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.