Eviane Leidig @evianeleidig.bsky.social
@evianeleidig
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Expert in online extremism & radicalization | @MSCActions postdoc @TilburgU | 📚 The Women of the Far Right: Social Media Influencers & Online Radicalization
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Thrilled to announce the publication of my book 'The Women of the Far Right: Social Media Influencers and Online Radicalization' by
@ColumbiaUP
in September 📚
✨Featuring tradwives, crunchy moms & content creators ✨
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The director of
@C4ARR
, an organization I helped create, has threatened me.
Those who are still members of CARR should consider if you want this type of leadership.
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Stop calling everything trad.
One of these women is a tradwife, the other is not. Here’s why it matters:
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Almost every single far-right woman I’ve researched identifies as a “recovering feminist”. Their shift to white nationalism came *after* holding homophobic and transphobic views.
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That feeling when page proofs for the book land in your inbox 💫
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Please stop simply referring to the arrest of the Atomwaffen leader and “his girlfriend”
We are trivializing her involvement. She has agency and willingly conspired to commit harm.
How we frame women’s active participation in neo-Nazism matters.
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It’s publication day! 🎉
Grab your copy of The Women of the Far Right: Social Media Influencers and Online Radicalization by
@ColumbiaUP
✨ Use code CUP20 for 20% off ✨
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Women play a *key* role in normalizing and legitimizing far-right ideas for mainstream appeal, as I argue in my book
As a result, more women are not only joining far-right movements but are becoming active participants. This, in turn, helps normalize the movement, making it more socially acceptable and contributing to the rise of the far-right in places like the U.S., France, and Germany. 11/11
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But to be trad is more than just posting cooking videos of food made from scratch, or having children as part of your brand.
Tradwives lace their lifestyle content with anti-feminist & pro-nationalist messaging. Some embrace conspiracy theories like the Great Replacement.
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✨Hot off the press✨
So excited to have received my author copies of The Women of the Far Right
@ColumbiaUP
Pre-order yours today!
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Actually, misogyny is the connective glue for all forms of extremism. That's the subtweet.
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Why does it matter?
Because labeling Nara as trad was quickly weaponized by the political right to claim that trad content is desirable and aesthetically pleasing.
This effectively normalizes their ultra conservative vision of society.
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End: naming something trad is clickbait right now.
But using the term mindlessly only helps to boost the political right in the culture war. It mainstreams the image of traditionalism as aspirational content.
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Labeling Nara as trad also makes it easy for the political right to dismiss tradwives’ actual connections to the far-right and white supremacism.
Meanwhile, less visible far-right tradwives benefit from algorithmic recs of their content as the term goes viral.
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Nara Smith is not trad.
Yet she was labeled trad by the media for making meals for her family and having children at a young age.
As far as we know, Nara is a model and mother who enjoys food and fashion blogging. She’s Mormon but doesn’t promote her faith through her content.
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🚨 Professional alert 🚨
Pleased to announce I’ll be joining
@ICCT_TheHague
as Research Fellow in Current and Emerging Threats.
I look forward to advancing research and policy on global far right extremism and terrorism. Excited to be joining an impressive team!
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I started writing this 4 years ago and finally it's been published in
@POP_Jrnl
! Best of all, it's
#openaccess
.
Hindu nationalism should be recognised as a variant of right-wing extremism.
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As someone who researches the aesthetics of extremist digital cultures, I can assure you that it is *always* ideological and *always* political
It appears that the Highland Park shooting suspect has no ideological or political bent. Yet extremism researchers say these acts may actually be part of a troubling new trend. One that involves dark subcultures that glorify violence and foster nihilism.
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A reminder that it was Women for America First that fundraised, organized travel, and secured rally permits leading up to
#January6th
insurrection.
No one from the organization has been arrested or charged for complicity.
Can we talk about the impact of far-right women now?
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Why are British Indians more likely than any other ethnic minority group to support Brexit? My latest for
@UKandEU
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so this is happening on Britain First's Facebook page...
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📢 Very excited to be starting a
@MSCActions
postdoc fellowship at
@TilburgU
w/
@IcoMaly
in Sept
'From Keyboard Warrior to Digital Army: Mapping Far-Right Networked Publics' will explore how far-right digital cultures circumvent tech policies on extremist & terrorist content
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Extremism & terrorism researchers: Don't share the images/names/manifestos of extremists. It gives them more visibility.
Also extremism & terrorism researchers: Check out my thread analyzing the images and manifestos of extremists.
This is gatekeeping 101 🧵
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In my research on far right female influencers they post about organic non-GMO foods, natural beauty tips & homesteading while spreading anti-vax conspiracies
For many ppl – me included – it was a shock when the pandemic sparked an affinity b/w wellness culture and the far right. The two seemed opposites, what common ground could there be?
The truth is wellness & fascism have more than just a modern connection.
Settle in for a long🧵
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Estee Williams notably defends traditional gender roles for men and women, and that women’s submission to their husbands is religiously derived.
She argues that it’s a woman’s choice to be in traditional marriages—but glorifies the 1950s when women didn’t have the choice.
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Firstly, tradwives are both an online community and a movement.
It emerged around 2015 from the mommy blogging sphere. Then it spread to alt-right forums like Red Pill Women/Wives subreddit.
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Conveniently left out is the part in which several early career, mostly female, researchers faced sustained harassment as a result of the article’s publication & defense
Expelled from a Progressive Think Tank—for the Crime of Denouncing Antifa Violence | Craig McCann
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*hold my beer*
Does anyone have a good link on the alt right white supremacist Mormon underpinnings of tradwife content? I’m tired of arguing with people. This link explains some of it but I think downplays the threat of online radicalization
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My pet peeve is when the far-right/right-wing extremism is described as a “new” or “emerging” threat among policy and security circles.
It is neither new nor emerging. It has been around for decades. You just weren’t paying attention.
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Massive thanks to
@CasMudde
@milleridriss
@alicetiara
@APerliger
for your endorsements of The Women of the Far-Right 💫
Humbled and grateful for your support 😌
Available to pre-order from
@ColumbiaUP
➡️
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During the pandemic, tradwives spiked in popularity as a category of influencers with similar practices and genres in their content creation (food blogging, beauty and skin care tips, health, wellness), although the aesthetic differs.
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As a founding member of
@C4ARR
I strongly condemn this article, as do many current and former Fellows.
But CARR is a much needed resource and network for (early career) scholars in this field. Let’s focus on and support their work instead.
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I am incredibly honored and humbled that I was invited to share my research on far-right women for the White House National Security Council, FBI & State Department this week in Washington DC.
It was full of engaging conversations with people committed to countering extremism.
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Having passed the defence, I am officially a Dr now! 🍾 Special thanks to my examiners
@ChetanBhatt1962
and
@GElgenius
for an insightful & interesting discussion, & my primary supervisor
@BrekkeTorkel
. And of course to
@CrexUiO
colleagues and all who listened in via Zoom.
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Thanks to everyone for all the support and solidarity.
I stand with current and former
@C4ARR
fellows who advocate for an antifascist, inclusive platform ✊
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Exactly 3 years ago I moved to Oslo to pursue a PhD at
@CrexUiO
. Today I submitted my dissertation and what a journey it's been!
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I suspect that this statement was not shared with CARR Fellows prior to release—to be clear I resigned from CARR last year
This is not good practice
A Thread 🧵 concerning the 'Beware of Anti-fascists' Insights blog:
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🚨 New publication alert
Not your Grandma's Fascism: Fame, femininity, and race in far-right postcolonial India and Brazil
@GabrielBayarri
& I explore far-right female influencers on Twitter & Instagram 🇮🇳🇧🇷
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My latest
@ICCT_TheHague
piece looks at female far-right social media influencers and their gendered narratives of recruitment & radicalization
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Tenured professors—be honest.
If you had the same qualifications as you did back in the day, would you consider yourself competitive in today’s academic job market?
Asking for all early career scholars
#highered
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Excited to announce that along with
@Willallchorn
and
@AGoldok
we are co-editing a new
@ManchesterUP
book series, 'Global Studies of the Far Right'. The series aims to feature case studies beyond Europe/North America and multidisciplinary perspectives.
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Wow this really triggered a smear campaign. The title is "The New YouTube for the Far-Right" not "The Far-Right's YouTube".
I literally say that Odysee is not inherently a platform for the far right--doesn't mean they don't use it.
Just look at the top vids in news & politics
What a pathetic smear by hack
@evianeleidig
She knows Odysee isn't "far-right", yet titles the article "The New YouTube for the Far-Right".
Look at some of the top channels, me (engineering), science (Veritasium, MinutePhysics), News, cypto channels etc.
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Thread: There is no evidence that far right users migrating to other (closed) platforms with little to no content moderation further radicalizes them. The echo chamber argument is overblown.
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Honored to be presenting at
@coe
today on the role of women in far-right extremism, representing
@ICCT_TheHague
, as part of the conference on The Roles of Women and Children in Terrorism
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Honored to have spoken on the impact of far-right women in online narratives of radicalization, recruitment & propaganda for the
@NATO
gender in terrorism and counterterrorism workshop
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Thread: The terrorist attack in
#Hanau
was horrific and we should take the threat of right wing extremism seriously. But there is a double standard when it comes to media representation of far right terror attacks.
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‘Metapolitics, algorithms and violence: New Right activism and terrorism in the attention economy’ 🔥🔥
New book by
@IcoMaly
is an essential read on far-right digital cultures & politics
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Pleased to announce my new role as
@C4ARR
Head of Policy. I’ll be:
🌎 working with
@GIFCT_official
& other partners on policy issues of the radical right
👥 growing our relationship with Practitioner & Policymaker Fellows
📑 expanding our Policy Insight reports
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Pleased to announce that my digital PhD defence is being held tomorrow. And it will be livestreamed for the public! Join in as I discuss connections btwn the far right in India and the West, diaspora networks, and Brexit & Trump
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As I show in my forthcoming book on women in the far-right, homeschooling has long been a means to circumvent mainstream social & cultural norms.
It’s a method to prevent children in far-right movements from exposure to left-wing “indoctrination” in public education
The Nazi homeschool group with 2,500 members, is not just interested in sharing Nazi content online, it actively tries to recruit members to join secretive, real-world, whites-only meet-ups known as "pool parties" operated by white supremacist groups
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On the anniversary of the Christchurch massacre, Lauren Southern, who promoted the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, jokes on Instagram about writing a manifesto
On the anniversary of the Christchurch massacre, I thought I'd check in on
@SkyNewsAust
's Lauren 'The Great Replacement' Southern.
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Meet the Alternative for Sweden candidate going full trad, cottagecore vibes
A polite facade for the repatriation of immigrants, the Great Replacement, & removal of gender studies
h/t
@antoniacvaughan
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Spotted in the wild 👀
The Women of the Far Right 📚
@ColumbiaUP
on display at Waterstones
@gowerst_books
in London ✨
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In my forthcoming book I show that deplatforming far-right actors works-- it significantly cuts their exposure to a broad audience AND it limits their monetization abilities
Does deplatforming work?
Does keeping extremism off mainstream social media further radicalize the smaller crowd on smaller platforms?
What other options are there?
We asked experts on extremism and communication.
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My latest
@ICCT_TheHague
piece discusses why terrorism studies miss the mark when it comes to incels:
a) There is a wide body of scholarship on violent misogyny & male supremacism that gets ignored
b) CT/CVE frameworks are outdated
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Thank you to all the trolls mansplaining me, as someone with a PhD on Hindu nationalism, that I know nothing about Hindu nationalism. Much appreciated.
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My latest in
@ForeignPolicy
, The Far-Right is Going Global, looks at the connections between the far right in India and Europe
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Pleased to share the
@C4ARR
Yearbook 2020/21, The Radical Right During Crisis, edited by yours truly is now available for pre-order 📚
Feat. over 70 CARR Fellows on the dynamics & impact of the radical right in 2020
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Pleased to be featured in
@volkskrant
for my new book on researching women in the far right
In Dutch 🇳🇱 by
@Oostveenm
(and happy
#InternationalWomensDay
)
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Far-right women have been spreading & normalizing the Great Replacement on YouTube since 2016.
➡️ They continue to remain on the platform
➡️ They’ve had subscriber growth
➡️ They make ad revenue & have sponsors
They literally profit off the Great Replacement conspiracy
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Hindutva has been global since its founding (w/links to Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany). But through the diaspora it spread internationally.
The first RSS cell outside of India was set up in 1947. Excerpt from my PhD thesis at
@CrexUiO
A thread on how Hindutva has gone global:
In 2014, months after the Modi gov. came to power, I met a 70+ year-old man from London--retired, prosperous Indian-origin British citizen.
His wife told me he operated several Twitter accounts, spent his entire day on it.
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Pleased to represent
@ICCT_TheHague
speaking on dynamics of far-right online extremism and tools to counter at
@NATO
interagency workshop
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Thanks for the profile of my experience of doing research for The Women of the Far Right: Social Media Influencers and Online Radicalization 📚 (
@ColumbiaUP
)
Available to order now:
Undercover with the female influencers of the American far right
Researcher disturbed by how easy it was to get sucked into lives of women who serve up beauty advice alongside racial hatred, writes
@MatthewReiszTHE
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As I'm moving on to new exciting opportunities,
@ICCT_TheHague
is recruiting for my replacement.
Be sure to apply, it's a great team!
Welcome expertise on:
- Right-wing extremism
- Islamist extremism
- Disinfo
- Conspiracy theories
📢
#Vacancy
Alert! Are you an academic or practitioner with strong expertise on disinformation and violent extremism, or on online radicalisation/extremism? Apply to be our new Fellow in the Current and Emerging Threats Programme!
Find all details here:
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Yes it has taken 2 weeks to release this statement.
But the draft of this statement was first released to current & former fellows internally. It was discussed & given feedback, esp. by those most affected.
This reflects CARR's commitment to a new democratic restructuring.
Recently,
@C4ARR
published a blog that many CARR fellows believe contradicted values that we hold as a research community.
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@CasMudde
“I imagined fun potluck dinners… summer flings w/ people who called me "bella," gelato that dripped down my fingers in the heat, & natural wine that paired effortlessly w/ good conversation & better prosciutto.”
Sounds like someone watched Eat, Pray, Love too many times
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This is the foundation of my book manuscript: far-right ideology + influencer culture + aesthetics
Politics as an aspirational brand
Fascist movements depend on using lifestyle choices as pseudo politics. They impregnate discourses / practices re health, fitness, spirituality, etc, with fascist ideological significance - which is to say merge fascist aesthetics with lifestyle aesthetics and call it politics.
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Excited to have received my copies of the
@C4ARR
2019/20 yearbook, featuring over 75 entries from CARR Fellows on the radical right.
You can pre-order it here:
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I’m pleased to return to my alma mater
@UCBerkeley
for a book talk on ‘The Women of the Far Right’ 📚
Thank you to
@UCBerkeleyCRWS
@GWS_UCB
@calnewmedia
for co-hosting
🗓️ Sept 26 | Register to attend in person/online in the link below
✨Go Bears! ✨
In record time
@evianeleidig
moved to a published book after just finishing her undergrad degree in Interdisciplinary Studies at Cal and returns to her alma mater to give a book talk on September 26th. Details here Congrats, Eviane! Wow, just wow.
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A caveat: Far-right men are more likely to be deplatformed & seek alt-tech live streaming.
***But far-right women continue to live stream on mainstream platforms because their content is considered “not political” or “not hateful”.
Gender matters (for tech policies too)
Right-wing extremists have increasingly embraced live-streaming technologies.
“With video live-streaming, they have found a low-cost, engaging way to get their message out, and they are making money at it too,” says Megan Squire, SPLC senior fellow.
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Get yourself a copy of
@C4ARR
2020/21 yearbook 📚 It was a pleasure editing over 70 contributions from leading experts on the radical right
New from
@ibidem11
! THE RADICAL RIGHT DURING CRISIS provides a broad examination of the global radical right in 2020, which will be useful for scholars, students, policymakers, journalists, and the public.
#Politics
#RadicalRight
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Gotta link this must read report on misogynist incels by
@MegannotMegyn
@alexdibranco
@julesopolis
for
@NewAmerica
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I had the pleasure to speak with
@ABCaustralia
on overlap between tradwife and far-right communities based on my forthcoming book
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#ootd
book talk
today! Hybrid - Tu 9/26 | 12:00 - 1:30pm PT,
@evianeleidig
on “The Women of the Far Right: Social Media Influencers and Online Radicalization”
@ColumbiaUP
Co-sponsored by
@calnewmedia
@GWS_UCB
@UCBerkeleyISSI
@UCBerkeleyIES
Register here (free):
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I'll be presenting on gendered narratives in far right online radicalization, recruitment & propaganda. A research priority in our new current and emerging threats programme at
@ICCT_TheHague
.
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Thanks to
@ISDglobal
@ISD_Germany
for the opportunity to speak on the impact of far-right influencer culture and gender blind spots in content moderation & regulation as part of the annual conference on right-wing extremism online
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“Far-right women influencers play an integral role in spreading anti-birth control content on social media…They share disinformation about the harmful effects of birth control options that have been debunked by the broader scientific community”
Thanks for quoting me
@LoShearing
I wrote for
@BylineTimes
about a trend I keep seeing in my research; anti-hormonal birth control content. Thank you so much everyone who shared your insight with me for this!
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Pleased to feature the forthcoming title in our
@ManchesterUP
Global Studies of the Far Right book series, ‘Visualising Far-Right Environments’ edited by
@BForchtner
Analyzes how the far right represents natural environments & environmentalism globally
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My forthcoming book on female alt-right influencers has striking parallels to this aesthetic - don't underestimate the powerful role of women in these movements
1/ Tonight I want to share some of the research I have been doing on what I am calling "Pastel QAnon". I have been spending some time researching Women QAnon believers on Instagram. Many are lifestyle influencers, mommy pages, fitness pages, diet pages, and alternative healing
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Let’s be clear.
It’s to protect *white* women whose value is solely reduced to reproductive ability.
Migrants and trans people are seen as a threat to the far right’s vision of white families.
It's striking how both the anti-trans and anti-migrant backlash are using the same rationale - 'protect women!' - using the all too real endemic crisis of male violence against girls and women to specifically target two vulnerable minorities.
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Pleased to share our latest
@ICCT_TheHague
research paper co-authored with
@APerliger
and
@cathstevens_
on ‘Mapping the Ideological Landscape of Extreme Misogyny’ 📑
We comparatively analyze incel, chauvinist far-right, MGTOW, MRA & PUA communities
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New book chapter by
@aamattheis
on
#trad
culture linked to white supremacism is a must read on far-right & gender
In latest
@Routledge_Socio
Handbook of Critical Studies in Whiteness
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“I’ll continue to live my truth”
A key narrative used to justify the tradwife lifestyle is that these women are just being their most “genuine” or “authentic” selves ✨🌺💅🏼
The reality is valorizing 1950s American suburbia with race, gender & class hierarchies
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Indian flag 🇮🇳 spotted waving in the crowd. Why? I wrote a PhD dissertation at
@CrexUiO
on it:
Dozens have forced their way to the top. More coming up the steps. Police are trying to bolster their numbers through the west doors but someone with a fire extinguisher is dousing them from above. The crowd only keeps cheering.
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📢 Publication alert
From Love Jihad to Grooming Gangs: Tracing Flows of the Hypersexual Muslim Male through Far-Right Female Influencers
#OpenAccess
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Interested in research and policy on extremism? Want to work with me?
Apply for the Current and Emerging Threats internship!
🗓Deadline 11 June
Internship alert! ICCT is looking for five new interns. Are you a student interested in working at an international think tank on counter-terrorism? Check out the vacancies on our website!
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I'm primarily a researcher of far right online cultures but when I tell others that I work on India it doesn't seem to connect that the far right can have a flourishing digital scene outside North America/Europe.
Time to rethink the 'stereotypical' far right online user.
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Excited to be in Oslo 🇳🇴 tomorrow giving a book talk for The Women of the Far Right📚 hosted by
@CrexUiO
Open to all! ⏰ 14:15-15:15 CET
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Looking forward to giving a lecture tomorrow on far-right female influencers and gender blind spots in content moderation at
@RMeSResearch
master's course on disinfo and media at
@UvA_Amsterdam
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Super excited to co-chair with
@mathildakerlund
our
#AoIR2023
panel on how far-right users leverage technological affordances and platforms’ content moderation responses
Joined by
@ralphschroeder
@bganesh11
@JessieNYC
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Jan 6th insurrectionist has gone from Nazi salute optics to tradwife LARPing
This is NOT a story of redemption
This ⤵️ is what radicalization for women in the far-right looks like: having babies, homemaking, homeschooling 🍼🧺🧵
Political activism is *gendered*
🧵Riley Williams, found guilty at trial for her participation in Jan 6, says she wants to live out her White nationalist agenda. Or she is epically trolling. Either way, a letter submitted to the court in advance of Wednesday’s sentencing, portrays her as a budding "tradwife."
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Proud to have co-authored this piece with
@C4ARR
fellow
@julesopolis
on our personal experiences as mixed Asian women researching the far right
The recent surge in anti-Asian hate crimes has highlighted the unfortunate fact that this hatred does not only exist in the fringes of society.
Asian Americans can tell you that firsthand.
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