Warning: This analysis contains highly offensive and potentially triggering language and imagery. Where possible, slur words are marked with asterisks, but in cases where that may make the content unclear, offensive language is cited.
Violent misogyny is thriving in a new way on hate sites since Donald Trump’s election. Over the past week, commenters on the hate-filled 4chan forums have been calling for “Trump rape squads,” J.D Vance to conscript “incels into the first rape squads,” and invoking the dystopian book and television series The Handmaid’s Tale, which depicts a horribly misogynistic future in which women are dehumanized and threatened.
Following the election of Trump on November 5, worrying indications of growing hate and bigotry in online spaces became apparent. With male supremacy and “incel” (i.e., involuntary celibate, a misogynistic ideology which has inspired numerous mass casualty attacks) culture becoming mainstream, misogyny, which has long been a part of the fabric of society, frequently showing up in mainstream pop culture and politics, is quickly escalating into the glorification of violence against women and the celebration of the possibility of women’s rights being stripped away.
New research by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) has uncovered numerous violent misogynistic trends which are gaining traction on fringe platforms like 4chan and spreading on platforms popular with far-right extremists, such as Twitter and Telegram, since Trump’s election. Misogynistic rhetoric ramped up on 4chanon 4chan from the end of September 2024 through November 5, Election Day, when instances reached a year-high of 1,278 posts, and remained high in the week after the election.
Misogyny is a mainstay on 4chan, an incredibly hateful forum that has a history of originating misogynistic trends, such as the “DignifAI” hate campaign, which digitally altered women’s bodies and appearances to fit a “traditional” (i.e., sexist) mindset. 4chan is filled with calls to repeal the 19th amendment, which gives women the right to vote, threats of rape, and other derogatory comments.
Violent misogyny on 4chan increased as the election approached, hitting a year-high 1,278 instances on November 5, the day of the election (Source: GPAHE)
However, emboldened extreme misogynists spurred by Trump’s election have found new ways to spread hate and violence against women. Hateful and violent rhetoric existing on 4chan is particularly concerning, as the platform has a longstanding connection to racially-motivated and antisemitic mass shootings, such as the racist Buffalo murders in 2022.This growth is of grave concern given 4chan’s history with real-world violence including mass shootings motivated by bigotry and extremism and the celebration of far-right terrorists like the El Paso shooter. It is home to the worst of the worst when it comes to violent rhetoric and the inspiration of violence.
One of the new misogynistic trends gaining momentum on 4chan was inspired by neo-Nazi online commentator online commentator Nick Fuentes, who once had dinner with Trump at the Mar-a-Lago resort, whose tweet directed at his 441,000 followers, “Your body, my choice. Forever” targeting women’s reproductive rights went viral with more than 90 million views. 4chan users were quick to spread their newfound hate slogan and escalate the rhetoric to encourage violence.
Mentions of “your body, my choice” on the platform saw a staggering 5,150 percent increase from November 5, the day Fuentes tweeted the phrase, to November 9. Several posts attempted to justify physical assault and rape, such as “Your body my choice is making cu*ts wet, thats why they are seething so hard. They are upset that it makes them horny i.e ragegasm…,” and “So it’s cool if I rape you, right? What am I saying, of course it’s cool. Your body, my choice, after all.” One comment, referencing the fact that Fuentes maced a woman who approached his door, celebrated his aggressive actions by saying “Your body, my choice. Your face, my mace. Go be jewish somewhere else.” Others tied Trump’s victory to the phrase, saying “Hows it feel knowing Trump won and its your body, my choice? LOL.” Some put the onus on women for Trump winning, as they believed “Women shot themselves in the foot” by wanting abortion rights and simply told them to “cope harder r*tard” after gloating about Trump being “practically free to do whatever he wants to women’s abortion rights as man.”
Mentions of “your body, my choice” skyrocketed over 5,000 percent over the course of a few days following Trump’s win and Fuentes’ tweet (Source: GPAHE)
Another heightened trend on 4chan is invoking scenes and imagery from the book and television series The Handmaid’s Tale to advocate for violence against women. Mentions of receiving “handmaids,” who in The Handmaid’s Tale are women forced to give birth via sexual assault, and fantasizing about being part of “rape squads,” spiked 126 percent between November 4 and November 6, 126 percent between November 4 and November 6, and are remaining consistently higher compared to before the election.
On 4chan, references to The Handmaid’s Tale, including fantasizing about being part of “rape squads,” reached a high on November 5. (Source: GPAHE)
4chan users are fantasizing about “minority-killing handmaid’s tale rape squads,” which they believe “women fantasize about,” including “being taken and raped constantly.” These violent and twisted fantasies include wishing for “handmaid sex slave[s]” and wondering how to purchase them (“What is the going rate for a handmaid right now?”). Similarly to the “your body, my choice” trend, users invoked Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance as their providers of sex slaves, with users looking forward to “Vance [conscripting] us incels into the first rape squads to enforce Handmaid’s tale rule of law,” counting down to the “Trump Rape Squad” being deployed, and calling for “roasties” (i.e., incel terminology for sexually active women) to get “Handmaid’s Tale’d” (i.e., raped).
Handmaid’s Tale memes and even merchandise based on the term “rape squad” are making the rounds on other platforms like Twitter and Telegram. A post by an account called “FACELESS” depicts t-shirts targeting the use of Intrauterine Devices (IUDs), a form of birth control, and advertises the violent hashtag #RAPESQUAD2025. Another user, “NotUnclePepeloni,” fantasized about being selected by Trump to be part of a “Project 2025 Rapenought.”
User “FACELESS” posts merchandise targeting women’s reproductive rights and “rape squad.” (Source: Twitter)
User “NotUnclePepeloni” fantasizes about being selected by President-elect Trump to be part of a “Project 2025 Rapenought” (Source: Twitter)
The Proud Boys of Columbus posted a misogynistic image on Telegram using The Handmaid’s Tale as reference. One image features Elizabeth Moss, who plays main character June Osborne in the television series, saying “sisters arise” followed by Trump responding with “and go make me a Sandwich!” “Go make me a sandwich” is a long-standing derogatory phrase used to portray women as subservient to men and only belonging in domestic spaces, like the kitchen. As previously reported, other Proud Boys chapters, such as Proud Boys Ohio and the Proud Boys of Columbus, posted memes referring to “rape squads” and The Handmaid’s Tale.
Proud Boys Ohio posts a picture of Davy Jones, a character from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie series, captioned “RELEASE THE PROJECT 2025 HANDMAIDS TALE RAPE SQUADS.” (Source: Telegram)
The Proud Boys of Columbus post an image celebrating Trump’s victory as an opportunity to subjugate women to solely being responsible for domestic duties (Source: Telegram)
Following the election and Fuentes’ “your body, my choice” tweet, there has been discussion among some women in the United States about the Korean “4b” movement, which represents the Korean words bihon, bichulsan, biyeonae and bisekseu, which translate to no marriage, no childbirth, no dating and no sex with men.representing the Korean words bihon, bichulsan, biyeonae and bisekseu, which translate to no marriage, no childbirth, no dating and no sex with men. Misogynists across the internet, and 4chan in particular, took exception to their choice, and responded with derogatory comments and threats of rape. Mentions of the 4b movement, including calls for rape and derogatory language against women, rose 2,579 percent from November 4 to November 9.
Mentions of the 4b movement on 4chan rose over 2500 percent following the election (Source: GPAHE)
On 4chan, users ridiculed women participating in the movement as “ugly, dramatic whores,” “batshit crazy [women] who hates children,” looked forward to them “[dying] of suicide or alcoholism,” and comparing them to “anti-white negroes.” The derision escalated into threats, with one commenter threatening that their “answer to the 4B movement” is “the 1R movement (The R stands for rape).”
A Telegram page dedicated to the white supremacist National Justice Party, many of whose founding members attended the deadly 2017 “Unite The Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., made a post negatively commenting on the appearances of women discussing the 4b movement on TikTok, saying they “look like they’re going to be extremely successful with it”, saying they “look like they’re going to be extremely successful with it”
The National Justice Party Telegram page makes a post insinuating that women advocating for the 4b movement are too unattractive for a man anyway (Source: Telegram)
The Proud Boys Upstate NY called women who announced their participation in the 4b movement “sluts,” and claimed that they are “already going through withdrawal from lack of dick.”
Proud Boys Upstate NY makes an incredibly misogynistic post about women announcing their involvement in the 4b movement (Source: Telegram)
Some users on Twitter spread hateful comments about women taking part in the 4b movement, including common insinuations that women who advocate for bodily autonomy, including abortion, only do so to be promiscuous. One post by “Declaration of Memes” combines The Handmaid’s Tale imagery with Barbie along with “4b” rhetoric to claim that abortion rights only exist to serve women without “discipline.” At the time of publishing, the post has over 2.5 million views on Twitter.
User “Declaration of Memes” makes a post targeting women in the 4b movement and their reproductive rights (Source: Twitter)
There is a major cause for concern as new ways of spreading violent misogyny continue to fester in both the fringe and on mainstream online platforms. We should be especially concerned about those referencing Trump, who was found liable for sexually abusing and defaming journalist E. Jean Carroll, and Trump’s and J.D. Vance’s derogatory comments about women, to justify the mass rape of women in the United States. Many of these online actors believe they have been given permission, or will face few consequences, because their views seem to align with those of the president and vice-president elect. 4chan’s connection to real-world violence combined with the ever-growing emboldened extremists’ calls for violence against women online may serve as an indicator for both continued, and escalating, offline misogynistic violence.
