In the summer of 2023, I said something a man disagreed with on a Reddit forum. About 20 minutes later, I received a message from what seemed to be a burner account called “futuremassshooter19” on the Reddit app.
The message contained disturbing pornography and messages that included “we have nothing but disdain for you b-----s,” “You don’t need to fear me sweetheart. You just gotta fear this gun,” and “go speed walk at night when you see a man behind you,” among other things that should not be put into print.
At one point, this vitriol was reserved for the basements and crawl spaces of the internet. Today, this rhetoric can be found in 30 seconds on the most mainstream social media platforms.
As of 2024, nearly every one in two women in the U.S. has experienced intimate partner violence at some point in their lives. In 2019, nine out of every 10 women who were murdered in the U.S. were murdered by a man they knew. Violence against women and misogyny are pervasive in every society, but as of late, the situation has become even more dire.
Nefarious attitudes toward women do not always manifest in direct violence, especially since the birth of the internet. Misogyny has taken a new form online that is just as insidious, if not more concerning given how discreet it can be. These attitudes toward women are particularly prominent in young men and those they choose to idolize.
Aggression and controlling behavior toward women have become staples of many online communities for young men. There is an underlying sentiment that women owe men sex and submissiveness. When this standard is not met, there is room in these spaces to degrade women in a way that perpetuates violence. All they are are bodies, and they must surrender their bodies to the whims of men.
Nick Fuentes comes to mind in this context. Fuentes is a far-right livestreamer and political pundit who promotes white supremacy, antisemitism and misogyny. Many of Fuentes’s statements could be considered “rage bait,” or controversial and often prejudiced rhetoric used to elicit an emotional response from those who do not align with him. Still, this should not discount the root of the messages he shares.
On election night, Fuentes made a post that read: “Your body, my choice. Forever.” These four words reflect a tone shift toward women, felt throughout the country as his statement was parroted at an alarmingly high rate.
Alongside this statement, the use of phrases such as “get back to the kitchen” and “repeal the 19th” in reference to the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote, grew exponentially online. Specifically, the use of “your body, my choice” and “get back in the kitchen” grew by 4,600% the day after the election.
Following the election, women took to TikTok to share instances of harassment online, including further repetition of “your body my choice.” Then, they shared accounts of men responding to their videos with rape threats. The rhetoric also made its way into schools and college campuses in some instances.
There is something very wrong with the attitude many young American men have toward women, and it will take time to fully understand where this anger comes from. However, it is clear that aggression toward women is boiling in the minds of young men given the dogmatic fanbases of those such as Fuentes and Andrew Tate.
Although it usually occurs in underground spaces, it has never been a secret that violent attitudes toward women fester among men online. However, the rise in popularity of overtly misogynistic men in every sphere of influence on the internet has emboldened a very misguided and sometimes sick part of the population.
Megan is a senior studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note the views expressed in this column do not reflect those of The Post. Want to talk to Megan about her article? Email her at md396520@ohio.edu.
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