ABSTRACT
The Trump presidency brought attention to a disturbing new wave of digitally based white supremacist subcultures aggressively positioning themselves against a liberal educated “elite”. Summarised as the Alt-Right, these groups are often perceived predominantly male, with their members unabashedly displaying misogynistic, anti-feminist views. This in turn frequently leads to women being overlooked as integral agents of the movement. By focusing on a softer metapolitical rhetoric, they typically take on the role auf auxiliaries.
Identity formation within popular online communities heavily relies on the use of aesthetic codes, often by appropriating pre-existing cultural meanings. The female figures described here have strategically adopted high-maintenance beauty practices emulating conventional norms of white feminine attractiveness in an effort to seamlessly embed far-right activism into the wider conservative culture.
Particularly within the framework of feminist theory, beautification techniques associated with hegemonic femininity are customarily frowned upon, enabling the rise of ultra-femininity as an abject visual narrative strategy instrumental to the Alt-Right movement. By examining the aesthetic practices of female Alt-Right media figures, the revaluation of stereotypical femaleness can be analysed in the in the context of race, gender and class.
