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Since the COVID-19 pandemic, have jumped from obscure internet forums into the .

Social media doesn't just reflect sexist, anti-feminist views; it helps to , and them.

Backlash against women and LGBTQ+ communities has become more overt, co-ordinated and is gaining political traction. As the United States and passes , it is important to understand how digital culture fuels this regression.

While these shifts may seem distant, Canadian politics are not immune. Similar rhetoric has emerged in debates over , , and so-called "."

Our ongoing research maps how the pandemic accelerated the rise of online misogyny, especially through "" influencers and far-right rhetoric.

Drawing from more than , we are investigating how everyday online content works to erode women's and LGBTQ+ rights. This rhetoric normalizes misogynistic, transphobic and homophobic views and repackages gender inequities as common sense.

How the pandemic fueled digital misogyny

COVID-19 lockdowns set the stage for a . Isolated men and boys increasingly turned to social media for connection—spaces where like and American conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro gained momentum.

These figures blend anti-feminist messaging with broader pandemic-era anxieties, turning gender roles into moral and political battlegrounds.

Conservative influencers who once focused on vaccine skepticism began pivoting to anti-gender content. , for example, moved from pedalling public health disinformation to pushing narratives that feminism and LGBTQ+ rights are threats to western civilization.

Before the internet, radicalization usually required personal contact. Now, people can , engaging with algorithm-driven content and , often without ever interacting with a recruiter. This shift coincided with a marked and .

Misogyny as a mobilizing force

Meanwhile, women's experiences during the pandemic——involved increased labour at home and in front-line jobs. This left little time or energy for the organizational work necessary to combat the rising tides of sexism and misogyny.

Instead, public discourse began to increasingly valorize . This ensured traditional gender roles were brought back into the mainstream, not just as personal preferences, but as broader cultural expectations.

Though this misogyny appears to be fringe, it echoes mainstream policies that threaten reproductive health care, restrict gender expression and paint feminism as a threat to national stability.

, the well-known policy platform from U.S. conservative think tank , lays out an agenda to repeal reproductive rights, undermine LGBTQ+ protections and expand state control over gender and family life.

How misogynist narratives are normalized

These misogynist ideas are reinforced in popular culture. In May 2024, NFL player Harrison Butker used his commencement address at Benedictine College to tell women graduates that their true calling was to .

Such rhetoric serves to by narrowing women's roles to domestic life. But this isn't about family values, it's about power. Moves in the U.S. to restrict women's reproductive autonomy and make this abundantly clear.

While feminists , manosphere podcast influencers rushed to Butker's defense. American white supremacist Nick Fuentes celebrated the speech as a manifesto, while Shapiro framed it as uncontroversial truth.

Our analysis of podcast episodes from Shapiro and Fuentes, among others, shows how misogynist and racist narratives are reinforced through repetition and emotional framing. In episodes focused on Butker's commencement speech, there were of and in the episodes.

Both Shapiro and Fuentes positioned feminism as a threat and framed motherhood as women's true vocation. Shapiro downplayed the backlash against Butker as liberal outrage through calculatedly mainstream language that used sanitized, "family values" language.

Fuentes promoted an extreme theocratic vision rooted in white . In Episode 1,330 of his America First podcast, , "I want women to be veiled. I don't want them to be seen. I want them to be listening to their husbands."

These talking points consistently align with Butker's original sentiment and reflect broader political efforts to erode gender equity, as seen in political documents like Project 2025.

Other public figures like Texan megachurch pastor Joel Webbon went even further, for the who accuse men of sexual assault—a horrifying example that circulated in manosphere circles.

From the fringes to the mainstream

What's happening online is not just cultural noise; it's a co-ordinated effort by conservative political organizations, media outlets and right-wing influencers to shape gender norms, undermine equality and roll back decades of feminist progress.

When misogyny becomes a political strategy, it doesn't stay confined to podcasts or memes. It seeps into everyday vernacular, court rulings and public policy, and it's global in scope.

This isn't new, either. In 2012, Australia's then-prime minister, Julia Gillard, called out , including being labelled a "witch" and subjected to dismissive catcalls. Her speech highlighted the normalization of misogynistic vernacular in politics, but also triggered public backlash, including having .

Similarly, in the lead-up to Germany's 2021 federal election, from foreign entities aimed at undermining her credibility and questioning her "maternal suitability" in the public eye. Digitally altered nude photos, fake protest images and disinformation graphics were circulated.

These campaigns reflect how misogyny is weaponized to influence elections, and how such campaigns can be a threat to national security.

A showed how, despite increasing awareness around sexual assault and harassment, U.S. courts often use legal language that reinforces victim-blaming by placing victims in the grammatical subject position of sentences. For example, phrases like "the victim failed to resist" or "the victim did not report the incident immediately" shift focus onto the victim's behaviour rather than the perpetrator's actions.

These details continue to affect broader legal narratives and public acceptance.

Digital platforms are battlegrounds

Recognizing these connections is crucial. As far-right movements gain ground by repackaging ideas about gender as nostalgic "truth" or "tradition," we need to recognize that digital platforms are not neutral, nostalgic spaces.

Rather, they are conversational battlegrounds where power is contested and .

In the fight for gender equity, the internet is that reflects . It's a tool built by the tech industry that was never intended to democratize communication, labour or social roles. Right now, that tool is being weaponized to signal and reassert patriarchal control.

This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .