To understand someone outside of your own scoop and bias
For this topic I want to start off with an article about the perception of women that are by the opposition labeled “pink-pilled”, which is a liberal attempt to understand what they perceive to be women of the far right. However I welcome other relevant ideas and articles on the topic of understanding groups when coming from another perspective and bias.
Lois Shearing’s conclusion on women in the far right movement
What sparked Lois Shearing’s curiosity of trying to figure out far right women, without talking to them but instead to study them online through her lens of bias, was the bewilderment to see that there were women that protested in support of Tommy Robinson. With this in mind she spent time on several social media networks to gather data of women with the opposing view and their “radicalisation”. Louis states in her book that “when I started this project, I did so because I couldn’t find a satisfying answer to the question: why do women align themselves with movements that so clearly hate and harm them?” “Why do they advocate against their own rights and bodily autonomy? Why do they preach submission at the cost of their own wellbeing?”
Who is being labeled far right - The Riots in UK and the “far right movement”
The article starts off strong by stating that “Misogyny and male supremacy might lie at the heart of far-right ideology”. Which of course follows by the confusion of why women would be part of this movement, “but that does not mean women are absent from such movements”. This analysis of the far right is viewed through the event that they describe as “the race riots that exploded across the UK”. For those that missed Brexit, it was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union with the biggest question that pushed for the exit was the immigration problem the United Kingdom was facing. The population has voted for drastic solutions and been dismissed continuously. The majority of the United Kingdom does not identify as far right, opposite to what the media is portraying, however they are united in majority that the immigration issues that the country has been facing needs to be addressed. After accumulating events caking on each other it reached a tipping point and riots erupted throughout the country. They are now being persecuted for disagreeing with the sitting government and not aligning their majority vote to what the sitting power wants. Not only are their free speech targeted but the trials they faced were expedited and they didn’t get fair trials. Other criminals were cleared out of jail to accommodate the new criminals. The people speaking up against the sitting power are now labeled far right, which also means that they are misogynistic and for male supremacy, and the opposition is clueless how women could be part of this movement. Author and journalist Lois Shearing has delved into the growing role that women play in far-right, neo-Nazi and white nationalist movements in her new book Pink-Pilled: Women and the Far Right. Where she tries to understand this.
Women with different views - “The radicalisation of women”
Lois Shearing concludes that the far right movements are wielding a range of “cunning tactics” to radicalise women online. She further argues that women that are encountering transphobic, anti-immigrant views and Islamophobic views are being radicalised into the far right. The author labels the process whereby women get drawn into the far right as “pink-pilling” which has parallels with the radicalisation process their male counterparts undergo. It’s about brainwashing and radicalisation, irrational women undergoing this “pink-pill” process. It is interesting that the feminist movement, who coined that labeling something with gender-valued words are problematic, turns around and uses such terms for women on the opposing side.
Women with different views - women who are anti-feminism
Lois Shearing is surprised to find that “there are a lot of women who feel really frustrated with society and they blame feminism for that”. She states that although there are different routes that take women to the “far right”, one of the routes is anti-feminism.
Women with different views - DISGUSTING WHITE WOMEN
Here are some things Lois Shearing thinks about white women and why they don’t share her view. “But for many women in the far right, being white ultimately overrides their sense of womanhood” and explains that “women in extreme right-wing circles are predominantly white – adding that while far-right ideology and white supremacy teaches women that they are inferior to men, it positions them above those from different ethnic backgrounds”.
Lois thinks that women disagree with her because the “white nationalism and the far right offer them an opportunity to reclaim the power they feel is their birthright as white yet denied to them as women”, and continues to add that “they overlook the marginalisation they might be experiencing as women, or they are willing to almost let themselves be marginalised and objectified in these far-right communities if it means having power as white people”.
Ironically to me these arguments come off as rather racist and misogynistic. This problematic view stems ironically from gender studies and conclusions feminism has made.
How to protect ourselves from opposing views - Free speech
Lois Shearing is also afraid of free speech and states following “Another issue is the proliferation of far-right material on social media platforms that do little to police it, under the guise of “free speech”. She is also alarmed that she can come across opinions that don't align with her own when she is interacting with social media online, her friends share the same concern and have also come across opposing views. She is horrified that it is hard to stay away from opposing views. It is extremely uncomfortable and I understand how she could think that it should be banned. But we should remember why we fought for free speech and how important it is. We should never let the sitting power take our rights to speak our mind.
