For the last few years, as far back as 2016 even, we’ve watched an uptick in right-wing influencers on social media saying or doing just about anything to get attention. And they’re overwhelmingly women. From filming themselves with fake covid vaccine side effects, to making viral videos about fake kidnappings, to expressing a desire to repeal the 19th amendment (this might be the most baffling of all)-it seems like if you’re a woman on social media looking for conservative political clout, then becoming a right-wing influencer is the hottest new gig. 

When it comes to getting clicks and shares from right-wing men, nothing seems to work better or more efficiently than being a woman who’s “owning the libs,” no matter how self-destructive their “own” is. What’s fascinating about this is that they’re usually fighting back against an imaginary foe. A myth they’ve created in their minds about whatever liberal thing it is they’re whining about. I touched on this before when I talked about the vast differences between actual feminism and what conservative Christians claim feminism is, in an episode of my podcast series on the women of evangelicalism. 

Viral Hate

So who are these women really “owning”? Well, essentially, themselves. When you run out of legitimate factual reasons to hate someone, what do you do? You make stuff up, of course. This reaches into white evangelicalism as well. It was not uncommon, for example, to only be told negative, even fictional things about Catholicism–simply because they wanted us to believe they were the enemy of “true Christianity.” Not only that, but intentionally misunderstanding someone or an entire group of people so you can make false claims about them to incite fear is very popular with conservative Christians. Take for example all of the garbage they spew about drag queens and trans folks or anyone in the LGBTQIA+ community. 

One can only speculate what their true motives are, apart from deception. Of course, as a woman myself my first thought is always “do they actually believe the things they’re saying or are they just saying them because it’s what right-wing men want to hear?” Usually I’m the first one to remind people that white evangelical women are the foot soldiers of patriarchy. Especially when women are posting such heinous content and the replies are getting filled with “that can’t be a woman saying that, it has to be a man behind that account.” But as time goes on and we see more and more women, especially younger women, going viral for saying exactly the right thing in the eyes of right-wing men; I’m skeptical as to their true beliefs. That said, maybe the further I’m removed from that world, the harder it is to believe women are capable of such blind faith and self-destruction. 

Taking Our Fight to the Polls

The saddest part of all is that most women who call themselves feminists, liberal or progressive see nothing wrong with being a housewife, a stay-at-home-mom, or even having a male partner who makes big decisions for your family. And I suspect these right-wing men actually know this already, but saying we hate those things is a front. It’s the fact we want women to always have the choices and freedom to be and do what we want that terrifies them, makes the hairs on the back of their neck stand up. In their minds, our freedom threatens their existence–which couldn’t be further from the truth. Yet regardless, they are using social media to chip away at human rights group-by-marginalized-group until we are living in a theocracy dictated by conservative white cisgender men. 

So maybe for every viral video or post we see with conservatives making outright fools of themselves, we don’t share it, even to mock it. Instead of giving their accounts the traffic they’re so desperately seeking, we can pour our efforts into fighting for equal voting rights & accessibility and use whatever platform, whatever privilege we have to push for change. We can remind people how important and precious their vote is on election day, and not take it for granted. Because if we don’t, one day those rights might be gone. And it will be harder than ever to get them back.