https://web.archive.org/web/20241109235435/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/09/trump-your-body-my-choiceThe incels are in charge now
Well that didn’t take long, did it? As soon as it became clear that Donald Trump had won the election, social media saw a major spike in gleeful misogyny. And it seems Trump’s army of angry incels have found a favourite new catchphrase to taunt women with: “Your body, my choice.”
While the phrase has been kicking around in far-right circles for a few years, the notorious white supremacist Nick Fuentes has breathed new life into it. “Your body, my choice. Forever,” Fuentes tweeted late on Tuesday night, a few hours before Trump officially won. Shortly after that, he repeated the phrase in a live stream reacting to the results of the election, where he also said things like: “We control your bodies. Guess what, guys win again, okay. Men win again … There will never ever be a female President. It’s over. Glass ceiling? It’s a ceiling made of fucking bricks.”
From there, the taunt took off. Young men are now starting to comment “your body, my choice” and “we own your bodies now” on TikTok videos posted by women. In an analysis published on Friday, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a thinktank focused on extremism, found “a 4,600% increase in mentions of the terms ‘your body, my choice’ and ‘get back in the kitchen’ on X”.
Even more alarmingly, the ISD notes: “The phrase ‘your body, my choice’ appears to have made its way offline, specifically into schools. Young girls and parents have used social media to share instances of offline harassment. They include the phrase being directed at them within schools or chanted by young boys in classes.”
Various other misogynistic phrases, including calls to repeal the 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote, have also been trending online.
