The backlash election
Trump's win encapsulates growing resentment against the changing place of women in society
Welcome back readers (and welcome, new subscribers). Usually I send out five reads on the backlash against feminism every week(ish), but given the news from America I am sending you a special edition of this newsletter. Normal service will resume next time.
The backlash election
In 2016, when Donald Trump won his first US election and Britons voted for Brexit by a narrow margin, both results were understood as part of a backlash against the iniquities of neoliberal economics. Globalisation had left too many people behind. Voters wanted to stick it to establishment politics. They wanted change and voted for it.
Now, in the headline show of the 2024 “mega-election” year, Trump has won again, and analysts are explaining the Republicans’ decisive victory through the vagaries of the economy, inflation and an out-of-touch, establishment Democrat party failing to sell itself to voters and being hit by the “incumbent’s curse”. But the word backlash is relevant in another sense, too. This had been dubbed “the gender gap” election: Kamala Harris was thought to be more popular with women; Trump was more popular with men. It turns out that the term may also serve as a euphemism for something darker: this was the backlash-against feminism election.
When Hillary Clinton lost to Trump in 2016, people asked whether the US simply “wasn’t ready” to be led by a woman. With Harris losing the popular vote by nearly five million ballots (the first time the Republicans have won the popular vote in 20 years), and far underperforming Biden’s vote count in 2020, this year’s result raises a similar question: is the US simply too misogynistic to elect a woman president? There is something deeper here than negative reaction to the mere idea of a female in the Oval Office: in choosing Trump, Americans have elected a candidate who reflects a general, growing discomfort with the changing place of women in society….
That’s the first section of my piece on why the US election is the backlash-against-feminism election. You can read the rest at Prospect
And some further reading
“Your body, my choice”: Harassment toward women surges online after election day — Anna Kitanaka, Bloomberg
Donald Trump’s election victory against Vice President Kamala Harris this week has emboldened influencers from the ‘Manosphere,’ or interconnected misogynistic online communities, who see his election win as a rebuke of reproductive rights and gender equality, said ISD, a nonprofit that advocates policies to fight extremism.
The manosphere “appear to be using the election results as a permission structure to more overtly and aggressively espouse narratives about curbing women’s rights,” ISD said.
Phrases such as “your body, my choice,” promoted by White nationalist podcaster Nick Fuentes, saw a 4,600% increase on Nov. 6, ISD said. Posts calling for repealing the 19th Amendment, which gave White women the right to vote in the US about a century ago, surged 663% compared to the previous week.
“Your body, my choice”, the 4B movement and the Gen Z gender gap that's turned into a chasm —
, Highly Flammable, Sianushka WritesYoung women have taken to social platforms to express their rage, with some blaming men for Trump’s win. Their disgust, and concern about further restrictions to their reproductive rights, is leading some to say that they’re deleting dating apps, won’t date anyone who voted for Trump and joining the 4B movement which sees followers refuse to date men, have sex, get married or have children.
….ultimately, patriarchy benefits men. It’s why it has not ended. It’s why, after hundreds of years of feminism, including of asking nicely – of trying to persuade men that giving up their power would benefit them – men have clung on to it.
These were my thoughts when the Pennsylvania results came in, and confirmed that Trump will indeed be the next American President. Trump is a rapist. E Jean Carroll was vindicated in court. He boasted about sexually harassing women – boasts that we know boosted his support among men, rather than weakened it. And he created the Supreme Court conditions required to overrule Roe vs Wade, stripping women and girls of their human rights in many states, and sending a message to women and girls in the remaining states that their human rights are conditional.
Thanks so much for reading. See you next time
Thank you so much for the mention 🤗
The most depressed heart emoji.