A barrage of misogynistic comments have permeated social media since Donald Trump became the president-elect last week, according to research from London-based think tank, Institute for Strategic Dialogue.
“Your body, my choice” — a phrase popularised 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 soon after Fuentes posted on X on Election Day: “Your body, my choice. Forever.”
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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 last week.
The Institute for Strategic Dialogue found a 4600 per cent increase in mentions of the terms “your body, my choice” and “get back in the kitchen” on X in a 24-hour period late last week, the report said.
The institute said 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 behaviours, most especially the behaviours of young men,” co-author Isabelle Frances-Wright, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue’s US director of technology, said.
The report adds to other examples of hateful rhetoric spreading after Trump’s victory. Last week, scores of Black people 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 agencies. (The sources and motivations of the texts have not been established.)
Gender played a central role in this year’s election as Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign emphasised reproductive rights. Polls before the election had found a widening gender gap between the two candidates.
Trump ended up outperforming many of those polls. NBC News exit polling found he drew 45 per cent of all female votes, compared with 53 per cent for Harris — a significant improvement from 2020, when he lost among female voters by 15 percentage points to Joe Biden. Trump also made gains among young women.
Trump and his supporters had targeted Harris with misogynistic comments throughout her campaign. Trump said in July that world leaders would view her “like a play toy” based on her appearance, and his allies have suggested Harris’ political success is attributable to diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
An ad from Elon Musk’s America PAC, which has been deleted, called Harris the c-word before it went 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 Trump’s re-election.
As misogynistic voices online “exploit Donald Trump’s election as a rebuke of both reproductive rights and women’s rights,” the report said, “the impact on women could extend into the next presidential election and beyond”.
Fuentes’ post, which got 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 such as 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” violate community guidelines, except for instances of counter-speech.
The platform has removed some videos in the past week, a spokesperson said.