“Your body, my choice”: Post-election attack line announced

Donald Trump is headed to the White House again, so it’s no surprise that Americans are struggling with a problem again. Increase in hate speech.

This time one of the lines of attack was “your body, my choice.” It has been attributed by some to an election night post by white supremacist Nick Fuentes on turns it into an attack and, at worst, a rape threat.

In the days following the election, TikTok creators reported seeing the phrase appear in the comments on their videos. a report By the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a global, non-partisan think tank working on disinformation and extremism. sole creator in question She had to delete one video because commenters said they “couldn’t wait until I get raped or ‘your body is my choice’.”

A mother says girls and young women also hear the line in schools, family members say post on facebook She said her daughter heard this song three times on campus and boys told her to “sleep with one eye open tonight.”

Instances of this phrase rose 4,600 percent in X between last Thursday and Friday. according to the report. Meanwhile, here’s Fuentes’ original post: Republished more than 35,000 times.

The rise in sexist hatred reflects one of the dominant narratives of the election: that it was essentially a victory for men over women. Trump has tailored much of his campaign to disaffected American men, especially young men, many of whom feel victims of discrimination and express anger at feminist movements such as Me Too. For many of these men, the choice feels like a sense of vindication, and for some it’s more than that: a chance to put women back in their place.

Meanwhile, for anyone who’s been subjected to misogynistic insults in the past few days, this statement sounds like a frightening harbinger of things to come. At the same time, experts told Vox that Americans have experienced this kind of hate speech before, especially in the aftermath of the attack. Trump’s first election in 2016 — and that history may hold lessons for navigating the present.

This statement is part of a larger pattern of misogyny

Program director Laura Prieto said the feminist phrase “my body, my choice” was regularly used in chants at rallies in the 1970s, but it is unclear who first coined the phrase. Today Our Bodies Are OurselvesA digital platform that replicates the iconic reproductive health book Our Bodies, Ourselves. In previous years Roe v. wadePrieto said it was a call for abortion rights, but also “a statement that women are demanding their right as equal human beings to have the authority to decide what happens to them.”

It has become a term less popular on the left in recent years, especially after adopted by anti-vaccine activists. “My body, my choice” has now been co-opted by Fuentes and others, turning it into a tool to harass and intimidate women.

Others do not use this expression but repeat the idea With Trump’s election, women must submit to the will of men. Isabelle Frances-Wright, director of technology and society at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and one of the report’s authors, told Vox that posts on social media ranged from “more coded misogyny” to “very direct rape threats.”

According to the report, many of the sexist posts originate from “manosphere” influencers such as Andrew Tate and their followers – for example, Tate posted on X on November 7: “I saw a woman crossing the road today but I kept my foot down. Right of way? Now “You have no rights.”

The “Manosphere” creators are part of a larger online ecosystem geared toward men that has moved further to the right in recent years and helped propel Trump to victory, Vox’s Rebecca Jennings reports. According to the report, while fifty-five percent of male voters voted for Trump this year, this rate was only 45 percent of female voters. Washington Post exit poll. (Although we should note that exit polls are preliminary and therefore unreliable data.)

This gender divide on the internet emerged before the election. The Institute for Strategic Dialogue finds that: Increase in misogynistic posts (including calls) repeal the 19th amendment) will launch in October, apparently in response to the Harris campaign’s focus on female voters and reproductive rights. The spread of the posts “revealed the influence of increasingly vindictive online actors who appear to be using the election results as a permission structure to more openly and aggressively embrace narratives about the curtailment of women’s rights,” Frances-Wright and co-author said. Moustafa Ayad writes in his reports.

A similar pattern emerged after Trump’s primary election in 2016, when civil rights groups and law enforcement saw this. A sudden increase in hate speech attacks on women and people perceived to be Muslims or immigrants—all groups that Trump explicitly or implicitly denigrated in his first campaign. The harassment even spread into classrooms; BuzzFeed analysis More than 50 incidents were identified during the 2016-17 school year in which a student used Trump’s name or message to attack a classmate.

Just because the attacks aren’t new doesn’t make them any less scary to the people on the other side. “It’s very traumatic, especially if you’re young,” Frances-Wright said. Veiled rape threats may sound doubly frightening in a country where Trump is coasting to victory despite multiple allegations of sexual assault.

How to combat post-election hate?

Because the harassment people experience today is part of a long-standing pattern, there is a playbook available to counter it. Some organizations also include schools And bookstoresThey have recently issued statements declaring that they will not tolerate discrimination or harassment.

It is also a time to remember the long history of “my body, my choice” and everything it represents. challenges for women This must have seemed insurmountable at times, including the lack of many basic rights such as the ability to open a credit card in their own name or serve on a jury.

“Just because they look really strong right now doesn’t mean they’re always going to stay that way,” Prieto said. “The only thing you can count on is that things will change.”