When you think of the far right, you probably think of groups of young white men holding swastikas and torches, like those seen at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
But the face of the far right is changing, at least on social media. In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, we hear about new research on a group of female influencers who are spreading far-right ideology on mainstream platforms like Instagram and YouTube.
Evian Leidig is a postdoctoral researcher at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, focusing on far-right ideology, gender, and the internet. She followed the accounts and posts of female far-right influencers and spent countless hours researching her new book on the issue.
She says some of these influencers share the expected content on social media, such as beauty tutorials, hand-picked photos of beautiful homes, and product recommendations. However, these can be littered with anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, anti-feminist messages, and white supremacist sentiments.
“They are merging both political ideology and personal brand into one,” Leidig says.
While much of the technology is relatively new, Leidig says the trends she's observed have roots in right-wing political history.
This message is fairly consistent with the history of conservative thought in terms of notions of traditional gender roles for women and men.
Leidig says women play a key role in recruiting and legitimizing far-right movements. By using the influence tools of social media, they “make extremist ideology seem acceptable.”
One former believer she interviewed said, “A movement without women is doomed to fail.”
To learn more about Leidig's research on female influencers, listen to the full episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast.
This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Mend Mariwany with assistance from Katie Flood. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens and theme music was by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware will serve as executive producer.
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