The Internet is Redefining The "Right" Type of Womanhood
Also inside: What we can learn from weighted vest wearers heading into 2026
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Hi everyone – We’re Jenn Colton and Sarah Kendrick, long-time FWIW readers, and guest authors for today’s edition. We’ve spent the last five cycles organizing and messaging online. Jenn is a digital campaign strategist who has consulted on advertising and creator programs for major IE and issue advocacy organizations. Sarah most recently ran Vice President Harris’ White House digital team, before joining the Harris campaign to oversee creative for digital advertising. Now, we have joined forces in our efforts to combat radicalization online.
For today’s FWIW, we offer thoughts on how the right-wing “womansphere” has gone mainstream— and what Democrats need to do now to respond.
More on that below, but first…
Digital ad spending, by the numbers:
FWIW, U.S. political advertisers spent about $14 million on Facebook and Instagram ads last week. Here were the top ten spenders nationwide:
While Democratic Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and James Talarico cracked the top ten list, no individual Republican made the cut (and neither did Talarico’s primary rival Colin Allred). The right invested more in advertising from issue-based groups such as American Prosperity Alliance and PragerU, highlighting the way Meta’s platforms remain a central battleground where advocacy groups, more than candidates themselves, shape political narratives.
Meanwhile, political advertisers spent just over $7 million on Google and YouTube ads last week. These were the top ten spenders nationwide:
Unsurprisingly, California’s redistricting fight continues to pull in huge investments, with ad spend from pro- and anti-Prop 50 organizations coming out to nearly $2.5 million last week alone.
On X (formerly Twitter), political advertisers in the U.S. have spent around $7.8 million on ads in 2025. According to X’s political ad disclosure, here are the top spenders year to date:
…and lastly, on Snapchat, political advertisers in the U.S. have spent around $1.7 million on ads in 2025. Here are the top spenders year to date:
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The “Right” Type of Womanhood
The manosphere dominated 2024 election postmortems. While some debate who will be “the left’s Joe Rogan,” we – two women who have spent the last five cycles organizing and messaging online – are here to sound the alarm: women’s feeds are the next frontline.
From the “cultural apothecary” Alex Clark, to former TV “fitness guru” Jillian Michaels, to tradwife extraordinaire Hannah Neelman on Ballerina Farm, conservative lifestyle creators use the “womansphere” to nudge women — yes, even progressives reading this newsletter — toward choices that reinforce conservative power structures.
The Conservative Womansphere Has Gone Mainstream
You’ve probably seen glimpses of the womansphere – MAHA, “cottage core” and “maker” hobbies, “soft life” escapism, or stories about women “ditching the pill“.
But we’re worried too many Democrats are treating the womansphere like a spectator sport—dismissing it as confined to conservative corners of the internet.
That’s the same head-in-the-sand thinking that left us blind to the manosphere. Cultural shifts among women are already showing at the ballot box: In 2024, abortion was on the ballot — and Trump still improved his vote share with women, while young women’s turnout dropped from 55% to 50%.
If we want to win in 2026 and beyond, Democrats must face a harsh reality: There is a concerted right-wing effort to redefine womanhood, so radical policy doesn’t seem so radical.
How We Got Here
Ask any marketer: repetition and the right packaging can move any idea from fringe to mainstream. Conservatives get this and use it to trojan horse extreme ideas.
For a decade, they’ve funded lifestyle and pop culture creators to pull both women and men toward their political agenda. The womansphere mixes girly-pop aesthetics, wellness jargon, and empowerment messaging — making it feel harmless.
In reality, influencers with millions of followers subtly peddle anti-science and anti-institution messaging — from cycle syncing to homemaking to submission — framed as solutions to real problems women face in healthcare and economic systems that fail us. That kernel of truth lets these radical ideas stick and normalize.
Here’s how it works
Medical distrust → US healthcare system often fails women → womansphere creators prey on our distrust→ push “ditch the pill” and “natural IVF“ → women may become less likely to resist bans on both or fight cuts to health care.
Burnout → Women are overburdened by economic insecurity or lack of childcare → creators push ditching workforce and finding “a man who leads” → women shift away from structural solutions like paid leave, child care, and equal pay toward extreme policies like household voting and divorce restrictions.
These systemic failures give conservatives a foot in the door with our base and swing voters, unknowingly slipping them into the “right side” of womanhood as they scroll tradwife aesthetics, boy mom memes, pseudo-“wellness” tips, homemaking hobbies, and “male provider” fantasies.
How we can disrupt the womansphere to MAGA pipeline
Build to our strengths, not in reaction to conservatives’: Most people are not inherently radical, and Democrats have popular solutions to the problems women face. To break through, we need a culture-first media ecosystem that leads with lifestyle and values, not just policy. We can’t just counter the right point for point a decade later. We need our own ways to bring women in.
Let people talk the way real people talk: Creators’ superpower is authenticity. Stop scripting them with poll-tested jargon – they’re not actors in political ads. Trust their voices, and let them deliver solutions that resonate with their communities.
Reclaim empowerment and choice: Women want freedom, dignity, and agency – access to reproductive care is just one piece of that. Yet, too often it’s the only issue they hear about from Democrats. Show how all of our policies – access to reproductive care, paid leave, universal childcare, healthcare, affordable groceries, a strong public school system, and more – provide the choices women want, using the same cultural fluency conservatives employ.
The good news is if we act now, we can course correct before weighted vest wearers decide our fate. Democrats must learn from 2024 and start communicating with women the right way, right now.
For more on the topic of the women’s wellness pipeline, check out this recent episode of the COURIER show How is This Better, with host Akilah Hughes. New episodes begin dropping next week, so subscribe and follow the show on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Add donors to your list before year-end comes knocking
Join groups like Common Cause, Earthjustice, and Amnesty International who are leaving nothing to chance with Civic Shout. See how you can, too.
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