‘Your body, my choice’: Women face surge in hate speech on X and TikTok following Trump’s election victory
It’s no surprise that Trump’s victory would lead to an increase in online harassment and hate speech against women. Trump has attacked women’s reproductive rights and access to abortion (which was on the ballot in 10 states in this election), and used concerns about masculinity as a key voting issue, often using sexist, slurs on the campaign trail. Not to mention that he was found guilty of sexual assault.
Now, it seems that for some, Trump’s reelection is a pass to the hall of immorality.
In both the days before the election and after Trump’s victory, women in the United States are facing a significant increase in hate, harassment, and even humiliation on the Internet, according to a new study by the Institute of Strategic Dialogue (ISD), which leads. a global think tank dedicated to the protection of human rights.
Online hate against women increased in the last presidential election in 2020, and again in mid-2022. But now the manosphere, emboldened by Trump’s victory, is more vocal than ever online with anti-feminist rhetoric that “could carry over into the next presidential election and beyond,” ISD said.
The manosphere is all over social media on X and TikTok, right-wing and conservative blogs, and forums on Reddit, to name a few, and promotes masculinity, attacks women, and questions feminism.
What has changed in this election cycle? Male bloggers, podcasters, influencers, and public figures who used to identify as liberal intellectuals (or libertarians) have bought into Trump’s masculinity appeal, openly supporting him and making Trump seem likable (think Joe Rogan, Shawn Ryan, Adin Ross, Andrew Schulz, Lex Friedman). And young men listened to these bros, they started voting for Trump, and now, after the election, they no longer feel the need to measure themselves.
ISD researchers tracked comments across X, TikTok, forums, blogs, Reddit, and YouTube from October 1 to November 6 and found an increase in women’s content at the end of October, just before the election. and the increasing number of posts calling for the repeal of the 19th Amendment (which gave women the right to vote in the US in 1920).
The day after the election, phrases like “your body, my choice,” “back in the kitchen,” and “repeal the 19th” exploded across all platforms and have been growing ever since, according to ISD.
When asked about the increased use of these phrases, TikTok confirmed it Fast company that “three sentences break [our] Community guidelines specifically under ‘hate speech’ and content including those phrases are being removed from the platform.”
Fast company and reached X in terms of sentences.
This trend shows no signs of abating. On Election Day, Gen Z political commentator and white supremacist Nick Fuentes fueled the fire when he wrote to X, “Your body, my choice. Forever.” The post has received more than 35 million views. The word has spread to TikTok and Facebook, where it appeared in 52,000 posts in 24 hours, and even in schools, with some posts showing boys singing phrases to girls.
