Inside The Pretty, Polished World Of The Aesthetic Alt-Right Pipeline

If you’ve been on social media lately, it’s likely that you’ve noticed a shift in the content you’re seeing on your FYP. It may seem positive at first: skinfluencers recommending “non-toxic” products, mothers in floral maxi dresses making sourdough from scratch for their children, stay-at-home girlfriends going to pilates classes and drinking matcha in penthouses. Then it takes a turn. The skinfluencer tells you to stop wearing sunscreen, the sourdough is served with a side of anti-choice rhetoric, and the stay-at-home girlfriend wants us to “embrace our divine femininity” by only speaking when spoken to.

These seemingly innocent internet trends that can give way to not-so-innocent belief systems are examples of the alt-right pipeline, extreme far-right ideology under the guise of a lifestyle or an online aesthetic. Whether intentional or not, creators utilize subtle messaging in their content, indoctrinating impressionable viewers while curating their lifestyle to appear as if it is the ideal — and sometimes only — way to live. You might be more familiar with how young men are radicalized in this way, through toxically masculine influencers and forums targeting groups like incels and meninists. But trust, women are falling into the alt-right pipeline as well — it’s just a bit subtler, and often, a lot prettier.

“It’s interesting that there’s all these very specific feminine trends that are building this pipeline consciously or subconsciously,” MaryRose Mazzola, adjunct lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, tells Her Campus. “A lot of trends are focused on — whether or not we’re naming it — the male gaze and how to make women more marketable to men.” But when you stop and think, it makes sense; regressive views of women are one of the core pillars of alt-right thinking, so “recruiting” young women means making misogyny seem desirable. Feminine trends such as tradwives, soft girls, and clean girls focus on specific expressions of femininity, ones that are rooted in conservative ideals and values. 

The Aesthetic Alt-Right Pipeline Can Be Subtle… Until It’s Not

I will admit, I almost fell into the pipeline. For most of my teens, I never questioned the women on my feed talking about motherhood, or their husbands, or how they prefer to dress feminine. Those were choices that I wanted to make for myself, too. Eventually, I began to notice the subtle jabs they made at moms who don’t homeschool their children or who don’t have the time or resources to make Goldfish from scratch. Next, they were defending their more controversial takes using the “choice feminism” argument (the idea that any choice a woman makes is inherently feminist, even if it goes against the ideals of feminism) — while also suggesting women in the United States didn’t really need feminism. Finally came the shaming of women on birth control, claiming that we were relying on unnatural means to regulate our hormones and pumping our bodies full of toxins. As someone who’s been on birth control since middle school, I began to question if I was really less of a woman for taking it. I started to believe these women.

What finally snapped me out of it — of all things — was Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker’s graduation speech at Benedictine College in 2024. ICYMI, Butker essentially told the women graduates in the audience that they had been told “diabolical lies” about their potential. “Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world,” he said. “But I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.” (Despite backlash, Butker has repeatedly stated that he stands by his comments.) I’ve always considered myself a feminist, and I wholeheartedly disagreed with Butker’s words — however, the picture-perfect women I looked up to didn’t just tolerate Butker’s speech, they celebrated it. I had thought they were merely exercising their free choice to live the lives the way they wanted, but that made me realize it was far more nefarious than that. My eyes were opened to the pipeline, and from then on, I couldn’t unsee it.

Take the tradwife trend, for example: At its core, it’s women advocating for more women to become stay-at-home wives and mothers — and encouraging women to “embrace their femininity” while rejecting feminism. Similarly, the soft girl aesthetic encourages young women to live “soft” lives by avoiding devoting themselves to work and promoting a life of leisure. “We started on this path of correcting the course of the ‘girlbossification’ of everything. But we’ve now swung the other way where … instead of moving towards defining our lives outside of work — which is very healthy — it’s actually leaning into more consumerism,” Mazzola says. “
A lot of what we’re talking about with the soft girl aesthetic is very focused on the food you’re getting, the coffee you’re getting, the workout classes you’re doing, the clothes you’re wearing, the travels that you’re going on … All the time that women are spending … that’s all taking time away from one’s community and working to fix structural problems.” 

These trends are a far cry from more obvious tactics sometimes seen from the right, employing tactics like dogwhistles — subtle language aimed at a particular group or to send a certain message — instead of more blatant messaging and misinformation. These aesthetics can even appropriate values and language often used by young people on the left to reel viewers in. “They steal the language of progressivism to sell something deeply regressive,” says internet culture and political content creator Jess Britvich. “The anti-birth control movement isn’t saying, ‘We want to control women’s bodies.’ They’re saying, ‘We want to empower women by letting them live naturally.’ The tradwife aesthetic isn’t packaged as, ‘Women belong in the home.’ It’s packaged as, ‘This is my free choice, and feminism means respecting choices.’”

You Can Still Participate In Trends — Just Beware The Propaganda

So, what if you still love baking in your florals, eating natural foods, or living a soft life? How can you protect yourself from extreme thinking, misinformation, and subtle messaging? The good news is, appreciating or even participating in these trends doesn’t always mean you’ve fallen down the alt-right pipeline. Media literacy, fact-checking, and vigilance are important when engaging with any content online — even if it doesn’t seem to have a hidden agenda. 

Britvich suggests curating your feed not only to the aesthetics you want, but to the values you hold. “If you’re into clean beauty, look for creators with scientific backgrounds who talk about evidence-based skin care for sensitive skin, rather than ones pushing pseudoscience or conspiracies,” she says. “If you’re drawn to tradwife or homemaking aesthetics, find creators who focus on slow living, cooking, or sustainability without pushing anti-feminist ideology. If you love the soft girl aesthetic, follow creators who emphasize creativity, art, and joy in self-expression rather than ones tying it to rigid gender roles.”

Like with anything on social media, remember that a short clip or filtered post is only a snapshot of someone’s real life, and lifestyle aesthetics aren’t always as polished as they seem. “Influencers are literally curating their feeds to present a perfect version of these aesthetics; it feels like a lifestyle you can buy into,” says Britvich. “However, most of this content is trying to sell you something. Sometimes it’s literally a TikTok Shop link, but often, it’s also selling you an ideology.” The question is: Are you going to buy in?