"Your body, my choice:" Hate and harassment towards women spreads online (And OFFLINE At Schools!) [View all]

[Jack Valentino]

https://www.isdglobal.org/digital_dispatches/your-body-my-choice-hate-and-harassment-towards-women-spreads-online/

from
digital dispatches
ISD’s blog for the latest in data-driven research on hate, disinformation and extremism.

Content warning: This article contains offensive and obscene language.

In a national election heavily focused on women and reproductive rights, women in the United States have faced an onslaught of online abuse, harassment, and denigration following Vice President Kamala Harris’s loss. This is more than just a continuation of misogynist trends that ISD documented in both the run-up to this election and in the aftermath of previous cycles including 2020 and 2022. As an emboldened group of ‘manosphere’ influencers, extremist ideologues and politicians exploit Donald Trump’s election as a rebuke of both reproductive rights and women’s rights, the impact on women could extend into the next presidential election and beyond.

While Trump’s victory has been a focal point for communities which support restricting women’s reproductive rights, there was a spike in misogynist content in late October. ISD found a significant rise in posts focused on repealing the 19th Amendment (which gave women the right to vote). This appears to reflect the Harris campaign’s acute focus on securing a sizable majority of women voters. Many of these posts – which targeted women and supporters of their rights – faced quick rebuke. Their spread nevertheless demonstrated the influence of an increasingly vindicative set of online actors, who appear to be using the election results as a permission structure to more overtly and aggressively espouse narratives about curbing women’s rights.

ISD researchers tracked narratives targeting women and the discussion of those narratives between November 4 and 6, 2024 across X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, Facebook and Reddit. The use of derogatory and misogynistic language was already rife among well-noted manosphere and extremist communities on these platforms, and this activity has only gained steam in the past three days since the election. ISD also observed reports of these narratives being used to harass women offline, particularly on high school and college campuses.

(Read more to see graphical data and specific instances about this happening)
https://www.isdglobal.org/digital_dispatches/your-body-my-choice-hate-and-harassment-towards-women-spreads-online/