Emboldened by a Trump victory, misogyny is exploding online

In this commentary, features director Brittney McNamara examines the vocal misogyny that spread online after Trump's reelection.

Donald Trump, a convicted sex offender, was elected to his second term, and before the election was even called, misogynists began boldly proclaiming their hatred of women online.

White supremacist Nicholas Fuentes wrote: “Your body, my choice. Forever” on X on November 5, a misogynistic rallying cry that has spread like wildfire among young men online. He floated the idea in a video, saying, “Hey bitch, we're checking your bodies.” Guess what? Boys win again, men win again, and yes, we control your bodies,” as part of a sardonic anti-women rant. One user from And Andrew Tate, a Manosphere influencer and self-proclaimed misogynist, was predictably on full blast on X following Trump's election.

“I saw a woman crossing the street today, but I just held back. Right of way? You no longer have any rights,” he wrote in a post. “The men are in charge again,” he said in another. And in a repost from a woman who said she was “requesting a president who isn't a rapist,” Tate wrote, “REQUEST DENIED.” These are just a few of Tate's misogynistic, racist, homophobic and just plain hateful posts.

And these are just a few of the blatantly misogynistic posts that have flooded the internet since Trump's election. In addition to outright misogyny, WIRED reported on the many violent and bigoted posts celebrating Trump's victory, pointing to posts calling for “rape squads” that spoke of “rounding up all gays into camps.” Trump’s opposition reveled in “white power” and threatened it.

It's no surprise that people hate women. This is evident at every level of our society, from the prevalence of sexual violence to the wage gap, the denial of women's pain, the lack of women in leadership positions, to the fact that we have never had a woman in the Oval Office. Misogyny is particularly pervasive: Black women experience higher rates of violence, earn less money on average than their white counterparts, hold fewer positions of power, face higher maternal mortality rates, and more. And that these Trump supporters have a particular antipathy toward women is no surprise, given the widespread misogyny both within Trump's own campaign and among his supporters during the campaign.