — a network of online spaces where men often preach traditional notions of masculinity and espouse misogynistic stereotypes about women — were emboldened after the re-election of Trump.

As misogynistic voices online “exploit Donald Trump’s election as a rebuke of both reproductive rights and women’s rights,” the report stated, “the impact on women could extend into the next presidential election and beyond.”

Fuentes’ post, which accrued more than 50,000 likes, was viewed more than 90 million times on X within a week. Though many online condemned the sentiment, Fuentes’ phrase quickly gained traction in right-wing circles.

On platforms like TikTok, women posted about the misogynistic comments they had received parroting Fuentes’ remarks, with many also rebuking the sentiment. A TikTok spokesperson confirmed that phrases like “your body, my choice” violates community guidelines, except for instances of counterspeech. The platform has removed some videos in the last week, a spokesperson said.

In the days after the presidential election, Sadie Perez began carrying pepper spray with her around campus. Her mom also ordered her and her sister a self-defense kit that included keychain spikes, a hidden knife key and a personal alarm.

It’s a response to an emboldened fringe of right-wing “manosphere” influencers who have seized on Republican Donald Trump ’s presidential win to justify and amplify misogynistic derision and threats online. Many have appropriated a 1960s abortion rights rallying cry, declaring “Your body, my choice” at women online and on college campuses

Isabelle Frances-Wright, director of technology and society at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank focusing on polarization and extremism, said she had seen a “very large uptick in a number of types of misogynistic rhetoric immediately after the election,” including some “extremely violent misogyny.”

Women on TikTok have reported seeing it inundate their comment sections. The slogan also has made its way offline with boys chanting it in middle schools or men directing it at women on college campuses, according to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue report and social media reports. One mother said her daughter heard the phrase on her college campus three times, the report said.

School districts in Wisconsin and Minnesota have sent notices about the language to parents. T-shirts emblazoned with the phrase were pulled off Amazon.

Perez said she has seen men respond to shared Snapchat stories for their college class with “Your body, my choice.”

Online declarations for women to “Get back in the kitchen” or to “Repeal the 19th,” a reference to the constitutional amendment that gave women the right to vote, have spread rapidly. In the days surrounding the election, the extremism think tank found that the top 10 posts on X calling for repeal of the 19th Amendment received more than 4 million views collectively.

A man holding a sign with the words “Women Are Property” sparked an outcry at Texas State University. The man was not a student, faculty or staff, and was escorted off campus, according to the university’s president. The university is “exploring potential legal responses,” he said.

The Global Project Against Hate and Extremism reported similar rhetoric, with “numerous violent misogynistic trends” gaining traction on right-wing platforms such 4chan and spreading to more mainstream ones such as X since the election.

Throughout the presidential race, Trump’s campaign leaned on conservative podcasts and tailored messaging toward disaffected young men. As Trump took the stage at the Republican National Convention over the summer, the song “It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World” by James Brown blared from the speakers.

One of several factors to his success this election was modestly boosting his support among men, a shift concentrated among younger voters, according to AP VoteCast, survey of more than 120,000 voters nationwide. But Trump also won support from 44% of women age 18 to 44, according to AP VoteCast.

To some men, Trump’s return to the White House is seen as a vindication, gender and politics experts said. For many young women, the election felt like a referendum on women’s rights and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris ’ loss felt like a rejection of their own rights and autonomy.

“For some of these men, Trump’s victory represents a chance to reclaim a place in society that they think they are losing around these traditional gender roles,” Frances-Wright said.

None of the current online rhetoric is being amplified by Trump or anyone in his immediate orbit. But Trump has a long history of insulting women, and the spike in such language comes after he ran a campaign that was centered on masculinity and repeatedly attacked Harris over her race and gender. His allies and surrogates also used misogynistic language about Harris throughout the campaign.

“With Trump’s victory, many of these men felt like they were heard, they were victorious. They feel that they have potentially a supporter in the White House,” said Dana Brown, executive director of the Pennsylvania Center for Women and Politics.

Brown said some young men feel they’re victims of discrimination and have expressed mounting resentment for successes of the women’s rights movement, including #MeToo. The tension also has been influenced by socioeconomic struggles.

As women become the majority on college campuses and many professional industries see increasing gender diversity, it has “led to young men scapegoating women and girls, falsely claiming it’s their fault they’re not getting into college anymore as opposed to looking inward,” Brown said.

Perez, the political science student, said she and her sister have been leaning on each other, their mother and other women in their lives to feel safer amid the online vitriol. They text each other to make sure they got home safely. They have girls’ nights to celebrate wins, including a female majority in student government at their campus in the University of Wisconsin system.

If it wasn't for elections, and now the internet, I would not have known or imagined that such terrible people existed.

The internet means people saying that stuff face no consequences and validation from others. If a boy said “women belong in the kitchen” never mind the other stuff you would have all the girls in the class calling him a “male chauvinist pig”.

I don’t advocate vigilantism but when thinking about what guys like that deserve the flick ‘I Spit On Your Grave’ comes to mind. If you don’t know what I am referring to look it up, on second thought you will be better off if you don’t.

At least you know why I despise and detest the orange goon. I had to put up with this kind of mean-spirited behavior with my own father. I was most definitely his scapegoat. Granted I cried the worst when he died 3 weeks before his 51st birthday, almost 40 years ago. Add to that the 3 groups of girl gangs that would physically beat me up, tried to get in my pants to jack me off, or mentally abuse me. I never received any kind of mental health help at that time, because mom and dad followed the advice of Louis B. Mayer, head of MGM at the time: “Any one who sees a psychiatrist ought to have their head examined.” And you wonder, at the age of 67, why I seldom leave my apartment and have been having frequent panic attacks at night.

I guess I am completely out of touch. I always thought the President was supposed to set a good example of morals to emulate. Now we have a rapist, felon, and a person who cheated on his wife with a porn star and a leader who thinks it's OK to grab a woman by the puxxy. According to him they love it. How will a parent respond to a child if asked if they should act like the President?