CHICAGO (AP) 鈥� In the days after the presidential election, Sadie Perez began carrying pepper spray with her around campus. Her mom also ordered her and her sister a self-defense kit that included keychain spikes, a hidden knife key and a personal alarm.
It鈥檚 a response to an emboldened fringe of right-wing 鈥渕anosphere鈥� influencers who have seized on Republican 鈥檚 to justify and amplify misogynistic derision and threats online. Many have appropriated a 1960s abortion rights rallying cry, declaring 鈥淵our body, my choice鈥� at women online and on college campuses.
For many women, the words represent a worrying harbinger of what might lie ahead as some men perceive the election results as a rebuke of reproductive rights and women鈥檚 rights.
鈥淭he fact that I feel like I have to carry around pepper spray like this is sad,鈥� said Perez, a 19-year-old political science student in Wisconsin. 鈥淲omen want and deserve to feel safe.鈥�
Isabelle Frances-Wright, director of technology and society at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank focusing on polarization and extremism, said she had seen a 鈥渧ery large uptick in a number of types of misogynistic rhetoric immediately after the election,鈥� including some 鈥渆xtremely violent misogyny.鈥�
鈥淚 think many progressive women have been shocked by how quickly and aggressively this rhetoric has gained traction,鈥� she said.
The phrase 鈥淵our body, my choice鈥� has been largely attributed to a post on the social platform X from Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust-denying white nationalist and far-right internet personality in Florida two years ago. In statements responding to criticism of that event, Trump said he had 鈥渘ever met and knew nothing about鈥� Fuentes before he arrived.
Mary Ruth Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law, said the phrase transforms the iconic abortion rights slogan into an attack on women鈥檚 right to autonomy and a personal threat.
鈥淭he implication is that men should have control over or access to sex with women,鈥� said Ziegler, a reproductive rights expert.
Fuentes' post had 35 million views on X within 24 hours, according to a report by Frances-Wright's think tank, and the phrase spread rapidly to other social media platforms.
Women on TikTok have reported seeing it inundate their comment sections. The slogan also has made its way offline with boys chanting it in middle schools or men directing it at women on college campuses, and social media reports. One mother said her daughter heard the phrase on her college campus three times, .
School districts in and have sent notices about the language to parents. T-shirts emblazoned with the phrase were pulled off Amazon.
Perez said she has seen men respond to shared Snapchat stories for their college class with 鈥淵our body, my choice.鈥�
鈥淚t makes me feel disgusted and infringed upon,鈥� she said. 鈥�... It feels like going backwards.鈥�
Misogynistic attacks have been part of the social media landscape for years. But Frances-Wright and others who track online extremism and disinformation said language glorifying violence against women or celebrating the possibility of their rights being stripped away has spiked since the election.
Online declarations for women to 鈥淕et back in the kitchen鈥� or to 鈥淩epeal the 19th,鈥� a reference to the constitutional amendment that gave women the right to vote, have spread rapidly. In the days surrounding the election, the extremism think tank found that the top 10 posts on X calling for repeal of the 19th Amendment received more than 4 million views collectively.
A man holding a sign with the words 鈥淲omen Are Property鈥� sparked an outcry at . The man was not a student, faculty or staff, and was escorted off campus, . The university is 鈥渆xploring potential legal responses,鈥� he said.
Anonymous rape threats have been left on the TikTok videos of women denouncing the election results. And on the far-flung reaches of the web, 4chan forums have called for 鈥渞ape squads鈥� and the adoption of policies in 鈥淭he Handmaid鈥檚 Tale,鈥� a dystopian book and TV series depicting the dehumanization and brutalization of women.
鈥淲hat was scary here was how quickly this also manifested in offline threats,鈥� Frances-Wright said, emphasizing that online discourse can have real-world impacts.
Previous violent rhetoric on 4chan has been connected to racially motivated and antisemitic attacks, including by a white supremacist in Buffalo that . also rose as politicians, , used words such as 鈥淐hinese virus鈥� to describe the COVID-19 pandemic. And Trump鈥檚 language targeting and in his first campaign correlated with spikes in hate speech and attacks on these groups, Frances-Wright said.
The Global Project Against Hate and Extremism similar rhetoric, with 鈥渘umerous violent misogynistic trends鈥� gaining traction on right-wing platforms such 4chan and spreading to more mainstream ones such as X since the election.
Throughout the presidential race, Trump鈥檚 campaign leaned on and tailored messaging toward . As Trump took the stage at the Republican National Convention over the summer, the song 鈥淚t鈥檚 A Man鈥檚 Man鈥檚 Man鈥檚 World鈥� by blared from the speakers.
One of several factors to his success this election was modestly , a shift concentrated among younger voters, according to AP VoteCast, survey of more than 120,000 voters nationwide. But Trump also won support from 44% of women age 18 to 44, according to AP VoteCast.
To some men, Trump's return to the White House is seen as a vindication, gender and politics experts said. For many young women, the election felt like a referendum on women鈥檚 rights and Democratic Vice President 鈥� loss felt like a rejection of their own rights and autonomy.
鈥淔or some of these men, Trump鈥檚 victory represents a chance to reclaim a place in society that they think they are losing around these traditional gender roles,鈥� Frances-Wright said.
None of the current online rhetoric is being amplified by Trump or anyone in his immediate orbit. But Trump has a long history of , and the spike in such language comes after he ran that was and repeatedly over her and . His allies and surrogates misogynistic language throughout the campaign.
鈥淲ith Trump鈥檚 victory, many of these men felt like they were heard, they were victorious. They feel that they have potentially a supporter in the White House,鈥� said Dana Brown, executive director of the Pennsylvania Center for Women and Politics.
Brown said some young men feel they鈥檙e victims of discrimination and have expressed mounting resentment for successes of the women鈥檚 rights movement, including . The tension also has been influenced by socioeconomic struggles.
As women become the majority on college campuses and many professional industries see increasing gender diversity, it has 鈥渓ed to young men scapegoating women and girls, falsely claiming it鈥檚 their fault they鈥檙e not getting into college anymore as opposed to looking inward,鈥� Brown said.
Perez, the political science student, said she and her sister have been leaning on each other, their mother and other women in their lives to feel safer amid the online vitriol. They text each other to make sure they got home safely. They have girls' nights to celebrate wins, including a female majority in student government at their campus in the University of Wisconsin system.
鈥淚 want to encourage my friends and the women in my life to use their voices to call out this rhetoric and to not let fear take over,鈥� she said.
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Christine Fernando, The Associated Press
