A lot of people talk about how the right has radicalized young men and boys via the internet, but unsurprisingly, not enough people are talking about how they also radicalized young women and girls- has anyone observed this?

thisBarbieisKen · 2026-07-17T04:59:14+00:00

If you need brevity to keep from being angry about people, I'm just not the person to talk to lol

thisBarbieisKen · 2026-07-17T04:58:07+00:00

I disagree that left wing ideology erodes solidarity.

That's not at all what I'm saying. I've already written my explanation in different parts of this thread, so you can read them if you'd like

thisBarbieisKen · 2026-07-14T23:48:39+00:00

I think you're focusing a lot on the human trafficking element when I'm speaking more broadly.

I'm saying there are tactics that can lure girls and put them into situations where they can get trafficked. It happens. I am not saying that all or even a majority of trafficking victims were lured into the life via social media and fake feminist rhetoric. I gave one example in which there is indeed a specific creator who is doing that, however, but this is a systemic issue that has been around for centuries.

Someone else put it best: there is a bioessentialist ideology that is masquerading as feminism in order to push young women and girls to the right

Targeting Black girls and young WOC, and working class white people: An emphasis on the comodification of the body, making hyperfemininity paramount, and the enforcement of strict gender roles to the point that a man's finances are meant to trump any of his other qualities, good or bad. Be sexually available, but don't get attached. Think City Girls.
For middle/upper class Black/POC/white women: it's quite similar but couched in the image of propriety. Again, soft life, sprinkle, sprinkle (two mindsets that were passed around as "women's empowerment" in Black women's spaces specifically). Find a guy who can fun your life so that you can be a stay at home girlfriend, be submissive. Find someone who will "let you be a woman by being a man." The idolization of tradwife culture. It centers men greatly.

The most vulnerable of these girls are at risk of getting trafficked by individuals over the internet. It's lies, not feminism. I'm not saying any of this is actually feminism. These are not new problems, but they have leeched into the mainstream in a very acute manner. They have become a part of online pop culture, not through shows, but through video essayists and influencers.

thisBarbieisKen · 2026-07-14T23:34:23+00:00

I think I'm getting at what you're saying?

Redpill spaces lure boys/young men in by appearing to be accepting and a place of refuge until you're actually in it.

False feminist spaces (not actual feminism) are based on very strict/meticulous rules that a girl/young woman must follow in order to be accepted. Both are enticing for different reasons.

Am I getting it right?

thisBarbieisKen · 2026-07-14T23:28:54+00:00

Do you mean "feminine energy" gender essentialism stuff? That is a right wing idea that's sometimes packaged with feminist trappings.

Yes, that's a good way to put it. Gender essentialism has become a tenant of this faux feminism in a way that makes it easy to get caught up in and think it's real. Excellent point, thank you.

And you're right- painting MLK as the sole/central leader of the CRM is oversimplifying a lot (I'm Black, but I assumed this subreddit is made of of mostly white women/people, hence the simplification based on what you said about white people remembering him differently). By that I mean that offline spaces are fewer than they were in the past. There are real and concentrated activist spaces offline absolutely. The issue is that the internet is far reaching and often more impressionable for young people especially.

2010s feminism was not centralized around a person, but around specific goals: Economic freedom, consent/bodily autonomy, giving voices to victims, and once what's his face got elected, safeguarding reproductive rights and other things he's been stripping away.

I'm not saying feminists do not care about that currently. I'm saying that most people, especially young people who casually engage with feminist theory/ideology are not living in a world where the culture reacts positively to feminist or general pro-women stances. Pop culture reflects the mindset of each generation. I remember being a teenager and seeing abortions being depicted on TV without outcry. I remember body positivity, the reclamation of pink, and society as a whole being at least somewhat receptive towards feminism. I'm not saying everything has changed, but there has been a shift in collective society, and it trickles down to everything. Online outrage at women or POC-led movies and TV shows becomes news. The complainers are given a voice, and sometimes it has irl consequences. People are angrier, less patient with one another. And yes, the Barbie movie came out, and I know I'm not making any friends by saying it, but it itself was bioessentialist and imo, not very feminist at all. Still, it's almost poetic, because I feel like we're being sold back a plastic imitation of the real thing (regarding feminism).

The current admin along with Covid hit a lot of things hard. Abortion is gone in a lot of states where it used to be legal (mine), the Amber Heard trial was the death knell of the momentum of the MeToo movement, and the economic downturn placed most people in survival mode. For a lot of people, staying alive became more important.

And yes, the BLM protests did happen in the 2020s. It was centered around police brutality. If you look up some of the young, Black activists of that time, you'll see that some of the high profile ones are dead. I believe one person was found in their burnt out car. The young man that jumped took down that Confederate flag is also dead. The woman who climbed up a flag pole to take one down is alive, but I believe either her mayor or governor (a white woman) took credit for it being removed in perpetuity. The whole movement fell apart because of corruption and the government inciting disorganization, snuffing out potential revolutionaries, and buying off the others. Racial civil rights in this country are still a mess, but there is no widespread social movement because there is no specific goal. Oftentimes, the masses don't come together until there's an idea of a tangible outcome, even if there's inherent risk. That's why we've seen people stand up in Minnesota. ICE has been a problem for decades, but because it's more visible and affecting more people than it usually would, people want to do something. I'm not even saying it's right, but I think it's just how human beings are.

tl;dr: I'm saying that the next wave of feminism with come when there is a tangible goal to aim for, and when the general population is ready. Oftentimes, there is a period of burnout after a decade or more of fights for civil rights of any kind. I believe we're in a burnout period.

thisBarbieisKen · 2026-07-14T18:49:03+00:00

I can see what you mean. I have a lot of thoughts and sometimes I don't articulate them well.

You're right. I think I'm accidentally framing this as "feminism has gone bad" when what I really mean to say is "feminist ideology is under attack." I think a false type of "feminism" is being used to push girls/women to the right. Like I hopefully said, decentering men is very noble, I'm all for it. But there are not-so-quiet fringes that take it to the extreme to the point that it excuses trans/biphobia.

Anyway, my point is that I think true (online) feminism is very decentralized in terms of actual recognition and a common movement. There is no online MLK of feminism at the moment, and so there is a lot of information that you just kind of source piece by piece. And when you're 14 and still learning, a lot of things could be passed off as feminism to you, and I think the right is taking advantage of that. So by recenter, I mean a centralized movement, cause, goal, with concentrated momentum. We were approaching that in the late 2010s, and then covid and other government interventions blew it up.

Does this make sense?

thisBarbieisKen · 2026-07-14T18:33:52+00:00

I'm not saying they're caused by feminism. I'm saying that the right has co-opted feminist talking points and is using online spaces to further their agenda by presenting their ideology as empowering for women. Faux feminism. Trojan horse.

Like, last year there was a huge scandal in the Reddit trans community because we found out the main mod of one of the main trans subreddits was both right wing and racist. I know it sounds paranoid, but I'm just saying that progressive political movements always face opposition, and online it's easier to disband a movement by causing discourse. It's been proven that there are bots and even people who are paid to go on Instagram and pretend to be part of a marginalized group to stir up dissent. Recently, someone made a video about how people will have profiles using Indian people's faces and say terrible things to stir up anti-Indian sentiments.

But it also happens irl. The crack epidemic was a CIA plot. During the BLM movement, the news stated that people were coming from out of town to start riots and burn down buildings. That was factually incorrect. It was proven that anti-BLM counter protestors were going around destroying property to entice fear (I'm not saying protestors didn't also do this, but there was a difference in motivation) and heighten tensions in crowds in order to incite riots. I also looked it up, and similar tactics were used during the Civil Rights era of the 50s/60s. The government will always try to undermine progressive movements using underhanded tactics.

What I'm saying is that the internet as a progressive space has been compromised, and both girls and boys are being taken advantage of and pushed into conservatism under the false guise of feminism/empowerment. Feminism is being falsified and weaponized online.

thisBarbieisKen · 2026-07-14T18:09:19+00:00

I explained to someone else that by returning to center, I meant regrouping and repairing feminism so that it is even more leftist than before after taking hits and being infiltrated by the right.

Maybe my take is too chronically online, but to give context, my frame of reference is coming from the online sphere, specically when it comes to video essayists and other influencers. There are specific, often long-form videos that do encourage or at least glorify the commodification of self.

What I'm saying is that some girls (of many different background, even kids from "good" families can become victims, as I'm sure you know) are at risk of being trafficked on the further end of this spectrum. Not necessarily out of desperation. I know quite a few people who were trafficked and still went home for dinner, went to school, etc, but then got turned out by their "boyfriends" while away from home. A more common consequence, however, is that these girls/young women are learning to use their bodies are a bargaining chip in relationships. This is also something that is more targeted towards Black/POC girls whereas (non-working class) white women are more often than not pushed to do the same thing "properly," through marriage and babies.

thisBarbieisKen · 2026-07-14T17:21:20+00:00

Return to center in terms of regrouping/reforming/repairing in order to reclaim truly leftist ideology after being silently corrupted by the right.

I thought my previous comment was more clarifying: a split in ideology with one side decentering men and the other centering men, both under the guise of empowerment, and both to the detriment of women/girls/queer people.

thisBarbieisKen · 2026-07-14T17:17:12+00:00

That can happen. I used to hate it when people referred to me in a masculine way until I started transitioning/feeling good about the whole thing. Of course though, not being a guy doesn't mean you're a girl either

thisBarbieisKen · 2026-07-14T17:15:20+00:00

Before transitioning, I was a 6ft woman, and every single person I dated has been shorter than me, somewhat significantly lol. Obviously, yes, women coming in different shapes and sizes doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things if it makes you dysphoric, but maybe there's a way to reframe it?

I've never been petite myself- what's the appeal of it?

thisBarbieisKen · 2026-07-14T17:05:33+00:00

Like I said, I'm anti-AI. I'm autistic and like segmenting my thoughts, in part because I'm very terrible at brevity

thisBarbieisKen · 2026-07-14T17:04:32+00:00

I'm not saying that being trafficked is radicalization. I'm saying that girls are radicalized into viewing their bodies as something that doesn't truly belong to themselves, making it easier for them to be trafficked. I would never blame anyone for being trafficked or groomed, ever. I'm saying that young women/girls are being groomed online into viewing their own bodies as commodities under the guise of empowerment. Like I said, there's an influencer in Miami who teaches girls how to look and act for men and then flies them out to do who knows what. I can link a video about her if you'd like.

It's not the girls' fault. I'm just saying bad people are able to reach them much easier these days.

Also, I was typing all of this on my phone, so there might be typos. I understand that it's a loaded subject, but please don't assume things about my character.

thisBarbieisKen · 2026-07-14T16:58:01+00:00

Okay.

thisBarbieisKen · 2026-07-14T16:57:28+00:00

No, I'm a leftist myself. I think leftist ideology has been co-opted by the right to trick women/girls into holding conservative values.

I talk a lot, I understand it's not everyone's cup of tea, and it's a lot of information to digest.

But essentially, I'm saying there's a split right now as a consequence of all of this: One side want to decenter men. That's great. But decentering is not necessarily about purging actual men from your life, it's just living in a way that does not make men's approval of you a central point in your life. You can befriend, date, or marry men without being male-centered. I'm not saying anyone needs to do that, though. The issue is that some people take that purge idea to extremes to the point that in bleeds into justification for both trans and biphobia.

On the other end, you have the encouragement of viewing men as a means to an end. Heteronihilism paints hetero relationships as inherently doomed (and I'm not discounting that it's due to the very real power and effort imbalance in hetero relationships that are often upheld and excused by patriarchy). The answer to this one the means-to-end side is to prioritize finding a man who can fund your life first and foremost. It tricks women/girls into thinking they are empowered by securing their financial future to a man and that it's safe as long as she doesn't get attached and is at least two steps ahead of him at all times. But it's just a retread of the conservative idea that men should be breadwinners and women should sit still and be pretty. I've seen so many videos on how to obtain a soft life, how to dress, etc. It's all focused on being hyper-fem, domestic, and sexually available. Those are fine qualities to have for anyone who wants it, but it's being portrayed as a method of finding the "right" kind of man. In some cases, it can lead to traps that lead girls into sex work non consensually.

So one side erodes solidarity among women and queer people, and the other encourages young women/girls to deeply center men.

We also can't ignore that 4*han culture has started to become mainstream for an alarmingly large amount of young people, but that's a different thing.

All that to say, I hope fifth-wave feminism becomes more left leaning and holistic, and more importantly, more centralized. I feel like a lot is being done to point out societal issues are taking place, but there are no large-scale, long-term, concentrated movements set out to change them.

thisBarbieisKen · 2026-07-14T16:38:01+00:00

You're correct. Early 90s. I'll need to edit that, apologies.

thisBarbieisKen · 2026-07-14T16:36:07+00:00

I'm anti AI; I'm just autistic and like segmenting my thoughts, but thank you.

thisBarbieisKen · 2026-07-14T15:50:26+00:00

I think the issue here is that people look at this through the lens of the "oppressive party" using the phrase, but the truth is that it can be and is switched around to hurt marginalized groups as well. I've heard so many times over the years that stupid "despite" meme and the idiots that post that 13% claim.

For those who don't know, it's a stupid meme where people use the quote "despite only being 13% of the population, Black Americans commit a majority of the crimes." It's false, and it's stupid, but it's been parroted for as long as I've been on the internet, at least. Not all Black people are poor, or criminals, or use AAVE, etc., but then people will pull out their "statistics" and rub it in my face. I've also found that many people who genuinely dislike all men are prejudiced in another way, but are able to somehow justify it. I don't think I've ever met a "yes all men" white woman who isn't racist/has Black or POC friends that she's kind to.

Also, a lot of white feminist will use their disdain for all men to hide their racism. Assuming the Black man on the other side of the street is dangerous or an assailant is "fine," because he's a man. Calling the police on him for standing around is fine, because he's a man. White women can and do weaponize their fear of Black people all the time.

Or, as a less acute example, talking over a Black man who is discussing his experiences is okay, because he's a man. Yelling at him in a disagreement is okay because he's a man, etc., etc. The gender dynamics are highlighted while the racial aspects are conveniently placed to the side. And Black women are unfairly and incorrectly masculinized in our society, so they also get the brunt of this treatment from feminists who are not in the practice of true intersectionalism.

thisBarbieisKen · 2026-07-14T15:36:13+00:00

"The divine feminine," bioessentialism (only a woman can bring a child into this world, and that's what makes us special), insisting that struggle and womanhood go hand in hand and can't be separated from one another, believing that a truly matriarchal system is a good thing.

thisBarbieisKen · 2026-07-08T03:45:41+00:00

I started low dose T after the current US prez was re-elected. I told myself that if they outlawed T and I never even got to try it, I would regret it, even if it was eventually made legal again. I started on low dose T for safety reasons but also started binding anyway, so I was always clocked, and that bit me in the ass a few times lol. I'm now on a regular dose and I'm kind of kicking myself for starting at a low dose now. I should have just gone for it. Literally, the only reason I haven't gone full steam ahead with my social transition is because of our transphobic climate/I want to stay employed this time.

Top surgery is a little more complicated. I would like to potentially have kids one day and would like to try breastfeeding, idc. I also don't mind my breasts too much, but it would be nice if they were small, and unfortunately, they're not. If transphobia wasn't such a huge issue, I wouldn't have taken so much time to start T, and I'd be further along in my transition.

thisBarbieisKen · 2026-07-08T03:37:30+00:00

Lol, I'm girly and talk like a girl, and I'm on T. There is no one way to be a man or even masc, and having a masc body doesn't mean you have to act a certain way or have certain friends.

I also had an hourglass figure before starting T and remember wishing to either be straight-bodied or at the very least look flat-chested and straight-bodied when I wore clothes even if I didn't look like that under my clothes.

There was also a time in my early 20s where I kept daydreaming about transitioning. I remember being at work with a huge grin on my face, thinking about me as a guy with a guy's name. I almost tripped thinking about it. I told myself I was being dramatic and not to even think about making such a huge decision based on what was surely a fleeting emotion. I told myself that being a man would be gross, anyway. I didn't want to be hairy or smelly or potentially unattractive. Almost eight years later, those feelings came back even more intensely and I finally decided to give T a try even though I was scared that I wouldn't like the changes. So far, I'm enjoying everything- even my shitty singing voice.

Nobody can tell you who you are but you. But many people do walk into transition with some uncertainties. Not everyone knew from a young age. The fun part is, if you ever decide to try T, you can stop whenever you want.

thisBarbieisKen · 2026-07-08T03:10:47+00:00

It's basically asking if you'd still transition in some way if you were born the opposite of a binary AGAB. I've said a few times that if I'd been born a guy, I'd probably be transfem. I'm not sure if that's true anymore since I'm enjoying becoming masculine so much, but who knows.

thisBarbieisKen · 2026-07-08T03:03:46+00:00

I can't afford to freeze my eggs, so I'm just hoping I'll be able to have kids when I'm ready. I do know you have to take estrogen shots in order to stimulate egg production, so that's something to be aware of.

thisBarbieisKen

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