“All You Have to Do is Publicly Execute a Few Women Who Have Lied”: Mapping Online Misogyny and Feminist Digital Counterprotest in the Post-pandemic Landscape

Abstract

This paper examines the intensification and mainstreaming of online misogyny in the volatile post-pandemic digital landscape and the affective labor of feminist and queer counter-response. We argue that the concurrent exhaustion of women and gender minorities, disproportionately burdened with care labour, and the radicalization of men into alt-right manosphere discourse during the pandemic exacerbated existing gendered power dynamics, forming the groundwork for contemporary conservative political strategies, including those outlined in Project 2025 and advanced during Donald Trump’s second presidential term. Anchored by three pivotal case studies—Elon Musk’s incendiary tweet to Taylor Swift, pastor Joel Webbon’s sermon advocating the execution of women reporting sexual violence, and Harrison Butker’s commencement speech—we trace how misogynist logics circulate across platforms and are amplified by manosphere podcasts, including Nick Fuentes and Ben Shapiro. Employing a mixed-methods approach that integrates computational text analysis of 11,000 manosphere podcast episodes with close readings of memes and hashtags, we show how misogynist discourse is laundered into common sense while reinforcing patriarchal gender hierarchies. At the same time we analyze feminist and queer digital counter-protests, including viral Man vs Bear discourse, activist memes, and Equal Rights Amendment advocacy, that reframe misogynist rhetoric through humor, critique, and care-driven resistance. Our findings situate these dynamics within the broader context of post-pandemic sociopolitical shifts, including the Dobbs decision, Trump’s ongoing rhetoric, and tech bro culture, arguing that networked misogyny now functions as mobilizing force for reactionary politics, while feminist and queer counter-narratives reclaim digital spaces as battlefields for equity.