Just over two years ago, billionaire Elon Musk entered Twitter’s offices to take over as the new owner despite trying his utmost to get out of spending $44 billion for the platform. Since then, Twitter has become X and it has become a pit of engagement bait, bigotry, transphobia and since Tuesday, rampant, full frontal misogyny.
On Tuesday US citizens went to the polls to elect a new government and former President Donald Trump was chosen to serve his second term in office. This against a backdrop of fears that a second Trump presidency would be more chaotic, less equal, and more extreme than the first. No sooner had Trump been crowned President Elect than the worst people in the world threw off the mask of tolerance and leaned hard into extremist sentiment.
Since then, a phrase has started to spread across the web while also bleeding into what can only be described as blatant misogyny.
Nicholas Fuentes, an extremist alt-right podcaster in the US took to X on Wednesday to post, “Your body, my choice. Forever”. This was a jab at the bodily autonomy women have fought for, for decades, which Fuentes seemingly believes will be destroyed by a Trump administration. The personality is steeped in far-right ideas and has constantly railed against abortion and expresses bigoted views against people of colour, the Jewish community, and just about anybody else who doesn’t match his world views.
Fuentes gained a modicum of popularity while working with Kanye West after the rapper turned toxic. The pair met Trump for dinner in 2022 and while Trump can’t deny knowing West, he did say at the time that he had no idea who the other two peopler were. For context the third person was Milio Yiannopoulos, a now formerly gay man who has embraced conservative values.
Fuentes, like many others of his ilk, celebrated the Trump victory by leaning hard into controversial views. To put it plainly, 4chan and the incels were emboldened by the victory and figured that under Trump, anything would go, including threats of sexual assault.
The phrase is being waved off by some as not that serious but some women have reported encountering the “your body my choice” offline in public.
Women are quite rightfully terrified of the state of social media and the US at the moment. It is widely believed that access to abortions and contraceptives in the US will be outlawed at a federal level once Trump takes office but his plans in that regard aren’t clear as candidates often say anything to get elected.
However, Republicans have long showcased a disdain for abortion rights in the US and with the party controlling large swathes of the government following these elections, many fear abortions will be outlawed.
But the phrase “your body my choice” goes beyond just abortion rights. It speaks to a growing trend of misogynistic behaviour made famous by the likes of Andrew Tate, Donald Trump himself and countless others who have young men believing that the reason they are unhappy or lonely is because of women and a “woke” agenda. With a Trump victory, these men are more confident in their beliefs than ever before and they’re letting the world know exactly what those beliefs are.
The truth of the matter is that men are lonely and unhappy because they surround themselves with people like Tate and Fuentes. These men have made a living out of creating division and in order to do that they need a bad guy to point to.
When I was a teen that bad guy was “the man”. The rich bloke in a grey suit that bought politicians like Magic cards and used that influence to grow his bottom line. Hating the man was trendy and gave you common ground with peers, until we all grew up and discovered we had actually become the man in the grey suit.
What seems to be happening now is that far-right extremists have become the talking heads that young men listen to and the bad guy this time is women and anybody who isn’t a straight male. From what women have told me, the behaviour that people like Tate breeds in young men bleeds into the real world. Teachers are worried about how the boys in their schools are talking to women and all the while, the talking heads claim no responsibility or accountability they are inspiring in the real world, some even going so far as to encourage men to treat women like sub-humans in real life. There is no respect for women and men with large audiences are trying their utmost
That’s especially bad news in South Africa where violence against women is far too high as it stands, and doesn’t need influence from the US to make it worse. The problem is that it will make it worse especially if it continues unabated. We could see local podcasters adopting those points in hopes of driving traffic to their content even if they don’t believe them. This will ultimately lead to real world consequences. We can no longer ignore these voices because they happen to be online. These men attract massive audiences and their opinions are important to their viewers.
Denying that the US has influence on us here in South Africa is disingenuous. Yes, we have our own culture but a lot, if not the majority, of media we consume comes from the West. Allowing folks like Fuentes, Tate and countless others that exist in the so-called manosphere to spread this misogyny unabated cannot become the norm.
However, it appears that it is the norm, and close friend of Trump, Elon Musk, seems to be fine with this behaviour on his platform. Tate for instance regularly threatens people, posts slurs and worse but encounters no resistance or punishment from X because when it comes to X, free speech trumps all, no matter is being said. To its credit, the platform has removed some accounts that threatened sexual violence but it’s not clear whether it was those threats or some other heinous post that earned them a suspension.
The good news is that women aren’t standing by to watch this unfold. Women have responded to violent comments with violent comments of their own. Women online are now sharing advice on what sort of guns they should own, self defence tactics and more. There are also references to the 4B movement. Born in South Korea, 4B is a movement in which women refuse to have sex with men, give birth, date men or get married. Started as a response to South Korea’s incredibly patriarchal society and the view that women are simply tools for reproduction.
Seven states in the US also voted to protect abortion rights so there is at least some sanity that prevailed in the US.
How long that will last though is the question keeping us up at night and how we tackle this rise in misogyny, transphobia, homophobia and racism is unclear. There is talk of the left embracing a divisive figure akin to Joe Rogan but that’s not going to be enough. So long as platforms like X continue to give a voice to the most vile people on Earth, there is little hope for decency, basic respect and equality to prevail.
