Sisters in Hate

June 29, 2020
Atavist editor-in-chief Darby describes women as a “sustaining feature” of white nationalism in her revelatory and harrowing debut focused on three women with ties to the “alt-right” movement. While one of her subjects, Corinna Olsen, has since disavowed her “racist lies,” Ayla Stewart and Lana Lokteff continue to garner thousands of followers online. Tweeting under the name “Wife with a Purpose,” Stewart, a Mormon mother of six, challenged “Americans of original pioneer stock” to have as many white babies as possible in 2017. Lokteff, part of the husband-and-wife team behind the multimedia company Red Ice, hosts her own program where she profiles fellow white nationalist women. Before becoming an FBI informant and converting to Islam, Olsen cohosted a white nationalist radio show under the moniker “Axis Sally.” Darby delves into the history of white women “on the front lines” of misogynistic and racist movements, and finds commonalities in the upbringings, personalities, and indoctrinations of her three profile subjects, including social anxiety and “an outlook defined by binary thinking and perceived victimization.” With their social media prowess and “#tradlife” values, Darby contends, these women are integral to the resurgence of white supremacy across America. Darby writes with a clear sense of purpose and makes a concerted effort to understand why women would “fight against their own interests.” The result is a disturbing and informative must-read.

July 1, 2020
Portraits of three contemporary American women and the movement that unites them: white supremacy. "Hate in America is surging," writes Darby, editor-in-chief of the Atavist Magazine and former deputy editor of Foreign Policy. That assertion will surprise few, but the author's thesis--"Women are the hate movement's dulcet voices and its standard bearers"--is more eye-opening since "men are the far right's most recognizable evangelists, and bombings, shootings and rallies are the most obvious manifestations of the movement's strength." While conducting research, the author learned that the assumption that "women likely wouldn't fight against their own interests" was incorrect. Darby fleshes out the story with three cases. The first, Corinna Olsen, is arguably the most interesting, partly because she's a rare bird--she works as an embalmer and was formerly a bodybuilding competitor and an actress in torture porn--and partly because she changed her mind about racism. Ayla Stewart is the opposite story. She started out as a feminist and defender of gay rights and now operates as one of the leading online proponents of what is called "tradlife" as the "Wife With a Purpose," combining organic cooking with latter-day Nazism. The author reserves most of her scorn for her third subject, Lana Lokteff. Described by David Duke as a "harder-hitting" Ann Coulter with a "movie-star quality," Lokteff runs a right-wing news outlet called Red Ice with her husband. As Darby documents, she is "capable of extraordinary venom," from Jew-hating to fat-shaming, as well as plenty of outright lying. (While Olsen cooperated with Darby throughout the project, the other two met with her but then cut off communications.) Along the way, the author carefully explains the supporting work of many other journalists and researchers and a wealth of right-wing lingo. Engaging, horrifying, and informative--Darby offers an important, fresh angle on the problems tearing our country apart.

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July 1, 2020
Darby exposes the important roles that women play?and have played throughout history?in movements based on white nationalism and white supremacy. She focuses on three women, all born in 1979, who became darlings of these movements. Corinna Olsen found acceptance and community in white nationalism but ended up as an FBI informant after disagreeing with its violent aspects; she is also the only one of the women who agreed to multiple interviews with the author. Ayla Stewart felt the feminist movement had failed her and became a popular tradwife blogger, appreciating the emphasis on family and heritage that white nationalism espouses. The most famous of the women, Lana Lokteff, runs an alt-right media company with her husband that specializes in disinformation and conspiracy theories. Journalist Darby, who also wrote the 2017 Harper's story "Women of the Alt-Right," rounds out these stories by placing them in history, showing how white women have played significant parts in hate movements including Nazism and the KKK. This book is eye-opening and incredibly timely.Women in Focus: The 19th in 2020(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

August 1, 2020

Darby (editor in chief, The Atavist Magazine) noticed that most reporting on white nationalist groups focused on men, even though women also participate. After presenting a brief overview of white nationalism, she argues that women have always been a key part of white nationalist movements, and uses the stories of three women--Corinna Olsen, Ayla Stewart, and Lana Lokteff--to illustrate how and why. Each woman's story includes her motivations for joining white nationalist groups and the actions they undertake. Additionally, Darby pulls in accounts of key historical figures and events to demonstrate prominent overarching themes in the movements, including rejection of feminism, idealization of motherhood, and purity. Darby is critical of her subjects, and much of her work is imbued with skepticism as she questions whether the three women are relating their stories honestly. Lokteff and Stewart declined to participate in follow-up interviews; therefore, their portions of the narrative feel more abrupt and unresolved than Olsen's. VERDICT Darby's timely and important account helps to shed insight into understanding the motivations of white nationalist movements in American culture, and what draws people to them.--Rebekah Kati, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

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