 | By Alicia P.Q. Wittmeyer |
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Recently, I had the unusual experience — scratch that! In fact, the increasingly common experience — of watching someone I know go QAnon. |
I watched this process unfold online, of course, and it started benignly enough: with her sharing a video of a mom upset about an overly sexualized toy. There was nothing really that unreasonable. If it hadn’t been for the #SavetheChildren hashtag, and what was to come later, I wouldn’t have thought much of it. |
What came next, though, was more alarming: more videos about sexualized toys, memes about pedophilia, #SavetheChildren, #savethechildren, #SaveOurKids. There hasn’t been any explicitly Trump-related content yet, but I think it would be safe to also call this person “pandemic-skeptical.” How much of a conspiracy theory do you have to buy into before you count as an official subscriber? |
I’ve seen people I know go online-Trumpy before, for lack of a better term. (If you have too, you’ll know what I’m talking about. So. Many. Memes.) This, however, was the first woman I saw doing so. And it prompted me to wonder: While my particular online universe is far from representative, is there something unique about QAnon that seems to being drawing in more women? |
I asked Annie Kelly, a Ph.D. student at the University of East Anglia who researches digital cultures, anti-feminism and the far right, whether this was something she’d noticed. Yes, it turned out — she had. And as we talked, we thought it might make for an interesting article. |
The world of “Trump-adjacent online groups,” as Annie puts it, tend to prominently feature men. There are almost always women involved, but they usually operate behind the scenes. QAnon seems to be different in this regard. One of its most prominent supporters, for instance, is Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia politician who looks poised to be elected to Congress. |
While it was a man who famously stormed a pizza parlor with a rifle in 2016, multiple women have also acted on the tenets of QAnon, Annie writes, plotting kidnappings or chasing down strangers they suspected of being part of a secret cabal of pedophiles or sex traffickers. (Annie takes care to point out that the sense that QAnon has more women than your average right-wing online subculture isn’t quantifiable, but necessarily impressionistic; QAnon does not require registration forms.) |
Annie doesn’t think that women are disproportionately drawn to QAnon primarily because of the content of the conspiracy, but rather because of the way QAnon has spread — through mainstream platforms instead of forums like Reddit or 4chan. QAnon has attracted so many women, she argues, not because putting children front and center is so unusual — other far-right groups have done so before — but because women really like using Facebook and Instagram. |
She also points out — almost as an aside — that it’s not really clear when you cross the threshold and officially become someone who has gone “full QAnon.” This immediately struck me as both obvious and, perhaps, underappreciated. |
You can be deeply familiar with the most important talking points of a subculture — in this case, the pedophilia and sex trafficking obscured by a cabal — without ever having heard of Q or Donald Trump’s ostensible role in the whole thing. Which doesn’t mean it’s not influencing how you think, or vote.
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Here’s what we’re focusing on today: |
Introducing ‘Sway,’ a Podcast About Power From The New York Times |
Times Opinion is teaming up with Kara Swisher on a new podcast about power and influence. She’s taking on CEOs, senators, actors and activists — plus, upstarts and gatekeepers you might not yet know but who you need to hear from. How did these people get power? How do they actually use it? And how does their power shape your life?
New episodes every Monday and Thursday, beginning Sept. 21. Listen to the trailer and subscribe to “Sway” now. |
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