Nick Fuentes is a neo-Nazi influencer, and he has made his living through moral depravity. Back in November 2024, Fuentes took to his X account to declare “Your body, my choice. Forever”
“Your body, my choice.”
Nick Fuentes is a neo-Nazi influencer, and he has made his living through moral depravity. Back in November 2024, Fuentes took to his X account to declare “Your body, my choice. Forever”. The post was unsurprising, but the violence of it is glaring. He faced immediate backlash for it, rightfully so. However, obscured by Fuentes’ affiliation with right-wing extremism, the most alarming thing of all is that this belief is not as fringe as many would care to admit. Perhaps it’s less noticeable when not put in such explicit terms, but the core belief is the same. That is, that men are superior to, and thus entitled to, women. More specifically, they feel entitled to a relationship with a woman, her emotional labour, and above all, her body. Nick Fuentes said what too many men have always thought: that women are objects.
Even a brief examination of political culture reveals how alarmingly prevalent this notion is. For instance, the idea that women are objects for men’s pleasure is openly held by numerous constituent elements of the alt-right.
Incels, or involuntary celibates, pin their failure in finding love on women being too shallow. It’s a page from the classic ‘nice guy’ playbook. They blame their rejection on some personal failing of women, and turn their scorn into anger against the entire sex. They believe that because they're nice, or funny, or smart, that women owe them a chance (for a great example of this attitude, I point you to the opening scene of The Social Network.)
In more recent years, what’s been deemed the ‘Manosphere’ has gained prominence. Andrew Tate is probably its most infamous figure. These men widely characterise modern women as ‘tramps’, but consider themselves above monogamy by nature of being a man. They hold women to the traditional housewife cliché. They want a woman who is a cook, a cleaner, and a child bearer, and nothing more.
Similarly, religious conservatives often have expectations of modesty that fall uniquely on women. Religious authoritarian states, like Iran or Saudi Arabia, do so formally, with laws requiring women to cover themselves according to Islamic law. Conservative Christians purity culture repeats the same pattern. Women are made responsible for men’s lust, while men are painted as mere victims of temptation, inevitably leading to a culture that shames women for the sin of existing in their own bodies. Women are reduced to sexual objects, and men face no accountability.
Women’s reduction by society to sexual objects has always been accompanied by political subjugation. The overturning of Roe versus Wade in America is chilling evidence of this. Just as constant in this equation is the existence of a counter-offense, and the hope it can offer.
In each of these cases, women are not viewed as autonomous individuals, but instead exist in the world to fulfill men’s desires. This attitude is not exclusive to the alt-right, they are merely more transparent about it. In settings where such outright misogyny is not socially permissible, this sexism takes on a more insidious form. Consider modern frameworks of marriage and raising children. While we are moving away from a world where women are de facto caregivers, progress is slow and imperfect. Research suggests that women who have children in the midst of their career lose out long-term in job progression opportunities and wages. Even in “progressive” democracies, there is still an expectation that women should focus on their children over their careers. Their husbands’ careers, however, are generally uninhibited by such demands. This is not to shame women who choose children over a career, rather an indictment of the fact that it is women, and not men, who are expected to sacrifice their other aspirations in order to raise children.
Women’s reduction by society to sexual objects has always been accompanied by political subjugation. The overturning of Roe versus Wade in America is chilling evidence of this. Just as constant in this equation is the existence of a counter-offense, and the hope it can offer. I think of the women in Iran removing their hijabs in protest of modesty laws. In the past three years, there’s been a surge of women protesting restrictive Islamic law. Disobeying the requirement to be veiled puts these women in danger, and police are known for their harsh treatment of protestors.
There is also the 4B movement, which originated in South Korea and is primarily a response to staggering domestic violence levels and mistreatment of wives in Korea. The movement urges women to not have sex with men, to not date or marry men, and not to raise children with men. While a fringe group in Korean culture, it provides a powerful map for resistance. Like the Iranian women, these women protest by exerting autonomy over the one thing they know has power – their bodies. It’s something they know will draw eyes and attention. In a world where women are desired as sexual beings and pruned to be mothers, the most outrageous thing of all is to reject these roles, and to transform them into a tool of protest.
Women’s autonomy is a direct threat to a culture that is built with men at the head. It’s why I’m deeply skeptical of men who belittle the feminist movement, or this “generation of women.” To be sure, there are legitimate flaws present in feminist discourse, but the resentment fronted by men rarely stems from genuine criticism. Instead, it’s a reaction to women being allowed, more than ever, the freedom to choose. Until the idea of male superiority is extinguished, and women are seen as equal individuals, not as accessories or commodities for men, then the work is not finished.