<\/p>\n
Throughout March, I was hit over the head with social media posts attacking Chappell Roan, an LGBTQ popstar who\u2019s often labeled as \u2018difficult\u2019 or \u2018aggressive.\u2019 It\u2019s transparently misogynistic: young women are always \u2018difficult\u2019 when they set boundaries or ask for respect, while male artists face none of the same backlash\u2014even after committing abuse.<\/p>\n
Predictably enough, a <\/span>BuzzFeed<\/em> <\/span>report<\/a> showed that many of the users behind sexist content about Chappell were bots or social media accounts quite literally created to drive the online smear campaign. Don\u2019t get me wrong\u2014social media is a sexist cesspool. But these public orgies of misogyny aimed at celebrity women are rarely as organic or innocuous as they seem. And as a fairly online woman in her twenties, I was the algorithm\u2019s perfect target.<\/span><\/p>\n The pink pill pipeline, through which young women are exposed to anti-feminist ideologies disguised as \u2018lifestyle\u2019 content, isn\u2019t always limited to \u2018tradwife\u2019 TikToks. Increasingly, this pipeline revolves around pop culture and celebrity news. Most young women and girls likely don\u2019t even realize that news about their favorite artist or moviestar might just be a Trojan Horse for ultra-conservative horseshit.<\/p>\n While working at the feminist magazine <\/span>Jezebel<\/em> in 2022, I had the unique vantage point of reporting concurrently on three seismic feminist stories: the overturning of <\/span>Roe v. Wade<\/em>, the Amber Heard and Johnny Depp trial (including the p<\/span>ervasive online backlash against Heard<\/a>), and a surging trend of anti-birth control social media content.<\/span><\/p>\n The timing was no coincidence: in both politics and culture, bad actors were fomenting anti-feminist sentiment among young women, just as the Supreme Court had more or less relegated us to second-class citizens. We were being primed to disbelieve victims or, worse, believe that we <\/span>deserved<\/em> abuse. And we were being primed to accept not just the loss of our right to abortion, but eventually our right to birth control.<\/span><\/p>\n Four years later, I\u2019m watching the same phenomenon at record speed\u2014with conservative billionaires and powerhouse organizations weaponizing seemingly harmless celebrity news to draw in a new generation of young women.<\/p>\n In the digital age, there is a playbook to drive targeted, mass harassment against celebrity women.<\/strong> This typically involves astroturfing tactics from paid professionals, who disseminate talking points or specific lines of attack against famous women to influencers, who then set the discourse in motion. Bots and misogynistic, misinformed masses of social media users will take the hate campaign from there.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n Media literacy, fact-checking, and critical thinking have become such a rarity that online hate campaigns against celebrity women can go a mile a minute\u2014just look to Blake Lively\u2019s sexual harassment lawsuit against her boss, Justin Baldoni, for <\/span>extensive evidence of what these coordinated campaigns entail<\/a>. Or look at the <\/span>tactics<\/a> of Johnny Depp\u2019s team <\/span>against Heard<\/a>. The public eats misogynist hate campaigns up every time.<\/span><\/p>\n You might be tempted to shrug these patterns off as apolitical, irrelevant \u2018celebrity news.\u2019<\/strong> And that\u2019s exactly what conservatives and the anti-abortion movement are counting on: for us to look the other way while they co-opt this very playbook to attack hormonal birth control, abortion, IVF, domestic violence victims, and more\u2014targeting young, female audiences, in particular.<\/span><\/p>\n The right\u2019s goal is plainly to get as many young women knocked up as early as possible: the Health and Human Services Department just released a <\/span>proposed 2027 budget<\/a> that eliminates the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program. A Fox News analyst recently <\/span>called<\/a> it \u201ca problem\u201d that the birth rate among teens ages 15 to 19 is down. Former Trump administration official and current female lifestyle podcaster Katie Miller <\/span>complained<\/a> the same, tweeting that women and girls\u2019 \u201cbiological destiny is to have babies\u2014not slave behind desks chasing careers while our civilization dies.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The message here is clear: teen girls and women shouldn\u2019t be in school or pursuing careers\u2014they should be having babies. While GOP lawmakers pass legislation to strip away our ability to choose school or work, influencers like Miller try to convince us that <\/span>this is what we want.<\/em><\/p>\n Consider <\/span>Evie Magazine<\/em>\u2014the Peter Thiel-backed, conservative women\u2019s media outlet that goes out of its way to conceal its conservatism beneath flowery language about \u2018celebrating femininity.\u2019 Most of <\/span>Evie<\/em>\u2019s content isn\u2019t overtly about politics, but seemingly apolitical celebrity news and health and fashion advice. I\u2019ve increasingly encountered <\/span>Evie<\/em>\u2019s social media posts organically, out in the wild, sometimes \u201cliked\u201d or shared by young women I know\u2014women who probably don\u2019t realize they\u2019re interacting with content from a far-right political movement that wants to ban birth control.<\/span><\/p>\n A young woman my age might come across <\/span>Evie<\/em> via their Instagram explore page, should they see the magazine\u2019s posts about how Timothee Chalamet is eager to become a father. They might see <\/span>Evie<\/em>\u2019s quote graphics of Katherine Schwarzenegger saying she can\u2019t live without her husband. Perhaps they\u2019ll be drawn in by <\/span>Evie<\/em>\u2019s posts about <\/span>trendy new \u201craw milkmaid\u201d dresses<\/a>, or the magazine\u2019s praise for Zendaya saying she\u2019ll take a step back from Hollywood when she has kids. Maybe they\u2019ll be roped in by retweets sharing <\/span>Evie<\/em>\u2019s buzzy headlines about how studies show women with bigger boobs face more hate. <\/span><\/p>\n Next, they might go to <\/span>Evie<\/em>\u2019s website, where they\u2019re likely to see articles smearing birth control with false claims about its safety and side effects. Independent journalist Emily Amrick recently <\/span>reported<\/a> that <\/span>Evie<\/em> averages around one anti-birth control article per month. Coincidentally, <\/span>Evie<\/em> plans to launch a wearable period-tracker that collects data about your cycle. (Thiel also happens to own Palantir, the surveillance conglomerate that works closely with the U.S. government.)<\/span><\/p>\n Or, young women may see <\/span>Evie<\/em>\u2019s articles arguing that feminism has actually made women\u2019s lives worse, that we need husbands to provide for us, that our lives are meaningless without children, and so on and so forth.<\/span><\/p>\n This is the pink pill pipeline. <\/strong>Conservatives know exactly what they\u2019re doing: creating cultural consensus for their repressive political agenda. Through the Heritage Foundation, conservatives have articulated a <\/span>250-year plan for the U.S.<\/a> in which young women will \u2018voluntarily\u2019 forgo work and school and pop out an endless flow of babies\u2014because there are no other options.<\/span><\/p>\n Evie Magazine<\/em> is hardly alone. There\u2019s a rapidly growing, <\/span>million-dollar creator economy<\/a> of \u201ctradwife\u201d and female lifestyle influencers. Speaking of the Heritage Foundation: researcher Emma Waters\u2014best known as the White House birth rate whisperer\u2014has a new book that she\u2019s promoting with <\/span>videos on how women can strive to be both a \u201cgirlboss\u201d and a \u201ctradwife\u201d in one<\/a>\u2014by being a <\/span>\u201cside hustle trad-wife.<\/a>\u201d (AKA: You can run from an Etsy shop or take on a part-time job\u2014so long as you put your children and husband first, of course!)<\/span><\/p>\n And in 2024, far-right influencer Candace Owens <\/span>launched a media company<\/a> offering podcasts and hot takes on celebrity news and pop culture, a book club, and a fitness app for young mothers. All of that sounds fairly apolitical, right? But users reeled in by Owens\u2019 fitness app might then start watching her YouTube videos\u2014like her 11-minute video denouncing hormonal birth control as \u201cunnatural.\u201d Or her endless rants about how women belong in the home\u2014even as she herself runs a multi-million dollar business. Perhaps young women who come across Owens\u2019 takes on celebrity news will find her <\/span>tweets<\/a> stating, \u201cCan you name one objective thing that has gotten better in American society since women were given the right to vote?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s right: <\/span>conservatives are increasingly trying to convince young women that <\/strong>we don\u2019t want<\/strong><\/em> our right to vote<\/strong>. A <\/span>growing contingency<\/a> of conservative women\u2014who first amass their online platforms by posting mainstream, seemingly apolitical content\u2014vocally oppose women\u2019s suffrage. While some conservative influencers openly <\/span>advocate for<\/a> the<\/span> reversal of the 19th amendment<\/a>, others, like Elon Musk, call for <\/span>\u201cchildless adults\u201d to lose voting rights<\/a>. These implicit and explicit attacks on our voting rights, increasingly being mainstreamed by popular influencers, should terrify us. This agenda is clearly what the right has their sights on next\u2014no matter how radical or unlikely such an outcome might seem right now.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s not hard to imagine why they\u2019re targeting women\u2019s suffrage: abortion rights just keep winning at the ballot box, and abortion will continue to win\u2014unless a new generation of voters is convinced that we don\u2019t <\/span>want<\/em> our rights.<\/span><\/p>\n This playbook\u2014<\/span>reeling in young women via a pipeline of seemingly apolitical content, then indoctrinating us with anti-feminist messages<\/strong>\u2014doesn\u2019t always lead users to outlets like <\/span>Evie<\/em> or Owens\u2019 media company. Users might just see an onslaught of TikToks or Instagram posts, seemingly uncoordinated, but with the same anti-feminist message.<\/span><\/p>\n Amrick <\/span>reported<\/a> last month on a trend of female lifestyle influencers who don\u2019t outwardly have any connection to each other or right-wing actors, espousing the same wholly baseless claims: that hormonal birth control ruined a generation of women\u2019s fertility, propelling the demand for IVF today. Per Amrick, this is the uniform message that hordes of female lifestyle influencers are sharing: \u201cIsn\u2019t it just a coincidence that we handed out the birth control pill to an entire generation of women\u2014and now those same women need IVF?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019ve been reporting on anti-feminist smear campaigns, anti-abortion lies, and right-wing media strategies for years now\u2014so I can see through these posts as the astroturfed slop that they are. The problem is, many young women <\/strong>aren\u2019t<\/strong><\/em> journalists<\/strong> or aware of the pink pill pipeline. Many will see the sheer volume of posts about the supposed dangers of birth control and conclude birth control is unsafe, or that IVF is an exploitative, predatory industry.<\/span><\/p>\n The goal is to flood the zone with so much anti-birth control content that young women believe we\u2019re encountering this content organically. In reality, what we\u2019re experiencing is a coordinated effort by right-wing actors, steadily manufacturing our consent to ban birth control\u2014and more. The result? More and more women <\/span>self-reporting<\/a> worsened experiences with birth control as a self-fulfilling prophecy, according to researchers, or <\/span>changing their contraceptive method<\/a> based on what they\u2019re hearing online.<\/span><\/p>\n Think of all the viral TikToks and Instagram reels over the last few years, featuring female lifestyle influencers who warn that birth control is over-prescribed, that hormonal birth control is unsafe and we should try these \u2018natural\u2019 alternatives. Now look at the language of the Trump administration\u2019s <\/span>new guidelines<\/a> for future Title X grantees, claiming birth control is over-prescribed and emphasizing \u201cnatural family planning.\u201d Even before these guidelines, in recent years, Congressional Republicans have blocked several efforts to codify a federal right to birth control. <\/span>Growing online sentiment against birth control is meant to manufacture consent to these rising political attacks.<\/strong><\/p>\n The strategy has been a long-time coming. I remember reporting on the seemingly organic online campaign against birth control as early as 2021 and 2022: anti-birth control videos\u2014on TikTok in particular\u2014were suddenly everywhere, sweepingly demonizing IUDs, recommending that young women switch to \u201cnatural birth control,\u201d and even <\/span>warning<\/a> young women that birth control pills could make them gay. In 2022, Duke University researchers <\/span>found<\/a> 38% of the most viewed TikToks tagged #IUD had a \u201cnegative tone,\u201d 28% expressed distrust of health workers, and a quarter promoted \u201cmoderately or highly inaccurate scientific claims.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Videos I tracked at the time featured young women <\/span>gushing<\/a> about their experiences avoiding pregnancy without hormonal birth control, sometimes racking up millions of views and shares. Birth control-free family planning is \u201ca lot easier than you might think,\u201d one TikToker said. Other TikTokers <\/span>recounted<\/a> trauma and severe pain from IUD insertions, also garnering millions of views: \u201ci need anyone who wants to get an iud understand it can be traumatic,\u201d the <\/span>caption<\/a> of one such video reads. \u201cit was traumatic for me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n To be clear, much of this content has capitalized on legitimate experiences with birth control side effects. I\u2019ve been on different birth control methods for over a decade now, and struggled for years to find the right method for me\u2014I can see why TikToks like this appeal to women with similar experiences. But these videos fundamentally oversimplify the nuanced realities of birth control, and erase that on the whole,<\/span> birth control is a public good. There\u2019s good reason feminists fought for the right to contraception over the course of generations.<\/strong><\/p>\n Everyone has different experiences with different birth control methods, and our health system has failed many young women as they search for the right method for them. But online, anti-birth control narratives flatten all of these complexities. Taken together, these social media posts are meant to convince young women that <\/span>birth control is bad<\/em> and, consequently, <\/span>banning or restricting birth control is good<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n All of the seemingly organic posts that are fearmongering about birth control, IVF, or other reproductive health resources are part of a broader political agenda\u2014whether any of the influencers behind the posts outwardly identify as flagbearers for the Republican Party or not.<\/p>\n A 2021 Media Matters for America <\/span>study<\/a> revealed how quickly violent, far-right content can swallow up your entire \u201cfor you\u201d or \u201crecommended\u201d feeds if you watch a single \u2018manosphere\u2019-adjacent video. Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters, <\/span>told<\/a> me for my reporting in Jezebel in 2024 that misleading, dangerous products have always existed\u2014\u201cbut you used to have to look for them. <\/span>Now, they\u2019re just being served to you in an endlessly refreshing feed<\/strong>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n This phenomenon isn\u2019t limited to the manosphere, which attracts young men first with \u2018apolitical\u2019 content about weightlifting and dating. Young women are <\/span>also<\/em> being radicalized in digital spaces. They\u2019re <\/span>also<\/em> being lured by seemingly apolitical content\u2014like <\/span>celebrity gossip<\/a>\u2014and being steered to the likes of <\/span>Evie Magazine<\/em> or Candace Owens, who rail against feminism, abortion, birth control, and even voting rights.<\/span><\/p>\n Unfortunately, it\u2019s hard to draw all of these connections\u2014how <\/span>Evie<\/em>\u2019s Instagram posts about Zendaya are part of a broader effort to ban birth control, for instance\u2014without sounding like a deranged conspiracy theorist.<\/span><\/p>\n Fortunately<\/em>, you don\u2019t have to take my word for it, alone: you can take the word of the right-wing architects behind these efforts. Look no further than the Heritage Foundation\u2019s detailed, <\/span>250-year plan<\/a> for America, an effort to further embed conservatism into mainstream culture and prime us all to accept a slate of violent, dehumanizing legislative attacks on our bodily autonomy.<\/span><\/p>\n The right knows exactly what they\u2019re doing\u2014and they aren\u2019t even a little shy about it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n