It is no secret that these last few years have felt different, at the very least within the context of politics. Names like Clavicular, Andrew Tate, and Jordan Peterson have infiltrated the cultural mainstream and you would be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t recognise the names of at least one of these influencers.
The ultra-conservative and anti-feminist views peddled by these individuals, however, do not simply stop within the “Manosphere”, but have played a defining role in the normalisation of alt-right politics among today’s young men. We stand at a political precipice, where not only the far-right has reached the mainstream, but where the political divide between men and women has reached heights never really seen before. Already living in a nation with deeply entrenched misogyny, GBV, homophobia, and xenophobia, what does this rise of the alt-right mean for us as South African youth?
In order to understand this trend–not only in South Africa but in a global context–we need to take a trip down memory lane back to the 2016 American Presidential Elections where then political outsider Donald Trump won in an upset against the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton. Throughout Trump’s campaign, his attitude towards women was made abundantly clear. His infamous quote “You can do anything… Grab ‘em by the pussy” paired with over two dozen credible rape allegations should have effectively killed his presidential run, but it didn’t. In fact, it was this attitude towards women that helped Trump’s campaign reach out to a growing demographic of men, known colloquially as “incels”. According to CNN, they are a group of disaffected men who believe that their inability to find sexual/romantic partners is due to feminism and women’s rights, and believe that men are entitled to take sex from women, or put bluntly, to rape them.
This line of thinking has become pervasive amongst South Africa’s young men. A 2009 study focusing largely on men under 30 by the Medical Research Council revealed that more than a quarter of the interviewed men admitted to having raped someone, half of whom admitted to raping multiple women. This shocking statistic has now found its way into the political mainstream, with young men in South Africa leaning more and more towards anti-feminist views.
The pattern amongst women, however, is directly opposed to this. Due to the increasing levels of violence, South African women have largely been pushed towards increasingly feminist, political, and social views as a means of self preservation, further exacerbating the gender divide.
Not only is gendered politics extremely dangerous within the context of the increasing role of misogyny in the mainstream, but the rise of alt-right thinking amongst young men poses an existential threat to South Africa’s very democracy and social cohesion. The alt-right is rooted in anti-feminist, anti-LGBT, and anti-democratic values, appealing to the authority of tradition and ultra-orthodox interpretations of religion and using it as a tool to repress those who do not fit the social mold they perpetuate. This is no longer a fringe issue. It is something we interact with everyday on campus, with friends, with siblings, with family.
As the youth, we need to take a firm stance against divisive ideologues and build communities, rather than break them. Reach out to the vulnerable, do community outreach, try to talk to those who may subscribe to alt-right beliefs if your circumstances allow it, and try to make a difference, albeit a small one. We are all in some capacity responsible for the world in which we live, and it’s time we take political accountability and take a stake in our own liberation. The best way to do so is to try to interact with and help to educate those closest to us. In the face of this monster, nobody is coming to save us, we have only ourselves. But if we unify, work together and put our differences aside, as seen by the youth of generations gone by, we are a force to be reckoned with.
Visual: Amy Lamplough
