Featuring three years of investigating women social media influencers who recruit, radicalize, and spread propaganda for the far right.
Columbia University Press (2023)
Available to order here
On mainstream social media platforms, far-right women make extremism relatable. They share Instagram stories about organic foods that help pregnant women propagate the “pure” white race and post behind-the-scenes selfies at antivaccination rallies. These social media personalities model a feminine lifestyle, at once promoting their personal brands and radicalizing their followers. Amid discussions of issues like dating, marriage, and family life, they call on women to become housewives to counteract the corrosive effects of feminism and champion the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, which motivated massacres in Christchurch, El Paso, and Buffalo.
Eviane Leidig offers an in-depth look into the world of far-right women influencers, exploring the digital lives they cultivate as they seek new recruits for white nationalism. Going beyond stereotypes of the typical male white supremacist, she uncovers how young, attractive women are playing key roles as propagandists, organizers, fundraisers, and entrepreneurs. Leidig argues that far-right women are marketing themselves as authentic and accessible in order to reach new followers and spread a hateful ideology. This insidious—and highly gendered—strategy takes advantage of the structure of social media platforms, where far-right women influencers’ content is shared with and promoted to mainstream audiences. Providing much-needed expertise on gender and the far right, this timely and accessible book also details online and offline approaches to countering extremism.
What People Are Saying
“Finally, a book that looks at the women of the alt-right, the social media influencers who radicalize with a smile, who curate online “authenticity,” and who use traditional femininity to fight feminism. Critical but not dismissive, Eviane Leidig takes these women seriously without taking them at their word. As we all should.”
— Cas Mudde, coauthor of Populism: A Very Short Introduction
“The Women of the Far Right is an immensely readable ethnographic investigation of an oft-overlooked aspect of modern extremism—the role of women. Eviane Leidig deftly shows how far-right influencers leverage social media tools like Instagram and YouTube to normalize extreme ideas. The book is a cautionary tale of how hateful ideas can be easily cloaked, and how influential they can be.”
— Alice Marwick, author of Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity, and Branding in the Social Media Age
“Leidig’s deep dive into the social media worlds of far-right women reveals how they weaponize mainstream influencer branding and marketing strategies to soften and package far-right content within relatable, everyday stories. Original, timely, and indispensable for understanding the modern far right.”
— Cynthia Miller-Idriss, author of Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right
“The Women of the Far Right explores how female influencers shape the discourse, norms, and practices of the far right and participate in the mobilization of new supporters. This book shows how important the role of far-right women influencers is in cultural polarization and social conflicts in Western societies and, thus, how they are expanding what far-right ideology means and its social impact.”
— Arie Perliger, author of American Zealots: Inside Right-Wing Domestic Terrorism