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HARI SREENIVASAN, PBS NEWSHOUR WEEKEND ANCHOR: In the wake of the violence and tragedy in Charlottesville, Virginia, last Saturday, much of the past week has been spent examining the so-called alt right the ideology, based on white nationalism, rejects Jewish people, people of color, those in the LGBTQ community and immigrants, and its typically seen as a movement made up of white men.

However, as reporter Seyward Darby writes in the September issue of Harpers magazine, there is a disturbing trend worth paying attention to. Seyward Darby joins me now.

The women, the women have not really been in the imagery that weve seen just in the past week, but as you find out, they exist, and theyre growing in numbers.

SEYWARD DARBY, REPORTER, HARPERS MAGAZINE: I went into this story with a simple question, and that was, where are the women? And I started to think of this question last winter around the time that, you know, millions of women around the country were organizing for the womens march on Washington, and simultaneously, the alt-right was celebrating Trumps victory and being portrayed as a movement of young white men.

And I went looking for these women, and they very much exist. And there is a cluster of them that are very vocal on YouTube, Twitter, sometimes in real life at conferences and events. And they are very keen to let other women know that theyre there, and that the alt-right is a place where, if theyre white women of a certain mind, they would be welcome.

SREENIVASAN: So, whats the allure? I mean, when you see the displays of sort of bravado that some of these men exhibit, why would women want to be there? Is it because they like that sort of manliness of manhood, or do they see a place for them in the organization?

DARBY: The short answer is yes. They very much like the idea of alpha men who embrace a very sort of aggressive form of masculinity. But in terms of the place women see for themselves, they dont believe that these men are misogynistic in the way that people looking from the outside might.

They think that the men of the alt-right just understand biology and that men and women are fundamentally different, not equal, but equally important, and that men should be alpha, macho, fighting battles, running countries, making policy, whereas women have an equally important role on the home front, nurturing family units, inculcating the beliefs of this movement. They would say they dont see that as, you know, submission or subjugation. They would say that its equally important, almost like a yin and yang.

SREENIVASAN: So, what kind of numbers are we talking about here?

DARBY: Its really hard to say. And I spoke to many academics who have studied right-wing extremism for a long time, and they said because the alt-right is ultimately this movement from the Internet, very motley, very disparate, from comment boards and various social media platforms, its really hard to get a sense of precise numbers. In terms of women within it, the number you hear bandied about is 15 percent to 20 percent. But theyre not necessarily the ones youre going to see in Charlottesville.

SREENIVASAN: Lets talk also about the network effects here. How do these women congregate online? How do they meet each other? How do they get recruited?

DARBY: I think it is a deeply, deeply inside the Internet in a way that can take a while if youre an outsider to find, to see the patterns of connection. They will say that there are meet-ups happening in real life that, you know, women are organizing in ways you cant see, but I do think fundamentally most of this is happening on these various Internet platforms.

SREENIVASAN: Is there a moment that they see coming? I mean, do they see their influence increasing?

DARBY: They will say that they do. They would say that the moment is now, that were seeing it. They dont necessarily see Donald Trump as alt-right. Lana Lokteff, for instance, when I met and interviewed her, she pointed blank said, hes not one of our guys.

SREENIVASAN: Yes.

DARBY: But hes got the coattails that they felt they needed to be pulled more so into the mainstream. And what were seeing in Charlottesville and other places where the alt-right is, you know, stepping out into the world to show themselves. I think that they very much see this as the moment when they can garner more followers.

They want it to seem like they have a lot of momentum. Whether or not they do

SREENIVASAN: Yes.

DARBY: its hard to say.

SREENIVASAN: All right. Seyward Darby has this as one of the big stories in Harpers thanks so much for joining us.

DARBY: Thank you so much for having me.

See original here:
Why are women joining the 'alt-right'? - PBS NewsHour