288pp, £12,99 RRP
When I started reading Pink Pilled: Women and the Far Right, the Netflix limited series Adolescence had just gone viral. Everyone on my Instagram feed was talking about incels, the manosphere, red pills and the growing concern around young boys being exposed to misogynistic ideologies online. All concepts that this book helped me better understand and explore in depth.
But what about women? Within this framework, where do they stand? Are women just victims of misogynistic hate ideologies, or can they also be complicit in perpetuating them?
In Pink Pilled: Women and the Far Right, Lois Shearing delves into the crucial and often overlooked role women play in far-right movements. The author recently appeared on Wempower’s podcast Endometriosis Beyond the Binary, part of Fobbed Off and Female: A series on medical misogyny, where they discussed gender bias in healthcare and the urgent need for more inclusive, affirming care for trans, non-binary and gender-diverse people with endometriosis. But their latest investigation takes a different turn.
The ‘pink pill’ that gives the title to the book, published on 18 February 2025 by Manchester University Press, is a metaphorical concept, representing the specific ways in which women are drawn into far-right ideologies by other women through online pipelines that speak directly to them. These routes of radicalisation rely on themes such as traditional womanhood, transphobia, natalism, anti-fatness, and new-age wellness.
The difference between the ‘pink pill’ and the more well-known ‘red pill’, referenced in Adolescence and originally inspired by The Matrix, is that the latter is a broader metaphor for being radicalised by beliefs like anti-feminism, white nationalism, or anti-immigration and islamophobia. These ideologies can appeal to both men and women, whereas the ‘pink pill’ refers specifically to gendered pathways that lure women into these movements.
Given the limited research on women’s involvement in the far right, Shearing’s book is both timely and enlightening. Rather than offering a single, reductive answer to complex questions, they acknowledge the diversity of experiences and motivations that drive women toward extremist ideologies. The paradox at the heart of the book is why women join movements that openly hate them and seek to restrict their rights and bodily autonomy. This is explored not through definitive answers posing as absolute truth but through nuanced reasoning that considers the many factors behind it.
Divided into seven chapters, the book begins by examining why women have historically been reliable voters for right-wing and conservative parties. By interviewing leading experts in the field and monitoring tradwife and feminazi communities across various social media platforms, the author also analyses how women are drawn into digital far-right communities via online radicalisation. Shearing presents several key female figures involved in the alt-right and contemporary far right movements as case studies – from political party leaders such as Martine Le Pen and Giorgia Meloni to prominent content creators within the tradwife and traditional womanhood space, like Ayla Stewart (aka Wife with a Purpose) and sisters Bethany Beal and Kristen Clark, better known as Girl Defined.
What I found particularly compelling is the concept emphasised at the end of the book. While touching on the misogyny, violence, and abuse that women are subjected to within these communities, Shearing stresses that these women cannot be seen solely as victims. The harm they inflict on marginalised communities is embedded and radicalised through the ideologies they help perpetuate.
On one hand, they are subjected to male dominance, but on the other, they are white, cisgender, Western, and Christian. They leverage this privileged position to offset the societal disadvantages they face due to their gender, emphasising other facets of their intersectional identities. Recognising and understanding the role women play in far-right extremism is, therefore, an urgent imperative of the 21st century.
