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title, source, author, published, created, description, tags
| title | source | author | published | created | description | tags | ||
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| The Women of Right-Wing Media | https://medium.com/fourth-wave/the-women-of-right-wing-media-5fdf237402ad |
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2024-07-28 | 2024-10-29 | When you think of the right-wing — not just the media, but politics as well — you probably imagine a straight, white man. For the most part, you would be right. The Daily Wire, Prager U, and The… |
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Supporting traditional values unconditionally — for other women
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Image from Poison of the right-wing female pundit, Salon
When you think of the right-wing — not just the media, but politics as well — you probably imagine a straight, white man.
For the most part, you would be right. The Daily Wire, Prager U, and The Blaze are some of the largest right-wing media outlets, that primarily use social media, and are all headed by men. When it comes to traditional media, Fox News is best known for Tucker Carlson (even if they got rid of him). Gamergate, too, was a major online right-wing movement that was inspired by young men, who felt feminists were infiltrating their video game sphere. The modern red pill movement is also primarily male, but there are female influencers. In general, young women tend to trend left, while young men trend right.
However, with Amber Rose speaking at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in support of Trump, it is worth noting that many women are speaking in favor of the right-wing. Libs of TikTok — which posts ‘cringe’ liberals to mock and direct hate towards them, has caused a frenzy across our country at school board meetings and even legislation, was cited by Florida Governor Ron Desantis, and has led to death threats and firings for countless individuals — is run by a woman named Chaya Raichik. The rising star of The Daily Wire, the same network that brought you Ben Shapiro, is his female doppelganger Brett Cooper. There’s also Lauren Chen, Candace Owens, and Allie B Stuckey, to name a few. All women with large social media followings, who support right-wing talking points, including on gender.
While they share the same beliefs as their male counterparts, their presentation is different; most of these women are young and conventionally attractive, and they often present themselves in a much more pleasant and friendly way.
While Ben Shapiro and Brett Cooper may look alike and have the same political beliefs, Cooper comes across as much more charismatic and trendy. Part of this is because Cooper doesn’t speak at the speed of a car auctioneer. You can also compare their reactions to the Barbie movie; Cooper was able to admit that she liked the movie, despite the liberal politics and opinion of her peers, while Ben Shapiro took angry photos lamenting that he had to watch the movie. His photo would later on be mocked by Gen-Z. He looks like a nerd.
From Ben Shapiro’s Twitter account.
Amala Ekpunobi is another one of these women, who started on Prager U. She is a biracial woman, her father being a Nigerian immigrant, and she also claims to be a former leftist activist, before eventually becoming a right-winger. She’s 24, and much like Brett, makes videos in a similar aesthetic and fashion as liberal influencers. It’s intelligent marketing, that invites young (and even left-leaning) viewers. Dennis Prager, the co-founder of Prager U, is a 75-year-old white man, falling in the same category as the out-of-touch boomer politicians Gen-Z complains about.
Not only are women promoting right-wing ideology, but they are important for it.
A (brief) history of right-wing women
Anita Bryant, a former singer and pageant winner, was a prominent anti-gay activist in the late 70s. She ran the campaign “Save Our Children” to argue against discrimination protections for the LGBTQ community, promoting the conspiracy that the gay community molests children to “recruit” them. Anita was successful in her campaign, but it permanently destroyed her reputation and career; she became a much-hated figure in the gay community, even being hit in the face with a pie by a gay activist during a press conference.
Many parallels exist today, specifically with Chaya Raichik, who began the trend of right-wingers referring to queer people as “groomers” looking to convert children. Elementary school teachers, performers, and even children’s hospitals are not safe from the accusation. Alongside Chaya, there are also groups such as Moms for Liberty, who are behind the push to ban not only LGBTQ content in schools but also content about the Holocaust and slavery. All under the feminine guise of “protecting the children.”
But what children? Black and Jewish children are not protected by their history being banned to appease privileged children. Children from nontraditional families aren’t protected either.
While men are typically the ones who commit violent crimes, the weaponization of motherhood and femininity is used as a justification. A lot of violence against black men during the Jim Crow era, for example, was done under the banner of false rape accusations. Nazi Germany accused Jewish men of being perverts. Anti-immigrant and anti-refugee propaganda uses the same rhetoric today.
Black and Jewish children are not protected by their history being banned to appease privileged children. Children from nontraditional families aren’t protected either.
Even further back, there was The National Association Opposed to Women Suffrage (NAOWS); an organization that was founded by women in 1911, who were opposed to their own right to vote.
They distributed a pamphlet, Some Reasons Why We Oppose Votes for Women, which outlined their beliefs; they stated that women did not need the vote to advance in society; that most women did not want to vote; and that women could be represented by their men. Even with the right to vote, you can still not vote if you choose, but these women wanted to enforce that on everybody.
They also claimed, in their pamphlet, “We believe that political equality will deprive us of special privileges hitherto accorded to us by law.” This is a common theme — conservative women are anti-feminist because they believe feminism will take away their female privileges, such as not working or serving in the army. However, do all women have these privileges?
Are working-class and poor women free from labor? The majority of women in “traditional” periods weren’t sitting at home, but instead doing hard labor on the farms, or in sweatshops. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, in which predominately young, immigrant, female workers burned to death after being abused and underpaid, and widely ignored by the labor movement due to being female, happened in the year 1911 — a pre-feminist time, before women were even allowed to vote. Chivalry didn’t protect them. Do women in Syria or Gaza get to use their “female privilege” to escape war?
Chivalry didn’t protect them [the women killed in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire]. Do women in Syria or Gaza get to use their “female privilege” to escape war?
The women in NOAW were predominately wealthy women, and many of them were the wives of politicians — of course they felt they could exercise power through their husbands; wives of coal miners may not feel the same way. The founder, Josephine Jewell Dodge, was married to Congressman William E. Dodge, and lived a privileged life. She would be replaced by Alice Hay Wadsworth, who was the wife of a Senator. ==This is another theme among conservative female activists; most of them come from economic privilege, and as a result, are shielded from the worst parts of female oppression.==
A woman from a stable and wealthy family, for example, would have a much easier time getting away if the trad lifestyle didn’t work out. A woman who lives in economic privilege may not care as much about workplace discrimination as a woman who needs to work to live.
This is another theme among conservative female activists; most of them come from economic privilege, and as a result, are shielded from the worst parts of female oppression.
As for female privilege, this argument would also be used by Phyllis Schlafly, a woman who stopped the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA); the ERA would have invalidated laws that discriminate against women. Schlafly opposed it for, among other reasons, the possibility it could cause women to be drafted. A lot of men critical of feminism argue that women want rights but not responsibilities — ironically, it’s anti-feminist women who don’t want the responsibility.
I don’t think anyone should be drafted; no one should be compelled to fight in a war that they have no interest in. The draft targets working-class men; while wealthy men can pay their way out, and the politicians who declared the war aren’t sent to fight in the first place.
When Trump ordered the assassination of Iranian General Soleimani in 2020, World War III began to trend on Twitter. With everything happening in Ukraine and the Middle East, fears of a wider conflict is reasonable. And whenever this discussion happens, memes like this start to spread.
from 9gag
This makes me wonder if some women embrace conservatism because traditional gender roles promise an escape from hardship, being taken care of by men. With all of the international and economic hardship, from foreign wars to the rising cost of living, the kitchen may feel safer. Unfortunately, propaganda is different from reality.
Right-wing women, meet misogyny
In the early Trump era, Tomi Lahren was all the rage; she had her show on TheBlaze, where she hosted short video segments called “final thoughts” in which she criticized liberal politics. She was a cheerleader for conservatism and Trump, which got her fame among the right and hate among the left. This stardom came to an abrupt end in 2017 when her show was suspended after revealing in an interview with The View that she believed women should have the right to an abortion. She would eventually be fired. While she is still a conservative talking head today, she has nowhere near the amount of relevance and cultural sway she did before this interview.
The hypocrisy is glaring; the right claims to be against cancel culture and for freedom of speech, but they canceled Tomi for having an opinion they didn’t like. However, I’m not going to herald Tomi as a progressive, nor did I defend her when she was penalized by her network. Tomi was highly critical of the Standing Rock protesters, who opposed building an oil pipeline on sovereign tribal land. She also compared Black Lives Matter to the KKK. I question why Tomi only has a progressive stance on an issue that could impact her directly.
This stardom came to an abrupt end in 2017 when her show was suspended after revealing in an interview with The View that she believed women should have the right to an abortion.
And while Tomi may personally support the legal right to an abortion, she also supported Donald Trump, who in turn nominated SCOTUS justices that voted to repeal Roe v Wade.
The far right is notoriously ungrateful to those who put it into power.
Salon Magazine wrote a piece about women in the alt-right complaining about white nationalists being misogynistic to them. A self-described ethno-nationalist Tara McCarthy, for example, tweeted, “Women in the Alt Right are constantly harassed by low-status anonymous trolls trying to put us in our place. Women of all ages, who do or don’t have children, are harassed for various ‘reasons’. The ultimate goal seems to be to bully us off the internet. Men in the Alt Right are going to have to decide whether they will continue to passively/actively endorse this behavior, or speak out against it. If you want more women speaking publicly about ethno-nationalism, I suggest you choose the latter.”
Once again, I do not have sympathy for Miss McCarthy. You wanted ethno-nationalism for the racism, but aren’t down with the misogyny? Did your brothers not make themselves clear when they said women are supposed to submit to men and forgo their careers and education? What made you think those men wanted to hear your opinions?
A core tenet of ethno-nationalism is having many children to continue the race/‘nation.’ In this case, white nationalists (including Tara McCarthy) believe that white people are being replaced by minority groups; remember the Charlottesville men chanting that they wouldn’t be replaced? They blame feminism, abortion, and gay marriage, among other things, for the decline in white birth rates. The natural conclusion is that white women need to get back in the kitchen and start giving birth to white children.
Six years ago, Lauren Southern felt the need to defend herself to her audience with her Why I’m Not Married video. Before she was a victim of domestic violence, Southern was the star of the alt-right. Her claim to fame was a video on The Rebel, entitled Why I Am Not a Feminist. Being a woman against feminism gave her notoriety.
She, and many of the other far-right women, use this novelty to gain a name for themselves. In turn, they receive money and fame, which gives them economic privileges that other women who live in traditional dynamics don’t have. And yet, Southern was surprised enough to see the misogyny she supported also applies to her, that she felt she had to make a YouTube video defending herself.
When modern women want to delay getting married and having kids, they are fat feminists who will die alone and destroy society, but when Lauren Southern wants to delay marriage and having children, she has a perfectly valid reason to. Other women are stupid and should shut up and get back in the kitchen, but these right-wing talking-head women are special and get to have platforms where they act confrontational and argue with other people (including men).
Once again, these women reveal themselves to be self-serving; they support traditional values unconditionally on other women, but only on themselves as they see fit and for what benefits them personally. They happily cheer along the racism in their space but don’t want the misogyny that comes with it.
The prospects for right-wing women
The women I mentioned in this article are all rather famous and make a lot of money. Some women, such as Amy Coney Barrett, have been able to rise to extremely powerful positions, despite their values opposing that for women. Many of them, because of their economic and social privilege, are shielded from the worst of what they preach — but that doesn’t mean they are immune from their vitriol.
Lauren Southern is a great example of this. She eventually did get married and have a child, like a good trad woman. Unfortunately, she suffered domestic violence at the hands of her husband while living thousands of miles away from her family. According to an interview, during this time she participated in a Whatsapp group with other tradwives going through the same problem.
Speaking about her relationship with her now ex-husband, “If I ever disagreed with him in any capacity he’d just disappear, for days at a time. I remember there were nights where he’d call me worthless and pathetic, then get in this car and leave . . . I had this delusional view of relationships: that only women could be the ones that make or break them, and men can do no wrong.”
So she didn’t spot the red flags, even as they grew more extreme. “He’d lock me out of the house. I remember having to knock on the neighbour’s door on rainy nights, because he’d get upset and drive off without unlocking the house. It was very strange, to go from being this public figure on stage with people clapping, to the girl crying, knocking on someone’s door with no home to get into, being abandoned with a baby.”
While, in many ways, Lauren Southern was privileged to be online famous — as it gives a chance for income and even support — being on the far-right comes with unique challenges. Southern mentioned it being difficult to find a “normal” job because of how many controversial opinions she had online. When your name is synonymous with white supremacy and misogyny, most companies just don’t want the PR risk. Her only option to make money was to continue being a right-wing pundit, but seeking a divorce, no matter how justified it was, would put her at odds with that audience.
It’s like a Greek tragedy in some ways, how the very ideology that made her so famous and successful ended up betraying her and leaving her with an impossible situation.
It’s like a Greek tragedy in some ways, how the very ideology that made her so famous and successful ended up betraying her and leaving her with an impossible situation
However, she did end up getting out. She lived in a cabin in the woods, improved her mental health, and worked on repairing her relationships with friends and family. I would be unconditionally happy for her if it weren’t for the fact that many of the women who were persuaded to follow her beliefs won’t have the same luck.
Perhaps some women are in it for the grift. Other women genuinely believe in this ideology. They believe that if they appease men enough, if they submit hard enough, they will gain status over other women as “one of the good ones” and be protected from male violence. They will get to have a life of comfort and freedom from Capitalism, while their husband goes out and works.
Unfortunately for them, conservative women are still women, and they will be treated as such.
For more stories about the promotion of sexism, racism, and homophobia on right-wing media, follow Fourth Wave. Have you got a story or poem that focuses on women or other disempowered groups? Submit to the Wave!