It turns out that simply being white isn’t a safeguard from sexist attacks from within white supremacy. Recently, Canadian “alt-right” personality Lauren Southern and self-described “ethno nationalist” Tara McCarthy have aired their own grievances over the sexism they face within their movements.
On Nov. 23, Southern published a video to her YouTube channel titled “Why I’m not married,” in which she explained to critics that she supports the traditionalism of nuclear families, but at 22 years old, she isn’t looking to have children without marrying a man she’s in love with. She then went on to explain that women who don’t do these things aren’t bad people. Which, you know, is a no-brainer—unless you’re someone who thinks all women and people of color are second-class citizens to white men.
“What is also just completely shocking to me is the utter lack of understanding of nuance and the exception…Some women, yes, are going to be happier not having any kids. They are going to be happier not being married, and that’s OK. That doesn’t mean they’re a horrible human being,” Southern said. “That doesn’t mean they have to be shamed for the rest of their life.
On Dec. 3, in a series of tweets that are now protected, McCarthy echoed Southern’s sentiment and pushed back against the “low status anonymous trolls trying to put us in our place” with online harassment. In a call to arms, McCarthy told the men of her white supremacy movement that if they want women to be a part of it and promote the “ethno nationalism” ideology, they need to speak out against the harassment of women who face this kind of trolling.
Yes, it’s ironic that McCarthy took issue with trolling, a frequent tactic used by white supremacists to belittle liberals online. But she wrote she can “obviously” take trolling and harassment, it’s just that she was tired of a specific type of trolling: men attempting to tear down women within the movement who aren’t married and don’t have children.
“I’ve probably had more of it [trolling] than most of you will see in a lifetime, and I’m still here. Not going anywhere. I’m not stating the above solely for my own personal benefit,” McCarthy wrote. “The problem I’m stating here is not that ‘there are trolls on the internet’ but that people who proclaim to be on our side are trying to tear down women in our in-group.”
In response to these women’s grievances, first reported by Salon, Twitter users have taken the obvious irony in stride. Who could have predicted that a movement rooted in the power of whiteness, longing for a past time when minority races were isolated and subservient, would eventually (if not initially) turn on white women who don’t conform to all of the movement’s notions of conservatism and bully them into compliance? Nope, that was a totally unpredictable development with no similar precedent with which to base that behavior.
Wow I did (lowers shades) Nazi this one coming. pic.twitter.com/iWArWzfD1i
— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) December 5, 2017
Tara McCarthy, a YouTube personality who sings the praises of the alt-right and warns of "white genocide," somehow just discovered what the alt-right thinks of women pic.twitter.com/XlbQ16rzm5
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) December 4, 2017
yeah good luck with that pic.twitter.com/aglxSJ9ooC
— Shaun (shaunvids on bsky) (@shaun_vids) December 3, 2017
https://twitter.com/AltoonaYerPiano/status/937452046764134400
According to Jared Holt, a reporter on right-wing media at Right Wing Watch, this backlash Southern, McCarthy, and other women within white supremacy are facing is a type of “thot patrolling.” It’s carried out by white supremacist men seeking to distinguish the “true” followers of the conservative movement from the women—presumably the “thirsty hoes over there” that the “thot patrolling” patrols—who are just using white supremacy as a platform to launch media careers and garner Instagram followers, YouTube views, and subsequent ad revenue.
https://twitter.com/jaredlholt/status/937788346922921990
In one 4chan post that Holt uses as an example, the poster writes, “I’ll say this one time for you virgins. There are no traditional women on the internet. These women are trying to advance their careers and make a quick buck off of you.”
The solution for this particular poster? “A mass bullying campaign against unmarried internet thots” involving spamming the social media accounts of these women, and ending the sharing and financial support of their content. It’s a method similar to the subsequent backlash Tomi Lahren faced earlier this year when she publicly said she was pro-choice on abortion, a move that proved her to be not conservative enough for her then-employer, Glenn Beck at the Blaze.
“How do we expect to preserve our race, our customs, and ultimately the God’s transcendent order if we can’t even keep a few harlots in check?” the poster writes. “These thots want to be trad, let’s shame them like our forefathers would shame a whore in the past.”
Sorry, ladies of the “alt-right.” In a movement based on hate, it doesn’t seem like the slut-shaming will cease anytime soon.